KeaneyBlue - The URI Basketball Forum

BK and Kmac's first podcast of the season was posted today. Nothing new if you've been paying attention but interesting to get their perspectives:

http://www.providencejournal.com/articl ... aking_ajax

Good listen, and convenient in that the URI portion is the first one they cover --- also interesting was Koch's comment that Thompson and Akele "would be in the rotation." If they can bring meaningful depth to an already stacked back court DH could really turn up the heat on defensive end without being so concerned about fouls.

After listening/looking at the schedule again, they really do have a very good/hard schedule. No more of those "shoulda won, but lost" games like in the past. Win the games your suppose to win, and one Jr. Two of the games you're not suppose to win. Can't afford any slip ups.

Also, great news that Dooley has excised students from all classes between 10-12.

Rhody15 wrote: Also, great news that Dooley has excised students from all classes between 10-12.

Really??? That's awesome!

Blue Man wrote:

Rhody15 wrote: Also, great news that Dooley has excised students from all classes between 10-12.

Really??? That's awesome!

Koch said that on the podcast, but just yesterday he came on here and posted in a thread that the comment was made "in jest", and as of now, classes are not cancelled.

Rhody15 wrote:

Blue Man wrote:

Rhody15 wrote: Also, great news that Dooley has excised students from all classes between 10-12.

Really??? That's awesome!

Koch said that on the podcast, but just yesterday he came on here and posted in a thread that the comment was made "in jest", and as of now, classes are not cancelled.

Disappointing. That said, you've gotta be the lamest of students to not miss a 10am class in mid November. You're in college. You can graduate with a 2.0 and get the same job as someone with a 3.5. You can also make work up. Stop being pansies and live. Grades arent the end all be all of your life.

I'm sure there are plenty of faculty members that are basketball fans too. If Dooley is not allowing cancelled classes, the profs won't be able to go.

I made a career out of not going to classes before noon.

I just listened to the podcast now, and they were definitely tongue-in-cheek remarks on the "excuses". KMac said, kiddingly, that Raimondo excused all state workers from 10-12, as well.

Still, I expect a mini-epidemic of vague illnesses on Tuesday.

New Podcast this morning.

I usually don't give one thought to what PC is doing. Listening to that kind of forces you to think about them.

I feel like URI is in the position PC has been the past few years. In PC's case something or somebody wasn't available that they were counting on and then they had to figure out how to claw their way to the dance.

Dan Hurley is in that position. Main guy goes down and now they have to double down on everything. They need experienced guys to take a step forward. They need the star transfer to adjust. They need to integrate and build their freshmen the way that they have in previous years.

Thompson/Akele to me are on what is becoming a well worn path where Dan works these kids into contributors by Jan/Feb.

Who is that Jim Donaldson? in the podcast for PC v URI?

Voice of reason!

Attendance? Calm down its a weeknight against Holy Cross.

Ed Cooley's comments? Give me a break! URI is clearly PC's biggest rival.

Pressure is on PC in this game.

Agreed. Donaldson was fairly reasonable.

I will say it.....I like Donaldson.....when he writes about other teams and is critical I usually agree with him....when he writes about the University of Rhode Island and is critical we get mad....maybe he is right, however....and we refuse to see it....

Bill Reynolds made the point during the pod that the difference between URI winning and losing games like the GW, Joes and Bona games (meaning all of our losses aside from Maryland) sits on the end of our bench in street clothes. Koch and McNamara agreed without hesitation. The announcers on the Fordham broadcast said the same thing, basically. The only handful of people that don't understand that, apparently, post on this board.

TruePoint wrote:Bill Reynolds made the point during the pod that the difference between URI winning and losing games like the GW, Joes and Bona games (meaning all of our losses aside from Maryland) sits on the end of our bench in street clothes. Koch and McNamara agreed without hesitation. The announcers on the Fordham broadcast said the same thing, basically. The only handful of people that don't understand that, apparently, post on this board.

So when is the next NBA fringe draft player coming in to keep our winning? (NCAAT) seasons going forward and potentially get us to the tournament? Because when EC leaves, we're gonna need one I guess. And not at EC freshman level (nope didn't make it then). So wouldn't we need one now coming in? I call BS.

Every team is constructed differently. If you can't recognize EC's value to THIS team, then I don't know what to tell you. He was the best player on the team, not having him hurts. In five years if our best player isn't a NBA prospect but is still an all-league caliber player, losing him would probably hurt, too.

If we had EC, would that mean all our other players would all of a sudden make their shots and FT's and not turn the ball over at the end of games?

Would having EC mean that our frontcourt depth issues and fouling would go away? Would that mean that our freshmen who are basically our only depth are worldbeaters already?

EC would have replaced JG as the guy who would be trying to play hero ball at the end, with the same results.

EC, the savior of worlds. EC, meet Kemba Walker and Bryce Cotton. Surely you know them. He's better than both of them, so we're told here, in so many words.

The bullshit meter is pegged to the max here, unfortunately.

La de da. Just give the ball to EC, and all our troubles will go away!!!!!

And Dan would just sit on the bench all game and not move a muscle or whisper sweet nothings into the refs' ears.

Laughable.

We would have 2-3 more wins. Those who think we'd be 17-3, or 18-2, were left on Mars with Matt Damon.....

This team without 1 player is not so good. Figure it out.

TruePoint wrote:Every team is constructed differently. If you can't recognize EC's value to THIS team, then I don't know what to tell you. He was the best player on the team, not having him hurts. In five years if our best player isn't a NBA prospect but is still an all-league caliber player, losing him would probably hurt, too.

Need to throw in the towel on this one. All this does is detract from 'the crappy job being done by the coach who needs to win now or else no matter what' talk... And, doing that, quite obviously, upsets the Grumpy Cart...

I find the resentment of EC on this board to be strange. Ever since the summer after his freshman year its like most of the active posters critique and try to point out the faults in EC.

Its like why? give it a break. Its an OBVIOUS loss to any team to lose their best player.

Its like when people try to speculate who the leader on the team is by how they behave on the court. Its clear they all look up to EC. Time and again anyone related to the program has said that EC is the hardest worker they have. A very positive nice kid. He has played through injuries. He committed to URI and gave URI a A10 player of the year contender.

But he did this bad! And this bad! He was a sophomore #1 guy leading a team fighting to win the league on a bum foot with a broke finger.

People think the last time they saw EC play in '15 he was a turnover machine and volume shooter. NO. Last time you saw EC he was gutting it out for the team displaying a tremendous amount of courage and grit.

He has been great in the past. In the future he will be dominant.

NYGFan_Section208 wrote:

TruePoint wrote:Every team is constructed differently. If you can't recognize EC's value to THIS team, then I don't know what to tell you. He was the best player on the team, not having him hurts. In five years if our best player isn't a NBA prospect but is still an all-league caliber player, losing him would probably hurt, too.

Need to throw in the towel on this one. All this does is detract from 'the crappy job being done by the coach who needs to win now or else no matter what' talk... And, doing that, quite obviously, upsets the Grumpy Cart...

tell that to the empty season ticket holder seats all you want. I'm sure they are listening.

TP, OF COURSE not having EC hurts.

Why do you think I don't understand this?

It's the degree of hurt, that we differ on.

Having him would simply NOT solve all our problems.

He would have helped some, yes. It helps the team dynamic to a point.

And that's basically it. 20 games in, and the same problems remain.

And I'm done trying to beat my head against a wall about it anymore.

rambone 78 wrote:If we had EC, would that mean all our other players would all of a sudden make their shots and FT's and not turn the ball over at the end of games?

Would having EC mean that our frontcourt depth issues and fouling would go away? Would that mean that our freshmen who are basically our only depth are worldbeaters already?

.

You continue to misunderstand the point, though. No, but he wouldn't have to fix all those things to have won these games. The team would have many of the same issues, you'd just be replacing 2/3 of Four's possessions on both ends of the court with the best or second best player in the league. So you'd win a bunch of these games even though you didn't shoot well from the FT line or your bigs were in foul trouble. It's not like we've been getting beat soundly, in all these games you're talking about one possession on offense that we score and one possession on defense that they don't and we win. To think EC couldn't make up that difference in all or nearly all these games is crazy to me.

theblueram wrote:This team without 1 player is not so good. Figure it out.

The team is pretty good. One good player away from being very good. That's exactly my point. If you chopped off your thumb you wouldn't be able to pick up and throw a baseball. Does that mean your hand actually sucks because you lose one finger and now you can't throw so good? I feel like you are not giving enough credit to how much players matter in basketball when you think a team that loses its best player should just keep going without missing a beat.

So if EC never came here, and we had the team as it now stands you would think this is a what? NIT team? or an NCAAT? Or less than those? At the beginning of the year. I mean, we have 4* talent. Would you think with this team before the start of the year they could make an NCAAT run without EC?

TP, your points are sound, I'll agree.

I just don't think it would result in reversing all of our close losses.

Some of them, yes.

The PC game? Likely. Valpo, the same. Those would be huge wins, for sure.

But some of the others?

Would we still keep pushing the ball to keep our leads in some of those end of game situations?

Or would we be doing the same things, such as holding the ball out, resetting possessions, dribbling late into the shot clock, and forcing up shots?

Same for FT's. When it comes to those, replacing Four with EC would likely be about a wash.

The others would still be missing them.

Now, our overall defense would be better with EC in there instead of Four. But EC isn't a great defensive player either.

Would EC have become a better shooter, and made some late game shots that he hasn't done his first 2 years here?

Maybe, without the foot and finger issues.

Lastly, how good will he be next year? Rusty, I would think. He's not likely to be a big difference maker for a while.

theblueram wrote:So if EC never came here, and we had the team as it now stands you would think this is a what? NIT team? or an NCAAT? Or less than those? At the beginning of the year. I mean, we have 4* talent. Would you think with this team before the start of the year they could make an NCAAT run without EC?

Our best players are good, but we don't have enough good players on this team without EC to be a tournament team. I don't think this team has underperformed their talent at all, I think it has underperformed compared to our preseason expectations, which were set based on having EC.

TruePoint wrote:

theblueram wrote:So if EC never came here, and we had the team as it now stands you would think this is a what? NIT team? or an NCAAT? Or less than those? At the beginning of the year. I mean, we have 4* talent. Would you think with this team before the start of the year they could make an NCAAT run without EC?

Our best players are good, but we don't have enough good players on this team without EC to be a tournament team. I don't think this team has underperformed their talent at all, I think it has underperformed compared to our preseason expectations, which were set based on having EC.

This obviously is my biggest problem. Which may not have come out directly. It is an issue that needs to be fixed.

Our team imo has performed quite well for the most part, until the end of games when we go into a shell trying to either protect a lead, or win a back and forth game.

Rod has said this a million times, if we're good enough to be either ahead [or basically even] with these teams, we should be good enough to win them, or at least some of them.

We don't win any. That's the problem.

There are NO excuses for losing so many winnable games. None. That includes not having EC.

We are right there so many times. We have to win these games. If not this year, we had better next season without a doubt.

This cannot continue much longer. This coach's future depends on it. No joke.

Our sanity does too......

theblueram wrote:This obviously is my biggest problem. Which may not have come out directly. It is an issue that needs to be fixed.

Every year we've had more good players than the year before. This year would have been our high water mark for talent and it would have been enough to get into the tournament, but we lost our best guy. It's a horribly unlucky thing, but it's hard to plan around when you're 3 recruiting classes in to a complete rebuild. Even if we played this year with EC, next year would be our most talented roster under Hurley. Missing EC this year, it's going to be a huge step up in talent.

The addition next year of the 3 bigs is huge. Too bad a couple of them weren't here now, but that's the same as saying if we had EC, so....

Since we have little to no frontcourt depth, we are screwed and tattooed when Hassan and/or KI go to the bench early with fouls.

And they do, even more so on the road, where they get called for fouls when they so much as breathe on an opposing player.

Earl helps at times, but he has the same issues and he tends to disappear against better competition.

Having EC wouldn't help this situation.



Still, Dan has to make adjustments on defense, knowing our depth situation. And stop the song and dance act on the sidelines, which only makes the foul situations worse.

The three freshmen Bigs will help, and getting EC back is also huge. But our fans always overlook adding Stan Robinson, also. We were weirdly not excited when he transferred in and he is the forgotten man when talking about the next couple years, but he is a good player and shouldn't be ignored.

Robinson will help us when we need a little extra defense in spots.

Of course this team needs any offense it can get at times, but him playing in place of Four late in games, would certainly eliminate some of the defensive lapses we've seen.

Yea he was relatively productive at Indiana.

Hes a legit slasher.

I do keep overlooking the next year Stan addition...mostly because, unfortunately, he won't be part of the team's "we just won the A10 tourney" picture this year. And, when that happens, going to be a bunch of people on this board that just won't know who to blame, er, I mean, what to do with themselves.

That a-hole MacNamara had an article in today's projo on tournament possibles for the A-10 and the big east.....he denigrates the A-10 by being shocked at how good some of the A-10 RPI's are....he says a mock selection he saw has the A-10 with 5 bids and the big east with 4 and some of their teams still in contention have similar but lower RPI's than the A-10 teams....

Yeah, the Big East has just 3 teams that have RPIs forecasted to earn an at-large, and PC has been doing everything possible to piss that away. Villanova and Xavier will finish with top 10 RPIs, and PC is trending to finish 46th.

In the A10, 4 teams seem to have a chance, but VCU needs some more good wins since their OOC is nothing special. Bonnies will need to have a very strong finish to earn an At Large.

12 Dayton
27 St Joes
39 Bonnies (168th OOC SOS)
45 VCU (78th OOC SOS)

Both leagues are pretty close in potential bids. Both could just get 3, and that would be a great disappointment during this season with perhaps the weakest/softest bubble, and two would-be NCAA teams banned from postseason.

I think VCU will come through in the tourney [they sure did last year] and get a bid.

GW is sliding fast right now, but they're capable of winning it all. Very streaky team.

You're right about the Bonnies. Could go either way.

And then, there is us. With basically as much talent on their starting 5 as anybody in the league, except Dayton.