Sunday, February 01, 2026
View Larger +
Silk Owens PHOTO: YouTube, URI Video, CBS
When he walks into the Ryan Center, Carlton Silk Owens never looks up at the banner hanging from the rafters bearing his name and the number he wore, which memorializes his place in the URI Hall of Fame. That would be egotistical, which is just not part of his character. If someone points it out and talks about it, he will look up and enjoy the moment.
Despite not having the full benefit of the scoring boost for shots beyond the arc, Owens holds the URI record for the most career points at 2,114. The rule change creating the three-point shot did not go into effect until his junior year.
With the new NCAA rules resulting in transient players, his scoring record will undoubtedly never be broken. Nor will his position as the number two in career assists, at 502, ever be challenged. (Tyson Wheeler holds the assist record at 704.)
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE — SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST
URI’s career leading scorer has a bullet in his arm
The left-handed shooting Owens accomplished these feats with a left arm that is slightly shorter than his right and is noticeably crooked. These abnormalities are a result of the bullet that has been lodged in his left arm since high school.
Owens grew up in Brooklyn, NY, and at 17, with a growing reputation as a basketball player, he had an unlucky moment. While leaving a party with a friend, shots rang out, and a stray bullet caught him in the bicep of his left arm. He missed his junior year while rehabbing and learning to dribble and shoot again.
Shooting with his elbow sticking out
During his early years in high school, Owens had a smooth textbook shooting stroke befitting his nickname. When he got to URI, one of the coaches said, “Silk, you can’t shoot like that with your elbow sticking out.” Owens responded, “Coach, I can’t straighten it, I have a bullet in my arm.”
In 1988, his senior year at URI, Owens averaged 21.8 points per game and led the Rams to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. Rhode Island beat #6 seed Missouri and #3 seed Syracuse before falling to #2 seed Duke by 1 point, 73-72. Playing against some of the best teams in the country, Owens averaged 20.6 points in the three NCAA Tournament games.
Passion for basketball
Owens is now in his 60s, and from an early age, his life has been dedicated to the game of basketball. His dad introduced him to the game when he was three years old, and they would watch New York Knicks games together. Owens reminisced, “My dad would watch Kicks games on TV, and whenever he did, I would sit there with him. And it just hit me, and I fell in love with everything about basketball.”
Growing up, Owens would spend large parts of every day on an outdoor asphalt court working on his game and shoveling the snow off the court when necessary.
After his career at URI, Owens played for 2 years in the Continental Basketball Association. The CBA was a professional league that served as an unofficial feeder of players to the NBA. A few years later, after going back to URI to complete his degree requirements, Owens got into coaching. He coached at the collegiate level for several schools, most notably at the University of Texas under Tom Penders.
Two Hall of Fame coaches
Owens currently coaches at Providence Country Day School with Villanova legend Tom Sienkiewicz. This elite private school is a long way from the streets of Brooklyn where Owens grew up. PCD may be the only high school basketball team in the country coached by two college Hall of Fame inductees, as Sienkiewicz is a member of the Villanova Hall of Fame.
Owens is also on the broadcast team for URI basketball games, providing the color commentary for many away games. Play-by-play announcer Steve McDonald says of Owens, “Silk was a legend as a player and is also a star as a broadcaster. He has a great feel for the game and brings a former player’s perspective. But first and foremost, Silk is a pleasure to work with as he always has a positive outlook and enjoys the game, life, and URI.”
Owens has seen a lot of changes
Owens has seen many changes in college basketball over the years and has an interesting perspective.
As a shooter, of course, he loves the introduction of the three-point shot and wishes it were in place when he started college.
Owens said, “When they incorporated the three-point line in my junior year, it was kind of funny to us, because we weren’t used to getting three points for shooting outside of the top of the key. People didn’t shoot many of them because they didn’t realize what a weapon it was. We would take them in the flow of the game, but coaches did not use it as a strategy. The three-point shot was a big change.”
When reminiscing about basketball games from his early career and life, Owens has a unique way of describing a long shot. Owens says, “He shot a three, but it wasn’t a three.”
Too many transfers – Fans have to adapt
He decried the current situation in which players hop from school to school, leading to a lack of connection among players, the school, and fans. Owens said, “You lose the support of the fan base when they don’t know who the players are. Every year watching URI, I’m like, man, I gotta learn a whole new team. I don’t know these guys. So, the fans can lose interest. You need to regain interest in this player, and that player, and it takes a few games into the season for that to happen.”
In keeping with his always positive outlook, Owens added, “The players have to adapt to being on a new team with a new coach every year. The coaches have to adapt to dealing with new players. No one is talking about the fact that the fans have to adapt to this new situation, too. However, it’s still a great game, and people continue to enjoy watching it.”
Pay to play
Owens agrees with players being paid to play, saying, “They deserve it.” He talked about how schools and coaches have made millions off players’ backs. Owens played during the era when coaches and schools made money from sneaker contracts. At URI, he was required to wear Reebok sneakers, and the school and coach profited from it.
He also talked about how head coaches are rewarded by their players’ skills and performance, as winning records lead to coaches breaking their contracts to move to a more prestigious school for more money and status.
But he does not like the combination of money, the transfer portal, and unlimited transfers, saying, “You’re not picking the school for your education anymore. You’re not picking the school because you built a relationship with the coach. You pick the school now cause the school is going to pay you the most money, and I don’t think that’s college basketball. It’s now a professional sport. You know, we got agents for high school kids now, that’s crazy. I don’t mind guys getting paid, but come on. We have got to tighten the rules up a little bit.”
One transfer is enough
One suggestion he has for tightening the rules is to limit players to just one transfer during their college career.
Owens explained, “I don’t like the transfer portal because now you have guys transferring from school to school, so you can’t build chemistry within the team. You build chemistry as a freshman and a sophomore as you grow together. Now it’s one year, and you’re done. With no chemistry its hard for coaches to win when you have 10 to 12 new guys every year.”
There is another facet to what is happening now that Owens indicated he does not like by saying, “Now it’s not unusual for players being 25/26 years old still playing college basketball. If I were 25 playing against 18 and 19-year-olds, I would destroy them!”
What would Owens make if he played today?
The discussion with Owens led to the question about what he would have done if he were playing under the current rules. During his junior year, his stats were: 35 minutes per game, 19 PPG, 43% FG%, 46% 3P%, 3.3 assists, 2.6 TO. He improved on every one of those statistics during his senior year.
A player with those stats who entered the transfer portal this year would have attracted a lot of offers and would probably have been paid $1 million to $1.5 million to play basketball his senior year. Owens was asked, when looking at those numbers, if he would have entered the transfer portal. He responded, “That’s a business deal now. Like I just said, there’s no more student-athlete once you start talking money. One and a half million, I would never see that in my life. Yes, I would have done it. You can’t blame kids today for doing it because they will never make that much in a year working 9 to 5.”
Sweet 16?
The 1988 URI team that went to the Sweet 16 featured four players who all spent four years at URI. For the 1988 season, their averages were: Owens 21.8 PPG, Tom Garrick 20.5 PPG, Kenny Green 14 PPG, 7 RPG, 3 BPG, and big man Bonzie Colson 5 PPG, 5 RPG. When Owens was told, it is unlikely that URI would have had the money to pay and keep all four of these players, so there may not have been a Sweet 16 appearance, Owens responded, “Oh no, that’s upsetting.”
Owens’ love and passion for the game continue unabated as he and college basketball fans everywhere try to adapt to all of the recent changes.
James Malachowski is the former Chairman/Managing Partner at RDW Group. He previously served as the chair of the Public Utilities Commission. He is a graduate of URI and PC.
Related Articles
Enjoy this post? Share it with others.