THE EARLY LINE URI VS UMASS

[luke]

The line has opened at URI - 9 1/2 . could be a bit low but after the last game and at home at that
it's time to be careful . Sit it out and just hope for the streak to continue no matter what the score is.

[Rhodymob05]

I thought -18 was too high considering DU is a solid squad. I can see this being low, to be honest.

[reef]

Agree with Mob I was on Duquesne plus points but at -9.5 at UNass there should be value on the Rhody Rams

[ramster]

After the Duquesne debacle I just want a win. I’m nervous about every game

[Blue Man]

After the Duquesne debacle I just want a win. I’m nervous about every game

Tough to call a win a debacle...

[wpbrown8267]

After the Duquesne debacle I just want a win. I’m nervous about every game

Tough to call a win a debacle...

Agree, they gutted that one out with a good dukes team. I was impressed not with the 1st half performance, but the composure and poise this team showed coming back from 15 and making quick adjustments.

Gives me more confidence in this team!

[rhodyrudder]

UMass is f'n TERRIBLE!!!!!!!

Course I predicted a 40-pt game Saturday...

But UMass couldn't beat some HS teams.

[TruePoint]

After the Duquesne debacle I just want a win. I’m nervous about every game

Tough to call a win a debacle...

Agree, although I guess if you put a grand on it I could see how you'd regard it as a debacle.

[Shinze88]

UMass is f'n TERRIBLE!!!!!!!

Course I predicted a 40-pt game Saturday...

But UMass couldn't beat some HS teams.

thats not true, they easily beat pc back in December

[ramster]

After the Duquesne debacle I just want a win. I’m nervous about every game

Tough to call a win a debacle...

Agree, although I guess if you put a grand on it I could see how you'd regard it as a debacle.

An 18 point favorite, and we easily could have lost that game.
18 point is in prohibitive favorite territory, no way was it even supposed to be close and it was flip a coin for a loss in the final minutes.
15 points down in the 2nd half when you are favored by 18 is a 33 point spread so sugar coat it all you want - I can assure you Hurley isn't sugar coating it.
and no I did not bet URI. and TP I never, ever thought Duquesne was one of the 3 worst teams that were on our schedule this year as you thought.

This was as close to a disaster, Fordham type loss as they come, on our home court, sold out arena, was not good at all.

Thanks to EC, Garrett and late heroics by Dowtin and Robinson but the big men rebounding production was terrible or add a softer, kinder word for it if you like

I'll stick with debacle and we lucked out

[rambone 78]

ramster as usual with the accurate description of that game.....

If we repeat that effort in any of our remaining games, we probably won't be talking about a win. We are still not a great standing still shooting team, and when we don't get turnovers and easy baskets, we will struggle. We have to be aggressive on both ends, for 40 minutes not 10 or so.

Now I'm not doomsdaying things...I expect better performances going forward.

[theblueram]

Cmon Ramster, we covered the spread. We spotted them 15 and beat them by 3.

[ramster]

I said it before but many posters are quick to criticize EC and rarely say anything negative about Terrell. But Terrell did not have a good game.
I read how Langevine was a monster in the 2nd half. Monster? He had 3 rebounds and 2 points in 24 minutes. The other 16 minutes at Center Berry had 2 rebounds. That's 5 total rebounds in 40 minutes from the only Big Man Position. Sorry, I did not see Langevine having a "monster" game.

My fear this year was that missing Martin and Iverson would be very tough to replace. This game against Duquesne did not help those fears.

Last February I was telling all on Jim Baron 2.0 you had to let the season play out before saying Hurley was a failure and that maybe those early season losses would come back and help. I was one of few optimists in a sea of hangmen out for Hurley.

Just think you have to call the Duquesne game like it was and not write it off

Someone predicted a 40 point win
TP said it was one of the 3 worst teams we play
We were favored by 18
Duquesne was picked last in preseason A10 Coaches Poll
Duquesne starts 2 Freshmen - we start 4 Seniors
Sold Out Crowd
We got outrebounded by 12!!!

Favored by 18 - down by 15 - squeaked by what would have been a disaster home loss

Debacle

Huge, huge, huge wake up call

And it was far more than "the shots just were not falling" as some want to say. There was a lot wrong Saturday. Tuesday night we turn it back around.

[theblueram]

Last February I was telling all on Jim Baron 2.0 you had to let the season play out before saying Hurley was a failure and that maybe those early season losses would come back and help. I was one of few optimists in a sea of hangmen out for Hurley.

I wonder what the Indiana and Texas boards look like right now.

[Rammgr]

I wouldn't call Langevine's game a monster but he did do a good job defensively in the 2nd half. He's much quicker than Andre & able to hedge & get back to his man & protect the basket much better. He just was a better fit for this game. He did alter some shots so he did more on defense than just rebound.

[rambone 78]

Duquesne was able to game plan us well enough to slow us down and take us out of the way we like to play....for 25 minutes at least.

Dan then made what turned out to be the call of the game by putting our 2 small but very quick guards [JG and Fatts] in the game, and they were able to speed the game up....which Dambront admitted turned the tide against his team.

Up to that point we stood around and watched while guys dribbled around....and we also weren't as aggressive on D as we usually are.

And add to that, when the shots aren't falling, that's a blueprint on how to beat us.

Really for the first time this season, we've played like that for that long a stretch imo.

Fortunately, I don't see a team other than maybe Davidson, that might want to play us that way going forward....

[luke]

The spread has increased to URI - 10 1/2 . I have to agree with about everything said by Ramster and Rambone and others.
Poor shooting, poor passing, poor rebounding. other than that , they played great AND NO I AM NOT SERIOUS. They have to
play better or they will be accumulating a string of Ls after having won 12 in a row.

[reef]

I just saw 10.5 and expect tomorrow it won't move too much off that maybe by half point

[Blue Man]

Tough to call a win a debacle...

Agree, although I guess if you put a grand on it I could see how you'd regard it as a debacle.

An 18 point favorite, and we easily could have lost that game.
18 point is in prohibitive favorite territory, no way was it even supposed to be close and it was flip a coin for a loss in the final minutes.
15 points down in the 2nd half when you are favored by 18 is a 33 point spread so sugar coat it all you want - I can assure you Hurley isn't sugar coating it.
and no I did not bet URI. and TP I never, ever thought Duquesne was one of the 3 worst teams that were on our schedule this year as you thought.

This was as close to a disaster, Fordham type loss as they come, on our home court, sold out arena, was not good at all.

Thanks to EC, Garrett and late heroics by Dowtin and Robinson but the big men rebounding production was terrible or add a softer, kinder word for it if you like

I'll stick with debacle and we lucked out

OK I guess you could look at it that way...

Or, you could join the rest of the college basketball world in understanding that those types of games happen, and the difference between good teams and great teams is winning these type of games.

Did you mourn last years Super Bowl win because they got down 25? Or did you celebrate having the stones to make the come back?

Lucky my ass. Luck doesn't win games you're down 15 midway through the second half. Great basketball does.

[Rhodymob05]

Yea we closed out the game after chipping away the entire second half. Defensive stops rebounds and a well-executed last-second shot. No luck there.

[URIGONZO]

Line down to 9.5 - consider the Gonzo Loooooong Rhody!!!

[ramster]

Agree, although I guess if you put a grand on it I could see how you'd regard it as a debacle.

An 18 point favorite, and we easily could have lost that game.
18 point is in prohibitive favorite territory, no way was it even supposed to be close and it was flip a coin for a loss in the final minutes.
15 points down in the 2nd half when you are favored by 18 is a 33 point spread so sugar coat it all you want - I can assure you Hurley isn't sugar coating it.
and no I did not bet URI. and TP I never, ever thought Duquesne was one of the 3 worst teams that were on our schedule this year as you thought.

This was as close to a disaster, Fordham type loss as they come, on our home court, sold out arena, was not good at all.

Thanks to EC, Garrett and late heroics by Dowtin and Robinson but the big men rebounding production was terrible or add a softer, kinder word for it if you like

I'll stick with debacle and we lucked out

OK I guess you could look at it that way...

Or, you could join the rest of the college basketball world in understanding that those types of games happen, and the difference between good teams and great teams is winning these type of games.

Did you mourn last years Super Bowl win because they got down 25? Or did you celebrate having the stones to make the come back?

Lucky my ass. Luck doesn't win games you're down 15 midway through the second half. Great basketball does.

Blueman,

You are right, we played great basketball for 15 minutes, not good basketball for 25. We were lucky (or I will change the word to fortunate) that our 15 minutes of great basketball offset the 25 minutes of not so great.

1 more made basket by Duquesne or 1 less by URI and we lose. Castro hits both FTs at the end instead of missing the 2nd (and a 74% FT Shooter) then URI is playing a point behind instead of a less pressure situation where if they miss they go to OT.

This was our worst played game of the year, I can't think of one worse. Poor rebounding losing boards by 12, less aggressive defense than we have displayed most of the year, lost some of the unselfishness that we have been playing with..................

We need to play great basketball for 40 minutes if we are to achieve our goals - not 15 - that is the point.

I know you don't like anyone saying anything negative but read Disano's article, he doesn't sugar coat it. I was hoping to see the work "Lucky" in the article somewhere

https://www.yurview.com/sports/ncaa-bas ... ck-top-25/

[Rhody74]

Luck is something you have no control over. URI played shitty for 25 minutes and great for 15. We had control over both of them.

[RhowdyRam02]

Yes and if we hit one more bucket along the way and they have one more miss along the way we don't need a buzzer beater. Who cares about if?

[Dre3000]

An 18 point favorite, and we easily could have lost that game.
18 point is in prohibitive favorite territory, no way was it even supposed to be close and it was flip a coin for a loss in the final minutes.
15 points down in the 2nd half when you are favored by 18 is a 33 point spread so sugar coat it all you want - I can assure you Hurley isn't sugar coating it.
and no I did not bet URI. and TP I never, ever thought Duquesne was one of the 3 worst teams that were on our schedule this year as you thought.

This was as close to a disaster, Fordham type loss as they come, on our home court, sold out arena, was not good at all.

Thanks to EC, Garrett and late heroics by Dowtin and Robinson but the big men rebounding production was terrible or add a softer, kinder word for it if you like

I'll stick with debacle and we lucked out

OK I guess you could look at it that way...

Or, you could join the rest of the college basketball world in understanding that those types of games happen, and the difference between good teams and great teams is winning these type of games.

Did you mourn last years Super Bowl win because they got down 25? Or did you celebrate having the stones to make the come back?

Lucky my ass. Luck doesn't win games you're down 15 midway through the second half. Great basketball does.

Blueman,

You are right, we played great basketball for 15 minutes, not good basketball for 25. We were lucky (or I will change the word to fortunate) that our 15 minutes of great basketball offset the 25 minutes of not so great.

1 more made basket by Duquesne or 1 less by URI and we lose. Castro hits both FTs at the end instead of missing the 2nd (and a 74% FT Shooter) then URI is playing a point behind instead of a less pressure situation where if they miss they go to OT.

This was our worst played game of the year, I can't think of one worse. Poor rebounding losing boards by 12, less aggressive defense than we have displayed most of the year, lost some of the unselfishness that we have been playing with..................

We need to play great basketball for 40 minutes if we are to achieve our goals - not 15 - that is the point.

I know you don't like anyone saying anything negative but read Disano's article, he doesn't sugar coat it. I was hoping to see the work "Lucky" in the article somewhere

https://www.yurview.com/sports/ncaa-bas ... ck-top-25/

One thing I think is getting overstated is that Duquesne played better than us for 25 minutes. This just simply isn't true. I know coach said this but I disagree. We played better than Duquesne the first 4 and last 4 minutes of the first half. 4 minutes into the game they had a 1 point lead after banking in a 3 pt prayer at the end of a shot clock. Our last 4 minutes of the half chipped away at their lead going into the break. I think at best it was 20 minutes to 20 minutes but it surely wasn't 25 minutes that they were better than us imo.

[URI'21]

I agree with ramster here. It's great to celebrate an awesome comeback but Hurley focusing on the team's shortcomings will go a lot farther in preparing for future games. Praising them for 20 minutes of solid basketball won't improve us much

[ramster]

I’ll give on 20 minutes.

But that is still at least 10 more than an 18 point underdog, playing on the road, with 2 freshmen starters vs a Top 25 team with 4 senior starters and a sophomore who plays like a 5th year, in a sold arena should.

“Near accidents are warnings” as the old saying goes and this was a near accident

Just calling that game like a saw it. I broke my rose colored glasses in a pick up game that afternoon.

[TruePoint]

These kind of arguments drive me nuts. Yes, everyone knows that if we play a big game the way we played the first 25 minutes of the Duquesne game we will likely lose. If we play that way in a tournament game, it will end the season. But as many people have said many times, these types of games will happen - at least once, likely more - over the course of the season. The fact that when the time came (1) they were good enough to pull out of the tailspin and still win and (2) they actually did it are important data points for the season. Acknowledging that isn't the same as arguing that "hey we only have to play that well the rest of the season obviously, because we won!" Literally not one person is saying that. If you're going to throw up a clunker every once in a while no matter what, it's nice to still be able to win that game.

[ramster]

TP,
Everything you say is all obvious, there is not debating any of that.

My comments were about my observations in the game, 2 examples.

I was concerned about the rebounding with only 5 in 40 minutes from our two big men. But I feel like I am not supposed to have any concerns from some people here because we won and that is all that counts. So tonight? Berry gets only 4 rebounds in 21 minutes, Langevine only 1 rebound in 18 minutes. Makes be very concerned going into VCU and Tillman.

I was concerned about Terrell taking bad shots in that game. Read Chris Disano who basically echos for that particular game. Tonight Hurley was right in JTs face twice and put him on the Bench. Love that about Hurley.

I'll not say we were lucky or fortunate about the win tonight because I am not supposed to - but for the record Steve and Don did say that after the game tonight - and just wanted to get the car started up asap and get out of town.

But we won. All that counts.