Monmouth basketball wins exhibition, next is opener vs. No. 14 St. John’s | 3 takeaways

WEST LONG BRANCH — The Monmouth University men’s basketball team wrapped up its preseason slate with a focus on giving role players during Tuesday night’s exhibition game against Rhode Island College a chance to show what they can do. The Hawks beat the Division 3 visitors 93-59, getting good results from a starting lineup that likely won’t be the combination that starts when the season opens next week against St. John’s, No. 14 in the USA Today Coaches Poll.

More: Seton Hall basketball edges Monmouth in exhibition on Brown 3-pointer

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More: Monmouth basketball key takeaways from exhibition game against Seton Hall

Monmouth will have six straight games on the road (including on a neutral court) against non-conference teams before they’ll return to play in West Long Branch against St. Joseph’s Nov. 28

Three teams in the next five games are Power 4 schools; those meetings are arranged as “buy” games where high-major schools pay mid-majors, including Monmouth, to travel and play. Major-conference teams generally pay mid-major or low-major visiting teams roughly $70,000 to $120,000 per game.

The smaller programs rarely pull off upsets but Monmouth coach King Rice says his team can weather the storm from the tough stretch of games.

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“I’m excited,” Rice said. “I told the kids this is one of our hardest ones. But what people have to understand now is this isn’t King playing hard games because he likes hard games … I’m playing these other games so I can get money to try to limit how much the school has got to come up with so we can have a team to put out here, because in our league teams are spending $3-4 million; we’re not spending that. So every (time) that I can get somebody to pay us to play, we’re going to do that.”

Monmouth’s Jakai Sanders vs Rhode Island College (Oct. 27, 2026)

It was only this past weekend when the Hawks took Big East member Seton Hall down to the wire before falling 53-50 on a last minute 3-pointer.

Monmouth also had an unofficial closed…

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Publish date : 2026-10-28 03:02:00

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