Week #1 - Games of Interest

[Obadiah]

The college basketball has finally arrived! So from now until March every day will be a veritable feast for the college basketball junkie.
We begin the season with high hopes among the Ram faithful based on team's wining record of last season, the first one in the last three years. URI finished the season with a RPI of 61, the highest RPI of the last five years, but to get an invite to the Big Dance this season, the Rams have to better that figure.

The shortened first week of season begins on Friday, the 13th. Besides URI hosting American U at the Ryan Center that evening, other games of note are:

A-10 Opponents in Action

* Prairie View A&M at VCU. At 7 PM. Part of 2K Classic. On CBS Sports. Besides VCU, main bracket teams are Duke, Georgetown and Wisconsin, others include Bryant, Radford, Siena, PV A&M. VCU should get by both PV A&M, and Radford as a run up to their big 11/20 game versus Duke at MSG.

* SE Missouri St. at Dayton. At 7 PM. This should be easy pickings for the Flyers. SE Mo. State was a disappointment last season and if their frontcourt doesn't gel they will see more of the same this time around.

* James Madison at Richmond. At 7PM. This is good match-up for Richmond given its high expectations and the fact that JMU is a likely contender for the CAA title.

* D2 Seton Hill at Duquesne. At 7 PM. Campus site opening round of Gulf Coast Classic at Estero, FL. In addition to the Dukes, other main bracket teams are Murray State, Milwaukee, Pepperdine, W. Kentucky, Drake, C. Michigan, Weber State. The Dukes take this one.

* Colgate at George Mason. At 7 PM. Struggling Mason will be buoyed by the home court and a new coach out of Bucknell, Dave Paulsen, to overcome Colgate a team that lost six seniors from last season's team.

* Lafayette at GW. At 7 PM. GW should have little challenge from this Patriot League bottom feeder.

* Binghamton at St. Bonaventure. At 8 PM. Binghamton is on the upswing but St. Bonaventure, despite the loss of its leading rebounder Youssou Ndoye, will be carried by its strong backcourt of Marcus Posley and Jaylen Adams plus senior forward Dion Wright.

* Drexel at St. Joseph's. At 8 PM. Injury plagued Drexel lost its best player, as Damion Lee, opted to transfer as a grad student to Louisville, so Bembry and company should take this one.

Can the A-10 go 9-0 on Friday? That would be a great start for the league!!!


OOC Opponents in Action

* Brown at St. Peter's. 8:30 PM. What happens when a lowly Ivy team meets a lowly MAAC team. The home team wins.

* Princeton at Rider. 7 PM. One of the better Metro Atlantic teams goes against the Ivy League favorite. The nod goes to Princeton.

* Niagara at Old Dominion. At 7 PM. This game is start of the campus round games in the Hall of Fame Tip Off. ODU is expected to contend for the C-USA title and Niagara is seeking to re-group after departure of seven players. An ODU win is good bet and with it ODU can begin to focus on its game next Saturday versus Purdue at Mohegan Sun

* Mt. St. Mary's at Maryland. At 7PM. On BTN. Mt. St. Mary's will have one of its better teams in recent years, but that will not be nearly enough to topple a top ranked, power conference school like Maryland.

* Southeast Louisiana at TCU. This game was supposed to be the opener at TCU's $80 million renovated arena, but the arena's opening has been delayed until Dec. 20. While TCU has had performance issues in recent years, the Horned Frogs play in the top conference in the country which masks their previous good performance in OOC games. TCU will take this one.

* IPFW at Valparaiso. The Summit meets the Horizon. Valpo has too much depth - they return virtually every contributor from last season's 28 game winner - including a big frontcourt to lose this one.

* Holy Cross at Marist. 7 PM. Marist has not had much fortune since joining the Metro Atlantic Conference in 1997, but did they did have a strong finish to last season. Holy Cross is in another re-building year, so this game will be competitive and the Crusaders may just eke out a win.

* Illinois State at San Diego State. 10 PM. On ESPN3. MW/MVC Challenge. Illinois State is making strides at getting national attention similar to what Wichita State has achieved. A win here would do much to aid that cause.

Other games of interest

Wagner at St. John's. At 6 PM. On FS1. After the STAC debacle, can the Johnnies get their footing against one of the weaker NEC teams?


This thread works best when many others join in to contribute their unique perspectives on games that are of interest, so let's get those comments going!

[bigappleram]

Always look forward to this thread, great work Obes!

[ace]

I'll be watching St. John's-Wagner. Wagner is picked to be a middle of the pack NEC, but enough of their fans still aren't sold on Mason as coach. Aaman plays his RS senior year this season. Stay healthy, Mike.

Arizona State opens up at home against Sacramento State.

[ATPTourFan]

I love these threads. I would imagine these will be of very high interest throughout the season. If not, we have bigger problems and disappointments I would not care to think about right now.

Thank you, Obadiah!!

[Rhody74]

I always root for the A10s in the OOC portion of the season, and there are some exciting games ahead, especially if VCU-Duke develops at MSG. Thanks for the hard work Obie.

[bigappleram]

We NEED the A10 to perform in the OOC more similar to the 13-14 season than the 14-15 season -- that will strengthen RPIs up and down the league schedule and create more resume building wins for us once we enter league play. The A10 needs the 5-6 top teams to win some marquee OOC matchups.

[ATPTourFan]

Totally agree. GO A10! Go opponents!! (until we play them)

[Billyboy78]

Totally agree. GO A10! Go opponents!! (until we play them)

Except PC...

[ATPTourFan]

If I had the choice of having PC win a lot of games this year and that works to enhance our RPI and puts us comfortably into the Dance with a single digit seed, that's fine with me. Dancing and winning a game with this team is way more important to me than any anti-PC sentiment.

[steviep123]

If I had the choice of having PC win a lot of games this year and that works to enhance our RPI and puts us comfortably into the Dance with a single digit seed, that's fine with me. Dancing and winning a game with this team is way more important to me than any anti-PC sentiment.

I agree. It's been a while since I've really cared that much about what PC did. Of course, it's a lot easier to do that living outside of RI. Even though I live in Mass, I don't hear anything about PC at all. Not reading the projo helps a lot too. At this point I hate losing to UMass just as much.

[ATPTourFan]

[Billyboy78]

Our PA guy (what's his name?) was giving scores and announced that Duquesne had a 20 point lead or so over Seton Hall. I'm thinking to myself, "that can't be right".

[Obadiah]

The A-10 went 7-2 on the evening. VCU and Dayton had impressive wins.

Code: Select all

Team	              Opponent/Result	         Attendance

Dayton	         SE Missouri State/W, 84-67	   13,216*
Duquesne   	    D2 Seton Hill/W, 96-71	          943
George Mason 	  Colgate/L, 66-53	              5,124
GW	             Lafayette/W, 85-76	            3,118
Rhode Island	   American/W, 65-42	             5,089
Richmond	       James Madison/L, 87-75	        7,210*
St. Bonaventure	Binghamton, W, 63-53	          4,277
St. Joseph's	   Drexel/ W, 82-81	              4,200*
VCU	            Prairie View A&M/W, 75-50	     7,637*

*Sellout

[RF1]

Richmond, a team with high hopes should not lose lose by double digits at home. GMU, while not a good team, still should probably not lose to a bad Patriot League team at home. With the injury to EC and these losses, the A-10 is not off to a good start.

[ATPTourFan]

[Obadiah]

Like everyone else, the injury to EC has stunned me, but we have to get on with it no matter what, so continuing this look at our opponents performance, her are more of Friday's results.

As I stated earlier the A-10 went 7-2 in its openers all played at home, with more to come today and Sunday.

In the OOC:

* St. Peter's had a strong second half to beat Brown. 77-65.

* ODU had a game closer than the score indicated winning over Niagara, 67-50. It helped that Niagara couldn't score a point in the last 3 minutes.

* Rider gave Princeton a good game, but fell to the Tigers, 64-56.

* Maryland in a easy wine over Mt. St Mary's, 80-56.

* TCU led all the way to defeat SE Louisiana, 90-77.

* Sluggish first half for Valparaiso, but their shooting improved to take a close game from IPFW, 78-64. IPFW was down 4 with four minutes left, but Valpo took control after that point. Valpo's big men dominated and Alec Peters had seven boards and 24 points.

* Aided by a strong start, Holy Cross did eke out the win at Marist, 67-64.

* Illinois State fell short to San Diego State in a foul plagued game, 71-60.

OOC opponents went 5-3 on the evening


In other games of interest.

* It was a tussle, but St. John's beat Wagner, 66-57.

* Monmouth shocked UCLA in OT, 84-81. They forced UCLA into 23 turnovers.

* Boise State, thought to be a contender in the URI category, lost at Montana, 74-72.

[ace]

turns out you can lose at home to Sacramento State and still not have the worst basketball night in your family

[Billyboy78]

turns out you can lose at home to Sacramento State and still not have the worst basketball night in your family

Not a good start for Bobby. Ace, do you have info on EC that we don't? I don't expect you to answer, but your tone on this worries me.

[section(105)]

Gonna take in the game at the Dunk tonite, eyeball test.....

[Obadiah]

Saturday action:

In the A10:

* Howard at UMass at 12 Noon. This game is part of the Main Event Tournament in Las Vegas and is divided into two sections; the Heavyweight Division includes Clemson, UMass, Rutgers, and Creighton; the Middleweight Division includes Central Aransas, Howard, Texas Southern, and Texas - San Antonio.

* Towson at La Salle. At 3 PM.

*UCF at Davidson. At 7:30 PM.

* Fordham at Texas-Arlington. At 8:30 PM. Only A-10 team not opening season on home court.


In OOC games:

Harvard at Providence. At 7 PM

Cleveland State vs. Akron at Kent, Ohio. At 9 PM.

Mississippi Valley State at Nebraska. At 7 PM.

[ramfan85]

Ah, my favorite thread is back again. Thanks Obie.

[PeterRamTime]

UMASS squeaked one out against Howard 85-79
I just saw Radford beat Georgetown in 2ot's!

[theblueram]

seriously? gt lost to Radford? say it isn't so Gavitt.

[ATPTourFan]

But.... but... but... BIG EAST?!?

Amazing.. Gotta see the last sec 3 to take down the Hoyas:

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketb ... georgetown

[adam914]

So many upsets in the openers!

[Obadiah]

A-10 went 3-1 on the day. Both UMass and LaSalle just barely got by their opponents. Davidson also in close win over UCF, 90-85. Jack Gibbs put in 35 points for Davidson. In the lone A-10 road game, Fordham fell at Texas Arlington 77-72.

In OOC games:

Akron is an easy win over Cleveland State, 61-48.

PC handled Harvard with big second half, 76-64.

Nebraska cruised to a 97-51 win over Mississippi Valley State, 97-51

[Obadiah]

Sunday play marks the end of the shortened first week of the season.

In the A-10:

* Saint Louis opens at home versus Hartford as part of the Brooklyn Hoops Classic. At 5 PM. Hartford changes from last year's senior laden team to one with lots of transfers and more versatility. Saint Louis is re-grouping from last season's unexpectedly steep drop in performance and last place finish in the A-10. Returning players gives the Billikens an experience base not true last year. Saint Louis should take this one.

* In a Hall of Fame Tip-Off game, Niagara takes on St. Joseph's at Hagan. Bembry who scored 23 points in the win over Drexel should continue to lead the Hawks. The Hawks bad play of last season -especially losses to Saint Louis, Fordham, Denver, and Fairleigh Dickinson - kept Bembry from getting the recognition he deserves. Will this year be different?

* Stetson plays at Richmond in a campus site game of the Las Vegas Invitational. Richmond should be smarting after its home loss to JMU and Stetson will pay.

Among OOC opponents:

Iona at Valparaiso. At 2:30 PM. On ESPN3. With both teams on the URI schedule, this contest takes on added interest. Iona is the favorite to take the Metro Atlantic and Valpo is the Horizon' League's favorite . Valpo stuggled in its home opener, but their size and experience may prove too much for Iona who will be playing their season opener.

[ATPTourFan]

Thanks for the reminder about the Valpo/Iona game at 2:30. Will have that going on my phone/computer.

[BPR2010]

Valpo is wiping the floor with Iona right now...up 20 and the first half isn't over yet. Certainly look like a group that has returned their entire team. Need our best effort Tuesday.

[Obadiah]

Iona doesn't appear to have much of a defensive effort going on.

[Dre3000]

Agreed, Iona didn't play an ounce of defense and pretty much gave up in the second half. Terrible shot selection and a lot of selfish play. If we play as a team I think we can win, but if guys feel like they need to make up for the absence of EC themselves then we'll lose bad.

[adam914]

I do wish we had one more "easier" game on the schedule for the guys to get used to new roles, but what can you do. Gotta go out there and get the job done.

[Obadiah]

A-10 went 3-0 on the day.

Both Saint Louis and St. Joseph's had tight first halves at home against teams from lower level conferences. Both managed to come out strong in the second half to secure wins. Saint Louis over Hartford, 85-68 and St. Joe's over Niagara, 74-62.

Richmond routed Stetson, 83-58. TJ Cline poured in 27 points. The Spiders took 31 three point shoots and hit on 15 for a 48% clip.

Among OOC opponents:

Valparaiso in a breeze over Iona, 83-58. Iona FG shooting was poor and Valpo's bigs created confusion with blocked shots and causing Iona to foul. The Crusaders took 36 FT's to Iona's 18.

[rjsuperfly66]

Why no talk about how awesome Kris Dunn was the other night?
Scoring is up in college basketball after 3 days, 5 ppg, players slightly more efficient.
Tough to tell if it'll hold, seeing Butler/Citadel combine for 210+ points won't exist past December.
Tough weekends for the Big East and A10.
No good wins (although no opps really present), but some bad loss. G'town vs. Radford was the biggest.
But A10 some losses to UTSA and Colgate, BE with Radford.
Some measuring stick games coming up soon though ... 4 big games for the A10 next few days. A few for the BE.

[NHRamFan]

Perhaps because the is the Rhode Island board; not the PC board. Perhaps because there are topics of more concern and import to the Rhody faithful. Perhaps because there are many amongst us who don't give a flying fuck about anything PeeCee. Just what is the purpose of your post? Just another trolling excursion for RJunzipsmyfly.

[rjsuperfly66]

There are posts in this thread talking about the Big East, and there was numerous conversation in the offseason about Dunn's decision. While surprised, I'm not surprised. Most PC news only ends up here if it's bad

Unlike you guys, I actually do read most of the threads here to completion. I'm rooting for URI and don't just come here to "troll," which is the exact reason why I don't post in other threads with regularity, if I had a slightly negative take it turns into an agenda that doesn't even exist.

[Ramulous]

One of us posted on the friars board how great a player Dunn is and how he is a certified 1st rounder and that EC is not in his league......but we don't need to post that here.