3/15 | Oklahoma Sooners | 12:15PM | CBS (NCAA 1st Rd.)

reef · Unread post by **reef** » 6 years ago

So is the team leaving tonight ???

PeteRI · Unread post by **PeteRI** » 6 years ago

URI'21 wrote:Can't wait for our rematch with Virginia in the championship

C'mon, man. I got us beating PC in the finals!

PeteRI · Unread post by **PeteRI** » 6 years ago

Justns11 wrote:I just got 2 full strip tickets on StubHub for rounds 1 and 2 (All sessions on 03/15 and 03/17) in section 116 for $99/each ($246 total with fees). I've just been refreshing the page all morning trying to get the cheapest tickets that show up. I missed out on some in 116 for $50 each about an hour ago.

It'd be great to be in section 103 for $100/pp/session, but after buying flights and the hotel for me and my wife I need to save as much $$ as I can.

Here's the page for those that are interested: https://www.stubhub.com/event/9860619?sort=price+asc

Well played sir! You and the Missus have a great time and bring us to the Sweet 16!!

ramfan85 · Unread post by **ramfan85** » 6 years ago

ElmCityRhody wrote:Jay Bilas and Jalen Rose love Oklahoma and how RHODY doesn’t know what they are in fir against trae young

EFF THEM

Jay Bilas picking a P5 team over a mid major? Who would ever have believed that?

Rhodymob05 · Unread post by **Rhodymob05** » 6 years ago

Jay is trash

RhodyRam86 · Unread post by **RhodyRam86** » 6 years ago

Bilas should be sent to an insane asylum. He is an absolute moron for not picking URI. How dare he!!!!!!

PeterRamTime · Unread post by **PeterRamTime** » 6 years ago

Hope the team here's that.

theblueram · Unread post by **theblueram** » 6 years ago

What's the over/under on charges Stan gets this game?

Unread post by **TruePoint** » 6 years ago

I'm working on my preview now and should have it up later tonight. There are a couple areas where I think we have a big advantage.

Rhody74 · Unread post by **Rhody74** » 6 years ago

Maybe this should be a separate thread but are there watch parties scheduled in southern RI, particularly the Westerly area?

Seawrightspostgame · Unread post by **Seawrightspostgame** » 6 years ago

Does TP scout games in between Cox and Moore? Might work.

Every time I hear Bilas call a game I think how awful a job he does. I prefer the commentator that has genuine enthusiasm for both teams and all players on the court. One guy does that best. I don't think Dakich calls a bad game.

theblueram · Unread post by **theblueram** » 6 years ago

All I know is I want to watch URI play on St Paddy's Day!!!!! In Newport again!!! This time with a win!!!!

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 6 years ago

The only thing that worries me about Thursday's game, is if the refs treat TY like the Second Coming and foul all of our guards out for daring to breathe on him.

You never know, really.

Get on him early, don't let him go off, and force him to force up bad shots which he will do if he gets frustrated. Then we win for fun.

Taylor Swift · Unread post by **Taylor Swift** » 6 years ago

Watching Fox Providence 10PM news. Yianni Kourakis confirmed Rhody took a bus out tonight. They're driving tonight, staying over somewhere, and then continuing out to Pittsburgh tomorrow.

steviep123 · Unread post by **steviep123** » 6 years ago

Got this email from the alumni association:

Rhody Returns to the Big Dance!

NCAA Championship Tournament Pregame Reception
Thursday, March 15, 2018 • 10 – 11:30 a.m.

Our Rams are back in the dance again! After finishing second in the A-10 Tournament with a 1-point loss to Davidson in the final round, they're looking to #BringTheRuckus to the Midwest Regionals of the NCAA Tournament. Rhody will play Oklahoma as the number 7 seed—the highest seed in program history—on Thursday, March 15 in Pittsburgh. Tip off is at 12:15 p.m. For game information, visit GoRhody.com.

URI is hosting a pregame reception at Buford's Kitchen, across from the PPG Paints Arena, and running a hospitality table at Doubletree by Hilton & Suites Pittsburgh Downtown. If you're going to the game, register now for the pregame reception and be sure to stop by the hospitality table to pick up your Rhody swag.

To receive text updates during the tournament, text RHODY to 760-670-3130.

Register Here

PeterRamTime · Unread post by **PeterRamTime** » 6 years ago

rambone 78 wrote:The only thing that worries me about Thursday's game, is if the refs treat TY like the Second Coming and foul all of our guards out for daring to breathe on him.

You never know, really.

Get on him early, don't let him go off, and force him to force up bad shots which he will do if he gets frustrated. Then we win for fun.

I could see him taking us off the dribble and drawing a lot of fouls because we are so aggressive.
I think Dowtin will be the best guarding him with his length and quickness. Dowtin fouls less than anyone else though. JG and Fatts in relief. Fatts will be really jacked up against him. We cannot give him any space because he will make you pay. May not be the worst thing if we make him go to the line a lot so he doesn't get in a rhythm.
The rest of the team is pretty skilled offensively, so they can hurt us. Lattin, Mcneese, Odomes and Manek can all score.

We're gonna have to score. They might be the best offensive team we've played so I think we're going to have to keep up a little bit.

I do think they rely on Trae too much. If it's close in the end I like our chances because we are more together as a team and we're tougher. Even though we've been shaky lately they've pretty much fallen off completely. I could imagine us being able to handle the moment a little better than them.

I really liked EC's play against Davidson, hope JT can get to his level. Time for our batmans to make Pittsburgh their Gotham.

steviep123 · Unread post by **steviep123** » 6 years ago

Text from my neighbor who went to OU:

"I saw OU and URI play each other Thursday. As much as I hated doing it, I have you guys winning in my bracket."

Da_Process_Survivor · Unread post by **Da_Process_Survivor** » 6 years ago

The thing with Young is you can get him off his game. He is easily frustrated when defended tough. When he gets frustrated he really tries hero ball and kills his teams chances

reef · Unread post by **reef** » 6 years ago

I like having JD guard him with his length

He takes a lot of bad shots so just play him tough without fouling and make him take deep contested 3s if he hits them not much you can do

ace · Unread post by **ace** » 6 years ago

Taylor Swift · Unread post by **Taylor Swift** » 6 years ago

ace wrote:

I saw the guys on Fatt’s live Instagram feed. Glad they’re making it out there safely, but definitely not the travel accommodations these guys deserve. Gotta love New England March weather.

Unread post by **TruePoint** » 6 years ago

Preview is up!

http://keaneyblue.com/viewtopic.php?f=6 ... 30#p358230

steviep123 · Unread post by **steviep123** » 6 years ago

ace wrote:

Great to see they got out ahead of the storm! Hopefully they can sleep well enough on the bus.

Billyboy78 · Unread post by **Billyboy78** » 6 years ago

Where did they stay last night?

HASwatTeam · Unread post by **HASwatTeam** » 6 years ago

In the few times I've watched OU this year it always seemed like an issue how TY would shoot too much. Yes he would score 32 points off 7 threes, but their offense would have no flow whatsoever.

OU does worry me, because our defense has been very sub-par lately, especially against deep shooters. Jay Bilas is not an idiot, at all. He knows how easily a team like OU can dismantle teams IF they click. They are a hit or miss team.

DC_Rams · Unread post by **DC_Rams** » 6 years ago

HASwatTeam wrote:In the few times I've watched OU this year it always seemed like an issue how TY would shoot too much. Yes he would score 32 points off 7 threes, but their offense would have no flow whatsoever.

OU does worry me, because our defense has been very sub-par lately, especially against deep shooters. Jay Bilas is not an idiot, at all. He knows how easily a team like OU can dismantle teams IF they click. They are a hit or miss team.

St Joe’s has the blueprint. Any team that watches that and can incorporate what they did will give us problems.

Ramulous · Unread post by **Ramulous** » 6 years ago

Bilas did make it seem that Rhody hasn't faced many scorers like Young.......he's never seen Grady, Adams, Mobley, Aldridge, Pipkins, etc......not Young but not far off......so the hell with him....

Unread post by **TruePoint** » 6 years ago

BJ Johnson, too, ramulous.

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 6 years ago

The Sooners are a bad defensive team....and they like to play uptempo, so no zone.

Again, getting easy baskets are key. We don't do well getting in 3 pt. shooting contests.

I think we win an uptempo game as long as our guards can keep Young from going nuts.

The team that plays some defense wins....and that's us.

The A10, even in a down year, has some outstanding players as mentioned above....just that most of the teams don't have much depth behind them.

Unread post by **TruePoint** » 6 years ago

DC_Rams wrote:
HASwatTeam wrote:In the few times I've watched OU this year it always seemed like an issue how TY would shoot too much. Yes he would score 32 points off 7 threes, but their offense would have no flow whatsoever.

OU does worry me, because our defense has been very sub-par lately, especially against deep shooters. Jay Bilas is not an idiot, at all. He knows how easily a team like OU can dismantle teams IF they click. They are a hit or miss team.
St Joe’s has the blueprint. Any team that watches that and can incorporate what they did will give us problems.

Sure, St Joe's has the blueprint: shoot nearly 60% from the floor and from three.

HASwatTeam · Unread post by **HASwatTeam** » 6 years ago

Ramulous wrote:Bilas did make it seem that Rhody hasn't faced many scorers like Young.......he's never seen Grady, Adams, Mobley, Aldridge, Pipkins, etc......not Young but not far off......so the hell with him....

To be fair, there are no other scorers like Young. Averaging 27.4 ppg in the Big 12 is amazing. Of course, losing somewhere around 11 out of last 15 games is also amazing.

Sucks to see Bilas blow over Rhody so easily and count us out, but screw it, thats when everytime is at their best.

Da_Process_Survivor · Unread post by **Da_Process_Survivor** » 6 years ago

DC_Rams wrote:
HASwatTeam wrote:In the few times I've watched OU this year it always seemed like an issue how TY would shoot too much. Yes he would score 32 points off 7 threes, but their offense would have no flow whatsoever.

OU does worry me, because our defense has been very sub-par lately, especially against deep shooters. Jay Bilas is not an idiot, at all. He knows how easily a team like OU can dismantle teams IF they click. They are a hit or miss team.
St Joe’s has the blueprint. Any team that watches that and can incorporate what they did will give us problems.

Ummm, we just dropped 90 points on that St Joes "plan"

Da_Process_Survivor · Unread post by **Da_Process_Survivor** » 6 years ago

Ramulous wrote:Bilas did make it seem that Rhody hasn't faced many scorers like Young.......he's never seen Grady, Adams, Mobley, Aldridge, Pipkins, etc......not Young but not far off......so the hell with him....

Yup. I'd say having to deal with 2 elite scorers at once like Adams and Mobley is tougher than dealing with 1 superstar

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 6 years ago

My guess is Oklahoma will try and spread us out like Joe's did......that is a concern as our D seemed to wear down the last couple of weeks.

Playing mad dog defense all season tends to do that.

We can't double Young if they spread us out....or he will find the open man....

Blue Man · Unread post by **Blue Man** » 6 years ago

steviep123 wrote:
ace wrote:
Great to see they got out ahead of the storm! Hopefully they can sleep well enough on the bus.

We're operating like a real program now - bus is only taking them to the airport where they'll be chartering to Pitt. They probably got some sleep on the plane

HASwatTeam · Unread post by **HASwatTeam** » 6 years ago

I don't know quite enough about OU, but if they find a way to isolate Berry 1 on 1, he loses that matchup every time. Its amazing Davidson didn't exploit this more.

Any person who can dribble-drive can get by Berry, causing others to help over and immediately breaking down the defense. Its a problem in my eyes, especially since he is so good on offense and needs to be on the floor for us.

OUradu · Unread post by **OUradu** » 6 years ago

Hey Rhody fans! I love the NCAA tournament because you get to follow and interact with teams across the country in such volume. We Sooners love our Sooner football, but in college football it's just the same group of teams every year. I love that about college basketball. I came over here for serious conversation, so I'm not looking for any confrontation, please.

To start I'll respond to some things I've seen in this thread. Yeah, our fanbase is way down right now. We do act like we can't ever win a game again. But wouldn't you if your Rams rose to #4 in the polls, the committee put you in as a top 16 team in their early release, then you rattle off the record we did? We are 7-12 in the current calendar year.

Trae will be the key. If his 30 footers are falling, you guys have no chance. But, good news for you, that hasn't been the case of late. He's a great talent, don't get me wrong, but he also missed 20 3-pointers in a row in a miserable recent stretch.

I don't know much about Rhode Island, but it looks like you guys like to muddy it up and play some defense, slowing it down, kind of like we used to under Kelvin Sampson. I love that style. This version of Oklahoma Basketball is uptempo. If we can get stops (IF we get stops and actually make effort on the boards) Trae can really get the ball behind the defense and kill teams. That's what propelled our offense in the 2017 portion of the season. That and our other freshman Brady Manek seemed unstoppable from behind the arc. Bad news is he hasn't really hit much outside of Norman in a long time.

As far as the treatment Trae gets from the stripes that was alluded to earlier, yeah int he non-con he got some help. But Big 12-2 officials have always been terrible and he didn't get quite the treatment a star would expect in conference play. Still, he was able to get a lot of guys in foul trouble. So moving away from Big 12-2 officiating might, hopefully, require your on ball defenders to get off him. But I suspect your defense is going to give us fits.

Gonna be fun as always. Boomer Sooner!

RF1 · Unread post by **RF1** » 6 years ago

Da_Process_Survivor · Unread post by **Da_Process_Survivor** » 6 years ago

OUradu wrote:Hey Rhody fans! I love the NCAA tournament because you get to follow and interact with teams across the country in such volume. We Sooners love our Sooner football, but in college football it's just the same group of teams every year. I love that about college basketball. I came over here for serious conversation, so I'm not looking for any confrontation, please.

To start I'll respond to some things I've seen in this thread. Yeah, our fanbase is way down right now. We do act like we can't ever win a game again. But wouldn't you if your Rams rose to #4 in the polls, the committee put you in as a top 16 team in their early release, then you rattle off the record we did? We are 7-12 in the current calendar year.

Trae will be the key. If his 30 footers are falling, you guys have no chance. But, good news for you, that hasn't been the case of late. He's a great talent, don't get me wrong, but he also missed 20 3-pointers in a row in a miserable recent stretch.

I don't know much about Rhode Island, but it looks like you guys like to muddy it up and play some defense, slowing it down, kind of like we used to under Kelvin Sampson. I love that style. This version of Oklahoma Basketball is uptempo. If we can get stops (IF we get stops and actually make effort on the boards) Trae can really get the ball behind the defense and kill teams. That's what propelled our offense in the 2017 portion of the season. That and our other freshman Brady Manek seemed unstoppable from behind the arc. Bad news is he hasn't really hit much outside of Norman in a long time.

As far as the treatment Trae gets from the stripes that was alluded to earlier, yeah int he non-con he got some help. But Big 12-2 officials have always been terrible and he didn't get quite the treatment a star would expect in conference play. Still, he was able to get a lot of guys in foul trouble. So moving away from Big 12-2 officiating might, hopefully, require your on ball defenders to get off him. But I suspect your defense is going to give us fits.

Gonna be fun as always. Boomer Sooner!

Welcome, 1 correction.

We play a hectic up tempo style, not a slow down.

We play a relentless, high pressure, in your shirt man defense. We look to create havoc and turnovers for fast break points. We also take you out of your comfort zone by guarding well beyond the arc and forcing you to run your sets from further out.

Finally we are deep with long athletic guards (6 that could start). So we can keep up the relentless pressure and pace for the full 40 without tiring out.

We are near the top in the nation in forcing turnovers, assists to turnover ratio and turnover margin

Basically our long time nickname of Runnin Rams fits.

Our half court offense is based on slashing and dribble drives. All of our guards can take it 1 on 1 and will either to score or to kick to the open shot

OUradu · Unread post by **OUradu** » 6 years ago

If your depth at guard is as you describe and they can defend Trae off the dribble and keep him from penetrating, you will shut our offense down. That's what Big 12-2 teams were able to do, and what non-con teams like USC, Wichita St, Oregon, etc. didn't figure out. Stop Trae, you've stopped us. The only thing could be whether McNeace is able to make an impact enough in the paint to pull some pressure off Trae. Or of course if Manek or James actually start knocking down some shots again, but I'm not holding my breath.

The one game I've seen was the Davidson game Sunday, so it seemed like a slowed down fight. But it's conference final and those usually are on tired legs, so maybe I didn't see a good representation of your team. But the stats and what I've read point to a defensive minded squad that isn't exactly good news for us.

hrstrat57 · Unread post by **hrstrat57** » 6 years ago

No power again down here in lovely Washington County.

Dunno if I’ll be seeing this one in the cozy confines of my domicile

Just shoveled 12” good thing team got outta here! Good post above by SPG. I don’t like OU in this game. I’m sure all the Big 12 tape is being digested and strategies implemented.

NorthEast rural infrastructure is toast btw

Go Rhody!

OUradu · Unread post by **OUradu** » 6 years ago

If you guys want to run, we will run. And that could be to our advantage. Like our football team, we have to be able to outscore you to win.

steviep123 · Unread post by **steviep123** » 6 years ago

Blue Man wrote:
steviep123 wrote:
ace wrote:
Great to see they got out ahead of the storm! Hopefully they can sleep well enough on the bus.
We're operating like a real program now - bus is only taking them to the airport where they'll be chartering to Pitt. They probably got some sleep on the plane

Thanks Blue Man, I must have misread - I had assumed they were taking a bus to Pittsburgh to get ahead of the storm assuming a charter wouldn't be available in time. Glad to see that wasn't the case.

Da_Process_Survivor · Unread post by **Da_Process_Survivor** » 6 years ago

OUradu wrote:If your depth at guard is as you describe and they can defend Trae off the dribble and keep him from penetrating, you will shut our offense down. That's what Big 12-2 teams were able to do, and what non-con teams like USC, Wichita St, Oregon, etc. didn't figure out. Stop Trae, you've stopped us. The only thing could be whether McNeace is able to make an impact enough in the paint to pull some pressure off Trae. Or of course if Manek or James actually start knocking down some shots again, but I'm not holding my breath.

The one game I've seen was the Davidson game Sunday, so it seemed like a slowed down fight. But it's conference final and those usually are on tired legs, so maybe I didn't see a good representation of your team. But the stats and what I've read point to a defensive minded squad that isn't exactly good news for us.

Yeah, Hurley definitely preaches defense above all and let the defense fuel the offense.

We are a guard oriented team and regularly play 4 at a time (have gone to a 5 guard line up at times).

We are vulnerable in the paint as we only have 2 regular big men.

Berry is a big guy (6'8 275). He won't take off the dribble but has very soft hands, good moves and a shooters touch. They look to get him early hoops to start the game. He is not a good defender though. You can score on him and an athletic big can get boards against him.

Langevine is a hyper athletic 6'8 big. He is the basket protector and rebounder. Much stronger and more physical. He doesn't have the offense of Berry. He has power moves but isn't the focal point. He is also prone to foul trouble.

Basically it's an offensive specialist and defensive specialist.

steviep123 · Unread post by **steviep123** » 6 years ago

OUradu wrote:If you guys want to run, we will run. And that could be to our advantage. Like our football team, we have to be able to outscore you to win.

Welcome OUradu. Good discussion! My downstairs neighbors are both OU alums (married couple that met at OU) and are really good people and are both excited for the game (though truth be told, he's more into football, which I'm assuming is par for the course). I was hoping the game was at night so I could watch with my neighbors (they did get me to be a fan of OU football this season - along with Michigan - my wife is a Michigan alum).

In response to you saying that URI wanting to run could be an advantage for OU, I'd say, maybe yes, maybe no. It would be an advantage if URI didn't like to run as well and weren't used to it, but since both teams do like to run when they can, I'm not certain if it's necessarily an advantage to either. (If OU was playing someone like Davidson who is more methodical, then it would probably be more of an advantage).

I think the game is going to most likely come down to if we can hold off Young from scoring at a high percentage while also stopping him from getting others involved. If he scores 30 but takes a million shots to do it and no one else does anything, then Rhody will probably win. But if Young can score in the 30s at a high clip, plus get others good looks, it could be a long day for the boys in Keaney Blue. Not that it means that much now, the last time (if my ancient memory serves) URI played against a team in the NCAA Tourney with such a high profile player was 1993 vs. Purdue and Big Dog Glenn Robinson. Robinson pretty much scored at will (30 something points), but no one else did much, and URI won 74-68. Of course, that was 25 years ago, so probably isn't that relevant other than that might be one way to stop OU.

Seawrightspostgame · Unread post by **Seawrightspostgame** » 6 years ago

Wouldn't mind seeing Rhody take more chances on the run. Kind of when they get the ball up the court and its 2 on 3 or something and we pull it back to run something.

If we are going to shoot a 30 footer. I wouldn't mind seeing Stan try to split two guys and finish. All our guys really. All 6 get to the rim well. Just kind of taking those chances over the 30 footer with the shot clock dwindling. Especially with Langevine on the court. Who can anchor a team that holds the other team to 1-2 field goals for 15 minutes.

steviep123 · Unread post by **steviep123** » 6 years ago

For what it's worth, Travelocity has some decent enough deals on flights from Boston to Pittsburgh.

PeteRI · Unread post by **PeteRI** » 6 years ago

hrstrat57 wrote:No power again down here in lovely Washington County.

Dunno if I’ll be seeing this one in the cozy confines of my domicile

Just shoveled 12” good thing team got outta here! Good post above by SPG. I don’t like OU in this game. I’m sure all the Big 12 tape is being digested and strategies implemented.

NorthEast rural infrastructure is toast btw

Go Rhody!

Sorry about your power. It's the luck of the draw down here in South County. Hopefully the team's defense is more sstout than our power grid!

DC_Rams · Unread post by **DC_Rams** » 6 years ago

Da_Process_Survivor wrote:
DC_Rams wrote:
HASwatTeam wrote:In the few times I've watched OU this year it always seemed like an issue how TY would shoot too much. Yes he would score 32 points off 7 threes, but their offense would have no flow whatsoever.

OU does worry me, because our defense has been very sub-par lately, especially against deep shooters. Jay Bilas is not an idiot, at all. He knows how easily a team like OU can dismantle teams IF they click. They are a hit or miss team.
St Joe’s has the blueprint. Any team that watches that and can incorporate what they did will give us problems.
Ummm, we just dropped 90 points on that St Joes "plan"

Regardless, That zone can be make or break for us.

OUradu · Unread post by **OUradu** » 6 years ago

steviep123 wrote:
OUradu wrote:If you guys want to run, we will run. And that could be to our advantage. Like our football team, we have to be able to outscore you to win.
Welcome OUradu. Good discussion! My downstairs neighbors are both OU alums (married couple that met at OU) and are really good people and are both excited for the game (though truth be told, he's more into football, which I'm assuming is par for the course). I was hoping the game was at night so I could watch with my neighbors (they did get me to be a fan of OU football this season - along with Michigan - my wife is a Michigan alum).

In response to you saying that URI wanting to run could be an advantage for OU, I'd say, maybe yes, maybe no. It would be an advantage if URI didn't like to run as well and weren't used to it, but since both teams do like to run when they can, I'm not certain if it's necessarily an advantage to either. (If OU was playing someone like Davidson who is more methodical, then it would probably be more of an advantage).

I think the game is going to most likely come down to if we can hold off Young from scoring at a high percentage while also stopping him from getting others involved. If he scores 30 but takes a million shots to do it and no one else does anything, then Rhody will probably win. But if Young can score in the 30s at a high clip, plus get others good looks, it could be a long day for the boys in Keaney Blue. Not that it means that much now, the last time (if my ancient memory serves) URI played against a team in the NCAA Tourney with such a high profile player was 1993 vs. Purdue and Big Dog Glenn Robinson. Robinson pretty much scored at will (30 something points), but no one else did much, and URI won 74-68. Of course, that was 25 years ago, so probably isn't that relevant other than that might be one way to stop OU.

By advantage, I don't mean we have the advantage in that part of the game, I mean that if you guys slow it down and make us work in the halfcourt you'd certainly have the advantage with your defense. I guess I should have said it would be our best chance.

Based on my reading and what was posted above I feel like this may be our most favorable matchup. I'm sure every team when they saw us in the field were hoping we'd show up as their first round matchup. Guess you guys won that lottery. But, given that McNeace might have a chance to have a big impact against a thin frontcourt for you guys, maybe RI was as good a matchup as we could hope for. McNeace has been feast or famine. He's at times really developed some nice post moves, and has been a big go to when Trae gets in the paint. But then at other times, halves, whole games, he looks lost. If McNeace can exploit your bigs and Trae can get him and Lattin involved, we have a good chance.