The Dream is dead. Long live the dream.

[NYGFan_Section208]

Specifics of the clips aside, I think what RFC said is significant...despite all of the chatter about not running plays (guilty here)...good teams play with a certain amount of spontaneity and creativity - which is different from just dribbling around, looking lost. Not sure you can do that if you're wound up tighter than a drum (which would match the coach's personality - and that seems pretty inarguable). Sometimes, they seem afraid or unwilling to be spontaneous or try 'create' a flow, like often looking to the director for their next line instead. JT seems to be a sometimes exception...

Then again...what do I know?

[NYGFan_Section208]

Courtside seats?
Probably bought by some rich swells, who
spend winters in Florida.
Call the box office at the Ryan Center and ask.
Couldn t hurt, right?

Called and they said that they are all sold (and sold out) as season tickets...

[rodfromcranston]

None of us was present at the practice, because
"The most transparent coach we've ever had", closes all
but one practice to the public.
One coach speaks about having fun and players enjoying their
college experience.
The other? Don't know, but the team plays tight,
and he micro manages the offense, especially in the 2nd
half, when they'e on the URI side of the floor.
While I'm on the subject (or not),
Golden State last night had 33 assists on their first 33 baskets,
and 41 for the game. Amazing!
I hardly expect us to be the Warriors, but what do we average
a game for assists? 6-8?
Also, assists aren't only for PGs, either.

[Bill Koch]

Nothing concrete here, but the eye test.
Last night WPRI showed a Cooley interview, with
players practicing.
Smiles, and a relaxed atmosphere.
Interview with Hurley, again showing players' practicing.
No smiles, all business.
Maybe not significant, but maybe it is?

I happened to be at practice Thursday. About 10 minutes before interviews the players had a contest involving half-court shots. It was loose and they were clearly enjoying themselves. They're actually quite positive on the whole most of the time.

Filming at URI practices is limited to portions that don't involve live scouting, which makes up the majority of the sessions this time of year. The time to film usually involves foul shooting, which has been a point of consternation on this board as we all know. The lack of smiles might just reflect concentration -- something that has certainly been called for here as well.

As far as access, I've never been denied anything by URI coaches or administrators. They've always allowed me to execute my role as a media member -- informing the fans. And that's what I'll attempt to continue to do.

[rodfromcranston]

Media having access is quite different than generally open
practices.
During Jim Harrick's two years, all kinds of people were in
and out of practices, media included.
This even included their refereed scrimmages,
and pre-NCAA practices.
For basketball junkies, it was priceless.

[Gonebarongone]

None of us was present at the practice, because
"The most transparent coach we've ever had", closes all
but one practice to the public.
One coach speaks about having fun and players enjoying their
college experience.
The other? Don't know, but the team plays tight,
and he micro manages the offense, especially in the 2nd
half, when they'e on the URI side of the floor.
While I'm on the subject (or not),
Golden State last night had 33 assists on their first 33 baskets,
and 41 for the game. Amazing!
I hardly expect us to be the Warriors, but what do we average
a game for assists? 6-8?
Also, assists aren't only for PGs, either.

We assist on 48% of our made FGs, which is #288 in the country. #1 is no surprise, MIchigan State. 74%.

[BPR2010]

Sparty is my 1B team (as I have mentioned before), and while their Assist to FG ratio is excellent, it is one of their worst halfcourt offenses that I have seen since maybe the 2006-2007 season. Very young team, lost the NPOY in Valentine, multiple injuries, etc. However, you can make up for A LOT of inconsistencies in the half court by being an excellent transition team and getting easy layups/dunks in odd man situations. This is where they excel, and have done so for years under Izzo. Every year there are tremendous athletes, about 5 guys off the bench who can contribute, and in some years 2 PG's who can handle that type of play.

It's a plea I've made since this season has started. We now apparently have the PG to do this in Jarvis. I know we have the athletes to play at this pace. Going into the season, I thought we had the depth but it looks like it may take more time for Dowtin to adjust to this level of play. I just feel that we don't give ourselves enough opportunities in transition and really push out of misses. This is why for years we get stuck in these "rockfights". I see Sparty, in a matter of minutes, swing the momentum and outcome of games with a few transition opportunities in a row with easy points on their end.

Maybe I'm crazy, but I really think our Assist to FG% would improve if we started doing this a bit more in spurts. Then again, you need to be a good defensive rebounding team to start these fast breaks, which we've struggled with thus far...

[The Dude]

I will admit that during the last game the team was passing the ball a lot quicker and were much quicker with their decision making. If they can do this every game, it will be one improvement that I've seen them make this season.
Baby steps I guess.

Prior to the last game, I think the team has looked really stiff out there when they've tried to run plays on each possession (or at least a good portion of them). I think the team really needs to learn how to play for one another, in a style similar to that of a pick up game, instead of looking to a coach for instruction all the time...so a play doesn't need to be used to generate offensive production as much.

[BPR2010]

Sparty is my 1B team (as I have mentioned before), and while their Assist to FG ratio is excellent, it is one of their worst halfcourt offenses that I have seen since maybe the 2006-2007 season. Very young team, lost the NPOY in Valentine, multiple injuries, etc. However, you can make up for A LOT of inconsistencies in the half court by being an excellent transition team and getting easy layups/dunks in odd man situations. This is where they excel, and have done so for years under Izzo. Every year there are tremendous athletes, about 5 guys off the bench who can contribute, and in some years 2 PG's who can handle that type of play.

It's a plea I've made since this season has started. We now apparently have the PG to do this in Jarvis. I know we have the athletes to play at this pace. Going into the season, I thought we had the depth but it looks like it may take more time for Dowtin to adjust to this level of play. I just feel that we don't give ourselves enough opportunities in transition and really push out of misses. This is why for years we get stuck in these "rockfights". I see Sparty, in a matter of minutes, swing the momentum and outcome of games with a few transition opportunities in a row with easy points on their end.

Maybe I'm crazy, but I really think our Assist to FG% would improve if we started doing this a bit more in spurts. Then again, you need to be a good defensive rebounding team to start these fast breaks, which we've struggled with thus far...

3 weeks later, and my plea has been answered. The past 2 games they have done exactly what I had hoped we'd be doing since game 1 this year. Pushing the pace opens up SO much for all 5 guys on the floor. I know the competition hasn't been great, and we had a record-setting shooting night last night, but this is the style that they should be playing from here on out. The assist to FG% the past 2 games have been 71% and 60%, respectively, which is drastically better than the 47-48% we were at prior. Keep this up, and we will be just fine with a great shot at winning the conference.

[bigappleram]

Couldn't agree more. The key to this team is making the extra pass, not getting sticky with the ball and pounding the floor and movement off the ball.
Though this team doesn't have a bunch of traditional perimeter shooters it has a bunch of scorers, and also with Terrell, EC and Garrett 3 guys that can hit threes at a good rate when they are good shots versus forced and contested. Even in first half when we were missing the looks were open and good shots, and eventually they started to fall. If we move and push the pace we can be a dynamic offense that is hard to guard. If we play ISO one-on-one like virtually every team out there we become easy to defend and pedestrian. Let's hope the performance of the last 2 games carries over to more stiff competition this Friday.

[reef]

The announcer even said during the game when we have all 5 guys on the court playing well we will be scary good

Nice to see KI get things going in the 2h after his non existent 1h

Even though EC has lost his explosion with the injury his outside shot is damn good and he can get in the zone

Jared three point shot has improved leaps and bounds

[ramster]

It isn't this year, and it's looking more and more like it isn't this coach. But someday, it will happen for Rhody.

Well, you were right about "someday it will happen for Rhody"

[ramster]

I disagree that the Dream is Dead. Too early for a Thread titled like this when we have not even played our first Conference Game yet.
Two games, on the road, with very tight point spreads, that were decided by tight point spreads.
Do I wish we had won both of those games? Absolutely.
Peters went off and had an great game.
Cartwright went off and had a career game in points, 8 assists and only 1 turnover.
We beat Cincinnati which will turn out to be a very good win.
We played Duke respectably
EC is clearly not the same as before his knee. It is still early......give him some time
Daron Russell is a great player coming in next year

Way too early to throw in the towel. Still could very well end up being the Regular Season A10 Conference Champion for the first time in History.

These losses may prove to be good in the long term for the season. Certainly the players know that there is room for improvement.

My post from 3 months ago after the PC Game

[rodfromcranston]

Don't get hurt, patting yourself on the back.
Hassan the Great said yesterday,"We gave up hope for awhile."
If our key player did, why shouldn't anyone else?

[ramster]

Don't get hurt, patting yourself on the back.
Hassan the Great said yesterday,"We gave up hope for awhile."
If our key player did, why shouldn't anyone else?

[Blue Man]

With a caveat...14-4 or 13-5 has to include wins against the top teams......no wins against Dayton, VCU, and maybe Davidson means no Dance.....

Actually I don't know what I'm saying...what have we done to think we will win those games? Silly me........

Hmmm idk let me see - Dayton, Davidson, VCU at home.

Won at Dayton last year with a depleted roster against a better Dayton team. Beat a legit top 25 team already this year.

Yeah no clue what would ever give you that idea besides an even-keeled thought process?

You keep on trying to put your finger in the dam in all of these threads. Yes, you can point to one or two points in five years where they won a nice game. Do you disagree that coaching in close games is a problem? Also...let's pump the brakes on Cincy until they get into conference games. They have played three decent teams, lost two, and won by one in OT. The rest are tomato cans.

THE DAM IS REBUILT

[TruePoint]

I had tabbed a few posts made by different people during the year that I wanted to go back to and highlight if URI ended up making the tournament, but then yesterday came and I thought "eh, what's the point of trying to embarrass people for venting let's just enjoy this." So good, you caught me venting literally as I was walking out of the civic center. Congrats on that. For the most part, I was one of the more consistent advocates of withholding judgment and letting all the games play out, but I was pretty pissed in the minutes after the PC game. Hell, I'm sill kind of pissed about it.

[ramster]

I had tabbed a few posts made by different people during the year that I wanted to go back to and highlight if URI ended up making the tournament, but then yesterday came and I thought "eh, what's the point of trying to embarrass people for venting let's just enjoy this." So good, you caught me venting literally as I was walking out of the civic center. Congrats on that. For the most part, I was one of the more consistent advocates of withholding judgment and letting all the games play out, but I was pretty pissed in the minutes after the PC game. Hell, I'm sill kind of pissed about it.

And just for the record TP,
You did not need to comment to PMMM negatively about his absence on the board and about thinking he was dead. If Baron 2.0 was allowed to stay open posters like PMMM and others could have come back to the rightful place, scene of the crime, and commented if they so choose to.
You come across telling others that they were overtly negative when you were yourself at times and Running Ram rightfully so called you out on that in the thread where you got on PMMM.
And I'm pissed at the Baron 2.0 thread being censored
I was always in favor of letting the season play out before judging, never wavered on that, but was not allowed to say anything after 23 pages and 1100 posts because Baron 2.0 got closed before most could.
The Baron thread would have died a peaceful death anyway....it did not need closing.
Congrats on admitting you were wrong, if it makes you feel better that it was 2 minutes after the PC game, ok

If you close Baron 2.0 you might as well close this negatively titled thread as well as the Fordham Game Thread that got absolutely brutal.

Some posters will disappear, just like when Baron was gone, some will continue to think they were right along about DH and will still be waiting for him to ultimately fail, it is everyone's right.

[TruePoint]

I didn't close that thread and wouldn't have. It was a dumb thread, I called it dumb at the time. If you can't tell the difference between someone saying something negative during a game and someone whose sole purpose here is to be negative and poo in the punch bowl incessantly then I can't help you.

If I wanted to, I could have deleted this whole thread or any post in it. I didn't because I don't believe in that. Let the record be the record. I stand by my overall record here, even if I regret a couple posts that I made in the moment. But I also think it's pretty classless to go digging back through someone's record to find one post out of thousands of posts to try to embarrass them with. This thing about the dream being dead, it certainly felt that way at the time to me, walking out of the civic center. But lots of things have happened since then and I'm glad my half-drunk rage-fueled hyperbole turned out to be wrong.

[ramster]

I didn't did sift through posts. This was a headline of the thread.

I thought it was classless for you to get on PMMM asking where he has been. Trying to stir the pot. Surely, there were many who posted a lot of negative things about Hurley in GBO 2.0. He was one of them but there were many. So you could challenge all of them, right? One poster called you out on because of what you said to PMMM. He said you too had abandoned the season at one time.

I have said stuff I've regretted too and try my best not to post to in game threads because of the heat of the moments.

Some have admitted they were wrong about Hurley and are happy as can be and went to Pittsburgh and will go on to California. Others will post a lot less now. Some will still think they are right about Hurley. Whatever they want to think is their right.

[Blue Man]

I thought it was classless for you to get on PMMM asking where he has been. Trying to stir the pot. Surely, there were many who posted a lot of negative things about Hurley in GBO 2.0. He was one of them but there were many. So you could challenge all of them, right? One poster called you out on because of what you said to PMMM. He said you too had abandoned the season at one time.

That's not classless, that's completely fair. Someone coming onto this board, during the best time in the history of this board, and then start just shitting out negative crap after literally only posting after losses or shitting on anyone's hope for a good season can sit on a railroad spike.

Of course everyone had doubts after the Fordham or PC losses, anyone who's a rabid fan would feel dead after those. Hell the team said they felt dead after that, and that's what rallied them together.

But for everything that we had to read all year...all of the negative bullshit about how we were butt buddies with Dan or dreamers or idiots and how our team was shit or our coach had to be fired or how we were never going to be an NCAA team under Dan....to have to continue to deal with BULLSHIT after what this team just achieved? Fuck that.

I don't know PMMM from a hole in the wall. I'm happy about that. Or maybe not. Maybe he's a great guy in real life. But his opinions are shit. His online persona is shit.

If we had to get a post after every loss from him. Or had to get a reply after posting something positive about how wrong we were. He can deal with some posts tell him to go fuck himself with his unabashed negativity that provides nothing of value after these wins.

This board should be a place to celebrate now. Anyone being negative after what has happened here is just saying more about themselves than anything else.

[ramster]

Fair enough. Enough said.

[ATPTourFan]

!	Message from: ATPTourFan
	Let's move forward, everyone.