2/22 | Davidson | 5:30PM (CBSSN)

[NYGFan_Section208]

Here's what we need to do:
-- Don't bite on fakes.
-- Switch every screen -- fighting through makes it easy for them to run their misdirection cuts and get open.
-- Don't collapse on penetration -- their system helps ballhandlers find open men for layups.
-- Guard the corners.

Someone needs to get this to Coach Cox. Stat.

[RAM67]

Best thing to do is fire an errant pass near McKillop and have Cyril take him out of the game going for it.

[TruePoint]

Here's what we need to do:
-- Don't bite on fakes.
-- Switch every screen -- fighting through makes it easy for them to run their misdirection cuts and get open.
-- Don't collapse on penetration -- their system helps ballhandlers find open men for layups.
-- Guard the corners.

This is accurate. Easier said than done when it goes against your tendencies but the more of this we can do, the better. Switching every screen also opens you up to some tough matchups (if they know we are switching everything, you’ll inevitably end up with Harris guarding Grady in iso situations and Fatts stuck with Brajkovic in the post a few times). Not that those situations are necessarily worse than getting beat backdoor for layups, but just need to have a plan for quick-arriving help and/or switches and denying the ball to the mismatch.

[bigappleram]

This is probably more of a game for Walker and Toppin than Harris given Davidson barely has 1 big let alone 2. With walker and toppin (along with Cyril) we have much more ability to switch screens. What we can never do, and we did against UR a few times and it infuriated me, is go UNDER screens. Cardinal rule against good shooting teams. Chase them over the top, turn them into drivers and have bigs collapse to protect the rim. Unless we completely shit the bed offensively they cannot beat us without hitting 10+ threes, make them a 2 pt shooting team. Make guys like JAG and Lee get their points off the dribble and in the paint vs catch and shoot 3s.

[TruePoint]

Also correct. Cannot go under a screen on the perimeter against a team looking to take and make a lot of threes. Also agree that matchup wise this seems like a more natural game for Toppin and Walker, but Harris is going to get his 15-20 minutes - can just pencil that in now.

[reef]

Has Rhody already flown to Charlotte???

[DC_Rams]

This is probably more of a game for Walker and Toppin than Harris given Davidson barely has 1 big let alone 2. With walker and toppin (along with Cyril) we have much more ability to switch screens. What we can never do, and we did against UR a few times and it infuriated me, is go UNDER screens. Cardinal rule against good shooting teams. Chase them over the top, turn them into drivers and have bigs collapse to protect the rim. Unless we completely shit the bed offensively they cannot beat us without hitting 10+ threes, make them a 2 pt shooting team. Make guys like JAG and Lee get their points off the dribble and in the paint vs catch and shoot 3s.

Walker didn’t play much the first time we played them. I don’t expect to see much of him this game either.

[Rhody83]

Has Rhody already flown to Charlotte???

They are in Charlotte.

[luke]

Virtually no chatter on the Davidson message board . They don't seem to be into their team so much this season.

[ramster]

Gotta have more Toppin!

Last game he had 12 points in 11 minutes. He positioned at the FT line and up to the top of the key where we found him with passes.
He either drove to the hoop successfully, took the 15’ shot or found a guy underneath.

Was a great play when pass came to him, he threw to Langevine down low then Cyril quickly passed back to him.

Would love to see him take the Davidson big men down low

[PeterRamTime]

Gotta have more Toppin!

Last game he had 12 points in 11 minutes. He positioned at the FT line and up to the top of the key where we found him with passes.
He either drove to the hoop successfully, took the 15’ shot or found a guy underneath.

Was a great play when pass came to him, he threw to Langevine down low then Cyril quickly passed back to him.

Would love to see him take the Davidson big men down low

Had a great game against them the first time.

Let him go after it! Hes a walking mismatch for him!

[ElmCityRhody]

MUST WIN

THIS IS GONNA BE OUR NIGHT

we are Rhody hoops and we are gonna get this game and march into NCAAs

And I said March not limp

We are gonna grab that 7 seed too while we are at it

Eff the world who is not down w Rhody hoops

[Taylor Swift]

Virtually no chatter on the Davidson message board . They don't seem to be into their team so much this season.

Must be a big NASCAR weekend?

[TruePoint]

Lol

[bigappleram]

This is probably more of a game for Walker and Toppin than Harris given Davidson barely has 1 big let alone 2. With walker and toppin (along with Cyril) we have much more ability to switch screens. What we can never do, and we did against UR a few times and it infuriated me, is go UNDER screens. Cardinal rule against good shooting teams. Chase them over the top, turn them into drivers and have bigs collapse to protect the rim. Unless we completely shit the bed offensively they cannot beat us without hitting 10+ threes, make them a 2 pt shooting team. Make guys like JAG and Lee get their points off the dribble and in the paint vs catch and shoot 3s.

Walker didn’t play much the first time we played them. I don’t expect to see much of him this game either.

Correct on Walker, and it was bc he got lost on defensive rotations and on at least two occasions lost his assignment for an easy layup. Quick hook. Connectivity and communication on D is massive vs Davidson, hoping that 10 games since then will result in a different performance from Antwan. He brings more foot speed and athleticism to switch screens and guard multiple positions.

[NC_Ram]

Virtually no chatter on the Davidson message board . They don't seem to be into their team so much this season.

Must be a big NASCAR weekend?

no, it snowed 1/10 of an inch and the whole city has come to a stop. "the great blizzard of 2020"

[ramster]

This is probably more of a game for Walker and Toppin than Harris given Davidson barely has 1 big let alone 2. With walker and toppin (along with Cyril) we have much more ability to switch screens. What we can never do, and we did against UR a few times and it infuriated me, is go UNDER screens. Cardinal rule against good shooting teams. Chase them over the top, turn them into drivers and have bigs collapse to protect the rim. Unless we completely shit the bed offensively they cannot beat us without hitting 10+ threes, make them a 2 pt shooting team. Make guys like JAG and Lee get their points off the dribble and in the paint vs catch and shoot 3s.

Walker didn’t play much the first time we played them. I don’t expect to see much of him this game either.

Correct on Walker, and it was bc he got lost on defensive rotations and on at least two occasions lost his assignment for an easy layup. Quick hook. Connectivity and communication on D is massive vs Davidson, hoping that 10 games since then will result in a different performance from Antwan. He brings more foot speed and athleticism to switch screens and guard multiple positions.

I distinctly remember the bad pass that Walker threw and Cox immediately pulled him. Walker struggled in defense during the 3 minutes as well as BAR stated.
This was the game following the Brown and Richmond losses when Cox benched Russell. Russell came off the bench and played great.
Toppin started the game in place of Russell and played 27 minutes
Long played well for 12 minutes
Walker played a season low 3 total minutes. Once he got pulled after the bad pass at 10:02 of the first half Cox never put him back in the game

From the 1st Davidson Game:
13:39 Toppin and Walker enters game for Langevine and Martin
10:02 Turnover by Walker with bad pass. He did not return to game. Long enters we are losing (14-12)

[Billyboy78]

Cox said on the postgame show last week that Walker has made big improvements defensively in the last few games. We'll see if that translates into more minutes today. If not, it's about matchups.

[TulaneGradRamFan]

Virtually no chatter on the Davidson message board . They don't seem to be into their team so much this season.

Must be a big NASCAR weekend?

no, it snowed 1/10 of an inch and the whole city has come to a stop. "the great blizzard of 2020"

It is sunny and should be up in the mid 50s all afternoon in Davidson so I'm sure the weather won't deter fans.

[ramster]

Interesting Walker only played 7 min vs VCU and 8 min vs UMASS

but since then he has played:
GW - 16
Dayton - 18
St Josephs - 20

[Obadiah]

URI has to avoid what I call a "shock and awe" opening to the game. The Rams saw this in Dayton's 17-0 run to open that game and similarly Davidson has used early big runs to mentally beaten down its opponents, especially seen in recent games against Fordham, UMass, and SBU. They did this in the first half of St. Joe's game, but completely lost their way in second half to lose.

The Davidson game versus St. Bona had particular lessons. The Bonnies actually started that game quite well on defense and used some nifty drives to the rim to get an early lead. Once Davidson put in a trey to take a one point lead at 19-18, SBU began a series of missteps - fouls, turnovers, poor shot selection sandwiched in between some terrific Davidson three point shooting. The Bonnies scoring drought lasted over four minutes and when it ended Davidson had a 32-18 lead. URI has seen similar scoring droughts and miscues, and if it comes early in the Belk game that could spell disaster. Don't let that happen. Let's go, Rhody.

[PeterRamTime]

I think we will be ready.

This looks like a game where we give them the ol, slow first half, pull away in the second half.

Rhody by 9+

[Rhode_Island_Red]

I don't like this game. Davidson's offense is perfect for exploiting all the flaws of our defensive scheme.

[section(105)]

I don't like this game. Davidson's offense is perfect for exploiting all the flaws of our defensive scheme.

.....if your keys to the game memo got to the coach, we will be fine......

[McRam]

Here's what we need to do:
-- Don't bite on fakes.
-- Switch every screen -- fighting through makes it easy for them to run their misdirection cuts and get open.
-- Don't collapse on penetration -- their system helps ballhandlers find open men for layups.
-- Guard the corners.

This is accurate. Easier said than done when it goes against your tendencies but the more of this we can do, the better. Switching every screen also opens you up to some tough matchups (if they know we are switching everything, you’ll inevitably end up with Harris guarding Grady in iso situations and Fatts stuck with Brajkovic in the post a few times). Not that those situations are necessarily worse than getting beat backdoor for layups, but just need to have a plan for quick-arriving help and/or switches and denying the ball to the mismatch.

Could be that Brajovik is one of the keys. I keep remembering last year when he would take the ball and back his way in Very Slowly , we would not dbl team , and he would score over Cyril.

If we have to dbl team him , Only when he puts on floor(Hopefully not necessary)

Yes, Lee force off the dribble only , exploit his defensive weaknesses and he is a sneaky offensive rebounder - not big, strong, or quick , but will exploit you if u fall asleep.

[theblueram]

GAME DAY!!!!!!!!!!!

[steviep123]

Must. Win. Game.

[RF1]

Rhode Island has won twice at Belk in the five games it has played there. Davidson has however with many of the current players recently won four of the last five games (all sites) between the squads.

URI vs Davidson
Series: 7-7
H: 4-2, A: 2-3, N: 1-2
3/7/1966 65-96 L N
11/28/2009 75-65 W A
11/27/2010 71-58 W H
2/25/2015 59-60 L H
2/23/2016 54-65 L A
2/3/2017 70-59 W A
3/4/2017 73-70 W H
3/11/2017 84-60 W N
2/9/2018 72-59 W H
3/2/2018 61-63 L A
3/11/2018 57-58 L N
2/6/2019 53-68 L A
2/22/2019 66-75 L H
01/08/2020 69-58 W H

[Taylor Swift]

Virtually no chatter on the Davidson message board . They don't seem to be into their team so much this season.

Must be a big NASCAR weekend?

no, it snowed 1/10 of an inch and the whole city has come to a stop. "the great blizzard of 2020"

I was being facetious

[ElmCityRhody]

I think we will be ready.

This looks like a game where we give them the ol, slow first half, pull away in the second half.

Rhody by 9+

I
Like it !

[Rhodymob05]

So important to start this game off HOT.

[RF1]

Time for Davidson to return the favor today. Two years ago URI lost to DC in the A-10 Final to secure an NCAA bid for them. Getting the automatic bid was their only path to the show. The Wildcats have no chance for an at large invite this season. That is not the case for Rhody. Hopefully things get evened out in a few hours.

[RhodyRam86]

with a stoppage in play every 10 seconds of this loyola chicago-missouri state game, it could be halftime before CBSSN picks up the rhody game.

[LoveThoseRams]

5:40 tip

[Rhody15]

Time for Davidson to return the favor today. Two years ago URI lost to DC in the A-10 Final to secure an NCAA bid for them. Getting the automatic bid was their only path to the show. The Wildcats have no chance for an at large invite this season. That is not the case for Rhody. Hopefully things get evened out in a few hours.

We also owe them for that Jack Gibbs (man he was tough) step back 3 in the corner to beat us at home a few years ago.

[ramster]

ESPN BPI has URI 34.6% Chance to win

[TruePoint]

What is this flyover country horseshit on my TV and why is there like 4 minutes left in this game?

[reef]

Yes will be the longest 2 minutes in history

[jaywin86]

nothing like making the bye week a little bit longer.. I need this game on now!

[rhodyfan3000]

This is like Chinese water torture

[URI_05]

Wtf. Commercials instead of cutting to the game??

[RhodyRam86]

slow start. almost four minutes until harris scored the first RI bucket. 4-4 at first break.

[reef]

4-4 under 16

[rhodyfan3000]

We're already 4.5 mins into this game. Thanx CBS Sports Network

[Rhody15]

Walker looks lost on defense 95% of the time.

[section(105)]

.....do not like this 12-4 run.....

[URI_05]

Not a great start. Walker and Fatts shouldn’t have taken those 3 attempts.

[RhodyRams916]

That three from fatts was so unnecessary.

[Joe95]

Grady will cook walker every time and that three point attempt should have gotten him benched. Rough start on the offensive end. Need to get Fatts and Jeff going after this timeout.

[RhodysRelevant]

Need to go inside pound them down low