Game 17: @ St Bonaventure Wednesday Jan 13 @7pm

[rambone 78]

We need to beat the Valpo's, ODU's, St. Joes, Bonnies of the world before we can beat a team like Maryland.

We haven't even done that yet.

[NYGFan_Section208]

^Agree...and they are just a couple stops, free throws or makes away from that. Here's to hoping they can get those bounces to turn their way going forward. The good teams do that...

[RhowdyRam02]

I had a bad feeling three years ago watching X muddle through the end game scenarios. At that time (and over the years) I have taken a lot of heat for saying it was a mistake to just assume Hurley was good at that particular coaching skill. It's what separates the mediocre from the good and the good from the great. To be fair, I did acknowledge that he was only a D-1 coach for two years and that he could just move up the learning curve. He works his ass off and there is nothing that says you can't improve in life. But, man, I do think that there was a little hubris in not replacing Bobby with a guy who has been through big time basketball wars. Skinner was at Emerson for two years. Now, he is at Kennesaw State. He would have been gold here. It didn't even have to be him. Or a big money hire which probably wouldn't fit in the budget. Just someone who would not be afraid get in his ear in a big moment and offer a different way.

Al wasn't at Emerson, he was helping out a friend of his at Bryant. Seeing as you've thought this for years, who is the longtime friend Dan has in the coaching business who could help? He hasn't been around long enough to have developed that kind of coaching tree yet. And you said it didn't need to be Al. Ok. Like I asked you before, who is this coach good enough to offer something, yet not good enough to be a head coach somewhere else and willing to take what URI will pay? You had no names before and I'm sure you have nothing now.

Where, oh where, is this magical unicorn assistant coach people think we can realistically get??? What are names of guys doing it now at an A10 level or lower?

[NYGFan_Section208]

I had a bad feeling three years ago watching X muddle through the end game scenarios. At that time (and over the years) I have taken a lot of heat for saying it was a mistake to just assume Hurley was good at that particular coaching skill. It's what separates the mediocre from the good and the good from the great. To be fair, I did acknowledge that he was only a D-1 coach for two years and that he could just move up the learning curve. He works his ass off and there is nothing that says you can't improve in life. But, man, I do think that there was a little hubris in not replacing Bobby with a guy who has been through big time basketball wars. Skinner was at Emerson for two years. Now, he is at Kennesaw State. He would have been gold here. It didn't even have to be him. Or a big money hire which probably wouldn't fit in the budget. Just someone who would not be afraid get in his ear in a big moment and offer a different way.

Al wasn't at Emerson, he was helping out a friend of his at Bryant. Seeing as you've thought this for years, who is the longtime friend Dan has in the coaching business who could help? He hasn't been around long enough to have developed that kind of coaching tree yet. And you said it didn't need to be Al. Ok. Like I asked you before, who is this coach good enough to offer something, yet not good enough to be a head coach somewhere else and willing to take what URI will pay? You had no names before and I'm sure you have nothing now.

Where, oh where, is this magical unicorn assistant coach people think we can realistically get??? What are names of guys doing it now at an A10 level or lower?

LOL...'magical unicorn'....

[ATPTourFan]

That is just absurd by Koch. CFL was a complete disaster. Most of those close wins were probably against teams like the Coast Guard Academy.

Yup. And many of those close losses were in year one where we barely had a legit a10 team.

Harrick with a few of our best teams appears average but his SOS was much higher than Baron's.

[hrstrat57]

I think in retrospect Baron era buzzer beaters had more to do with good players taking over vs coaching...

Great teams have it both ways.

Like the Hickory Huskers....

[NYGFan_Section208]

I might get a little bit of a vacation for what I'm about to say, but seeing as people on here have no problem saying what needs to be said, here goes...... [edited]

Normally when a message board gets this bad, I would have left a long time ago. But this is the only place to talk URI, so I'm not leaving. You [deleted] are just going to have to stop sucking.

Nice rant...waaaaaahhhhh
And who gives bleep about number of posts?
Do you get a prize when you get to a certain number?

From yours...looks like you might get a prize for number of expletives you can work in...do you?

[ATPTourFan]

RhowdyRam02 is taking a little break after that over the top outburst. There is room for some selective use of colorful language but that wasn't what was posted.

[NYGFan_Section208]

RhowdyRam02 is taking a little break after that over the top outburst. There is room for some selective use of colorful language but that wasn't what was posted.

Thank You.

[josephski]

That is just absurd by Koch. CFL was a complete disaster. Most of those close wins were probably against teams like the Coast Guard Academy.

Yup. And many of those close losses were in year one where we barely had a legit a10 team.

Harrick with a few of our best teams appears average but his SOS was much higher than Baron's.

I'm not trying to defend Baron but if you go back to last season and look at some of Hurley's close wins they're not very impressive either. Fordham twice, Duquesne and Nebraska were all close wins against awful teams.

[SGreenwell]

EC isn't a star? Most people thought he was part of a handful of players up for the POY in the A10. Thats not a star?

Volume shooter?Scorer? Those have become words with negative connotations.

EC was a Sophomore stepping in for Xavier Munford. Munford was a star of a bad team. Munford got stiffed by the league.

I'm not sure how it can't be obvious now with Munford's ability to fill it up both in the A10/and post A10 that he was special. Equally special was EC scoring the way he did as the #2 because we haven't seen anyone in a Ram uniform since be able to carry that load.

Then EC stepped into the #1 role and despite whatever bad stuff was a part of his stat sheet–- he was still above and beyond everyone on the team. He is a star. He deserves respect. Critiques of his game are fine, but saying he isn't a star or thinking he isn't what he is blows my mind.

Munford/Matthews are clear and away the two best guys URI has had since DH. They both are big guards that give you something in all 3 parts of the game.

Honestly I have no clue what I am talking about. But I know that Munford was special and EC was and is special. EC doesn't deserve people lumping him in with the way this team plays. He plays above this team. HE played above what this team plays like when he was a freshman.

I'm not sure if you're responding to me but I said EC didn't show that much improvement between his freshman and sophomore year. I'd agree he's definitely a star. With that said, out of our top 4 guys I think it would have hurt more to lose Hassan or Garrett. Replacing EC's scoring has obviously been difficult at times this season but due to our lack of big men and guys able to play the point I think Hassan and Garrett would have been bigger losses.

Also I think the problems run deeper than losing EC. If you're supposed to be a NCAA tournament team then losing one player should not be the difference between making the tournament and where we are now unless you lose a player like Dunn.

I think you're downplaying two things here: 1) It's tough to maintain close to the same level of production, or to improve on it even slightly, when you're going from a secondary option to the main focus of the offense. Like, there is value even in being just a decent volume shooter, because most players can't do that at all. EC's 3-point shooting went down from year 1 to 2, but his 2-point percentage went up quite a bit, even though he was playing more minutes and more a focal point of the offense. (IIRC - I'm doing this from memory right now, whereas the other day, I was looking at his stat sheet.)

2) I asked for comparables to URI's situation, and I'm not sure if anyone answered me. (I drift in and out on the board depending on how busy I get with work.) Meaning, how many teams have lost an All-Conference player in the first five games of the season, and how did they end up? I'm more familiar with pro basketball, and usually losing an all-star player seemed to have a .100 to .300 effect on winning percentage, depending on the team's depth. Admittedly though, I was cherry picking with situations that jumped to mind, like Derek Rose and Paul George. You mention Dunn, who is clearly better than Mathews, but Mathews is the next rung down - an all-A10 player who was getting draft buzz at various points.

I'm positive there has to be a better college comparable, but - In 2003-04, URI had Dawan Robinson and went 20-14. They didn't have him the next year and went 6-22. They had him for 2005-06 and went 14-14. The pieces around him changed - Scott Hazelton and Will Daniels were there for portions of that timespan, and that last year was the freshman year for Jimmy Baron and Seawright. But it wouldn't surprise me if the 'swing' for losing an All-A10 level guy is around 5 to 8 games, unless you have an equivalent player ready to replace him. Which, since it's the A-10, I doubt most teams have. (This might not apply for Duke, Kentucky, etc.)

[ramster]

EC isn't a star? Most people thought he was part of a handful of players up for the POY in the A10. Thats not a star?

Volume shooter?Scorer? Those have become words with negative connotations.

EC was a Sophomore stepping in for Xavier Munford. Munford was a star of a bad team. Munford got stiffed by the league.

I'm not sure how it can't be obvious now with Munford's ability to fill it up both in the A10/and post A10 that he was special. Equally special was EC scoring the way he did as the #2 because we haven't seen anyone in a Ram uniform since be able to carry that load.

Then EC stepped into the #1 role and despite whatever bad stuff was a part of his stat sheet–- he was still above and beyond everyone on the team. He is a star. He deserves respect. Critiques of his game are fine, but saying he isn't a star or thinking he isn't what he is blows my mind.

Munford/Matthews are clear and away the two best guys URI has had since DH. They both are big guards that give you something in all 3 parts of the game.

Honestly I have no clue what I am talking about. But I know that Munford was special and EC was and is special. EC doesn't deserve people lumping him in with the way this team plays. He plays above this team. HE played above what this team plays like when he was a freshman.

I'm not sure if you're responding to me but I said EC didn't show that much improvement between his freshman and sophomore year. I'd agree he's definitely a star. With that said, out of our top 4 guys I think it would have hurt more to lose Hassan or Garrett. Replacing EC's scoring has obviously been difficult at times this season but due to our lack of big men and guys able to play the point I think Hassan and Garrett would have been bigger losses.

Also I think the problems run deeper than losing EC. If you're supposed to be a NCAA tournament team then losing one player should not be the difference between making the tournament and where we are now unless you lose a player like Dunn.

I would include Iverson in the hurt to replace Hassan or Garrett vs EC. Losing any one of these 3 players would be tough.
But, Hassan, Garrett and Iverson would have been in the starting line up EC or no EC. What we really got with he loss of EC was McGlynn starting and playing a major 35 minutes per game.

Imagine if we had Iverson, Martin, Terrell, Garrett and EC with Thompson off the bench along with the current bench guys? It's reall. McGlynn for EC.