URI Ring of Honor welcomes Mobley, Reynolds Dean, Wheeler
SOUTH KINGSTOWN — If you closed your eyes and just listened, it might as well have been 1998 all over again.
Cuttino Mobley, Antonio Reynolds Dean and Tyson Wheeler were holding court about an hour before Wednesday's tip at the Ryan Center. The three former teammates were immediately at ease with one another, interacting as if they’d been in uniform together just the day before.
Open your eyes and the reality in the present is a little different. Mobley’s neatly trimmed gray beard and Reynolds Dean’s tailored suit jacket suggested a certain mature suave. Wheeler was in a white pullover with a logo across the chest, preparing to help lead Brown into a matchup with the University of Rhode Island.
“I don’t even know the last time we sat next to each other — years,” Mobley said. “And right now, if we had more time, we’d just be laughing and joking with each other. For the rest of the night, that’s what we would do.”
More: Here's how Brown basketball defeated Rhode Island for the third straight time.
They’re the second class to be inducted into the school’s basketball Ring of Honor, joining last year’s three-man group. Silk Owens, Tommy Garrick and Kenny Green welcomed some company from the next team that helped put the Rams on the map. Their run to the Elite Eight a quarter-century ago is the deepest ever made by URI in the NCAA Tournament.
“Just leaving a legacy and having our names in the rafters, it means the world to us and to our families,” Wheeler said. “My son, who’s 18 now, still thinks he can beat me one-on-one. I can show him this stuff.”
Mobley and Wheeler both came of age within the Atlantic 10 footprint — they were recruited from Connecticut and Philadelphia, respectively. Reynolds Dean was the outsider, an Atlanta native who met his future roommates on his official visit. The power forward was trapped quickly by a duo who became mainstays in the backcourt.
“It’s just pure,” Reynolds Dean said. “I think the people in New England get a bad rap.
“I’m from down South and they say Southern hospitality. But I do feel in the state of Rhode Island, if you’re a Rhode Island person, that’s a special kind of person.”
Mobley and Wheeler were part of March Madness teams in each of their final two seasons on campus. That second group stunned the college basketball world with an upset of Kansas, a team that included a pair of future Boston Celtics in Paul Pierce and Raef LaFrentz. Reynolds Dean continued in 1999 to help the Rams capture the first of their two conference tournament championships.
“We all felt that we were overlooked,” Wheeler said. “We thought we played well enough when we were in high school to get high-major looks, and we didn’t get that chance. We went to a place where we knew our head coach would give us a chance to show our skills.”
Mobley was the league Player of the Year in 1997-98 and went on to a 12-year career with four different NBA teams. Reynolds Dean is the only URI player to total at least 1,500 points, 1,000 rebounds and 200 blocked shots in a career. Wheeler remains the all-time leader in assists — he put together the only two seasons of 200 or more in program history — and holds single-game highs in assists and 3-pointers made.
“Tyson would come to Philly to play with me, and we would kill,” Mobley said. “We would do really well. It wasn’t so much confidence as it was a chance to show the world how good we really were.”
The majority of their highlights on campus happened next door at Keaney Gymnasium. That deep postseason run helped spur the funding for this new building, which opened in the early 2000s. The media room with an oversized video screen and leather chairs, the adjacent practice facility that was christened last month — it was all a dream when Mobley, Reynolds Dean and Wheeler shared Room 512 in Graduate Village.
“Loving the way everything has evolved,” Reynolds Dean said. “The room we’re in right now. The Ryan Center. I haven’t seen the new practice facility yet. But with time, things evolve.
“Our relationship, what we meant to the university, what you guys mean to us — that's important.”
On X: @BillKoch25
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Three greats of URI basketball — Mobley, Reynolds Dean, Wheeler — welcomed by Ring of Honor
