KeaneyBlue - The URI Basketball Forum

As Week #12 begins, URI gets into both national polls!! The Rams get #24 in the AP Top 25 Poll and #23 position in the USA Today Coaches Poll. Virginia retains the #2 in both polls. With twin losses last week, Seton Hall drops out of the Top 25. Nevada gets back into the AP poll with the #23 slot, just ahead of URI, but Nevada not ranked in the USA Today poll. Getting other votes in AP poll are Seton Hall with 25 votes and PC with two. In the USA Today other votes category, Nevada gets 90 votes, Seton Hall gets 55, PC gets 7, and Alabama gets 6 votes.

Villanova remains the #1 leader in both polls.

Note: A review of URI OOC opponents performance season to date will appear in a separate post.

The key ratings for URI at the start of Week #12 are:

RPI - 10 up four. The expected RPI is 14.
BPI - 29, up seven.
Sagarin - 32, up seven.
Pomeroy - 30, up nine.



No Monday action in the A-10.

Only one game among URI OOC opponents:

Holy Cross at American U. 7 PM. On CBSSN.

The cumulative won-lost records of URI OOC opponents now stands at 142-73, 0.660, a nice increase over previous week. Here is a brief synopsis of where each of URI's OOC opponents stands season to date. My prediction is that six of the eleven OOC opponents will make the NCAAT. What do others think?

From the "you never know" dept....I know some people who thought AB would never ever be the player and contributor that Holloway would be...
(confession...I was one of those people)

As a Div 1 athlete, with all the resources around you and all the chaperoning that goes on, it takes hard work to become ineligible 2nd semester. You almost never see that.

[quote="Obadiah"]The cumulative won-lost records of URI OOC opponents now stands at 142-73, 0.660, a nice increase over previous week. Here is a brief synopsis of where each of URI's OOC opponents stands season to date. My prediction is that six of the eleven OOC opponents will make the NCAAT. What do others think?


Locks: Virginia
Would have to totally screw up: Nevada, Seton Hall
In for now: Providence, Alabama

The rest are toss ups. FGCU, UNCA, Charlestown and Iona are all capable of winning conference tourneys. I think FGCU gets it done and Iona exerts some revenge and takes out Caniscius in the final.

Are we allowed to root for providence to win some games to boost our RPI, but to not get into the NCAA's? Asking for a friend.

Ramulous wrote:Are we allowed to root for providence to win some games to boost our RPI, but to not get into the NCAA's? Asking for a friend.

Tell your friend No!
And isn't it nice to be in the Top 25 and be the only school from New England represented?

Holy Cross gets a nice road win at American, 60-57, and with the victory escapes the Patriot cellar.

Obadiah wrote:Holy Cross gets a nice road win at American, 60-57, and with the victory escapes the Patriot cellar.

This win has momentarily pushed URI's RPI to #9 as it jumped over Purdue.

The road in CBB can be brutal as seen tonight as #10 North Carolina fell at Virginia Tech, 80-69. Tech led by a nice margin most of the game.

Obadiah wrote:The road in CBB can be brutal as seen tonight as #10 North Carolina fell at Virginia Tech, 80-69. Tech led by a nice margin most of the game.

I agree and that’s why you can never take any team lightly.... including Fordham. I’m thrilled with what this team has done thus far.

Most losses for Top 10 teams so far this year at this time of season

Tuesday action in the A-10:

Davidson at Dayton. 7 PM. On CBSSN.

VCU at Saint Louis. 9 PM. On CBSSN.


In games involving URI OOC opponents:

PC at #1 Villanova at the Wells Fargo Center. 6:30 PM. On FS1, CBSSN.

#18 Clemson at #2 Virginia. 7 PM. On ACCNE.

Alabama at Ole Miss. 8:30 PM. On SECN.

I’m flipping between the Davidson-Dayton and PC-Nova games. Davidson could be a tough matchup. They have big 6’11” dude with some moves that could give us problems.

steviep123 wrote:I’m flipping between the Davidson-Dayton and PC-Nova games. Davidson could be a tough matchup. They have big 6’11” dude with some moves that could give us problems.

Doing the same over here. Can't decide whats better for us in the A10 game. Since we already beat Dayton I am kind of thinking I want them to get some good wins.

Friazzz were up 24-15 with under 8 minutes in half and got outscored 24-6 to be down 39-30 at the half.

Would LOVE to see PC upset Villanova....but, dang...'nova plays the same D at (and above) the rim that Rhody plays on the perimeter...brutal

Aldridge vs Cunningham is pretty fun to watch

I decided to multi task. Go Dayton/Davidson on tv and PC/Nova on iPad

Friazzz lose 89-69 to Villanova.

reality check for Davidson tonight...Dayton is down, but they arent a scrub like Davidson has played so far

Breaking news....Villanova is good. Avoid 2nd round matchup with them lol.....

Dayton scoreless in the last 6 minutes...on verge of choking the game away.

Dayton up 2 with 32.6 secs. Get to CBSSportsNet!

god damn, Virginia with a textbook lockdown.

Held #18 Clemson to 36 points for the game, and only 13 points total in the 2nd half. Unreal

Dayton survives 65-64.

2 game lead now.....

Total beatdown on the friars

Dayton committed 6 turnovers, a marked contrast to the Flyers' game with URI when they made 21. Davidson had 9 turnovers, so when URI plays Davidson the Rams' defensive effort has to stymie Davidson into 17+ TO's while keeping Alridge somewhat in check and not allow other Davidson players to take up the slack.

rambone 78 wrote:2 game lead now.....

That's why I was hoping Dayton would win, I wanted a little extra cushion

Good results for URI so far. Don't know that it matter THAT much for us, but probably a little better for us if VCU were to beat SLU, but I still kind of want to see SLU do well. I think they're better than they were early and may be starting to find their sea legs. Would be great if Bama could get a road win, but at the risk of being repetitive: road conference games are hard.

VCU is a disappointment. Their roster isn’t bad by any means in a traditional A10. Just no playmaker at any level. Tillman has had some impressive stats this year but he’s not making that team better. I wonder what the reasons are down there that they are flying so low.

Aldridge is so good, just a joy to watch.

TruePoint wrote:Good results for URI so far. Don't know that it matter THAT much for us, but probably a little better for us if VCU were to beat SLU, but I still kind of want to see SLU do well. I think they're better than they were early and may be starting to find their sea legs. Would be great if Bama could get a road win, but at the risk of being repetitive: road conference games are hard.

Watching this game I’m thinking slu is finding their way toward defending their home court. I think that is the first step in the direction of being good.

RhowdyRam02 wrote:

rambone 78 wrote:2 game lead now.....

That's why I was hoping Dayton would win, I wanted a little extra cushion

It's also a good measuring stick for us for our psychological well being (our fans always need that!), because maybe seeing Dayton beat Davidson at home right after having gone in there and ran the Flyers off their floor will ease whatever anxiety over Davidson that I see people talking themselves into here.

I figured Dayton would win at home

I hope we don't get in Nova bracket they are excellent

Da_Process_Survivor wrote:god damn, Virginia with a textbook lockdown.

Held #18 Clemson to 36 points for the game, and only 13 points total in the 2nd half. Unreal

Incredible

Rhodymob05 wrote:

Da_Process_Survivor wrote:god damn, Virginia with a textbook lockdown.

Held #18 Clemson to 36 points for the game, and only 13 points total in the 2nd half. Unreal

Incredible

But consider it was a disastrous Saturday for Clemson
Donte Grantham, averaging 14 points and 7 rebounds tore his ACL vs Notre Dame and is out for the season
Zion Williamson, #2 ESPN, who many thought was heading to Clemson next year, surprised and announced Duke on Saturday night. Of course did not matter for the Virginia game but it was a downer for Tiger Fans

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/n ... 109687130/

VCU drains a 3 with 3.9 secs left to send their game vs. Saint Louis to OT

Alabama had its four game winning streak ended by Ole Miss, 78-68. Another road loss casts a pall over Alabama's chances to get an at large NCAAT invite!

Trailing most of the game at Saint Louis, VCU gets a tie with three minutes left and then in a cat and mouse tactics centered on fouls, VCU put in a three point shot with 3 seconds left to tie game at 61. Now in overtime.

Incredible comeback by VCU to beat Saint Louis in OT, 75-74. Tough loss for an upcoming Billikens team.

Dayton won but I thought it was a terrible coaching performance by Anthony Grant. I dvred the game and just finished watching it. Davidson played a zone for virtually the entire second half and Dayton could not get the ball to Cunningham down low for the last 15 minutes or so of the game. He had a great first half but did nothing in the second because he did not see the ball. It makes you wonder if Dayton had ever seen a zone before.

Also, Peyton Aldrich was unstoppable in the second half when he got the ball down low. Grant refused to double team him and he was able to make 6 or 7 short shots (almost lay ups) that were basically uncontested.

I would grade Grant's peformance as a C-.

I had been thinking, of all the possible 1 seeds, I'd rather play Virginia before any of the others. Not so sure I feel the same way.... their defense has been so good. It almost looks like they're psychic on defense sometimes.

I still think we match up pretty well with them. Especially with Cyril and EC playing, but they are like textbook.

I think we don't match up too horrible with Nova either.

Duke would probably worry me the most. Bagley and Duvall are stupid good. Them going off and Grayson Allen is a recipe for a tough loss.

Either way, screw all them. If we play any of those teams we will be up for it and they won't have it easy with us.

PeterRamTime wrote:I had been thinking, of all the possible 1 seeds, I'd rather play Virginia before any of the others. Not so sure I feel the same way.... their defense has been so good. It almost looks like they're psychic on defense sometimes.

I still think we match up pretty well with them. Especially with Cyril and EC playing, but they are like textbook.

I think we don't match up too horrible with Nova either.

Duke would probably worry me the most. Bagley and Duvall are stupid good. Them going off and Grayson Allen is a recipe for a tough loss.

Either way, screw all them. If we play any of those teams we will be up for it and they won't have it easy with us.

Duke looks really good but they also start four freshman. Experienced teams always seem to do well in the tournament so I think I'd rather take my chances playing a young team like Duke than a more experienced team like Virginia.

Wednesday action in the A-10 besides #24 URI at Fordham. 7 PM. OnFacebook/Stadium:

Richmond at Duquesne. 7 PM.

Saint Joseph's at St. Bonaventure. 7 PM. On CBSSN.

UMass at La Salle. 7 PM.



In games involving URI OOC opponents:

Florida Gulf Coast at North Florida. 7 PM. On ESPN3.

Gardner-Webb at UNC Asheville. 7 PM.

#23 Nevada at Wyoming. 11 PM. On ESPNU. Dangerous game for Nevada since Wyoming has already beaten Boise State on their home court and would like nothing more than to knock off a ranked team.

big loss for the #1 cats

"Villanova announces Phil Booth out indefinitely with fractured bone in hand. Big blow to the Cats, who aren't very deep to start with, and to Booth, who missed all of last year with tendinitis."

josephski wrote:

PeterRamTime wrote:I had been thinking, of all the possible 1 seeds, I'd rather play Virginia before any of the others. Not so sure I feel the same way.... their defense has been so good. It almost looks like they're psychic on defense sometimes.

I still think we match up pretty well with them. Especially with Cyril and EC playing, but they are like textbook.

I think we don't match up too horrible with Nova either.

Duke would probably worry me the most. Bagley and Duvall are stupid good. Them going off and Grayson Allen is a recipe for a tough loss.

Either way, screw all them. If we play any of those teams we will be up for it and they won't have it easy with us.

Duke looks really good but they also start four freshman. Experienced teams always seem to do well in the tournament so I think I'd rather take my chances playing a young team like Duke than a more experienced team like Virginia.

I think we're getting juuuuuust a bit ahead of ourselves.

Every team in the tournament is good. If you want to go far you have to beat a good team. Even the "bad" teams or the teams you think you can cakewalk over can beat you. That's the beauty of the tourney.

Lets worry about beating the piss out of Fordham and Duquesne this week.

Blue Man wrote:

josephski wrote:

PeterRamTime wrote:I had been thinking, of all the possible 1 seeds, I'd rather play Virginia before any of the others. Not so sure I feel the same way.... their defense has been so good. It almost looks like they're psychic on defense sometimes.

I still think we match up pretty well with them. Especially with Cyril and EC playing, but they are like textbook.

I think we don't match up too horrible with Nova either.

Duke would probably worry me the most. Bagley and Duvall are stupid good. Them going off and Grayson Allen is a recipe for a tough loss.

Either way, screw all them. If we play any of those teams we will be up for it and they won't have it easy with us.

Duke looks really good but they also start four freshman. Experienced teams always seem to do well in the tournament so I think I'd rather take my chances playing a young team like Duke than a more experienced team like Virginia.

I think we're getting juuuuuust a bit ahead of ourselves.

Every team in the tournament is good. If you want to go far you have to beat a good team. Even the "bad" teams or the teams you think you can cakewalk over can beat you. That's the beauty of the tourney.

Lets worry about beating the piss out of Fordham and Duquesne this week.

Right, I guess in general I'd rather play a young team, whether it's the first round or sweet sixteen. With all of our seniors that gives us a huge advantage over a lot of teams.

The Rams are in midst of a critical five game span - two away games bookending the Duquesne home game - and we passed the first test at Dayton, so now we're talking about who we are going to play in the second round of the NCAAT!! Pleeeezzz. Talk about getting ahead of oneself.