Poll: How have the Rams met your pre-season expectations?

[RhodyRam2011]

The fact that you can't have a negative opinion on this board and without getting crushed for it is mind blowing.

[ace]

Re: The Xs and Os, I think Hurley is too limited by the roster to accurately judge him on this. Look at it this way - He doesn't have anyone who's a natural 3-point shooter (Munford and Malesevic and Malone can hit 3s, but they aren't like Jimmy Baron or Kyle Korver out there). Mike Aaman is the only player who even has post moves, but he's limited by his size; Hare and Brooks can't play with their backs to the basket. They basically have to run a motion-based offense all the time because they don't have good post options, and they also don't have enough players who can stretch the floor. Beyond the 3-point issue, at any given time there are only 2 to 4 players on the floor who can hit a long range jumper - Munford, Malesevic, Malone, Powell, maybe Buchanan; Hare, Brooks, Aaman and Bigby can't really shoot from more than 10 feet out even if you leave them wide open.

This also leads to limitations on the defensive end. The Rams can kind of play a pressing defense, except that they need to be mindful of Powell and Munford and Malone's fatigue levels - all three guys are already playing 35+ minutes per game as is. If the other team has any decent post option at all, they can normally bully Hare, and while Aaman can body guys, he reaches and hacks a lot, and probably can't play more than 25 minutes per game because of fouls. Malone and Munford are good on-ball defenders most of the time, and Bigby is pretty good too, but because the aforementioned guys are pretty much the whole offense, I think they do have to take possessions off on defense from time to time.

I'm not really sure what the answer is with the Rams' roster as its currently made up. They could give more time to Buchanan, and they did at the expense of Malesevic on Saturday, but if you make him the primary point his TOs probably skyrocket. Powell does seem to be pressing again, but I think it's more of a well-intentioned "we need to score and I need to press things" issue as opposed to him willfully disobeying his instructions from the coaching staff. And, as Hurley pointed out, if they had a bit of a deeper bench he would be yanked each time he did that, which I imagine will happen next year and serve as a helpful "reminder" of his duties as a point guard.

But other than that, things are great! In all seriousness, this should be required reading. In a season this bad, everything should be up for rational criticism, but you can't look at the parts in isolation.

[ramster]

14% say above expectations and 58% say met = total of 72% satisfied or above

Looking back at the Prediction Contest of 85 Submissions:
- Average Win Prediction was 12.1 - we could easily end up with half that total at 6 wins
- 61 of 85 predicted Rhody would be IN the A10 Post Season Tournament - only 24 said no
- 2 Posters predicted 7 wins, 1 predicted 6 wins, 1 with 5 wins and 1 with 4 wins

So we will likely end up winning half of the average predicted wins of 12, will not make the A10 Tournament (which 72% predicted we would make) and yet only 28% are not satisfied with their original expectations? Seems odd.

Some posters said prior to the season that our players were very talented, just suffering from Baronball Coaching......many said last year to just watch what these guys do with real coaching. Bottom line - the loss of Billy Baron and Jonathan Holton hurt this team a lot - they were the two best players on the team............even Hurley could not overcome that amount of talent drain.

It's been a tough year to watch. Slow down basketball, usually running the 35 second clock down to 1 second or not getting a shot off at all, ineffective rebounding, below average passing, below average outside shooting. Effort has been good, strong focus on defense, good to see enthusiastic Coaching and energy from the guys sitting on the bench - including the 4 transfers. Good morale on the Bench despite the disappointing 6 wins. But to be honest, attending all games this year and last, I enjoyed the run and gun games last year more with Billy and Jonathan. Last year's team was more talented than this team in my opinion - have to hand it to the Coaching staff to achieve 6 victories this year but it has been difficult to watch. UMASS was a disaster and the loss to the Bonnies was frustrating to say the least.

I wouldn't want to go back to Baron by any means, but this season has been tough to watch for me. I don't see a win in the remaining bunch.

Remaining Games -
Dayton 3-6
@ Duquesne 0-9
Xavier
LaSalle
@ Temple 5-4
@ St Joes 4-5
UMASS

Still a chance?
Uri has to beat dayton. Fordham, Dayton and Duquesne then finish behind uri. Somebody from among Richmond, st joes, Bonnie's, who are all 4-5 right now must falter. Good news is uri plays st joes.
Could uri put together some wins in the last 7 games???

Bonnie's game really hurt us - was a great opportunity for a win at home. Can the hurley's pll it off? Dayton is big.

[rodfromcranston]

We will beat Dayton Wednesday night.
You heard it here first.

[reef]

If Rod is calling it I am putting my money on it !!!

[ramfan85]

They should pass out pictures and bobbleheads of Marques Jones before the game. That could rattle Dayton.

[sf2010]

They should pass out pictures and bobbleheads of Marques Jones before the game. That could rattle Dayton.

Haha '85, love it!

One of my favorite memories at the RC is Marquis hitting that blind layup at the buzzer

[Blue Man]

I don't think it's fair for anyone to have had expectations tied to a W/L record this year.

We lost the top 3 scorers on a 7 win team with no coaching. The new staff had to uncoach all the bad the existing players had picked up. He had the barest of cupboards, and still made players on this roster play with heart and at a level i dont think any of them even knew they had...let alone us.

Like I predicted 16 wins this year...only because i can't predict a losing season for any URI team...but I have seen enough consistency, effort, and development with what was inherited to call this season a resounding success by my standards.

Obviously these standards and the ones of the coaching staff differ entirely. Which is why i LOVE where we're going.

[rambone 78]

Agree with most all points made here.

Just wish this team could have pulled out a few of the close ones, against teams that we're close to in talent.

I expect we'll win a lot more of the close ones next year, at all levels.