KeaneyBlue - The URI Basketball Forum

Media

TV/Stream:
Streaming on SEC Network+ (WatchESPN)

Radio:
101.5

Previews:

Vegas:

Opponent

Record:
6-2, 0-0 in the SEC
Home: 4-1
Last season: 19-15, 10-8 in the SEC

Rankings:
RPI (expected): 18 (34)
BPI: 44
KenPom: 31

Leaders:
Points - Collin Sexton, 22.1
Rebounds - Donta Hall, 6.8
Assists - Collin Sexton, 4.0

Last Five (5-0)
UCF, L 65-62
Lousiana Tech, W 77-74
Minnesota, L 89-84
BYU, W 71-59
UTA, W 77-76

Still working on this, but since there was clamoring for it from some posters, don't want to keep anyone waiting. Check back for final OP with roster/stats and preview.

Fatts outplayed one highly regarded freshman in MAL on Saturday, let's see if he can do it again against Sexton!

I don't think I have SEC Network +, just the normal one. But I will be able to stream via WatchESPN and Chromecast!

steviep123 wrote:I don't think I have SEC Network +, just the normal one. But I will be able to stream via WatchESPN and Chromecast!

yes. all ESPN broadcasts are on WatchESPN, including their branded channels like SEC Network

I feel better playing a team whos best player is a guard vs a big.

PC game is now in rear view mirror. On to Alabama.

Agreed. On to Alabama.

I feel like URI is playing with the house's money just like against Virginia.

Iggy1979 wrote:I feel like URI is playing with the house's money just like against Virginia.

Yes and no. Beating Alabama and then running the rest of the OOC table will allow for a slip up in the A10 tourney if the A10 is as off as they appear to be. We want as many of these top wins as possible!

Iggy1979 wrote:I feel like URI is playing with the house's money just like against Virginia.

Agreed. With the win Saturday, the pressure is less for Alabama. URI needed to minimally win one of two versus PC and Alabama. It was the same with Brooklyn as Rhody had to get a least one win (preferably over either SHI or UVA).

Beating Alabama on the road however would greatly lessen pressure for the rest of the season. Would mean that Rhode Island already had three signature wins.

Iggy1979 wrote:I feel like URI is playing with the house's money just like against Virginia.

I more or less agree in terms of internal pressure on URI, but Alabama is not as good as Virginia. On the other hand, this game is in Tuscaloose as opposed to a neutral floor.

Iggy1979 wrote:I feel like URI is playing with the house's money just like against Virginia.

I think looking at this OOC going in - most people expected 3 losses (@Nevada, neutral Seton Hall, @Bama) - which with wins home v Providence, and neutral against Vanderbilt - would put our expectations for the tournament to be high seed w/ a need to win the A10 tourney to feel safe.

The fact that we were able to flip the top 20 Seton Hall game to a W, get top 15 Virginia on the schedule, and secure the Providence win (all without EC) - puts us in an RPI place where our expectations can and should change to an at-large bid with 8-10 seed expectations, regardless of what happens Wednesday night.

Win or lose I don't think it's absurd to expect us to win out the OOC after Bama.

Win though, and then we would have a resume in March that would boast an OOC with a 2-2 record against the RPI top 25, 3-2 top 50, a few more top 100 wins, and our expectations can honestly change to a top 6 seed in March. I don't want to get ahead of myself, but if that happens I won't be able to feel my feet at every game I go to.

For the fans this is a house money game for sure, but I am 100% positive our coaching staff will not be preaching that through Wednesday.

WE WANT BAMA!!!!




in basketball

Saban better be setting up a picnic for us!

Blue Man wrote:

Iggy1979 wrote:I feel like URI is playing with the house's money just like against Virginia.

I think looking at this OOC going in - most people expected 3 losses (@Nevada, neutral Seton Hall, @Bama) - which with wins home v Providence, and neutral against Vanderbilt - would put our expectations for the tournament to be high seed w/ a need to win the A10 tourney to feel safe.

The fact that we were able to flip the top 20 Seton Hall game to a W, get top 15 Virginia on the schedule, and secure the Providence win (all without EC) - puts us in an RPI place where our expectations can and should change to an at-large bid with 8-10 seed expectations, regardless of what happens Wednesday night.

Win though, and then we would have a resume in March that would boast an OOC with a 2-2 record against the RPI top 25, 3-2 top 50, a few more top 100 wins, and our expectations can honestly change to a top 6 seed in March. I don't want to get ahead of myself, but if that happens I won't be able to feel my feet at every game I go to. .

I don’t think a win Weds will give us 2-2 vs RPI top 25 when the season is over. Alabama’s expected RPI is 45 and PC’s is 47. The 3-2 vs Top 50 is awesome. We have five A10 games against Top 100 - Bonnies (2),Davidson (2) & VCU. We have four other games with teams just outside the expected Top 100 - Dayton (2), FGC & College of Charleston. It would be great if FGC and CoC overperform and make the Top 100

TP, Alabama is 3-2 in last 5.
Alabama’s loss at home yesterday hurts a little. I think it changes this game for URI from house money to should win.
Sexton has had several great games but he had ZERO FG’s yesterday. Petty the other Fr threw up some wild shots in the last three minutes of a 1 point game. They have size. I think DH will need to play the bigs more.

If Rhody wins it takes off the pressure to win the A10 Tournament in my opnion. Win the rest of their OCC (very doable) and win the A10 Regular Season and they dance.

If we win out the rest of OOC we won't have to even win the regular season to dance. We will be in, barring unforeseen collapse. We will be playing for a seed line.

Yeah might need to play the bigs more.

I seem to remember us playing well when we had both Berry and Langevine in the game at the same time.

I like our guards against theirs in this game.
They haven't faced pressure like ours.

We are full of senior leaders and we are a program that has been rebuilt and is building.

They're still putting it together with a relatively young talented team.

At this point, I just believe that we will win these types of games against teams around our level.

They're showing Loyola Illinois vs Florida on the SEC network instead of this game....

wait.. what ?.. not on SEC network ?
my tv guide says it is...

PeterRamTime wrote:Yeah might need to play the bigs more.

I seem to remember us playing well when we had both Berry and Langevine in the game at the same time.

I like our guards against theirs in this game.
They haven't faced pressure like ours.

We are full of senior leaders and we are a program that has been rebuilt and is building.

They're still putting it together with a relatively young talented team.

At this point, I just believe that we will win these types of games against teams around our level.

They're showing Loyola Illinois vs Florida on the SEC network instead of this game....

On the bigs point, something clicked in my head when we rolled 5 guards out in crunch time against a big east team: we don't have to do shit.

We are so good, deep, and talented in the back court - Dan can literally just throw 5 guards out there against another team and say "try to beat us. Try to play our way and keep up."

I think that is kind of lost on all of us...but we are really that good. That's what you get out of typical 2nd weekend teams; forcing you to play a style of game they dictate and control. This is the next level that we haven't got to experience at URI.

Blue Man wrote:

PeterRamTime wrote:Yeah might need to play the bigs more.

I seem to remember us playing well when we had both Berry and Langevine in the game at the same time.

I like our guards against theirs in this game.
They haven't faced pressure like ours.

We are full of senior leaders and we are a program that has been rebuilt and is building.

They're still putting it together with a relatively young talented team.

At this point, I just believe that we will win these types of games against teams around our level.

They're showing Loyola Illinois vs Florida on the SEC network instead of this game....

On the bigs point, something clicked in my head when we rolled 5 guards out in crunch time against a big east team: we don't have to do shit.

We are so good, deep, and talented in the back court - Dan can literally just throw 5 guards out there against another team and say "try to beat us. Try to play our way and keep up."

I think that is kind of lost on all of us...but we are really that good. That's what you get out of typical 2nd weekend teams; forcing you to play a style of game they dictate and control. This is the next level that we haven't got to experience at URI.

THIS

Im sick of hearing 'we need to match up to them' and 'we need to play their game'.....f*ck that, that is loser talk.

We are the better team, we are the one with an elite mix of guards. It's up to other teams to adjust to us and find a way to match up to our game. We dictate the pace, we dont follow it.

....Team Rankings gives their power ratings a 34% chance of URI winning......

Da_Process_Survivor wrote:

Blue Man wrote:

PeterRamTime wrote:Yeah might need to play the bigs more.

I seem to remember us playing well when we had both Berry and Langevine in the game at the same time.

I like our guards against theirs in this game.
They haven't faced pressure like ours.

We are full of senior leaders and we are a program that has been rebuilt and is building.

They're still putting it together with a relatively young talented team.

At this point, I just believe that we will win these types of games against teams around our level.

They're showing Loyola Illinois vs Florida on the SEC network instead of this game....

On the bigs point, something clicked in my head when we rolled 5 guards out in crunch time against a big east team: we don't have to do shit.

We are so good, deep, and talented in the back court - Dan can literally just throw 5 guards out there against another team and say "try to beat us. Try to play our way and keep up."

I think that is kind of lost on all of us...but we are really that good. That's what you get out of typical 2nd weekend teams; forcing you to play a style of game they dictate and control. This is the next level that we haven't got to experience at URI.

THIS

Im sick of hearing 'we need to match up to them' and 'we need to play their game'.....f*ck that, that is loser talk.

We are the better team, we are the one with an elite mix of guards. It's up to other teams to adjust to us and find a way to match up to our game. We dictate the pace, we dont follow it.

A-F*#%ING-MEN.

Honestly I know the conversation of "minutes" will come up when EC comes back, but like - good luck trying to guard what looks like the entire First team, second team, and all-freshman A10 back court. Big or not - how do you defend a team that could possibly just roll out Jarvis, Jeff, EC, Jared and Stan (who pulled down 12 boards guarding the 4 on Saturday), and then bring in Fatts for a change in pace??

Short of Jaylen Adams, in a guard dominated league, we have what looks like the 6 best guards in the conference. I know for a fact we have the best 2 point guards in the A10 on our roster. EC, Jared, and Stan all speak for themselves, and there isn't a team in the league that wouldn't put Fatts into their starting lineup tomorrow.

Blue Man wrote:

PeterRamTime wrote:Yeah might need to play the bigs more.

I seem to remember us playing well when we had both Berry and Langevine in the game at the same time.

I like our guards against theirs in this game.
They haven't faced pressure like ours.

We are full of senior leaders and we are a program that has been rebuilt and is building.

They're still putting it together with a relatively young talented team.

At this point, I just believe that we will win these types of games against teams around our level.

They're showing Loyola Illinois vs Florida on the SEC network instead of this game....

On the bigs point, something clicked in my head when we rolled 5 guards out in crunch time against a big east team: we don't have to do shit.

We are so good, deep, and talented in the back court - Dan can literally just throw 5 guards out there against another team and say "try to beat us. Try to play our way and keep up."

I think that is kind of lost on all of us...but we are really that good. That's what you get out of typical 2nd weekend teams; forcing you to play a style of game they dictate and control. This is the next level that we haven't got to experience at URI.

I said something similar in another thread. I thought if Jarvis and Fatts were on the floor at the same time, we'd be in trouble. But after watching it, the other team has to deal with that speed and quickness and also the defensive pressure that both of them use all over the court. That is Hell for opposing guards. If we ever play a team like Duke, who is loaded with talented bigs, it'd be a problem. But I like that we can dictate pace and the type of game that's being played against most teams.

If we keep playing like we are we won't see a team like Duke until the sweet 16. Obviously there are other teams that present some mismatches with their length, but we present a similar mismatch with our speed and quickness.

I've been saying this for two years. When you do something a little unorthodox (i.e., playing 4 or even 5 guards), people have a tendency to focus only on the ways in which that disadvantages you. And there are disadvantages to playing 4 or 5 guards, and I don't think we could or should or would try to do it 40 minutes per game. But there are advantages, and if you pick your spots and deploy it at the right times, you can screw other teams up just in their trying to match up with you or getting them to go away from what they usually do in order to attack your perceived weakness - never mind the advantage you get just from having your five best players on the court irrespective of position, your advantage in speed, ball handling, perimeter shooting, ability to pressure the entire floor defensively, etc.

For me, the early question was, how are all these guards going to defend bigger teams? Answer: Never mind. Not only are they fast as heck on offense, pushing the ball up and scoring, their perimeter defense is just so downright nasty...What? The opponent has a size match-up advantage down low? Well, good luck getting him the ball...

I mean just look at that Dayton team that was crazy good with no one over 6'6".

I'm excited for the little top 25 number next to our name if (when) we beat these guys.

Also Fatts vs Sexton will be an EXCITING match up to watch

I would like to win this game for several reasons.

But mostly because I don't want to be the team that just meets expectations.

Go show them what URI is all about. Carry the A10 flag. Carry the flag for basketball in the north.

*I too noticed that Berry and Langevine plus the big guards lineup is a tough one. Like WOW-up-your-sleeve can put this monster line up out there tough.

Seawrightspostgame wrote:I would like to win this game for several reasons.

But mostly because I don't want to be the team that just meets expectations.

Go show them what URI is all about. Carry the A10 flag. Carry the flag for basketball in the north.

*I too noticed that Berry and Langevine plus the big guards lineup is a tough one. Like WOW-up-your-sleeve can put this monster line up out there tough.

Thatsss what I'm sayin about Berry and Cyril in there at the same time. They can hold their own if we have trouble with a big line up because we still have 3 great guards causing havoc on the perimeter. It created more space when they were out there. Kinda got us out of a funk.

We should dictate how this game goes though and every game from here on out.

Stan is basically like a 6'8 guy with his athleticism and long arms too.

Blue Man wrote:

PeterRamTime wrote:Yeah might need to play the bigs more.

I seem to remember us playing well when we had both Berry and Langevine in the game at the same time.

I like our guards against theirs in this game.
They haven't faced pressure like ours.

We are full of senior leaders and we are a program that has been rebuilt and is building.

They're still putting it together with a relatively young talented team.

At this point, I just believe that we will win these types of games against teams around our level.

They're showing Loyola Illinois vs Florida on the SEC network instead of this game....

On the bigs point, something clicked in my head when we rolled 5 guards out in crunch time against a big east team: we don't have to do shit.

We are so good, deep, and talented in the back court - Dan can literally just throw 5 guards out there against another team and say "try to beat us. Try to play our way and keep up."

I think that is kind of lost on all of us...but we are really that good. That's what you get out of typical 2nd weekend teams; forcing you to play a style of game they dictate and control. This is the next level that we haven't got to experience at URI.

Well it worked against Seton Hall and PC but was one of the reasons we lost to Virginia. I agree that we should try to dictate the style of game with a four guard lineup but we need to be ready for games against teams like Virginia where we may have to go with two big men.

Also I think Stan being on the floor is a huge part of having the four guards be successful. He played 33 minutes against Seton Hall and 35 against PC, if he gets into foul trouble then it really weakens our four guard lineup in my opinion.

On the bigs point, something clicked in my head when we rolled 5 guards out in crunch time against a big east team: we don't have to do shit.

We are so good, deep, and talented in the back court - Dan can literally just throw 5 guards out there against another team and say "try to beat us. Try to play our way and keep up."

I think that is kind of lost on all of us...but we are really that good. That's what you get out of typical 2nd weekend teams; forcing you to play a style of game they dictate and control. This is the next level that we haven't got to experience at URI.

When Hurley went to the five guards he got into Cooley's head and forced an ultimately unwise decision by Cooley to go small as well. Took away the one advantage that kept them in the game most of the way.

with the updated rankings, Alabama dropped out of the top 25.
Was hoping they could stay in for one more week so they would have been ranked when we played them. Damn

If we're playing a team loaded with bigs, and we're getting outrebounded anyway, why not go with five guards for two or three minutes?

josephski wrote:

Blue Man wrote:

PeterRamTime wrote:Yeah might need to play the bigs more.

I seem to remember us playing well when we had both Berry and Langevine in the game at the same time.

I like our guards against theirs in this game.
They haven't faced pressure like ours.

We are full of senior leaders and we are a program that has been rebuilt and is building.

They're still putting it together with a relatively young talented team.

At this point, I just believe that we will win these types of games against teams around our level.

They're showing Loyola Illinois vs Florida on the SEC network instead of this game....

On the bigs point, something clicked in my head when we rolled 5 guards out in crunch time against a big east team: we don't have to do shit.

We are so good, deep, and talented in the back court - Dan can literally just throw 5 guards out there against another team and say "try to beat us. Try to play our way and keep up."

I think that is kind of lost on all of us...but we are really that good. That's what you get out of typical 2nd weekend teams; forcing you to play a style of game they dictate and control. This is the next level that we haven't got to experience at URI.

Well it worked against Seton Hall and PC but was one of the reasons we lost to Virginia. I agree that we should try to dictate the style of game with a four guard lineup but we need to be ready for games against teams like Virginia where we may have to go with two big men.

Also I think Stan being on the floor is a huge part of having the four guards be successful. He played 33 minutes against Seton Hall and 35 against PC, if he gets into foul trouble then it really weakens our four guard lineup in my opinion.

100% disagree. We lost to Virginia because we missed layups and free throws. If we play an average game hitting those layups and more free throws we win. We were in the position to hit open and close shots and just missed them.

That's not indicative of that style working or not. It was a 1 point game with 15 minutes to go.

We were exhausted having played 4 players 35+ minutes, were short 2 players in the rotation, playing a team who was fresh. Tired legs = missed bunnies and free throw struggles.

We will never be in a position again where you play a good team after exhausting yourself less than 24 hours earlier.

I agree that we don't want to play 4 or 5 guards the full 40 minutes, but like TP said - being able to pick and choose where to deploy that lineup will make us lethal. Throw in a full rotation (Jarvis, Jared, EC, Stan, Berry - Jarvis, Cyril, Fatts, Preston, Akele) around the 5 guard lineup, and you could just hot swap or throw 2 full capable lineups out there.

Honestly, when you think about it you have 2 complete teams that could win the A10 this year. I'm dead serious when I say that Jarvis, Fatts, Akele, Preston, and Cyril could beat 3/4 of the A10's starting lineups this year. (more a commentary on the quality of the league...but you get the point).

I prefer to switch it up. Not saying play one way or the other.

Use the multi. And just saying the big lineup looked huge and good.

The 5 guard lineup I think is good too. Just I think it was also the right time. 5 point guards with a lead on your home floor in front of a crazy crowd may work better. Better than a Wednesday night @Bama, who have an NBA mind at coach and much more legit NBA talent than PC.

I would be surprised if Bama didn't try to do what UVA did with Avery's NBA pedigree. Just takes patience.

I too think UVA is a different game if URI makes the bunnies. Its tough on teams when you score. It puts pressure on them to score. They take risks.

I don't really buy the playing with the houses money argument either
Bama just lost at home to an average UCF team
It will be a good loss if we lose but let's win this and crack that top 25

Blue Man wrote:

josephski wrote:

Blue Man wrote:
On the bigs point, something clicked in my head when we rolled 5 guards out in crunch time against a big east team: we don't have to do shit.

We are so good, deep, and talented in the back court - Dan can literally just throw 5 guards out there against another team and say "try to beat us. Try to play our way and keep up."

I think that is kind of lost on all of us...but we are really that good. That's what you get out of typical 2nd weekend teams; forcing you to play a style of game they dictate and control. This is the next level that we haven't got to experience at URI.

Well it worked against Seton Hall and PC but was one of the reasons we lost to Virginia. I agree that we should try to dictate the style of game with a four guard lineup but we need to be ready for games against teams like Virginia where we may have to go with two big men.

Also I think Stan being on the floor is a huge part of having the four guards be successful. He played 33 minutes against Seton Hall and 35 against PC, if he gets into foul trouble then it really weakens our four guard lineup in my opinion.

100% disagree. We lost to Virginia because we missed layups and free throws. If we play an average game hitting those layups and more free throws we win. We were in the position to hit open and close shots and just missed them.

That's not indicative of that style working or not. It was a 1 point game with 15 minutes to go.

We were exhausted having played 4 players 35+ minutes, were short 2 players in the rotation, playing a team who was fresh. Tired legs = missed bunnies and free throw struggles.

We will never be in a position again where you play a good team after exhausting yourself less than 24 hours earlier.

I agree that we don't want to play 4 or 5 guards the full 40 minutes, but like TP said - being able to pick and choose where to deploy that lineup will make us lethal. Throw in a full rotation (Jarvis, Jared, EC, Stan, Berry - Jarvis, Cyril, Fatts, Preston, Akele) around the 5 guard lineup, and you could just hot swap or throw 2 full capable lineups out there.

Honestly, when you think about it you have 2 complete teams that could win the A10 this year. I'm dead serious when I say that Jarvis, Fatts, Akele, Preston, and Cyril could beat 3/4 of the A10's starting lineups this year. (more a commentary on the quality of the league...but you get the point).

Free throws weren't really that big of a deal in that game. If we shot our current season average (70%) we would have made three more free throws against Virginia. Also Terrell played 38, Dowtin played 35 and Stan played 33 against Seton Hall everyone else was under 30 and half the layups we missed were by Akele who played 9 minutes. Look at other teams around college basketball who played in tournaments where they play back to back games. Plenty of players play lots of minutes and still do fine, why is that our guys always look tired? Fact is we let a senior have the best game of his career because we didn't have anyone on the court who could defend him.

But yea...overall I agree our guards are killer and should be playing the most minutes. Just think we need to have a go to 2 big man lineup we feel confident with if we want to make it to the second weekend of the tournament.

UCF WILL BE A TOURNEY TEAM

I know this is a longshot, but are any Rhody fans going to be in Tuscaloosa? I'm making the trip from my current post in Mississippi. Would love to see a friendly Keaney face among the sea of Crimson...

For the record, Akele missed 1 layup during that game (shot 1-4 and missed 2 Jumpers). The criticism on him that's come across here is getting ridiculous.

Here are the breakdown of layups (per the Play-by-Play of the game on ESPN):

Akele: 1-2
Berry: 4-5
Dowtin: 1-4
Garrett: 2-3
Preston: 1-1
Robinson: 2-2
Russell: 0-1
Terrell: 2-4

Total: 13-22

Also, we looked tired because we had to go all out for 40 minutes in order to win the night before. We didn't have the luxury of opening up a huge lead and being able to more or less coast for more than half of the game. The Virigina game showed that, we were able to hang with them for half of the game before the fatigue set in - you could see it in our jump shots. Having to play a shorter rotation due to injury and push yourself for 40 minutes is going to show the next day when you play an opponent that had 1 player play more than 25 minutes - and that guy played 26 minutes (compared to us - where we had 4 guys play more that 25 minutes and 3 guys who played over 30 minutes).

Two games ago, I looked at the Brown, PC, Alabama part of the schedule and told myself I would be thrilled if they went 2-1. I still would, but it’s easy to start getting greedy. I’m interested to see how they do with Donta Hall. Sexton had a couple of highlight reel passes against UCF but was off otherwise. Maybe he was confused by how many teammates he had with him on the court.

Like I said I don't mind Akele getting about 10 minutes a game he plays within the framework of the team. They coach him up well

This is a huge game. We win, we continue to be perceived as being ranked between 20-30. And then we get EC back and a stretch of home games to enjoy. We lose, there will be a lot more pressure to sweep our remaining non-conference schedule and pressure to fill a resume gap of getting a quality road win whether it be at StB or VCU.

As of now this is the last game kenpom doesn't project us to win until the St. Bonaventure away game, a stretch of 16 straight he gives us the edge in

How the hell does kenpom only have us at 48th? We've dominated our easier games and played very well in our tough games, makes no sense to me.

The SEC Network on Cox is channel 1123. Guide has Loyola Chicago vs Florida on Wed. at 8:00.

Hurley Show wrote:The SEC Network on Cox is channel 1123. Guide has Loyola Chicago vs Florida on Wed. at 8:00.

Same listing on FIOS.