Iggy1979 wrote:Nice piece. (Old timers might remember the French restaurant his parents owned down the Pier.)
The old Basil's restaurant located at 22 Kingston Road across from the present Trio. It closed in October of 2014 after 31 years in business. It was run by Yanni's parents Vasilios and Kathy Kourakis of S Kingstown. Kathy is a URI alumnus.
They should. Football teams do it all the time after camp when some guys inevitably leave the program and they're short of the 85 they are allowed to use.
Great opportunity for some good PR if you get it on video, too.
"If you build it, they will come." --Us, circa 2011
Maybe split a scholarship between Will and Eric. I think they will hold one scholarship in case a mid-year transfer they like becomes available (KI). I know baseball and golf give half scholarship to each player.
Rhody83 wrote:Maybe split a scholarship between Will and Eric. I think they will hold one scholarship in case a mid-year transfer they like becomes available (KI). I know baseball and golf give half scholarship to each player.
Basketball is a "head count" sport. Meaning scholarships are all or none, no splitting those scholarships. One walk-on would have to be left out if they chose to use a scholarship on them. Unless they would give both out (can't see that happening).
Big difference is Will is a senior, so you give it to him this year and you lose nothing and you can use the scholarship again next year. Eric is a junior so you'd need to tie the scholarship up for two years or kick him off scholarship.
Take down the Robert Carothers banner and fix the concession stand lines
You also need to know what the non-athletic financial aid packages are for each Will and Eric....they may be getting enough to make it worthwhile to keep the scholarship in the staff's pocket
F*ck Alacki, DarthFriar, DirtyBeanFriar94, xCoachK, Boxworth, Friar Faithful, bicycleicycle, Matt_Keough, Patrick Norton, the Rosato brothers, and especially Benjamin Lord !
RhowdyRam02 wrote:Big difference is Will is a senior, so you give it to him this year and you lose nothing and you can use the scholarship again next year. Eric is a junior so you'd need to tie the scholarship up for two years or kick him off scholarship.
Right. Unless a player plays himself onto the field or court as part of the regular rotation, the scholarship-as-reward concept really only applied to seniors. As far as whether the player would even want a scholarship if they already have a good aid package - trust me, these guys want the scholarship even if just for the symbolism.
"If you build it, they will come." --Us, circa 2011
The dude cleans bathrooms and stuff right now. I think he’d be ok giving that up for a scholarship. His dancing made tournament highlights, everyone knew Will... give him the ‘ship!
If there are no scholarship options that will eventually lead to meaningful playing time to a player (now or even in future years) and it would remain open, give it to Will for his senior season. There is no substantial benefit for the scholarship to go unused.
I have raised this issue before with no one responding. Is URI exploring local tv partners for games as it once had? I ask as I fear the number of televised games will be taking a sharp decline with the departures of Hurley and most of the starters. Rhody at one time had some games on local tv outlets such as WNAC-64 and Cox. Since Cox stopped airing games two years ago, there has been no local outlet but that was offset with more national network games these last two seasons. I fear that option is about to change. Given network affiliates no longer seem to like pre-empting regular programming, alternative outlets would be the likely choice. Both WPRI and WJAR offer alternative stations in MyRI and MeTV. MyRI tv currently airs local productions of Brown basketball and Pawsox games. I would hope that URI was discussing the airing of games with them and MeTV. Does anyone know if URI is doing anything to get more games on TV?
RF1 wrote:I have raised this issue before with no one responding. Is URI exploring local tv partners for games as it once had? I ask as I fear the number of televised games will be taking a sharp decline with the departures of Hurley and most of the starters. Rhody at one time had some games on local tv outlets such as WNAC-64 and Cox. Since Cox stopped airing games two years ago, there has been no local outlet but that was offset with more national network games these last two seasons. I fear that option is about to change. Given network affiliates no longer seem to like pre-empting regular programming, alternative outlets would be the likely choice. Both WPRI and WJAR offer alternative stations in MyRI and MeTV. MyRI tv currently airs local productions of Brown basketball and Pawsox games. I would hope that URI was discussing the airing of games with them and MeTV. Does anyone know if URI is doing anything to get more games on TV?
Local tv would be nice - but the thing that we really need is a good streaming partner. Something that people can easily access on a fire stick or Apple TV. Free would be nice, in fact I would take some of the “Hurley” money and throw it towards this issue. The goal is to build the brand, can’t do that by making the fans pay for a shitty stream.
RF1 wrote:I have raised this issue before with no one responding. Is URI exploring local tv partners for games as it once had? I ask as I fear the number of televised games will be taking a sharp decline with the departures of Hurley and most of the starters. Rhody at one time had some games on local tv outlets such as WNAC-64 and Cox. Since Cox stopped airing games two years ago, there has been no local outlet but that was offset with more national network games these last two seasons. I fear that option is about to change. Given network affiliates no longer seem to like pre-empting regular programming, alternative outlets would be the likely choice. Both WPRI and WJAR offer alternative stations in MyRI and MeTV. MyRI tv currently airs local productions of Brown basketball and Pawsox games. I would hope that URI was discussing the airing of games with them and MeTV. Does anyone know if URI is doing anything to get more games on TV?
Local tv would be nice - but the thing that we really need is a good streaming partner. Something that people can easily access on a fire stick or Apple TV. Free would be nice, in fact I would take some of the “Hurley” money and throw it towards this issue. The goal is to build the brand, can’t do that by making the fans pay for a shitty stream.
The A-10 just partnered with ESPN+, a pay (per mo) streaming service. My guess is its service will be more reliable. I however believe that it will just air the content it is supplied and not actually produce the games. That would probably still mean low tech, few cameras, radio broadcast sound snych, with few graphics URI in house productions we have seen before.
If nothing else, URI should make an investment in improving the quality of the broadcasts it produces, knowing that it will be the primary way its fans consume many of its games AND that the games will likely be viewed more frequently by college basketball fans outside of the market with no allegiance to URI. It is an investment in brand development both within your fan base and outside of it, and it really shouldn't be all that difficult to do for a major university.
"If you build it, they will come." --Us, circa 2011
I agree that contracts with local stations is not the way to go; streaming is. Would like to see the quality of the radio broadcast improve too.
"Every season, college basketball has one or two teams that rise from dormancy to relevancy, squads that make long-awaited charges at the NCAA Tournament and become really fun storylines along the way."
Iggy1979 wrote:I agree that contracts with local stations is not the way to go; streaming is. Would like to see the quality of the radio broadcast improve too.
The problem with streaming is that only diehard Rhody fans will bother to find it and watch. It will not atttract more casual fans and help grow interest in the program. This will be especially magnified with ESPN+ being a separate monthly pay service.
Furthermore, I do not have a lot of faith in URI producing high quality productions. The ineptitude literally displayed on the big screens at the Ryan Center in its early years are still fresh in my mind. I can only imagine URI using students to produce the games with them having a long learning curve and once they are good, they graduate and move on. URI then starts the cycle again with newbies.
Last edited by RF15 years ago, edited 2 times in total.
Iggy1979 wrote:I agree that contracts with local stations is not the way to go; streaming is. Would like to see the quality of the radio broadcast improve too.
The problem with streaming is that only diehard Rhody fans will bother to find it and watch. It will not atttract more casual fans and help grow interest in the program. This will be especially magnified with ESPN+ being a separate monthly pay service.
Casual fans don't care about games against no name teams who we'll likely beat by double digits. Those are the types of games that would be on local stations and will be on ESPN+.
Also with more and more people cutting cable, broadcasting on local stations where there may not be an online stream is objectively worse than ESPN+.
Invest time, money and resources in the streaming product. Yes we should have a local partner for a dwindling minority of older “casual” fans who can even find MyRI or another regional channel on their lineup but the streaming product is more impt for the future fan.
Sutton providing good exposure thru his USA Basketball work.
Great that this is in DC. Between Cox and Sutton Rhody will continue to be top recruiters in the DMV
Social media has alerted me to the fact that it is both Cyril and Dana’s birthday today. It’s a double Ram birthday! Take the day off, tell your bosses it’s a holiday.
This video is from last summer. Fatts posted it in IG today saying they are back at it playing at Imhotep.
Watch the bottom of the video at the beginning for the names of the players there. Impressive.
theblueram wrote:Didn't see it posted before, but there is a Season Ticket holder event at the RC on Sept. 26th.
They can start practice 42 days before their first game (Nov 6th). I believe that is Sept 25th (Tues) assuming Nov 6th isn’t counted towards the 42 days. Has anyone heard about the general public opening night (concert etc)?
Just a note about how random and ridiculous coaching can be. I was talking with a friend who is a Georgetown fan, who reminded me that, when Cox was hired away by Mike Rice at Rutgers and left Georgetown, he was considered not to be a big loss. Some fans felt he had not been a good recruiter (!). Then, he was fired by Eddie Jordan, who was, to put it mildly, just awful. Now, JT3 and Eddie are nowhere to be found. I believe the phrase goes, “how ya like me now, scrubs?”
ace wrote:Just a note about how random and ridiculous coaching can be. I was talking with a friend who is a Georgetown fan, who reminded me that, when Cox was hired away by Mike Rice at Rutgers and left Georgetown, he was considered not to be a big loss. Some fans felt he had not been a good recruiter (!). Then, he was fired by Eddie Jordan, who was, to put it mildly, just awful. Now, JT3 and Eddie are nowhere to be found. I believe the phrase goes, “how ya like me now, scrubs?”
I’d presume he left G’town to go to RU because of $$$. When Rice was fired I read that players and parents STRONGLY advocated for Cox to be the next HC. Eddie clearly had control issues and was in way too deep in the college game. He was an abysmal coach.
I heard JT3 do color commentary on a URI game last year and he praised Cox. Don’t believe him leaving left any hard feelings. Assistants leave all the time for “Greener” pastures...pun intended.
ace wrote:Just a note about how random and ridiculous coaching can be. I was talking with a friend who is a Georgetown fan, who reminded me that, when Cox was hired away by Mike Rice at Rutgers and left Georgetown, he was considered not to be a big loss. Some fans felt he had not been a good recruiter (!). Then, he was fired by Eddie Jordan, who was, to put it mildly, just awful. Now, JT3 and Eddie are nowhere to be found. I believe the phrase goes, “how ya like me now, scrubs?”
I’d presume he left G’town to go to RU because of $$$. When Rice was fired I read that players and parents STRONGLY advocated for Cox to be the next HC. Eddie clearly had control issues and was in way too deep in the college game. He was an abysmal coach.
I heard JT3 do color commentary on a URI game last year and he praised Cox. Don’t believe him leaving left any hard feelings. Assistants leave all the time for “Greener” pastures...pun intended.
They sure do... Murray, Murphy, ARD. Don’t misunderstand me- when I talk about “no big loss,” I mean the perceptions of the fans, not JT3. What they blamed on Cox was them clearly missing the bigger picture. Assistants can only work within the program, kind of like how Murphy seemed a lot more successful starting around 2012. He was always good, but the main guy before then? Not so much.
As I said a million times - we should have a universal font and universal spelling of “Rhode Island” across every uniform for all sports and also for fan merchandise
It would define the school as our font and be a hit w marketing
ace wrote:I think it’s a t-shirt and a chance to win a jersey.
Oh, I thought it was a jersey for each of the first 1,000 members.
Wording is a little mislesding. It should say a chance to win a replica jersey.
It says “eligible to receive a replica jersey”.
So they are giving away ONE jersey. Weak