By Shane Donaldson
Associate Athletic Director, Communication and New Media

KINGSTON, R.I. - The final member of the 2026-27 roster to join Rhode Island, freshman guard Steven Sherman is making the leap to Division I basketball this year. Sherman has quite the history of making big jumps.

Before he found his way onto the hardwood, Sherman was a Junior Olympian in track and field, specializing in the long jump. In back-to-back years, Sherman placed sixth nationally in the long jump at the AAU Junior Olympic Games.

One year, the La Verge, Tenn. native traveled to Houston, Texas to take on the nation's best. The other year, he made his way to BB&T Stadium in Greensboro, N.C.

"When you get a chance to travel and go against other high levels of competition, it boosts your self-confidence," Sherman said. "You want to be able to keep going places and experiencing new things. It pushes you to work hard and improve yourself.

"If you don't put in the work, you won't get to those places. There is a lot of talent out there. It makes you want to work harder and do more. If it can get me this far, I owe it to myself to see just how far it can go."

To give a sense of the caliber of competition Sherman faced as an 11-year-old at the Junior Olympics in North Carolina, all five of the people who finished ahead of him are college athletics. The event winner that year was Rodney Thomas II, a five-time track and field All-American in high school who is now a freshman on the University of Houston football team. Second-place finisher Shawn Church Jr. is a freshman football player at Delaware, while third-place Brayden Henry later set the Texas city record for the long jump with a leap of 20 feet, five inches... when he was in seventh grade.

"Being at that level, it made me want to do more," Sherman said. "I wanted to see how far I could go with sports."

Sherman traded hops for hoops in middle school, playing for a club team near his home.

"I realized I was way faster than everyone else," Sherman said. "I was able to just run around everyone and score, and I just fell in love with the game. It was new to me, and I just fell in love with the idea of getting better every day, honestly."

Sherman is equipped with a personal drive that feeds off improving through work. It was the idea of player development that first made Rhode Island an attractive destination to him.

"For me, it was about the culture. It was a chance to surround myself with great people who are pushing me to get better every single day," Sherman said. "Knowing that you can get one percent better every single day because the people want what is best for you, that is what really drove me here. You can go a lot of places and improve. Here, I felt I was going to get better every single day.

"I knew that Archie Miller was a great coach who was particularly good at working with guards. He not only has the experience as a guard, but he understands how to develop guards. AC (Austin Carroll) is a good development coach. Coach 40 (Duane Woodward) is really good at working with guards. Putting those all together, it is a great place to be if you are willing to learn."

Taking advantage of his speed, Sherman likes to create gaps and drive lanes in order to create space for others on the floor. On the defensive end, he likes to crash the boards and create quick outlet opportunities.

"This team can kind of part the Red Sea for you with the shooters we have," Sherman said. "With the spacing we can create, opposing players are going to have to handle things one-on-one and really defend with heart.

"When you have the right mix of people working together, basketball can almost be unguardable. If you are not good defending on ball against this team, you are going to struggle. When everybody can shoot, everyone is athletic and everyone is fast, you are expending so much energy on defense."

As a freshman, Sherman concedes there are peaks and valleys with each day. He is adjusting to the level of talent he is facing every day in practice.

"Coming from high school, not everyone is on that level athletically," Sherman said. "It good for me to experience the jump in athleticism and talent now. It keeps you humble. It makes you excited to compete.

"In practice, going against older guys who are bigger and stronger than you, it gives you a measuring stick of where you are every single day. Some days you may get the better of the older guys, but then some days you get caught in the paint with Nedas Raupelis, and he dunks on you three times. It's physical and it's hard. But if you are willing to fall in love with correcting the mistakes you make each day, you can see how much better you get every day."

Sherman has connected with several older players in his first few weeks on campus. Specifically, he mentioned Jahmere Tripp, Barrett Loer and Jalen Harper. He and Harper like to fish together, and Sherman credited Harper with helping him establish his food plan.

"As a freshman, I need to be a sponge for knowledge," Sherman said. "I am new to the game. I need to be learning every day. Even if it's a day I'm not getting as many reps, I need to be paying attention and soaking it all in. By the team those reps come, my knowledge of the game is going to be so much further along."


SUMMER SERIES
July 21 - Chatman Learning From Veterans
July 16 - Team Chemistry In Focus For Summer Camp
July 14 - Preparation Has Led to Success for Williamson
July 9 - Fontenet Ready To Make Big Impact
July 7 - Hometown Bond Helps Deniusas, Raupelis Adjust