Rhode Island men's basketball lands first commit from transfer portal

The first addition for the University of Rhode Island men through the transfer portal is a player who menaced them in a nonconference meeting last season.

Dylan Williamson committed to the Rams through an Instagram post Monday night. The three-year standout guard at Towson was a major factor while the Tigers knocked off URI in the November opener of the ESPN Events Invitational, which was played over the Thanksgiving holiday in Orlando.

Williamson netted 25 points in a 62-55 victory – one of his eight games hitting for 20 points or more and one of his 27 in double figures. He shot 43.4% from 3-point range as a redshirt sophomore and posted just a 12.6% turnover rate last season according to KenPom.com, which would have placed him inside the top 20 qualifying players in the Atlantic 10.

Towson Tigers guard Dylan Williamson, shown in a December game at Kansas, has committed to Rhode Island.

Williamson collected a season-high 29 points in a win over Hampton, 27 in a loss to Monmouth and 28 in a victory over Stony Brook that closed the regular season. Heating up from deep was a common thread in those performances – Williamson connected on at least five 3-pointers in each game, including a 7-for-13 showing against the Seawolves. He knocked down as many as three 3-pointers in 16 different games last season, bringing his career total to 38.

Williamson was a double-digit scorer in all three of his seasons at Towson, averaging 14.6 points in each of his last two. He posted a career-high 3.4 assists per game as a redshirt junior, dishing out five or more on nine different occasions. Williamson played more than 92% of available minutes last season according to KenPom.com, putting him inside the national top 10 in that category.

Williamson was a redshirt in 2022-23 and was named to the CAA all-rookie team in his debut. He followed with all-CAA recognition in each of the next two campaigns, developing under former Rams and Providence assistant coach Pat Skerry. The Tigers won an outright league regular season title in 2024-25 and captured at least 19 games in each of Williamson’s four years on campus.