3/7 | UMass | 7:00PM (NESN Plus/ESPN+)

[rhodylaw]

Wow - I hope the last minute of the game is a springboard for Fatts. I don’t think we played as poorly as other games, just missed wide open shots.

Harris was not playing because Long was actually doing a nice job on Mitchell (except for the three pointers but I don’t blame him for those). We need more Mekhi in the A10 tourney he is a really good defender.

[RamStock]

Anyone still think this team is on the bubble and that we are going to be sweating if we got to the A-10 finals? Not that we could win our first game and beat Richmond anyway. This team is not fun to watch

[TruePoint]

Better than a loss, I guess.

Cannot believe Fatts got that call at the end. Thank god he did.

Mitchell is a stud. Cannot wait until he transfers somewhere good so I can root for him. His fake dad can still get his shine box.

Don’t be surprised if it is next year on the transfer.

I’ll actually be surprised if it’s not. If he has any sense about him or any ability to make decisions on his own without Mr. Shinebox.

[SandorClegane]

A. WIN. IS. A. WIN.
See you guys in Brooklyn.

#doublebye

[RI_Bred]

I hate to say it but I'm starting to feel like Cox is in over his head. I've resisted to this point, but I just cannot figure out his seemingly ridiculous decisions in these games.

[rhodyfan3000]

Anyone else get the feeling the players aren't "as close" anymore? They seemed so much more like a family during the 10 game win streak. Today their body language and effort was awful. I will be so pissed off if they do this in Brooklyn when I make the trip friday.

At the risk of causing a riot, our big three (Jeff, Cyril, Fatts) look really off, and everyone else seems to have better than normal body language. The rest of the team were really supporting each other.

[RI_Bred]

Anyone still think this team is on the bubble and that we are going to be sweating if we got to the A-10 finals? Not that we could win our first game and beat Richmond anyway. This team is not fun to watch

Good take. They are not fun to watch at all right now. Just stressful and inconsistent.

[RhodyRam86]

For those who can't watch, what happened? ESPN gamecast just gives me Mitchell's FTs and doesn't say how the hell we won...

Fatts drove the hoop, just Mitchell below the basket, Mitchell stuffed Fatts, kind of looked like all ball, but the refs gave him the call, Mitchell fouled out of the game, Fatts to the line for two.

Fatts makes both, only 2.2 seconds left, UMass tries for a greater than half court shot that went off the top of the backboard.

It was all ball, but mitchell got him with the body. good call IMHO

[KMar970]

Where do i buy tickets Ticketmaster?

[RhodyRams916]

Anyone else get the feeling the players aren't "as close" anymore? They seemed so much more like a family during the 10 game win streak. Today their body language and effort was awful. I will be so pissed off if they do this in Brooklyn when I make the trip friday.

At the risk of causing a riot, our big three (Jeff, Cyril, Fatts) look really off, and everyone else seems to have better than normal body language. The rest of the team were really supporting each other.

Idk... You look at Dayton or SLU the bench is so much more enthusiastic during big plays. URI's bench just has that "I don't care" attitude.

[RF1]

What an absolutely ugly win. Martin, Dowtin, and Russell shot a combined 11-35 (.314). Jeff missed all three of his ft attempts. Team was a horrible 8-16 at the line. Frittered away double digit leads in both halves. Thankfully Fatts made the plays in the last minute to grab victory from the jaws of defeat. Does not exactly instill any confidence that they are turning things around.

[eli#10]

We almost let one guy beat us. Can anyone play defense against Mitchell without fouling????????????
Cyril and Martin started off hot making great plays and then virtually disappeared. Gotta play 40 minutes and not commit fouls 20-30 feet from the basket!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can we run some offensive plays other then the same ones we have been seeing for 30 games now. I would love to see some back door cuts or at least something different.

[DanInAZ]

For those that stated this game doesn't mean anything... I say I will see you a #3rd seed instead of a #4 seed. 21 wins! Two to 23. Get to 23, baby!

What’s 23? A home game in the NIT?

So says the pessimist.

[URIFIJI]

Thank you lord for letting us win. Thank u Fatts for making those final FT's.

I love the 3 way better than the 4 for Brooklyn

Let St Louis beat the daylights out of Dayton

[rhodyfan3000]

I hate to say it but I'm starting to feel like Cox is in over his head. I've resisted to this point, but I just cannot figure out his seemingly ridiculous decisions in these games.

idk about that, he's a second year coach. He's not polished. The calling time out after a made basket seems like more a nervous tick than anything else

[DanInAZ]

And it is the fact we are a 3 seed and not the 4th that you failed to address. Would you rather face Dayton in the Semi's with 22 wins or have 23 wins and be in the final?

[URIFIJI]

Long played a great game tongiht. Give that kid some credit. He played great D against a guy giving up a lot of height and weight to...

[Taylor Swift]

Jesus fuck

Best post on Keaney Blue Ever

I laughed at the first post and then laughed more stating it’s the best post. I’m still laughing.

[steviep123]

To be fair Martin missed 2 wide open threes when up 12. Both shots were off good passing. He makes both, even 1 and that gets the lead to 15 or 18 and gives more breathing room. So there was some good movement they went cold.

Now Harris should have been back in when Mitchell went out with 4 fouls. They couldn’t take advantage.

[eli#10]

Really disappointed in the coaching STAFF. Not just Cox but do any of the others make any suggestions?

[scine20]

Any idea who wins the tie-breaker between Duquesne and St. Bonaventure as they split during the season? The loser of that will be the likely opponent Friday.

[Dino611]

Hey let’s look at the positives we did something SLU, VCU and Duquesne couldn’t do and that was winning at UMess even though it was ugly it was a dub!

[rhodyfan3000]

I think both Harris and Long had excellent games against a future NBA player. Long in particular giving up a lot of size, and playing good defense.

Harris had Mitchell contained until the "scary" foul that turned out to be less than nothing. Mission accomplished, Tre managed to get Jermaine off his back.

[JimSidd]

The offense (and I use that term loosely) was absolutely pathetic for most of the second half. No player or ball movement at all. Then I switch to other games and I see baseline screens, back door plays and all kinds of cutting and moving.
I don’t know if it’s coaches not calling plays or players not running plays that were called, but they better figure things out quickly or they’re going home on Friday night.

[luke]

I was hoping for a momentum starting win . This was half right , a win . But I don't see any momentum coming from it . On the positive side ,
they did shoot the ball much better for the first ten minutes of the game except for poor free throw shooting once again . After that I don't know what the hell happened except for the free throw misses and their stupid passing . After hitting everything , they reverted to hitting nothing. does Harris
have some type of injury that tightens up after he plays awhile ? He rarely plays much in the second half of games as was mentioned above . Dowtin
and Russell had horrendous shooting games and Martin went cold after a great start . Will just have to hope for the best in Brooklyn without any expectations .Just win on Friday , then we will at least have one more game to watch . Then who knows ?

[rhodysurf]

At the point where I’m just happy with a win. Lowering expectations

[DeanDome88]

We swept UMass! I really don't care about the close scores.

[Joe95]

The offense (and I use that term loosely) was absolutely pathetic for most of the second half. No player or ball movement at all. Then I switch to other games and I see baseline screens, back door plays and all kinds of cutting and moving.
I don’t know if it’s coaches not calling plays or players not running plays that were called, but they better figure things out quickly or they’re going home on Friday night.

Yes watch Murray State play on ESPN2 rn against Belmont. Watching Rhody on offense is just flat out disgusting and that is on the coaching staff.

[PeterRamTime]

Sure we had some boneheaded decisions, but we missed so many wide open shots.

I mean I dont know what you're suppose to do about that.

We were pretty good for the vast majority of the game.

After we were up 54-40 we refused to score.


Gotta love sweeping stupid UMass.

Got a good 6 days to get ready for our last chance.

Go Rhody.



Why no Harris?? Hes finally producing and hes still rotting on the bench.

[mjg13x]

Any idea who wins the tie-breaker between Duquesne and St. Bonaventure as they split during the season? The loser of that will be the likely opponent Friday.

Bonnies. They were 0-1 vs. Dayton while Dukes were 0-2.

[Blue Man]

I think we avoid Dayton until the finals now. Actually a huge win.

We have to get to the finals. We have to get past Friday. How can anyone feel confident about anything right now.

Looking forward to seeing the guardians at MetLife stadium on Saturday

[cRAM4finals]

I am having trouble going to sleep after that game. Wound up. Does anyone know where I can get the relaxing slow-motion-potion that Tyrese takes during games. It works for him. Gotta work for me.

[Roz]

As much as I love the W and will take it, URI still looks apathetic and inconsistent. Much like my 16YO son.

Looked great for the first ten mins.

[gorhody89]

I’m happy they won and got the 3 seed but

I had a 3 game parlay going on

Lasalle even vs st joe
George mason -2 vs Fordham
And URI -3

Which was looking really great when uri was up like 17

[Roz]

Damn that was a good bet that u lost

[Shinze88]

Again, another win that felt like a loss, UMass is not a good team, I dont care how well they've been playing, they have 1 guy who can score with any consistency but yet we have nobody who can slow him down. I'm done figuring out what Cox is trying to do with these timeouts, I wish someone would ask him in the post game interview, what is the strategy? If anyone on UMass knocks down any of the wide open looks they got we lose this game. This team has shown very little fight the past 2 weeks and they just have the look of a defeated team, not sure how anyone could expect an extended stay in Brooklyn. Here we come NIT...

[LoveThoseRams]

And Assistant Coach Slick was not in the handshake line...he immediately retreated to the locker room.

For the record, black suit, black shirt and black tie tonight.

[RAM67]

Then again, if anyone on our team knocked down the open shots we had (including FT's), we would have blown them out.

[RamStock]

Turn on ESPN and watch how Belmont took the lead on Murray State with a tourney bid on the line with a couple seconds left. That is coaching. Actual set plays by coach

[spar]

I know I'm probably in the minority here, but I didn't think we played that bad of a game all things considered...especially when you compare it to what we have seen from them the last few weeks on both ends of the floor.

Ball movement was much better...lot less high ball screen with Langevine out at the three point line (which more times than not seems to slow the offense down and get guys standing around). Plus, our defense was finally showing some life.

Not blaming the officiating by any means, but the calls definitely didn't favor us tonight overall, which didn't help matters. I watched on TV and that call on Tre at the end was not a bail out. He definitely hit Fatts with some body, you could see it clear as day on the replay. It wasn't egregious by any means, but neither were some of the fouls we had called on us throughout the game, so I'm fine with them calling that.

And can we please put this in perspective. Tre Mitchell went 6-8 from three. Let me repeat that. He shot 6 for f'n 8 from three. In case you don't have your calculator on you, that's 75%. Let me repeat...75 f'n %. What other big man in the A10 (aside from maybe Obi), let alone the country, is shooting that type of % from three! And it's not like the majority of them weren't contested. We played some aggressive D on him tonight. If he misses two of those 3's (which would STILL have him shooting 50% from 3!), and we hit a few more shots in the second half, we win by double digits, and there's a lot less griping going on.

I digress tho. I guess I saw a glimmer of hope tonight, and it felt good after two+ weeks of disgusting. It was nice to see that the team didn't just roll over. That they do have some fight left in them. Do I think its likely we get to the A10 finals in Bkln? No, but this at least gave me a sliver of hope.

[JimSidd]

Turn on ESPN and watch how Belmont took the lead on Murray State with a tourney bid on the line with a couple seconds left. That is coaching. Actual set plays by coach

I thought the exact same thing when I saw that play.

[spar]

Also, Fatts actually looked to pass a bit more tonight on some of his drives, which was encouraging. His team leading 5 assists shows that. He still had a gross FG% and took the second most shots tonight behind Martin, but I'll take an improvement in the assist department from him. Will only help to open things up a bit more for him if he shows he's willing to make the pass a little more. Still has to start hitting his open shots tho.

[Urifan91]

In general I think Harris plays poor defense and suspect that is why Cox doesn’t trust him in close games in the second half. Personally I think Harris has been doing better lately. But I did think Mekhi played Mitchell tough tonight until he fouled out.

[Rhody15]

Cox’s time out after we scored with about 25 seconds left almost killed us yet again. Why he continues to call timeouts after we score is mind boggling.

[UCH21377]

Turn on ESPN and watch how Belmont took the lead on Murray State with a tourney bid on the line with a couple seconds left. That is coaching. Actual set plays by coach

I thought the exact same thing when I saw that play.

It was a beautiful play perfectly executed

[RhodyFanNotAlum]

Since I'm among those who have been critical of the warmup line coming out of halftime, it was nice to see them come out with something resembling a purpose tonight. Not only did they come out well before UMass, but after missing all 3 of his first-half FT attempts, Jeff spent a good two minutes doing nothing but taking free throws (of course, then he didn't go to the line again in the second half, but it was still nice to see).

[adam914]

I had plans tonight and didn't watch for the first time all season. I'm just going to assume we looked great and everything is just peachy heading into Brooklyn!

[brady1]

GET TO THE FINAlS!

F3~K RICHMOND!

GO RHODY!

[SmartyBarrett]

And Assistant Coach Slick was not in the handshake line...he immediately retreated to the locker room.

For the record, black suit, black shirt and black tie tonight.

Dressed for a funeral.

Also, everyone is talking about Tre Mitchell to the NBA. He’s not gonna get very far with his “defense”. Dude couldn’t guard a fire hydrant.

[RF1]

4,053 came out to the Mullins Center tonight. It was the second largest home crowd of the season in the 9,493 seat arena behind only the 5,030 for the game versus Dayton. UMass averaged 2,717 per game this season.