Game #1 - vs. Pace - Friday, Nov. 14, 7pm

rodfromcranston · Unread post by **rodfromcranston** » 9 years ago

Just back from the game.
I'll say what I saw, and then go back and read everyone's comments.
Now, taking into account who our opponents were:
We are a very athletic team this year. Quickness on defense and
the ability to move the ball on offense,
There's depth here, too.
Let me tell you, Jarvis Garrett is going to be starting BEFORE the A-10
season begins.
He is a terrific passer and ball handler. Made a couple of nifty drives to the hoop,
I don't think he had a turnover. His shot was a bit off, but his form is good.
Terrell is going to be a beast! That coast to coast run ending in a missed dunk,
was brilliant, except the finish. He plays with emotion.
Martin looked great, except for the four fouls.
Gil look slimmer and quicker than last year.
Picked up three quick fouls in the secondf half after zero in the first.
Butler seems greatly improved in all areas.
Watson! He can run! He can jump! He moves his feet on defense.
I like what I saw.
EC had an off night. Unforced turnovers plagued him.
Iffy, looks like he did after the Maine game.
Reischel is not a D-1 player, no matter how much Bill Koch likes him.
He should not be playing minutes over any of the guys on this team,
except the walk-ons.
TJ guiding the newbies, and hustling as always.
Biggie also has slimmed down, and looks like he may be at the very least,
a serviceable point guard.
At one point Biggie and Jarvis were in at the same time and they looked good together.
I had just come from a good friend's wake, and the game gave me a needed
lift.
Maybe we have the pieces for success here. Tiime will tell.
The New lights and scoreboard look great. Only drawback is, they removed the
clock. I didn't have a watch, and had no idea what time it was. (not that it mattered)
I caught a parachute and gave it to the woman with three kids sitting in front of me.
Oh, and they now have wood grilled pizza, Dunkin Donuts, and some other things I didn't explore yet.
Nice!

Billyboy78 · Unread post by **Billyboy78** » 9 years ago

Dan said it was a good game for some of the kids to get rid of the jitters, and he said that some of them had them. Jarvis is a much better shooter than he showed tonight. He may have been feeling some of those jitters, although the other aspects of his game all looked really good.

Blue Man · Unread post by **Blue Man** » 9 years ago

Also...huge improvement...THE BAND. Loved em. New songs, good size, good sound. Excellent improvement. They sound as good as Jarrelle is bad

Taylor Swift · Unread post by **Taylor Swift** » 9 years ago

Huge improvement on the band!

PeterRamTime · Unread post by **PeterRamTime** » 9 years ago

I'm ready for Sunday already!

Sorry for your loss Rod. My condolences to you and everyone who knew your friend.

Iggy1979 · Unread post by **Iggy1979** » 9 years ago

Agree on the band and the improved concessions

rodfromcranston · Unread post by **rodfromcranston** » 9 years ago

Thanks, PeterRamTime.
Yes, the band was great! The students were into it, as were the
cheerleaders.
Was the Ram there?

twisted3829 · Unread post by **twisted3829** » 9 years ago

i saw him in a shot on he video, i think near the student section

Obadiah · Unread post by **Obadiah** » 9 years ago

The attendance for the Pace game just confirms the cost of bad scheduling. If I were a season ticket holder I would be pissed at having to buy this game. Attendance was 4210, one of the smallest opening game crowd, and some 1200 less that the opener with Maine last season drew. Chalk up a $25,000 loss.

Billyboy78 · Unread post by **Billyboy78** » 9 years ago

Obadiah wrote:The attendance for the Pace game just confirms the cost of bad scheduling. If I were a season ticket holder I would be pissed at having to buy this game. Attendance was 4210, one of the smallest opening game crowd, and some 1200 less that the opener with Maine last season drew. Chalk up a $25,000 loss.

I don't know why they don't open with Bryant. The attendance would obviously be boosted by kids coming down from Smithfield and fans of that program. We might be closer to 6000. I know Bryant would love to do it. Why won't we?

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 9 years ago

Dan now knows how tough it is to get decent opponents to come here.

He admits they are going to have to start work on schedules earlier, to avoid having this scenario happen again.

Although, we aren't the only school with the same problem.

Billyboy78 · Unread post by **Billyboy78** » 9 years ago

rambone 78 wrote:Dan now knows how tough it is to get decent opponents to come here.

He admits they are going to have to start work on schedules earlier, to avoid having this scenario happen again.

Although, we aren't the only school with the same problem.

I know scheduling is hard, but Bryant wants to play us. Why not Bryant instead of Pace?

Seawrightspostgame · Unread post by **Seawrightspostgame** » 9 years ago

DII team but we know our team at this point.

Some guys look a little better, others look the same, which is not good.

Newcomers are exciting.

I don't like that our style of play really will be the same as last year putting 1"big" on the floor at a time.

I think the guard heavy scoring from last year will be at the least the same, but I think a bit better with more guys contributing.

Long season! Look forward to this journey.

rodfromcranston · Unread post by **rodfromcranston** » 9 years ago

Some team last year won an NCAA championship playing one big and one forward
with three guards. UConn.
It can be done. We surely have talent at guard. More talent there
than at any time since I began following the program in 1962.

Ram1019 · Unread post by **Ram1019** » 9 years ago

I was extremely impressed with Garrett and I am willing to bet he will be starting pg before conf play. He was very smooth on the floor (actually reminded me of bryce cotton a little bit) and he really has true instincts. This kid is a natural talent and it's really obvious.

Biggie seemed much improved. Also curious to see how Watson compares to real competition. I guess that reallygoes for everyone...

Agree that Reischelle should get minimal minutes.

Terrell...well what more can I say?

The Dude · Unread post by **The Dude** » 9 years ago

Didn't take anything away from this game except:
A) I wish we had played a D1 team
B) Rhody beat down a D2 team
C) I came up with an original phrase for someone getting a beat down on twitter (occurred while walking to the game). I call it a "tweet down".

D) I like all the pretty lights

E) The future's so bright, I've got to wear shades

I'll save any kind of evaluation for Sunday.

ace · Unread post by **ace** » 9 years ago

“I just thought we had great spirit,” Hurley said. “The guys that we had there today, they’re easy to coach. They support each other. It’s a live bench. As a coach, that’s all you want.” -

See more at: http://www.providencejournal.com/sports ... G67AU.dpuf

Rhody72 · Unread post by **Rhody72** » 9 years ago

Another observation is that we are going to have trouble scoring against "every winning" D1 program. Discipline teams will not give us the transition offense we saw tonight, we have few outside scorers other than EC, and we lack inside players who can be set up to score in a half court offense.

My gold standard for a second year varsity player has always been Julius Erving as a junior at UMASS during the freshman ball era. Dr J knew when to take over a game. In the first half he made his teammates better and never forced offense. He took advantage of defenses that overplayed him with deadly passing. EC has to learn to do the same. EC looks like he wants to impress pro scouts with gaudy scoring statistics and athletic moves. Scouts in projecting him to the next level see right past statistics. EC is already on their radar, he will be recognized better for solid play at both ends - not his scoring statistics against a D2 team. The more EC can do to make his teammates better, the better he will do.

URI didn't need EC's offense against Pace, we will against better teams. From what I saw, Butler is our next best offensive threat after EC. The rest of the gang are transition scorers. Forcing URI to play Butler to protect EC will be a good winning strategy for opponents. Whatever better offense it might give URI will be offset by defense.

hrstrat57 · Unread post by **hrstrat57** » 9 years ago

Billyboy78 wrote:
Obadiah wrote:The attendance for the Pace game just confirms the cost of bad scheduling. If I were a season ticket holder I would be pissed at having to buy this game. Attendance was 4210, one of the smallest opening game crowd, and some 1200 less that the opener with Maine last season drew. Chalk up a $25,000 loss.
I don't know why they don't open with Bryant. The attendance would obviously be boosted by kids coming down from Smithfield and fans of that program. We might be closer to 6000. I know Bryant would love to do it. Why won't we?

Bryant should be on our schedule. In December...... Not the opener. We need a couple of cupcakes first.

gorhody89 · Unread post by **gorhody89** » 9 years ago

Most improved player to me was Butler, looked like he could be a nice player off the bench to provide instant offense...Most disappinting (other than Hare) was Richelle idk why bit I thought I was gonna see a nice jump to his game from last season...Also I knew Terelle was big and strong but wow seeing him in person, built like a mini lebron before lebron went vegan or whatever he did this year

Iggy1979 · Unread post by **Iggy1979** » 9 years ago

Hurley's quote on the team being easy to coach and supportive of each other was his comment on Hare. Good riddance

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 9 years ago

Yeah, Iggy. "The guys that are there" comment was an obvious final swipe at Hare.

I had a feeling that JH would have become a problem sitting on the bench.

Seawrightspostgame · Unread post by **Seawrightspostgame** » 9 years ago

Rod I love the guard play also. our big three of the two frosh plus EC are very exciting.

I also like TJ and Biggie, despite their limitations.

Dayton played a lot of guards in the tourney last year.

Seawrightspostgame · Unread post by **Seawrightspostgame** » 9 years ago

Another post! sorry!

I like that they have 2 games in 3 days, with the difficulty of scheduling its cool that they really can spread their legs on a lower opponent and then a little bump up two days later, then of course a week to work on that. I think that could be really beneficial.

Jordan Hare, wow benefit of the doubt all year and now this. I think wasting time is one of the biggest things kids dont get, and generally ppl dont get ever. To spend so much time toward something that you just walk away from without anything to show for it is just egregious.

rodfromcranston · Unread post by **rodfromcranston** » 9 years ago

And....'72 drops another floater into the toilet.
What the hell is your problem?

RoadyJay · Unread post by **RoadyJay** » 9 years ago

The "how much will we show"? question was answered last night. As Hurley said "very vanilla". We beat them by 40 without running ANY offensive sets. Our defensive pressure was limited to full court man on the inbound, pressuring the PG full court with the rest of the team dropping back once the ball was inbounded.

Likely to see more of the same tomorrow.

Save the goodies for Nebraska.

Billyboy78 · Unread post by **Billyboy78** » 9 years ago

RoadyJay wrote:The "how much will we show"? question was answered last night. As Hurley said "very vanilla". We beat them by 40 without running ANY offensive sets. Our defensive pressure was limited to full court man on the inbound, pressuring the PG full court with the rest of the team dropping back once the ball was inbounded.

Likely to see more of the same tomorrow.

Save the goodies for Nebraska.

I'll admit that I don't even know what Dan's type of pressure is, since we've never seen it. Is it a full court, trapping, cut off the outlets type of pressure, or is it a full court, man to man, get in your face type of pressure? Or is it a combination of both?

RoadyJay · Unread post by **RoadyJay** » 9 years ago

I believe you will see a variety of ways that we apply pressure depending on opponents strengths/weaknesses

neil · Unread post by **neil** » 9 years ago

Not much to add, great posts!
1. Starting Terrell sent me a message. He is definitely a prime time player. Great body, great athleticism, great enthusiasm on the court.
2. Bench was alive supporting the players on the court. Based on the competition between them, a good sign.
3. Nice to see the press. If DH continues this, minutes will probably be shared fairly evenly between the guards. Keep those fresh bodies on the court at all times.
4. Hare today, gone tomorrow (sorry about that) For people complaining about the lack of height, yes, Gil might be a soft 6-8,6-9, but Hassan plays a heck of a lot bigger than his numbers. This year, it's martin who needs to stay out of foul trouble more so than Gil.
5. Butler driving to the basket, wow, anmaybe he will continue to become a complete player, and not just a shooter.
6. Cool highlight - with about a minute left, Eric Y almost forced a jump ball with an opponent much bigger and stronger. Looked over at DH at he was applauding with enthusiasm.
7. Give Watson some more minutes.
8. DH will give Jarvis more minutes.
9. Loved TJ's leadership. It seemed like his seat on the bench was right next to the coaches.
10. Go Rhody!

Favor - Because of some family illness I won't be there tomorrow. Anyone know what SNY channel the game would be televised outside of Ct. Thanks, will definitely be back for my football/basketball double header next Saturday.

Rhode_Island_Red · Unread post by **Rhode_Island_Red** » 9 years ago

My $.02:
-- New sound system is great but too damn loud. I couldn't carry on a conversation with the person sitting next to me.
-- Pat Kennedy needs to see his colorist ASAP. Haven't seen roots like that since Alex Haley.

rodfromcranston · Unread post by **rodfromcranston** » 9 years ago

Agree. I was talking to someone three feet away before the game,
and I was missing half of what he was saying, because of the blasting noise.
Can't talk to anyone during timeouts, for the same reason.

Unread post by **TruePoint** » 9 years ago

I had the same complaints about the PA system volume at the beginning of last year, and I felt they improved it over the course of the season. It was the first game for the A/V people too, and they're working with a new system. I'd imagine it will get better.

SmartyBarrett · Unread post by **SmartyBarrett** » 9 years ago

Rhode_Island_Red wrote:-- Pat Kennedy needs to see his colorist ASAP. Haven't seen roots like that since Alex Haley.

+1

Seawrightspostgame · Unread post by **Seawrightspostgame** » 9 years ago

Also Pace inbounded the ball in the corner next to the defender on the ball, thats an easy trap. IDK if peer teams will make the same mistake but I bet if they do that will be a trap.

EZBuckets · Unread post by **EZBuckets** » 9 years ago

TruePoint wrote:I had the same complaints about the PA system volume at the beginning of last year, and I felt they improved it over the course of the season. It was the first game for the A/V people too, and they're working with a new system. I'd imagine it will get better.

Just to clarify...

The new video/tech upgrades have little impact on the PA system. The difference in quality is stemming from two cosmetic changes; 1. the sound engineer is now positioned in the stands rather than below the bleachers in the end-zone which provides a better position to monitor the audio and adjust accordingly. Also, the new padding on the wall below the main scoreboard has increased the acoustics in the RC tremendously.

Those changes contributed to the better overall sound quality of the PA and band that you heard last night.

Of course the volume level will certainly be tweaked as we move forward. But it's also important not to mistake the concept of "volume" with the fact that we have a much richer, fully realized sound system than ever before.

Rhody74 · Unread post by **Rhody74** » 9 years ago

EZBuckets, I know it wasn't your fault, but the Dunkin donuts shirt launch fiasco was one of the more entertaining fails that I've seen at any sporting event.

EZBuckets · Unread post by **EZBuckets** » 9 years ago

Rhody74 wrote:EZBuckets, I know it wasn't your fault, but the Dunkin donuts shirt launch fiasco was one of the more entertaining fails that I've seen at any sporting event.

It wasn't very funny at the time, but in retrospect it must have been an entertaining trainwreck for the fans.

In the chaos of preparing for Game 1, our all-rookie squad of interns overlooked the important step of taping the t-shirts which resulted in what we'll call the "Great Slingshot Disaster of 2014".

I assure you that the Dunkin' Donuts Minute of Mayhem will be back with a vengeance on Sunday complete with tightly wrapped + TAPED t-shirts bulleting across the RC in spectacular fashion.

Unread post by **SGreenwell** » 9 years ago

For games this year, I believe our sports editor is going to be doing post-game blogs: http://www.independentri.com/rhody_overtime/

Iggy1979 · Unread post by **Iggy1979** » 9 years ago

Neil's post reminded me that Hurley called over both Walk-ons when they were in and was coaching them. He coaches in his sleep, I'm guessing.

theblueram · Unread post by **theblueram** » 9 years ago

Iggy1979 wrote:Neil's post reminded me that Hurley called over both Walk-ons when they were in and was coaching them. He coaches in his sleep, I'm guessing.

I saw that and wondered what Dan was saying. Both guys were smiling after. Dan had a good time last night. He deserves it.

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