2/9 | Dayton | 4:00PM (CBSSN)

[theblueram]

That's why I don't Twitter EZ

[Rhodymob05]

As disgusted and discouraged as I am as a fan, I’m still a fan and won’t let this stop be from attending games and cheering on this team and coach. Have to be resilient.

[TruePoint]

Omar was awful today. Simply over-matched by the competition.

Everyone was overmatched and Omar only got four minutes. He was far from the biggest problem and he deserved more minutes in a blowout like that if only to get more experience

“We need to change out the assistant Coaches.” Look, Cox picked his assistants. The Assistants are quiet for the most part on the bench. We do not now how they are personally feeling but judging from body language for weeks and months now I would guess there are opportunities to improve. I don’t believe assistant coaching performance is even in the Top 5 things wrong. I’d focus my attention on the Head Coach.

ramster - I agreed with everything else you said here, about it being absurd to leave the game yesterday with complaints about Omar being what you’re focused on, on getting Tate into and Fatts out of the starting lineup, and especially handling discontent behind closed doors.

But I’ll respond to this bit because I’m one of the people who brought it up. I’m not saying that replacing one or more assistants would be a panacea for this team, and I’m not saying that they are to blame for what has gone wrong this year or that they haven’t done exactly what they’ve been asked to do. But the bottom line is that this team is not well coached right now. Our game planning doesn’t identify and attack opponents’ weaknesses; our in-game adjustments haven’t been noticeable; our underlying approach/identity doesn’t seem aligned with our personnel, to the extent that we even have one; and our players’ skill development has not been impressive. Yes, all of that ultimately falls on the head coach, but the head coach is not going anywhere for now, and a head coach doesn’t have the bandwidth to do 100% in all those areas - he has to depend on his staff to do it. Maybe the assistants have been adequate, I’m not really sure how to measure that. But whatever is going on, it isn’t good enough so you might as well see if you can do better. It doesn’t matter to me who originally picked them, and that shouldn’t be a reason not to make a change anyways. Ultimately it may not matter and those guys may end up being fall guys, but that’s a risk I’d take because you’re so deficient in the areas I mentioned above that whatever they are doing now is not so valuable that it can’t be replaced.

[theblueram]

I addressed some of this on twitter a bit but I’ll share some thoughts here as well.

1. URI has ZERO control over when the game starts and delays coming out of timeouts. That is all dictated by TV.

2. The student jersey promotion redemption was strategically done at the half to PREVENT students from getting a jersey pregame and leaving at the half. I thought this was smart and only backfired due to how absolutely awful the game was. Students were gonna leave regardless.

3. The Dress like a Ram promotion was missed due to a miscommunication. To whoever knows either of the kids who were supposed to compete, please send me a PM. I want to make sure they get another opportunity to play and/or some free Rhody gear.

4. The 50/50 & Minute of Mayhem situation sucks. But we did pull a ticket and announced the winner immediately after the buzzer.

I’ve said it before but again, EVERY SINGLE THING WE DO IS SCHEDULED. We follow a 20+ page script and every time out is timed to the second in collaboration with TV, Ryan center video/camera production, marketing, band, DJ, cheer, sales etc. This is no small feat and involves a ton of preparation to make sure everyone is coordinated and on same page. The fact most people still don’t realize this is insane to me.

The 50/50 Raffle & Newport Propane promotion is done during the 4th media timeout of the 2H. For the first time I can EVER recall - this timeout did not happen. Media Timeouts happen during the first whistle after 16:00, 12:00, 8:00, & 4:00 of the half. We typically end up with AT LEAST 6-7 TV timeouts in the 2H of every game.

Yesterday was a crazy anomaly where 4-5 minutes went by without a SINGLE whistle. This caused the 3rd media timeout to happen where the 4th should be. Then, neither team called another timeout in the final 3+ minutes, which meant we had no opportunity to do it. Anyone who knows anything about this game should appreciate how insanely rare this is. IT NEVER HAPPENS.

I know people were frustrated by the game, but to be personally attacked over a damn raffle by nearly a dozen different “fans” after I spent 40 straight minutes cheering pretty much by myself as everyone left in droves was really disheartening.

...I’m also not f**king giving up on this team as easy as some people. GO. RHODY.

In all seriousness, you do a great job. Really. It was a collision of a full house, with a fierce conference rival and we lay the biggest egg.

[NYGFan_Section208]

I addressed some of this on twitter a bit but I’ll share some thoughts here as well.

1. URI has ZERO control over when the game starts and delays coming out of timeouts. That is all dictated by TV.

2. The student jersey promotion redemption was strategically done at the half to PREVENT students from getting a jersey pregame and leaving at the half. I thought this was smart and only backfired due to how absolutely awful the game was. Students were gonna leave regardless.

3. The Dress like a Ram promotion was missed due to a miscommunication. To whoever knows either of the kids who were supposed to compete, please send me a PM. I want to make sure they get another opportunity to play and/or some free Rhody gear.

4. The 50/50 & Minute of Mayhem situation sucks. But we did pull a ticket and announced the winner immediately after the buzzer.

I’ve said it before but again, EVERY SINGLE THING WE DO IS SCHEDULED. We follow a 20+ page script and every time out is timed to the second in collaboration with TV, Ryan center video/camera production, marketing, band, DJ, cheer, sales etc. This is no small feat and involves a ton of preparation to make sure everyone is coordinated and on same page. The fact most people still don’t realize this is insane to me.

The 50/50 Raffle & Newport Propane promotion is done during the 4th media timeout of the 2H. For the first time I can EVER recall - this timeout did not happen. Media Timeouts happen during the first whistle after 16:00, 12:00, 8:00, & 4:00 of the half. We typically end up with AT LEAST 6-7 TV timeouts in the 2H of every game.

Yesterday was a crazy anomaly where 4-5 minutes went by without a SINGLE whistle. This caused the 3rd media timeout to happen where the 4th should be. Then, neither team called another timeout in the final 3+ minutes, which meant we had no opportunity to do it. Anyone who knows anything about this game should appreciate how insanely rare this is. IT NEVER HAPPENS.

I know people were frustrated by the game, but to be personally attacked over a damn raffle by nearly a dozen different “fans” after I spent 40 straight minutes cheering pretty much by myself as everyone left in droves was really disheartening.

...I’m also not f**king giving up on this team as easy as some people. GO. RHODY.

In all seriousness, you do a great job. Really. It was a collision of a full house, with a fierce conference rival and we lay the biggest egg.

Agree. GREAT job. But let's get that Newport Gass Cannon blowing some shtuff up to Section 208. It looks like maybe they're afraid to fire that thing off down in the corner where the players are? But, maybe that's just what they need?

[TruePoint]

Chemistry definitely not an issue



It’s his first tweet of the season as far as I can tell.

[theblueram]

There it is. Now we have our rotten apple.

[TruePoint]

There it is. Now we have our rotten apple.

I don’t know if it’s that simple. Is that a symptom or the disease?

[ramster]

Everyone was overmatched and Omar only got four minutes. He was far from the biggest problem and he deserved more minutes in a blowout like that if only to get more experience

“We need to change out the assistant Coaches.” Look, Cox picked his assistants. The Assistants are quiet for the most part on the bench. We do not now how they are personally feeling but judging from body language for weeks and months now I would guess there are opportunities to improve. I don’t believe assistant coaching performance is even in the Top 5 things wrong. I’d focus my attention on the Head Coach.

ramster - I agreed with everything else you said here, about it being absurd to leave the game yesterday with complaints about Omar being what you’re focused on, on getting Tate into and Fatts out of the starting lineup, and especially handling discontent behind closed doors.

But I’ll respond to this bit because I’m one of the people who brought it up. I’m not saying that replacing one or more assistants would be a panacea for this team, and I’m not saying that they are to blame for what has gone wrong this year or that they haven’t done exactly what they’ve been asked to do. But the bottom line is that this team is not well coached right now. Our game planning doesn’t identify and attack opponents’ weaknesses; our in-game adjustments haven’t been noticeable; our underlying approach/identity doesn’t seem aligned with our personnel, to the extent that we even have one; and our players’ skill development has not been impressive. Yes, all of that ultimately falls on the head coach, but the head coach is not going anywhere for now, and a head coach doesn’t have the bandwidth to do 100% in all those areas - he has to depend on his staff to do it. Maybe the assistants have been adequate, I’m not really sure how to measure that. But whatever is going on, it isn’t good enough so you might as well see if you can do better. It doesn’t matter to me who originally picked them, and that shouldn’t be a reason not to make a change anyways. Ultimately it may not matter and those guys may end up being fall guys, but that’s a risk I’d take because you’re so deficient in the areas I mentioned above that whatever they are doing now is not so valuable that it can’t be replaced.

TP,
Good points. Likely changes need to be made with assistants.
Problem is Cox had first choices on his assistants so I’m not too optimistic he will do any better 2nd time around
I’m also of the opinion that Cox has a lot of opportunity to improve in this HC Role and part of that improvement could be in managing his staff. Body language, as I said earlier, does look look good for some of the players and assistants - so if this doesn’t get addressed new assistants will jump into the same environment.

Unfortunately yesterday was not a surprise to me, to most it was, and I do not blame them for not seeing it coming, but I have had an uncomfortable feeling for some time now.

And I’m certainly not the brightest poster here as my contest prediction would show

As I said somr time ago, play the Freshmen as Jack Kraft did long ago.
Not playing Freshmen makes everyone unsure about their ability to contribute - including the players themselves.

As DC_rams so often reminds us, this is a rebuilding year, and so it is - so play the Freshmen - see what they have and don’t have. Give them experience. If it looks to the player and/or to the coaches that it is not going to work out then everyone can plan their next step.

It’s a shame a player like Jermaine Harris is getting 14 minutes per game and Thompson is getting double that. We know what Thompson can and can’t do but Harris has a high ceiling, at least I believe he does. Even this far into the season I still very much like his potential. I’d hate to see him leave having not been given every opportunity possible. And please nobody say it’s due to his fouling. Look at the stats. This season is gone except for the A10 tourney and our best chance there is to go with the Freshmen getting far more minutes.

[theblueram]

There it is. Now we have our rotten apple.

I don’t know if it’s that simple. Is that a symptom or the disease?

Not sure TP. But something is driving a divide.

[Section104]

I could be wrong here, but didn’t we choose Preston over Toppin?

[TruePoint]

I could be wrong here, but didn’t we choose Preston over Toppin?

Yup

[theblueram]

Chemistry definitely not an issue



It’s his first tweet of the season as far as I can tell.

It's a damning statement by a player for sure. Ass meet pine.

[RhowdyRam02]

Well that certainly seems to confirm a lot of the bad things we were saying in regards to chemistry

[RhowdyRam02]

I could be wrong here, but didn’t we choose Preston over Toppin?

Yup

There were extenuating circumstances. I believe our first choice was Toppin

[RhowdyRam02]

Chemistry definitely not an issue



It’s his first tweet of the season as far as I can tell.

It's a damning statement by a player for sure. Ass meet pine.

He played two minutes yesterday, he can't get much lower

[Billyboy78]

Toppin had academic issues. But I think we were in good enough shape with the APR by then that we could have taken the risk. I could be wrong, but that's what I remember.

[Billyboy78]

Preston also got hurt yesterday, so I don't know how he can complain about minutes, at least for that game. He went to the locker room, came back with a noticeable limp, then sat on the bench with an icepack on his knee. If he is having a negative influence on the younger guys, get rid of him.

[RhodysRelevant]

Going to be interesting to see where that tweet from Preston leads, certainly not a good sign.

[TruePoint]

Well that certainly seems to confirm a lot of the bad things we were saying in regards to chemistry

If he were voicing this behind the scenes, it wouldn’t be great since he would be discontented and clearly not getting it. But the fact that it broke thru the public and he felt he could and/or needed to do it this way is the sign of bigger problems to me.

[Obadiah]

Last year we had a veteran studded team so Preston's minutes were limited - he played in 17 games for a total of 92 minutes. This year his line is 19 games and 114 minutes so he obviously expected to get a lot more PT ahead of some freshman. His PT situation most likely has been discussed with the staff and Cox, but the response has bothered him enough to go to twitter to express his unhappiness. The low PT hurts any quest he has to get a pro contract overseas.

[RhowdyRam02]

Agreed. I'm sure it wasn't all puppies and unicorns for every player under Hurley and social media was big with those guys too but there was nothing like this. And if Preston is doing this you know there are other players who feel like this

[Billyboy78]

Agreed. I'm sure it wasn't all puppies and unicorns for every player under Hurley and social media was big with those guys too but there was nothing like this. And if Preston is doing this you know there are other players who feel like this

But Preston, the senior, has shown the younger kids like Omar and Jermaine, that it's ok to disrespect the coach. We don't need the only senior on the team setting an example like that.

[TruePoint]

Last year we had a veteran studded team so Preston's minutes were limited - he played in 17 games for a total of 92 minutes. This year his line is 19 games and 114 minutes so he obviously expected to get a lot more PT ahead of some freshman. His PT situation most likely has been discussed with the staff and Cox, but the response has bothered him enough to go to twitter to express his unhappiness. The low PT hurts any quest he has to get a pro contract overseas.

Obi, that’s all fair but I don’t think the issue is “does Preston have a point?” or “why is Preston frustrated?” There are always going to be guys at the end of the bench whining. The issue for me is that he apparently feels he can put the coach on blast in public without any repurcussions, which is a clear sign of a failure of leadership from both the coaches and the other players.

If I were coaching the team, he’d be off of it as I type this. You can keep the scholarship until the end of the semester, but your badge doesn’t work at the team facilities anymore and we’ll send you the contents of your locker in the mail.

“Fredo, you’re my older brother and I love you, but don’t you ever take sides against the family again.” Once you break the circle of trust you’re out and nothing can get you back in. That’s me.

[hrstrat57]

If I were coaching the team, he’d be off of it as I type this.

Without a single second of hesitation

[ElmCityRhody]

WOW

if Cox doesn’t kick him off the team then that tells me all I need to know about Cox

[section(105)]

........well see what happens next, if anything public.......players complaining about PT, at this level for the Preston level player gets even more complicated with the overseas pro life opportunity that can result in food not on the table......?

[rambone 78]

So now we have selfish players that don't play, and selfish players that play too much.

Things are just hunky dory in Kingston, aren't they?

Cox has got to show some balls and make some serious changes and pronto.

Of course, bad team chemistry is just one of this group's problems.

Bad shooting, bad offense, bad defense, bad FT shooting. Bad coaching, with poor adjustments or no adjustments...game planning...the whole nine yards.

Cox and staff have a LOT of work to do between now and next season. What we see next year will tell if things will turn around.

If he's too worried about hurting some people's feelings, then he's in the wrong business.

[PeteRI]

I could be wrong here, but didn’t we choose Preston over Toppin?

Yup

Love how that decision worked out

[hrstrat57]

So now we have selfish players that don't play, and selfish players that play too much.

Things are just hunky dory in Kingston, aren't they?

Cox has got to show some balls and make some serious changes and pronto.

Of course, bad team chemistry is just one of this group's problems.

Bad shooting, bad offense, bad defense, bad FT shooting. Bad coaching, with poor adjustments or no adjustments...game planning...the whole nine yards.

Cox and staff have a LOT of work to do between now and next season. What we see next year will tell if things will turn around.

If this train does not settle completely back on the tracks why do you think another season is a guarantee? What would be worth saving if as you projected previously in this thread we win 14 games?

Not trying to argue here I just would like to know why nearly everyone feels that situation would continue? Why would Thorr do that?

[Section104]

So now we have selfish players that don't play, and selfish players that play too much.

Things are just hunky dory in Kingston, aren't they?

Cox has got to show some balls and make some serious changes and pronto.

Of course, bad team chemistry is just one of this group's problems.

Bad shooting, bad offense, bad defense, bad FT shooting. Bad coaching, with poor adjustments or no adjustments...game planning...the whole nine yards.

Cox and staff have a LOT of work to do between now and next season. What we see next year will tell if things will turn around.

If this train does not settle completely back on the tracks why do you think another season is a guarantee? What would be worth saving if as you projected previously in this thread we win 14 games?

Not trying to argue here I just would like to know why nearly everyone feels that situation would continue? Why would Thorr do that?

The main reason, in my opinion, is it would be impossible to hire a decent candidate if we just canned a coach after 1 year. It would have media backlash unlike anything we’ve ever seen, especially since he was part of building the program to where it was last year. He is not going to be canned after this year. No shot.

[Billyboy78]

750,000 X 4 might make it difficult.

[adam914]

I'll let Cox and the coaches decide if Preston still deserves to be a member of this team after that tweet, because I don't know if this is an isolated incident or part of a larger pattern of issues, but I will say this...there is no way he should be wearing a uniform for Saturday's game. A one game suspension at minimum seems necessary here.

[rambone 78]

Like I said, the leash won't be long, but of course it could be a while before they could afford to let him go.

If it's true 700K a year is guaranteed for 5 years, it will be tough to jettison Cox before year 4....the buyout will help, but it's not that high the first few years I think.

Cox will be here another year, unless things really go so bad they don't have a choice....but he has to make some personnel decisions going forward that could seriously ruffle some feathers, whether some like it or not.

I agree with those that say Tate, Harris, and Martin should start every game from here on out, along with Cyril and Jeff.

And next season Hammond, Madding, and Walker should be given every opportunity to play if this year's freshmen continue to struggle.

We aren't going to win squat with CT and Fatts playing 30 minutes a game. Next year either. They aren't good enough, and they've proved it by now.

What's amazing to me, is that Cox hasn't figured that out yet.

[adam914]

I’ve said it before but again, EVERY SINGLE THING WE DO IS SCHEDULED. We follow a 20+ page script and every time out is timed to the second in collaboration with TV, Ryan center video/camera production, marketing, band, DJ, cheer, sales etc. This is no small feat and involves a ton of preparation to make sure everyone is coordinated and on same page. The fact most people still don’t realize this is insane to me.

As someone who worked in the athletics department as a student, I feel your pain on this part for sure, but I would try to take it as a compliment that you do such a good job every single game that some people might not even realize the whole thing is so scripted and coordinated.

[hrstrat57]

Like I said, the leash won't be long, but of course it could be a while before they could afford to let him go.

Cox will be here another year, unless things really go so bad they don't have a choice....

Define "bad, no choice".

How much do we loose in money if the tee shirts and toy balls shot and thrown sit in an empty seat for 5 minutes? Granted we haven't felt it yet, attendance has been fantastic but if the season ticket sales tank and marketing has no way to fill the seats with paid customers what is the answer?

4 x $750k? vs zero AD revenue coming in via our only cash cow?

It is shocking how we can be on the threshold of financial turmoil after such a great run and just when our gridiron situation shows signs of life.

Man I am one discouraged URI alum....and my network of fellow alums is extremely angry.

Let's hope this man can turn things around and finish strong.

[Rhody83]

I addressed some of this on twitter a bit but I’ll share some thoughts here as well.

1. URI has ZERO control over when the game starts and delays coming out of timeouts. That is all dictated by TV.

2. The student jersey promotion redemption was strategically done at the half to PREVENT students from getting a jersey pregame and leaving at the half. I thought this was smart and only backfired due to how absolutely awful the game was. Students were gonna leave regardless.

3. The Dress like a Ram promotion was missed due to a miscommunication. To whoever knows either of the kids who were supposed to compete, please send me a PM. I want to make sure they get another opportunity to play and/or some free Rhody gear.

4. The 50/50 & Minute of Mayhem situation sucks. But we did pull a ticket and announced the winner immediately after the buzzer.

I’ve said it before but again, EVERY SINGLE THING WE DO IS SCHEDULED. We follow a 20+ page script and every time out is timed to the second in collaboration with TV, Ryan center video/camera production, marketing, band, DJ, cheer, sales etc. This is no small feat and involves a ton of preparation to make sure everyone is coordinated and on same page. The fact most people still don’t realize this is insane to me.

The 50/50 Raffle & Newport Propane promotion is done during the 4th media timeout of the 2H. For the first time I can EVER recall - this timeout did not happen. Media Timeouts happen during the first whistle after 16:00, 12:00, 8:00, & 4:00 of the half. We typically end up with AT LEAST 6-7 TV timeouts in the 2H of every game.

Yesterday was a crazy anomaly where 4-5 minutes went by without a SINGLE whistle. This caused the 3rd media timeout to happen where the 4th should be. Then, neither team called another timeout in the final 3+ minutes, which meant we had no opportunity to do it. Anyone who knows anything about this game should appreciate how insanely rare this is. IT NEVER HAPPENS.

I know people were frustrated by the game, but to be personally attacked over a damn raffle by nearly a dozen different “fans” after I spent 40 straight minutes cheering pretty much by myself as everyone left in droves was really disheartening.

...I’m also not f**king giving up on this team as easy as some people. GO. RHODY.

EZ sorry you have to put up with this shit. We are still with the team, Coach Cox, you and the Rhody staff.

[RhodyRam86]

Chemistry definitely not an issue



It’s his first tweet of the season as far as I can tell.

can someone please translate that to English?

[section(105)]

.......the buckle up for a bumpy ride this week, a comment I made earlier, would have been a day at the beach compared with dealing with this breaking info.......we a freakin mess......

[Taylor Swift]

Agreed. I'm sure it wasn't all puppies and unicorns for every player under Hurley and social media was big with those guys too but there was nothing like this. And if Preston is doing this you know there are other players who feel like this

But Preston, the senior, has shown the younger kids like Omar and Jermaine, that it's ok to disrespect the coach. We don't need the only senior on the team setting an example like that.

The other senior on the roster is Will.

[NYGFan_Section208]

Back when I played, if someone on the team tweeted something like that, we'd have said, "What the heck is a 'tweet'?"

[cRAM4finals]

Twitter posting taken down.

[JimSidd]

The only positive to take from yesterday’s game was the spirit displayed by JV, the Ramettes and the cheer squad. (Full disclosure, my daughter is a Ramette.). It has to be difficult to keep your energy and spirit up when the team is getting drilled and the crowd is quiet. It has to be especially difficult late, when at least half the fans have left. I know I couldn’t do it. This group should be commended for continuing to perform at a high level , despite things going so wrong so quickly in the game.

[rambone 78]

Well, Dave said this was his dream job.....think he feels that way now?

[adam914]

Honestly can't believe it even took that long for the tweet to be deleted, but glad it finally was.

EDIT: I see he actually deleted his whole account. Probably the right move.

[rambone 78]

He might have been told to take it down...….

[The Dude]

Multiple players looked lost as to what to do on defense. CT, Preston, Harris...all looked a bit lost. The team didn't look like a team. It looked like a bunch of individuals going through the motions. I know a young team is going to be inconsistent, but I have to admit I feel like they should be improving incrementally and becoming more consistent as the season goes on and I'm not seeing as much of either as I was hoping to see at this point in the season. This team appears to lack focus and an understanding with what one another likes to do on the floor. I stated earlier in the year that I thought Cox should really set roles for these guys. I thought he had for a little bit, but it appears not.
I feel like the Dayton game was basically the team hitting rock bottom in terms of performance. How they play against Fordham will show a lot. We'll either get a loss and a another poor performance against a very beatable team and we'll know just how bad things are getting OR they'll come together to crush Fordham and show they're still in it to win it as a team.

[spar]

Can someone please divulge what Preston posted? Didn't see it before it was deleted.

[adam914]

He might have been told to take it down...….

Oh I’m sure he was, just can’t believe it took like 5 hours.

[TruePoint]

So now we have selfish players that don't play, and selfish players that play too much.

Things are just hunky dory in Kingston, aren't they?

Cox has got to show some balls and make some serious changes and pronto.

Of course, bad team chemistry is just one of this group's problems.

Bad shooting, bad offense, bad defense, bad FT shooting. Bad coaching, with poor adjustments or no adjustments...game planning...the whole nine yards.

Cox and staff have a LOT of work to do between now and next season. What we see next year will tell if things will turn around.

If this train does not settle completely back on the tracks why do you think another season is a guarantee? What would be worth saving if as you projected previously in this thread we win 14 games?

Not trying to argue here I just would like to know why nearly everyone feels that situation would continue? Why would Thorr do that?

The main reason, in my opinion, is it would be impossible to hire a decent candidate if we just canned a coach after 1 year. It would have media backlash unlike anything we’ve ever seen, especially since he was part of building the program to where it was last year. He is not going to be canned after this year. No shot.

Also, money aside, it would just be stupid. Maybe Cox figures it out and maybe he doesn’t. But people are getting way, way ahead of themselves here.