URI Transfer issues

[ramster]

Post erased April 2

[ace]

It's almost like you have to recruit two tiers of players. 1) Starters who know they are going to be starters, and 2) Scrubs who know they are going to be lucky to even get in the game. Then everyone is happy.

Ha, you know, I wouldn't label the second tier as scrubs, but I think you may be on to something. If you have a bunch of "alpha" personalities, for lack of a better term, it's hard to give two to four heavy starter minutes, and then have the rest be happy with coming off the bench for 5 to 20 minutes a game. It might require a re-calibration in scouting - Making taking a couple guys who seem less "hungry," who might be OK with the bench role and have a lower peak, but you can slot them into a role on the team for all four years.

I know this is meant to be taken a bit tongue in cheek, but I think what you’re getting at is creating a culture. Coaches LOVE to speak in cliches (see also “getting old and staying old”), but there’s something to it. Probably half the rosters in the country have guys who would play more somewhere else. Almost 100% of rosters have guys who THINK they would play more on another team. The job becomes creating a program where guys want to be, and that comes from trust and communication, to help guys see how their role will evolve while they currently may be contributing in a smaller but no less important way. I see players doing that all across the game, so don’t tell me it’s impossible. It’s hard but possible.

[ramster]

Ok so with over 8 transfers no one thinks there is any problems with the program? There has to be something going on besides just the me now?

Not saying there are major issues with program but maybe some underlying things that today’s youth don’t buy into?

It's tough to determine if this is a URI/staff issue when in last week 5-6 players transfer out of a program (Wichita State) under a well regarded coach that has been very successful. That said if you use that data to project out Wood would be 100 to 1 odds to finish his career in Keaney Blue.

And if I use my own eyes from having seen Wood play many times I’d say he is 1,000 to 1 odds to finish his freshman year at URI

[RamStock]

I think Cox needs a little more credit. Disagree.

Yes we collapsed a little. We collapsed a LOT. Name another team that was a lock for the NCAA then finished as weakly as we did? Last 9 games - all in February and March - the two critical months
UMASS - favored by 15, only won by 6. Game was very close. We did not look much better than UMASS
GW - clobbered GW by 31, but we didn’t play the bench and rest the starters near what I thought we should have
@ Dayton - we got embarrassed and destroyed
St Josephs - closer than should have been in 1st half. SJ without their best player Ryan Daly. Only up 4 at half
@Davidson - lost in a big game
@Fordham - won by a point with miracle rebound and 2 FTs by Jacob Toppin
Saint Louis - we were outplayed at home
Dayton - overmatched
@UMASS - won by a point in a very closest contented game

So we lost 4 of our last 7. We beat Fordham and UMASS by a single point. Easily could have finished losing 6 of last 7 games.




We will never know what we would have done had the coronavirus hadn't derailed the world. Same with all teams

Considering all the roster issues, injuries to Cyril and Jeff towards the end of the year, I think Cox held the group together better than many thought was possible. Disagree

He did prove that with a limited roster he could get them to operate at a high level in what was a pretty tough conference this year. Conference ranked 8th. Most years ranked 7th.

If we are to get the twins in and Berry I could really see things take off. Berry is ranked #394 by 247. Hurley recruited guys ranked 50 to 150 for the most part. We are recruiting worse ranked players these last two years

Do we have a collapse with a team where we don't have to completely rely on Fatts? what does this mean? This team did not completely rely on Fatts. Fatts did not play well the last 7 games when we went 3-4 with 1 point wins over lowly Fordham and a UMASS with 3 freshmen starters

I dont think Jeff and Cyril were the kind of players that you want to rely on to carry you offensively. Both Dowtin and Langevine are All A-10 level players

They are all time greats, but they were obviously more comfortable playing smaller roles. Disagree

As good as they were at what they do, they were lacking in offensive fire power. disagree

Jeff was no, EC or JT.

Cyril was no Hassan.

When things got tough we needed those guys to step outside of their comfort zone and deliver offensively at a level that was too difficult for them. Disagree

For what he had to work with, he did a good job. Disagree

Also, if you're caught up in how there was this big Baron collapse then why was he able to get the guys playing their best ball at the end of last season? We lost 4 of last 7 with 2 of the wins by only a point against UMASS and Fordham. Could easily have finished losing 6 of last 7. We did not look good

As much as there are things to scoff at there are just as many things to be hopeful for.again I disagree.

PRT, best post of 2020, and not because you said Cox deserves credit, but because you identified the teams limitations and how they TRIED to overcome them.

Bravo, man.

Sounds like you guys think Cox deserved A10 Coach of the Year
We went from NCAA lock to not close to a bid in 3 weeks. Name another team that faltered as badly as we did.

So by losing Cyril and Jeff Dowtin we are in a better place? You should be in politics. These guys did a lot more than just score points. Cyril was never going to be a dominate scorer, but was a great rebounder and is by far the best player we have in the front court. One of the Mitchell twins is a projected backup. Most teams are not actively looking to get him, but want his brother so they will take both as they have to come as a pair. You want players that will leave when things get tough? The Mitchell twins and the mom had better get what they need or will pack their backs in a heartbeat. In terms of Dowtin he was one of the best four year players we had come through the program and although this season was one that had some offensive struggles he played out of position and not to his strength of point guard. I like Berry, but although look like the favorite we yet to sign him and we lost out on many players before we thought we were getting. We are recruiting much lower players recently that obviously don’t stay for a variety of reasons. You think Fatts and Martin are more consistent players offensively that will carry us and play the bigger roles offensively? They have strong offensive games and than look terrible some games. They are both not consistent and have head scratching games. What about are defense? I can’t see that getting better by losing Dowtin and Cyril.

[ramster]

PRT, best post of 2020, and not because you said Cox deserves credit, but because you identified the teams limitations and how they TRIED to overcome them.

Bravo, man.

Sounds like you guys think Cox deserved A10 Coach of the Year
We went from NCAA lock to not close to a bid in 3 weeks. Name another team that faltered as badly as we did.

So by losing Cyril and Jeff Dowtin we are in a better place? You should be in politics. These guys did a lot more than just score points. Cyril was never going to be a dominate scorer, but was a great rebounder and is by far the best player we have in the front court. One of the Mitchell twins is a projected backup. Most teams are not actively looking to get him, but want his brother so they will take both as they have to come as a pair. You want players that will leave when things get tough? The Mitchell twins and the mom had better get what they need or will pack their backs in a heartbeat. In terms of Dowtin he was one of the best four year players we had come through the program and although this season was one that had some offensive struggles he played out of position and not to his strength of point guard. I like Berry, but although look like the favorite we yet to sign him and we lost out on many players before we thought we were getting. We are recruiting much lower players recently that obviously don’t stay for a variety of reasons. You think Fatts and Martin are more consistent players offensively that will carry us and play the bigger roles offensively? They have strong offensive games and than look terrible some games. They are both not consistent and have head scratching games. What about are defense? I can’t see that getting better by losing Dowtin and Cyril.

Bravo, man.

[rambone 78]

It's bad enough we have the coronavirus to bum us out.

Add to that, what ramster and Ramstock are saying.

Unfortunately, I think they are both right.

Recruiting lower ranked players and players transferring out left and right...not a good sign. I do think Leggett will be good, and is underrated. Wood, not so much. And just who else will we be getting to fill the rapidly shrinking roster?

We could be approaching another coaching change sooner rather than later. Cox is a nice guy and knows the game, but something is missing here.

Another lengthy period of mediocrity coming?

If anyone feels like jumping on me for having these opinions, save yourself the effort and don't.

[UCH21377]

A lot of the transfer issues are just from the coaching change. I know; we thought the concept of promoting Cox was continuity, but it didn't really turn out quite that way. Maybe with Jeff, Cyril, Fatts, but not the rest. Those on the board that said hiring a coach to keep the players was a bad idea were correct. I was wrong, along with many.

That is NOT to say that Cox is a bad coach. To me he's shown the ability to get the team to play well for significant stretches. To get the kids to work hard for him. We have to wait a couple more years to see it thru, like it or not. The fan base is like the kids, wanting instant gratification. I do think he needs to find a way to stabilize the roster. Sheppard's thing last year was an absolute killer. He needed insurance for that but unfortunately it didn't work out. That's the learning curve for the coach IMO; roster management.

[rambone 78]

A lot of the transfer issues are just from the coaching change. I know; we thought the concept of promoting Cox was continuity, but it didn't really turn out quite that way. Maybe with Jeff, Cyril, Fatts, but not the rest. Those on the board that said hiring a coach to keep the players was a bad idea were correct. I was wrong, along with many.

That is NOT to say that Cox is a bad coach. To me he's shown the ability to get the team to play well for significant stretches. To get the kids to work hard for him. We have to wait a couple more years to see it thru, like it or not. The fan base is like the kids, wanting instant gratification. I do think he needs to find a way to stabilize the roster. Sheppard's thing last year was an absolute killer. He needed insurance for that but unfortunately it didn't work out. That's the learning curve for the coach IMO; roster management.

I agree with a lot of that, but what's concerning to me is the level of recruit Cox is chasing and bringing in.

Seems like the "better" recruits are reluctant to pull the trigger to come here, except for Leggett.

Close but no cigar is common for many players you recruit, but you need a certain level of success, and we're not seeing that here at this point.

I do NOT want to see us settle for projects and third and fourth choices...…

We are seeing the results of that with the transfer portal.

Dan could close the deal even though he did make recruiting mistakes.....Cox is making recruiting mistakes along with NOT closing the deal.

[section(105)]

A lot of the transfer issues are just from the coaching change. I know; we thought the concept of promoting Cox was continuity, but it didn't really turn out quite that way. Maybe with Jeff, Cyril, Fatts, but not the rest. Those on the board that said hiring a coach to keep the players was a bad idea were correct. I was wrong, along with many.

That is NOT to say that Cox is a bad coach. To me he's shown the ability to get the team to play well for significant stretches. To get the kids to work hard for him. We have to wait a couple more years to see it thru, like it or not. The fan base is like the kids, wanting instant gratification. I do think he needs to find a way to stabilize the roster. Sheppard's thing last year was an absolute killer. He needed insurance for that but unfortunately it didn't work out. That's the learning curve for the coach IMO; roster management.

......agree and like this post......stability is needed in all aspects of the program, easy to say, hard to achieve.......especially in defining what signature style, both ends of floor we play, and recruit to that needs assessment to fit the style.....has coach developed that yet?

[rambone 78]

105, hard to do with the current revolving door concerning the roster.

That's why I'm extremely wary of signing the Mitchell twins.

Sign both, you get one useful player and one bench warmer.

A waste of a scholly?

And another chance of transferring.

Just what we need. NOT.

[Rhodyhooopz]

Look at the history of the URI program. Bad coach gets fired, find a name replacement who does great, gets to NCAA tourney, Coach leaves for greener pastures because admin can’t commit to what the coach wants. Hire his assistant. Slowly slide back to mediocrity as admin puts all money away and upgrades promised go away. Fans get aggravated and coach stays around for a few more years.

Redo the above cycle.

The only time in our history this didn’t happen was the Penders to Skinner transition. Al did a great job and broke the trends.

Admin didn’t want to pay him so off to Boston college he went. Got us Harrick and the Ryan center. But the rest isn’t pretty until Hurley got here.

[steveystuds06]

PRT, best post of 2020, and not because you said Cox deserves credit, but because you identified the teams limitations and how they TRIED to overcome them.

Bravo, man.

Sounds like you guys think Cox deserved A10 Coach of the Year
We went from NCAA lock to not close to a bid in 3 weeks. Name another team that faltered as badly as we did.

So by losing Cyril and Jeff Dowtin we are in a better place? You should be in politics. These guys did a lot more than just score points. Cyril was never going to be a dominate scorer, but was a great rebounder and is by far the best player we have in the front court. One of the Mitchell twins is a projected backup. Most teams are not actively looking to get him, but want his brother so they will take both as they have to come as a pair. You want players that will leave when things get tough? The Mitchell twins and the mom had better get what they need or will pack their backs in a heartbeat. In terms of Dowtin he was one of the best four year players we had come through the program and although this season was one that had some offensive struggles he played out of position and not to his strength of point guard. I like Berry, but although look like the favorite we yet to sign him and we lost out on many players before we thought we were getting. We are recruiting much lower players recently that obviously don’t stay for a variety of reasons. You think Fatts and Martin are more consistent players offensively that will carry us and play the bigger roles offensively? They have strong offensive games and than look terrible some games. They are both not consistent and have head scratching games. What about are defense? I can’t see that getting better by losing Dowtin and Cyril.

Great post!

Jeff Dowtin and Cyril are two of the best players that ever wore a Rhody jersey.

When you have two senior starters and a player of the year candidate as a junior you need to land a bid. No freaking excuses. What happened to this team wanting to be a championship level program who will one day make the final four?

Jeff Dowtin isn't a freaking 2guard. Our coach decided to let Fatts play hero ball during Jeff's final two years. Taking the ball out of the hands of a player who lead the country in assist to turnover ratio is COACHING.

When Cyril was on the bench our team got absolutely manhandled inside. We couldn't defend, rebound, or block shots. I don't think people realize how screwed we would have been without Cyril. Unless we get an immediate impact big get ready to see the same thing next year.

After Fatts is gone we can no longer rely on Hurley's recruits. Ish looks like a star, but we need more than one.

I'm hoping Cox shuts us all up and lands some studs with these open scholarships.

[Rhodyram]

105, hard to do with the current revolving door concerning the roster.

That's why I'm extremely wary of signing the Mitchell twins.

Sign both, you get one useful player and one bench warmer.

A waste of a scholly?

And another chance of transferring.

Just what we need. NOT.

If the one is going to be good then why not use a scholly on the other- need players on the end of the bench and we seem(esp recently) to have a slot or 2 unfilled.

[Rhodyhooopz]

105, hard to do with the current revolving door concerning the roster.

That's why I'm extremely wary of signing the Mitchell twins.

Sign both, you get one useful player and one bench warmer.

A waste of a scholly?

And another chance of transferring.

Just what we need. NOT.

If the one is going to be good then why not use a scholly on the other- need players on the end of the bench and we seem(esp recently) to have a slot or 2 unfilled.

is the other brother that bad? could he fill a 10-20 minute role off the bench? We havent had a real big man off the bench in a while. Even if he just gets rebounds and commits some fouls he is worth it.

[section(105)]

.......Mitchell twins......is the player that is viewed as the better player to make significant impact a reward and the risk is apparent over the top mother and marginal player coming as a package worth the risk?......I am leaning toward no, to me that does not build stability.......

[DC_Rams]

The worse of the Twins is better than any big on our roster.

[Rhodyhooopz]

The worse of the Twins is better than any big on our roster.

then what are we waiting on. get it done. a 4 man rotation with 3 of them actual big men is something we havent had in a long time

[PeterRamTime]

I think Cox needs a little more credit. Disagree.

Yes we collapsed a little. We collapsed a LOT. Name another team that was a lock for the NCAA then finished as weakly as we did? Last 9 games - all in February and March - the two critical months
UMASS - favored by 15, only won by 6. Game was very close. We did not look much better than UMASS
GW - clobbered GW by 31, but we didn’t play the bench and rest the starters near what I thought we should have
@ Dayton - we got embarrassed and destroyed
St Josephs - closer than should have been in 1st half. SJ without their best player Ryan Daly. Only up 4 at half
@Davidson - lost in a big game
@Fordham - won by a point with miracle rebound and 2 FTs by Jacob Toppin
Saint Louis - we were outplayed at home
Dayton - overmatched
@UMASS - won by a point in a very closest contented game

So we lost 4 of our last 7. We beat Fordham and UMASS by a single point. Easily could have finished losing 6 of last 7 games.




We will never know what we would have done had the coronavirus hadn't derailed the world. Same with all teams

Considering all the roster issues, injuries to Cyril and Jeff towards the end of the year, I think Cox held the group together better than many thought was possible. Disagree

He did prove that with a limited roster he could get them to operate at a high level in what was a pretty tough conference this year. Conference ranked 8th. Most years ranked 7th.

If we are to get the twins in and Berry I could really see things take off. Berry is ranked #394 by 247. Hurley recruited guys ranked 50 to 150 for the most part. We are recruiting worse ranked players these last two years

Do we have a collapse with a team where we don't have to completely rely on Fatts? what does this mean? This team did not completely rely on Fatts. Fatts did not play well the last 7 games when we went 3-4 with 1 point wins over lowly Fordham and a UMASS with 3 freshmen starters

I dont think Jeff and Cyril were the kind of players that you want to rely on to carry you offensively. Both Dowtin and Langevine are All A-10 level players

They are all time greats, but they were obviously more comfortable playing smaller roles. Disagree

As good as they were at what they do, they were lacking in offensive fire power. disagree

Jeff was no, EC or JT.

Cyril was no Hassan.

When things got tough we needed those guys to step outside of their comfort zone and deliver offensively at a level that was too difficult for them. Disagree

For what he had to work with, he did a good job. Disagree

Also, if you're caught up in how there was this big Baron collapse then why was he able to get the guys playing their best ball at the end of last season? We lost 4 of last 7 with 2 of the wins by only a point against UMASS and Fordham. Could easily have finished losing 6 of last 7. We did not look good

As much as there are things to scoff at there are just as many things to be hopeful for.again I disagree.

PRT, best post of 2020, and not because you said Cox deserves credit, but because you identified the teams limitations and how they TRIED to overcome them.

Bravo, man.

Sounds like you guys think Cox deserved A10 Coach of the Year
We went from NCAA lock to not close to a bid in 3 weeks. Name another team that faltered as badly as we did.

You're acting like we went fucking 9-21 5-13!!!!


But I guess to you, and the unrelentingly negative Ramstock we cant say we did anything well and we cant give Cox credit for anything.

I only said we collapsed a little because we cant say we fully collapsed if the season never finished.Therefore I dont think its right to call it a complete collapse.

We beat Fordham on the road by a single point and Jeff was playing with one ankle. Playing with six and a half guys, 1 Junior half a senior and the rest underclassmen. We were up most of the game. Of course it was bad that we let them back in, but we didnt have Cyril to help and one of our freshman won it for us.

Also, St Joe's after we beat them by 18, proved they were tougher without Ryan Daly because they beat Davidson without him. We were facing a St Joe's team where we had no idea how they were going to play without him. Definitely low energy from us, but we made adjustments and pulled away.

UMass. We dominated for most of the game, showing we could score without Fatts against a team that was trending in the right direction, beating VCU and SLU. Terrible last 10 minutes. We still got it done heading into the A-10 tournament with a win over a rival. It was only a very close game at the end.

The first UMass game we led by double digits the whole way and they scored a bunch of garbage points to make it close. We easily looked better than UMass.


So you dont think he held the group together well considering Walker and Sheppards eligibility issues? Hammonds transfer. Tate getting in trouble in a crazy way and the administration forcing him out.

From the start I think the majority of us did not think we would ever get to a point where we would be saying we'd win 10 in a row in february and be a projected 9 seed. Then there were transfers and we still came out playing good basketball. Even Chris Disano, said at in an interview he didnt think this team would be as good as it got. So yes. Cox held the group together better than pretty much anybody thought he could. HE DESERVES CREDIT FOR THAT. He should not get a pass for letting the team fall off like they did. They still reached a point that nobody thought we would get to considering the roster issues.

The A-10 hasn't been ranked 7th in a long time. It's almost always 8th 9th or 10th. It hasn't been 7th since the AAC and NBE formed. NBE 6th, AAC 7th pretty much every year. The A-10 has been as low as 10th, but usually alternates between 8th and 9th with the mountain west. We were pretty much as good as the AAC though. They were a touch better at the top with Wichita State and Cinci. Best the A-10 has been top to bottom in a while.

Yes we relied on Fatts offensively because the ubderclassmen are underdeveloped and Cyril and Jeff never posed a consistent threat scoring wise.

Cyril added his passing ability, yet other than that he didnt get better at anything else. Half the time, you throw it into him nothing good happens because he had hardly any post moves and always brought the ball down to his waist. He got blocked a million times. He also never relied on a mid range jumper. His goal is to overpower people. He did it a lot, but that's not the kind of offensive weapon you want to rely on.


Jeff. He was never as good a three point shooter as most of our other all time greats or scorer. Better defender, absolutely. He played well offensively at times, but we had to force him out of his comfort zone and take on way more offensive responsibility than we would like. How many times did he miss a wide open layup? He would be great at times with his mid range game and go completely away from it for games at a time and force shots. He could have been more aggressive
driving the ball and drawn fouls at the rim at least. He is best when he is managing everyone around him and taking a methodical approach to offense.

So we had a bunch of young guys, Rese being overall a good player, still young and it showed. Never a consistent shooter. Cyril being a bulldozer and Jeff a methodical offensive player, being forced into a JT, EC role that he cannot execute well enough.

"Also, if you're caught up in how there was this big Baron collapse then why was he able to get the guys playing their best ball at the end of last season? *We lost 4 of last 7 with 2 of the wins by only a point against UMASS and Fordham. Could easily have finished losing 6 of last 7. *We did not look good*"

I was talking about Cox's first year where we played our best basketball at the end of the year. Not very baron esque there.

As evidenced by how well he got Rhody to play at the end of 2018-2019 season and how well we were able to play in spite of how limited we were in 2019-2020, I think he has shown he can be a good coach. The roster issues and how we fell apart at the end of the year are concerns, but it's not like we collapsed like Barons teams did with deeper far more experienced teams, who could shoot waaaaaaay better than we could this year. We collapsed with a team that had overachieved up to the point of collapse because we had an offensively challenged incomplete roster.

It sucks that we had an incomplete roster which you have to blame Cox for to some degree at least, but you have to think we easily dance if we have Walker and Sheppard all year like we expected. If we got so close without a complete roster then you have to hold out hope that he could get us there next year if we can get the twins or one of the other freshman bigs or Berry.

Either way, if we dont make it next year we are screwed.

[Rhodyhooopz]

just a question. Since when did Shepard become Michael Jordan? did i miss something? throw out the JUCO stats as no one plays defense in JUCO ball.

His stats at ECU were not great 36.5% FG 33.8% 3P 65.6% FT

And if i am not mistaken not many schools were knocking down the door to get him coming out of JUCO. Besides us his final 4 was Eastern Michigan
North Carolina Central and SMU.

if we took away the name and put this up as a recruit now everyone would say no thanks.
and he is only 6'1" so our starting backcourt next year is 5'8" and 6'1". post up our guards.

[DevRam]

just a question. Since when did Shepard become Michael Jordan? did i miss something? throw out the JUCO stats as no one plays defense in JUCO ball.

His stats at ECU were not great 36.5% FG 33.8% 3P 65.6% FT

And if i am not mistaken not many schools were knocking down the door to get him coming out of JUCO. Besides us his final 4 was Eastern Michigan
North Carolina Central and SMU.

if we took away the name and put this up as a recruit now everyone would say no thanks.
and he is only 6'1" so our starting backcourt next year is 5'8" and 6'1". post up our guards.

Who says he starts? And no one is saying he’s Michael jordan. We know our whole problem was guard depth last year and who fixes that is an experienced guard ready to contribute. Not sure the point your trying to make by put up his FRESHMEN year stats from 4 years ago but hell your also the one who doesn’t understand why he would be valuable either.

[Rhodyhooopz]

Not saying he wont help but if anyone thinks he replaces what Jeff gave you the poor kid doesn't stand a chance.

[ramster]

PRT, best post of 2020, and not because you said Cox deserves credit, but because you identified the teams limitations and how they TRIED to overcome them.

Bravo, man.

Sounds like you guys think Cox deserved A10 Coach of the Year
We went from NCAA lock to not close to a bid in 3 weeks. Name another team that faltered as badly as we did.

You're acting like we went fucking 9-21 5-13!!!!


But I guess to you, and the unrelentingly negative Ramstock we cant say we did anything well and we cant give Cox credit for anything.

I only said we collapsed a little because we cant say we fully collapsed if the season never finished.Therefore I dont think its right to call it a complete collapse.

We beat Fordham on the road by a single point and Jeff was playing with one ankle. Playing with six and a half guys, 1 Junior half a senior and the rest underclassmen. We were up most of the game. Of course it was bad that we let them back in, but we didnt have Cyril to help and one of our freshman won it for us.

Also, St Joe's after we beat them by 18, proved they were tougher without Ryan Daly because they beat Davidson without him. We were facing a St Joe's team where we had no idea how they were going to play without him. Definitely low energy from us, but we made adjustments and pulled away.

UMass. We dominated for most of the game, showing we could score without Fatts against a team that was trending in the right direction, beating VCU and SLU. Terrible last 10 minutes. We still got it done heading into the A-10 tournament with a win over a rival. It was only a very close game at the end.

The first UMass game we led by double digits the whole way and they scored a bunch of garbage points to make it close. We easily looked better than UMass.


So you dont think he held the group together well considering Walker and Sheppards eligibility issues? Hammonds transfer. Tate getting in trouble in a crazy way and the administration forcing him out.

From the start I think the majority of us did not think we would ever get to a point where we would be saying we'd win 10 in a row in february and be a projected 9 seed. Then there were transfers and we still came out playing good basketball. Even Chris Disano, said at in an interview he didnt think this team would be as good as it got. So yes. Cox held the group together better than pretty much anybody thought he could. HE DESERVES CREDIT FOR THAT. He should not get a pass for letting the team fall off like they did. They still reached a point that nobody thought we would get to considering the roster issues.

The A-10 hasn't been ranked 7th in a long time. It's almost always 8th 9th or 10th. It hasn't been 7th since the AAC and NBE formed. NBE 6th, AAC 7th pretty much every year. The A-10 has been as low as 10th, but usually alternates between 8th and 9th with the mountain west. We were pretty much as good as the AAC though. They were a touch better at the top with Wichita State and Cinci. Best the A-10 has been top to bottom in a while.

Yes we relied on Fatts offensively because the ubderclassmen are underdeveloped and Cyril and Jeff never posed a consistent threat scoring wise.

Cyril added his passing ability, yet other than that he didnt get better at anything else. Half the time, you throw it into him nothing good happens because he had hardly any post moves and always brought the ball down to his waist. He got blocked a million times. He also never relied on a mid range jumper. His goal is to overpower people. He did it a lot, but that's not the kind of offensive weapon you want to rely on.


Jeff. He was never as good a three point shooter as most of our other all time greats or scorer. Better defender, absolutely. He played well offensively at times, but we had to force him out of his comfort zone and take on way more offensive responsibility than we would like. How many times did he miss a wide open layup? He would be great at times with his mid range game and go completely away from it for games at a time and force shots. He could have been more aggressive
driving the ball and drawn fouls at the rim at least. He is best when he is managing everyone around him and taking a methodical approach to offense.

So we had a bunch of young guys, Rese being overall a good player, still young and it showed. Never a consistent shooter. Cyril being a bulldozer and Jeff a methodical offensive player, being forced into a JT, EC role that he cannot execute well enough.

"Also, if you're caught up in how there was this big Baron collapse then why was he able to get the guys playing their best ball at the end of last season? *We lost 4 of last 7 with 2 of the wins by only a point against UMASS and Fordham. Could easily have finished losing 6 of last 7. *We did not look good*"

I was talking about Cox's first year where we played our best basketball at the end of the year. Not very baron esque there.

As evidenced by how well he got Rhody to play at the end of 2018-2019 season and how well we were able to play in spite of how limited we were in 2019-2020, I think he has shown he can be a good coach. The roster issues and how we fell apart at the end of the year are concerns, but it's not like we collapsed like Barons teams did with deeper far more experienced teams, who could shoot waaaaaaay better than we could this year. We collapsed with a team that had overachieved up to the point of collapse because we had an offensively challenged incomplete roster.

It sucks that we had an incomplete roster which you have to blame Cox for to some degree at least, but you have to think we easily dance if we have Walker and Sheppard all year like we expected. If we got so close without a complete roster then you have to hold out hope that he could get us there next year if we can get the twins or one of the other freshman bigs or Berry.

Either way, if we dont make it next year we are screwed.

Here are stats for the last 7 games when we went 3-4 and easily could have gone 1-6.
Russell was the worst shooter. So I don’t get all this talk that we had to go to Russell because others were not carrying their weight.

And I’ll never understand the Coaching decision to play Russell, Dowtin and Martin so many minutes in the gigantic blow out of GW. Especially if so many are going to use the excuse that the guys were too tired.

[RamStock]

PRT, best post of 2020, and not because you said Cox deserves credit, but because you identified the teams limitations and how they TRIED to overcome them.

Bravo, man.

Sounds like you guys think Cox deserved A10 Coach of the Year
We went from NCAA lock to not close to a bid in 3 weeks. Name another team that faltered as badly as we did.

You're acting like we went fucking 9-21 5-13!!!!


But I guess to you, and the unrelentingly negative Ramstock we cant say we did anything well and we cant give Cox credit for anything.

I only said we collapsed a little because we cant say we fully collapsed if the season never finished.Therefore I dont think its right to call it a complete collapse.

We beat Fordham on the road by a single point and Jeff was playing with one ankle. Playing with six and a half guys, 1 Junior half a senior and the rest underclassmen. We were up most of the game. Of course it was bad that we let them back in, but we didnt have Cyril to help and one of our freshman won it for us.

Also, St Joe's after we beat them by 18, proved they were tougher without Ryan Daly because they beat Davidson without him. We were facing a St Joe's team where we had no idea how they were going to play without him. Definitely low energy from us, but we made adjustments and pulled away.

UMass. We dominated for most of the game, showing we could score without Fatts against a team that was trending in the right direction, beating VCU and SLU. Terrible last 10 minutes. We still got it done heading into the A-10 tournament with a win over a rival. It was only a very close game at the end.

The first UMass game we led by double digits the whole way and they scored a bunch of garbage points to make it close. We easily looked better than UMass.


So you dont think he held the group together well considering Walker and Sheppards eligibility issues? Hammonds transfer. Tate getting in trouble in a crazy way and the administration forcing him out.

From the start I think the majority of us did not think we would ever get to a point where we would be saying we'd win 10 in a row in february and be a projected 9 seed. Then there were transfers and we still came out playing good basketball. Even Chris Disano, said at in an interview he didnt think this team would be as good as it got. So yes. Cox held the group together better than pretty much anybody thought he could. HE DESERVES CREDIT FOR THAT. He should not get a pass for letting the team fall off like they did. They still reached a point that nobody thought we would get to considering the roster issues.

The A-10 hasn't been ranked 7th in a long time. It's almost always 8th 9th or 10th. It hasn't been 7th since the AAC and NBE formed. NBE 6th, AAC 7th pretty much every year. The A-10 has been as low as 10th, but usually alternates between 8th and 9th with the mountain west. We were pretty much as good as the AAC though. They were a touch better at the top with Wichita State and Cinci. Best the A-10 has been top to bottom in a while.

Yes we relied on Fatts offensively because the ubderclassmen are underdeveloped and Cyril and Jeff never posed a consistent threat scoring wise.

Cyril added his passing ability, yet other than that he didnt get better at anything else. Half the time, you throw it into him nothing good happens because he had hardly any post moves and always brought the ball down to his waist. He got blocked a million times. He also never relied on a mid range jumper. His goal is to overpower people. He did it a lot, but that's not the kind of offensive weapon you want to rely on.


Jeff. He was never as good a three point shooter as most of our other all time greats or scorer. Better defender, absolutely. He played well offensively at times, but we had to force him out of his comfort zone and take on way more offensive responsibility than we would like. How many times did he miss a wide open layup? He would be great at times with his mid range game and go completely away from it for games at a time and force shots. He could have been more aggressive
driving the ball and drawn fouls at the rim at least. He is best when he is managing everyone around him and taking a methodical approach to offense.

So we had a bunch of young guys, Rese being overall a good player, still young and it showed. Never a consistent shooter. Cyril being a bulldozer and Jeff a methodical offensive player, being forced into a JT, EC role that he cannot execute well enough.

"Also, if you're caught up in how there was this big Baron collapse then why was he able to get the guys playing their best ball at the end of last season? *We lost 4 of last 7 with 2 of the wins by only a point against UMASS and Fordham. Could easily have finished losing 6 of last 7. *We did not look good*"

I was talking about Cox's first year where we played our best basketball at the end of the year. Not very baron esque there.

As evidenced by how well he got Rhody to play at the end of 2018-2019 season and how well we were able to play in spite of how limited we were in 2019-2020, I think he has shown he can be a good coach. The roster issues and how we fell apart at the end of the year are concerns, but it's not like we collapsed like Barons teams did with deeper far more experienced teams, who could shoot waaaaaaay better than we could this year. We collapsed with a team that had overachieved up to the point of collapse because we had an offensively challenged incomplete roster.

It sucks that we had an incomplete roster which you have to blame Cox for to some degree at least, but you have to think we easily dance if we have Walker and Sheppard all year like we expected. If we got so close without a complete roster then you have to hold out hope that he could get us there next year if we can get the twins or one of the other freshman bigs or Berry.

Either way, if we dont make it next year we are screwed.

Relax PeterRam. I will just say we are in great shape and expect us to push for the Sweet 16 next year. Although it is unrealistic to make the tourney at URI every year the hope for me and many is to make the NCAA tournament. For some making the NIT or being over .500 is fine. As much you hate when some of us complain it is also tough to stomach when some of you talk about how great the talent is coming back next year, that we are a tournament team next year, the schedule is very good, etc. I find it funny that all the people who went crazy when we got some of the guys like Hammond, Long and others now cast them off as bad players which means we did a bad job of recruiting or explaining to them what the plan was for each of them. Let’s be honest it isn’t all doom and it isn’t that we are a team ready for the tournament for next year. It is somewhere in the middle. There are 4 open spots so let’s see what we do with them. If you look back I have never said Cox should be fired. I definitely criticized at times, but believe he will certainly get 4 and most likely 5.

[SGreenwell]

just a question. Since when did Shepard become Michael Jordan? did i miss something? throw out the JUCO stats as no one plays defense in JUCO ball.

His stats at ECU were not great 36.5% FG 33.8% 3P 65.6% FT

And if i am not mistaken not many schools were knocking down the door to get him coming out of JUCO. Besides us his final 4 was Eastern Michigan
North Carolina Central and SMU.

if we took away the name and put this up as a recruit now everyone would say no thanks.
and he is only 6'1" so our starting backcourt next year is 5'8" and 6'1". post up our guards.

I don't think anyone sees Sheppard as the second coming of Jordan, but, he was expected to fill a role that was otherwise absent on this roster - spot up 3-point shooter. Like, the fear coming into the season was that teams would just pack the paint, clogging it for Fatts and Cyril, and I think that's what happened in the games we lost. Players like Martin, Dotwin, Harris, and Tate and Hammond when they were briefly on the team, couldn't shoot well enough or consistently enough from range to open the floor up.

For 2020-21, it sounds like Leggett and Sheppard might be those kind of players. Will that make up for the loss of Cyril inside, and the steady playmaking of Dotwin? Hard to say. It honestly wouldn't surprise me if URI won anywhere from 10 to 25 games next years. Even if the roster might be less talented overall, the fit of the players could be better... or, worse.

[ramster]

Sounds like you guys think Cox deserved A10 Coach of the Year
We went from NCAA lock to not close to a bid in 3 weeks. Name another team that faltered as badly as we did.

You're acting like we went fucking 9-21 5-13!!!!


But I guess to you, and the unrelentingly negative Ramstock we cant say we did anything well and we cant give Cox credit for anything.

I only said we collapsed a little because we cant say we fully collapsed if the season never finished.Therefore I dont think its right to call it a complete collapse.

We beat Fordham on the road by a single point and Jeff was playing with one ankle. Playing with six and a half guys, 1 Junior half a senior and the rest underclassmen. We were up most of the game. Of course it was bad that we let them back in, but we didnt have Cyril to help and one of our freshman won it for us.

Also, St Joe's after we beat them by 18, proved they were tougher without Ryan Daly because they beat Davidson without him. We were facing a St Joe's team where we had no idea how they were going to play without him. Definitely low energy from us, but we made adjustments and pulled away.

UMass. We dominated for most of the game, showing we could score without Fatts against a team that was trending in the right direction, beating VCU and SLU. Terrible last 10 minutes. We still got it done heading into the A-10 tournament with a win over a rival. It was only a very close game at the end.

The first UMass game we led by double digits the whole way and they scored a bunch of garbage points to make it close. We easily looked better than UMass.


So you dont think he held the group together well considering Walker and Sheppards eligibility issues? Hammonds transfer. Tate getting in trouble in a crazy way and the administration forcing him out.

From the start I think the majority of us did not think we would ever get to a point where we would be saying we'd win 10 in a row in february and be a projected 9 seed. Then there were transfers and we still came out playing good basketball. Even Chris Disano, said at in an interview he didnt think this team would be as good as it got. So yes. Cox held the group together better than pretty much anybody thought he could. HE DESERVES CREDIT FOR THAT. He should not get a pass for letting the team fall off like they did. They still reached a point that nobody thought we would get to considering the roster issues.

The A-10 hasn't been ranked 7th in a long time. It's almost always 8th 9th or 10th. It hasn't been 7th since the AAC and NBE formed. NBE 6th, AAC 7th pretty much every year. The A-10 has been as low as 10th, but usually alternates between 8th and 9th with the mountain west. We were pretty much as good as the AAC though. They were a touch better at the top with Wichita State and Cinci. Best the A-10 has been top to bottom in a while.

Yes we relied on Fatts offensively because the ubderclassmen are underdeveloped and Cyril and Jeff never posed a consistent threat scoring wise.

Cyril added his passing ability, yet other than that he didnt get better at anything else. Half the time, you throw it into him nothing good happens because he had hardly any post moves and always brought the ball down to his waist. He got blocked a million times. He also never relied on a mid range jumper. His goal is to overpower people. He did it a lot, but that's not the kind of offensive weapon you want to rely on.


Jeff. He was never as good a three point shooter as most of our other all time greats or scorer. Better defender, absolutely. He played well offensively at times, but we had to force him out of his comfort zone and take on way more offensive responsibility than we would like. How many times did he miss a wide open layup? He would be great at times with his mid range game and go completely away from it for games at a time and force shots. He could have been more aggressive
driving the ball and drawn fouls at the rim at least. He is best when he is managing everyone around him and taking a methodical approach to offense.

So we had a bunch of young guys, Rese being overall a good player, still young and it showed. Never a consistent shooter. Cyril being a bulldozer and Jeff a methodical offensive player, being forced into a JT, EC role that he cannot execute well enough.

"Also, if you're caught up in how there was this big Baron collapse then why was he able to get the guys playing their best ball at the end of last season? *We lost 4 of last 7 with 2 of the wins by only a point against UMASS and Fordham. Could easily have finished losing 6 of last 7. *We did not look good*"

I was talking about Cox's first year where we played our best basketball at the end of the year. Not very baron esque there.

As evidenced by how well he got Rhody to play at the end of 2018-2019 season and how well we were able to play in spite of how limited we were in 2019-2020, I think he has shown he can be a good coach. The roster issues and how we fell apart at the end of the year are concerns, but it's not like we collapsed like Barons teams did with deeper far more experienced teams, who could shoot waaaaaaay better than we could this year. We collapsed with a team that had overachieved up to the point of collapse because we had an offensively challenged incomplete roster.

It sucks that we had an incomplete roster which you have to blame Cox for to some degree at least, but you have to think we easily dance if we have Walker and Sheppard all year like we expected. If we got so close without a complete roster then you have to hold out hope that he could get us there next year if we can get the twins or one of the other freshman bigs or Berry.

Either way, if we dont make it next year we are screwed.

Relax PeterRam. I will just say we are in great shape and expect us to push for the Sweet 16 next year. Although it is unrealistic to make the tourney at URI every year the hope for me and many is to make the NCAA tournament. For some making the NIT or being over .500 is fine. As much you hate when some of us complain it is also tough to stomach when some of you talk about how great the talent is coming back next year, that we are a tournament team next year, the schedule is very good, etc. I find it funny that all the people who went crazy when we got some of the guys like Hammond, Long and others now cast them off as bad players which means we did a bad job of recruiting or explaining to them what the plan was for each of them. Let’s be honest it isn’t all doom and it isn’t that we are a team ready for the tournament for next year. It is somewhere in the middle. There are 4 open spots so let’s see what we do with them. If you look back I have never said Cox should be fired. I definitely criticized at times, but believe he will certainly get 4 and most likely 5.

A10 Rankings
2019-20-8th
2018-19-12th
2017-18-11th
2016-17-8th
2015-16-7th
2014-15-7th
2013-14-6th
2012-13-7th
2011-12-7th
2010-11-9th
2009-10-7th
2008-9-8th
2007-8-7th
2006-7-10th
2005-6-11th

[ramster]

You're acting like we went fucking 9-21 5-13!!!!


But I guess to you, and the unrelentingly negative Ramstock we cant say we did anything well and we cant give Cox credit for anything.

I only said we collapsed a little because we cant say we fully collapsed if the season never finished.Therefore I dont think its right to call it a complete collapse.

We beat Fordham on the road by a single point and Jeff was playing with one ankle. Playing with six and a half guys, 1 Junior half a senior and the rest underclassmen. We were up most of the game. Of course it was bad that we let them back in, but we didnt have Cyril to help and one of our freshman won it for us.

Also, St Joe's after we beat them by 18, proved they were tougher without Ryan Daly because they beat Davidson without him. We were facing a St Joe's team where we had no idea how they were going to play without him. Definitely low energy from us, but we made adjustments and pulled away.

UMass. We dominated for most of the game, showing we could score without Fatts against a team that was trending in the right direction, beating VCU and SLU. Terrible last 10 minutes. We still got it done heading into the A-10 tournament with a win over a rival. It was only a very close game at the end.

The first UMass game we led by double digits the whole way and they scored a bunch of garbage points to make it close. We easily looked better than UMass.


So you dont think he held the group together well considering Walker and Sheppards eligibility issues? Hammonds transfer. Tate getting in trouble in a crazy way and the administration forcing him out.

From the start I think the majority of us did not think we would ever get to a point where we would be saying we'd win 10 in a row in february and be a projected 9 seed. Then there were transfers and we still came out playing good basketball. Even Chris Disano, said at in an interview he didnt think this team would be as good as it got. So yes. Cox held the group together better than pretty much anybody thought he could. HE DESERVES CREDIT FOR THAT. He should not get a pass for letting the team fall off like they did. They still reached a point that nobody thought we would get to considering the roster issues.

The A-10 hasn't been ranked 7th in a long time. It's almost always 8th 9th or 10th. It hasn't been 7th since the AAC and NBE formed. NBE 6th, AAC 7th pretty much every year. The A-10 has been as low as 10th, but usually alternates between 8th and 9th with the mountain west. We were pretty much as good as the AAC though. They were a touch better at the top with Wichita State and Cinci. Best the A-10 has been top to bottom in a while.

Yes we relied on Fatts offensively because the ubderclassmen are underdeveloped and Cyril and Jeff never posed a consistent threat scoring wise.

Cyril added his passing ability, yet other than that he didnt get better at anything else. Half the time, you throw it into him nothing good happens because he had hardly any post moves and always brought the ball down to his waist. He got blocked a million times. He also never relied on a mid range jumper. His goal is to overpower people. He did it a lot, but that's not the kind of offensive weapon you want to rely on.


Jeff. He was never as good a three point shooter as most of our other all time greats or scorer. Better defender, absolutely. He played well offensively at times, but we had to force him out of his comfort zone and take on way more offensive responsibility than we would like. How many times did he miss a wide open layup? He would be great at times with his mid range game and go completely away from it for games at a time and force shots. He could have been more aggressive
driving the ball and drawn fouls at the rim at least. He is best when he is managing everyone around him and taking a methodical approach to offense.

So we had a bunch of young guys, Rese being overall a good player, still young and it showed. Never a consistent shooter. Cyril being a bulldozer and Jeff a methodical offensive player, being forced into a JT, EC role that he cannot execute well enough.

"Also, if you're caught up in how there was this big Baron collapse then why was he able to get the guys playing their best ball at the end of last season? *We lost 4 of last 7 with 2 of the wins by only a point against UMASS and Fordham. Could easily have finished losing 6 of last 7. *We did not look good*"

I was talking about Cox's first year where we played our best basketball at the end of the year. Not very baron esque there.

As evidenced by how well he got Rhody to play at the end of 2018-2019 season and how well we were able to play in spite of how limited we were in 2019-2020, I think he has shown he can be a good coach. The roster issues and how we fell apart at the end of the year are concerns, but it's not like we collapsed like Barons teams did with deeper far more experienced teams, who could shoot waaaaaaay better than we could this year. We collapsed with a team that had overachieved up to the point of collapse because we had an offensively challenged incomplete roster.

It sucks that we had an incomplete roster which you have to blame Cox for to some degree at least, but you have to think we easily dance if we have Walker and Sheppard all year like we expected. If we got so close without a complete roster then you have to hold out hope that he could get us there next year if we can get the twins or one of the other freshman bigs or Berry.

Either way, if we dont make it next year we are screwed.

Relax PeterRam. I will just say we are in great shape and expect us to push for the Sweet 16 next year. Although it is unrealistic to make the tourney at URI every year the hope for me and many is to make the NCAA tournament. For some making the NIT or being over .500 is fine. As much you hate when some of us complain it is also tough to stomach when some of you talk about how great the talent is coming back next year, that we are a tournament team next year, the schedule is very good, etc. I find it funny that all the people who went crazy when we got some of the guys like Hammond, Long and others now cast them off as bad players which means we did a bad job of recruiting or explaining to them what the plan was for each of them. Let’s be honest it isn’t all doom and it isn’t that we are a team ready for the tournament for next year. It is somewhere in the middle. There are 4 open spots so let’s see what we do with them. If you look back I have never said Cox should be fired. I definitely criticized at times, but believe he will certainly get 4 and most likely 5.

A10 Rankings
2019-20-8th
2018-19-12th
2017-18-11th
2016-17-8th
2015-16-7th
2014-15-7th
2013-14-6th
2012-13-7th
2011-12-7th
2010-11-9th
2009-10-7th
2008-9-8th
2007-8-7th
2006-7-10th
2005-6-11th

American AAC Rankings
2019-20-7th
2018-19-6th
2017-18-7th
2016-17-7th
2015-16-7th
2014-15-8th
2013-14-8th
2012-13-8th

New Big East has never been 6th and certainly not every year.
Worst for BE was 5th in 2018-2019

BE Rankings
2019-20-1st
2018-19-5th
2017-18-2nd
2016-17-3rd
2015-16-4th
2014-15-2nd
2013-14-4th
2012-13-3rd

[Iggy1979]

Are these long posts really necessary?

[steveystuds06]

Sounds like you guys think Cox deserved A10 Coach of the Year
We went from NCAA lock to not close to a bid in 3 weeks. Name another team that faltered as badly as we did.

You're acting like we went fucking 9-21 5-13!!!!


But I guess to you, and the unrelentingly negative Ramstock we cant say we did anything well and we cant give Cox credit for anything.

I only said we collapsed a little because we cant say we fully collapsed if the season never finished.Therefore I dont think its right to call it a complete collapse.

We beat Fordham on the road by a single point and Jeff was playing with one ankle. Playing with six and a half guys, 1 Junior half a senior and the rest underclassmen. We were up most of the game. Of course it was bad that we let them back in, but we didnt have Cyril to help and one of our freshman won it for us.

Also, St Joe's after we beat them by 18, proved they were tougher without Ryan Daly because they beat Davidson without him. We were facing a St Joe's team where we had no idea how they were going to play without him. Definitely low energy from us, but we made adjustments and pulled away.

UMass. We dominated for most of the game, showing we could score without Fatts against a team that was trending in the right direction, beating VCU and SLU. Terrible last 10 minutes. We still got it done heading into the A-10 tournament with a win over a rival. It was only a very close game at the end.

The first UMass game we led by double digits the whole way and they scored a bunch of garbage points to make it close. We easily looked better than UMass.


So you dont think he held the group together well considering Walker and Sheppards eligibility issues? Hammonds transfer. Tate getting in trouble in a crazy way and the administration forcing him out.

From the start I think the majority of us did not think we would ever get to a point where we would be saying we'd win 10 in a row in february and be a projected 9 seed. Then there were transfers and we still came out playing good basketball. Even Chris Disano, said at in an interview he didnt think this team would be as good as it got. So yes. Cox held the group together better than pretty much anybody thought he could. HE DESERVES CREDIT FOR THAT. He should not get a pass for letting the team fall off like they did. They still reached a point that nobody thought we would get to considering the roster issues.

The A-10 hasn't been ranked 7th in a long time. It's almost always 8th 9th or 10th. It hasn't been 7th since the AAC and NBE formed. NBE 6th, AAC 7th pretty much every year. The A-10 has been as low as 10th, but usually alternates between 8th and 9th with the mountain west. We were pretty much as good as the AAC though. They were a touch better at the top with Wichita State and Cinci. Best the A-10 has been top to bottom in a while.

Yes we relied on Fatts offensively because the ubderclassmen are underdeveloped and Cyril and Jeff never posed a consistent threat scoring wise.

Cyril added his passing ability, yet other than that he didnt get better at anything else. Half the time, you throw it into him nothing good happens because he had hardly any post moves and always brought the ball down to his waist. He got blocked a million times. He also never relied on a mid range jumper. His goal is to overpower people. He did it a lot, but that's not the kind of offensive weapon you want to rely on.


Jeff. He was never as good a three point shooter as most of our other all time greats or scorer. Better defender, absolutely. He played well offensively at times, but we had to force him out of his comfort zone and take on way more offensive responsibility than we would like. How many times did he miss a wide open layup? He would be great at times with his mid range game and go completely away from it for games at a time and force shots. He could have been more aggressive
driving the ball and drawn fouls at the rim at least. He is best when he is managing everyone around him and taking a methodical approach to offense.

So we had a bunch of young guys, Rese being overall a good player, still young and it showed. Never a consistent shooter. Cyril being a bulldozer and Jeff a methodical offensive player, being forced into a JT, EC role that he cannot execute well enough.

"Also, if you're caught up in how there was this big Baron collapse then why was he able to get the guys playing their best ball at the end of last season? *We lost 4 of last 7 with 2 of the wins by only a point against UMASS and Fordham. Could easily have finished losing 6 of last 7. *We did not look good*"

I was talking about Cox's first year where we played our best basketball at the end of the year. Not very baron esque there.

As evidenced by how well he got Rhody to play at the end of 2018-2019 season and how well we were able to play in spite of how limited we were in 2019-2020, I think he has shown he can be a good coach. The roster issues and how we fell apart at the end of the year are concerns, but it's not like we collapsed like Barons teams did with deeper far more experienced teams, who could shoot waaaaaaay better than we could this year. We collapsed with a team that had overachieved up to the point of collapse because we had an offensively challenged incomplete roster.

It sucks that we had an incomplete roster which you have to blame Cox for to some degree at least, but you have to think we easily dance if we have Walker and Sheppard all year like we expected. If we got so close without a complete roster then you have to hold out hope that he could get us there next year if we can get the twins or one of the other freshman bigs or Berry.

Either way, if we dont make it next year we are screwed.

Relax PeterRam. I will just say we are in great shape and expect us to push for the Sweet 16 next year. Although it is unrealistic to make the tourney at URI every year the hope for me and many is to make the NCAA tournament. For some making the NIT or being over .500 is fine. As much you hate when some of us complain it is also tough to stomach when some of you talk about how great the talent is coming back next year, that we are a tournament team next year, the schedule is very good, etc. I find it funny that all the people who went crazy when we got some of the guys like Hammond, Long and others now cast them off as bad players which means we did a bad job of recruiting or explaining to them what the plan was for each of them. Let’s be honest it isn’t all doom and it isn’t that we are a team ready for the tournament for next year. It is somewhere in the middle. There are 4 open spots so let’s see what we do with them. If you look back I have never said Cox should be fired. I definitely criticized at times, but believe he will certainly get 4 and most likely 5.

No one has said Cox should be fired. At least I haven’t seen it.

I hope I’m wrong, but unless Cox is bringing in a stud big man Idk how we can overcome our weak frontcourt next year.

[Bos8]

247 player rankings
#345 Leggett - signed. Should be higher than #345 in my opinion. He is far better than Wood. Will start for URI.
#276 Elijah Wood - signed. This is too high for Wood who has dropped Over past two years. Don’t see him ever starting. Was never a 4 star, should be a 2-star.

I have seen Leggett and Wood play many times live. Leggett could start as a freshman. Wood will struggle for minutes. They are not close.

This is a major problem. When guys get on message boards/social media and make proclamations that guys will start/get major playing time. And when it doesn't instantly happen, the player (or their parents, or their old coach, or their "handler") get restless. Think that parents/aau coaches/players themselves don't read the board? Unrealistic fan expectations can cause inflated sense of worth.
Have you ever seen freshman practice. I've been at practices where top ranked freshman couldn't look more lost. Whether it is the intensity of the practice, the lack of particular skills, confusion on the amount of x and o's, learning a different system etc etc. There are a myriad of reasons why freshman struggle. But when a kid doesn't "Trust the process" because his head has been filled about how things will be given to him, that is where the disconnect happens.

And I don't mean to jump on you ramster. You may very well be right. I remember leaving ISH's AAU practice last spring very impressed, and I was excited when we signed him. He certainly could start. But a definitive statement before a guy even walks across his high school stage throws me off. I remember people on this message board (Ok maybe it wasn't this message board, it may have been the Projo board) stating that Jonathan Cruz should start at PG (!) before the season started! What if we land a stud 6'4 grad transfer? Ish would be competing in the back court with 3 guys who have graduated high school a minimum four years before he did and have adjusted to college practice, college tempo, the weight room, college work, film etc etc.

[hrstrat57]

Well Bos8 many of our absurdly prolific posters have insisted that the targets of their love/hate don’t read what is said about them here on the forums.

They do read it, their coaches read it, their parents and families read it and their friends read it. Relevant media members read it. All of it.

Carry on...

[DC_Rams]

247 player rankings
#345 Leggett - signed. Should be higher than #345 in my opinion. He is far better than Wood. Will start for URI.
#276 Elijah Wood - signed. This is too high for Wood who has dropped Over past two years. Don’t see him ever starting. Was never a 4 star, should be a 2-star.

I have seen Leggett and Wood play many times live. Leggett could start as a freshman. Wood will struggle for minutes. They are not close.

This is a major problem. When guys get on message boards/social media and make proclamations that guys will start/get major playing time. And when it doesn't instantly happen, the player (or their parents, or their old coach, or their "handler") get restless. Think that parents/aau coaches/players themselves don't read the board? Unrealistic fan expectations can cause inflated sense of worth.
Have you ever seen freshman practice. I've been at practices where top ranked freshman couldn't look more lost. Whether it is the intensity of the practice, the lack of particular skills, confusion on the amount of x and o's, learning a different system etc etc. There are a myriad of reasons why freshman struggle. But when a kid doesn't "Trust the process" because his head has been filled about how things will be given to him, that is where the disconnect happens.

And I don't mean to jump on you ramster. You may very well be right. I remember leaving ISH's AAU practice last spring very impressed, and I was excited when we signed him. He certainly could start. But a definitive statement before a guy even walks across his high school stage throws me off. I remember people on this message board (Ok maybe it wasn't this message board, it may have been the Projo board) stating that Jonathan Cruz should start at PG (!) before the season started! What if we land a stud 6'4 grad transfer? Ish would be competing in the back court with 3 guys who have graduated high school a minimum four years before he did and have adjusted to college practice, college tempo, the weight room, college work, film etc etc.

Encore, Bos!!!

[rambone 78]

This program and this board need some positive news.

Is that too much to ask?

[wgracie99]

This program and this board need some positive news.

Is that too much to ask?

That may be tough to get right now with no visits able to be taken. Will the Mitchell twins commit without coming for a visit? Berry at least has visited so he may commit. Maybe a transfer that has been here before would commit without a visit.

[URI_05]

This program and this board need some positive news.

Is that too much to ask?

That may be tough to get right now with no visits able to be taken. Will the Mitchell twins commit without coming for a visit? Berry at least has visited so he may commit. Maybe a transfer that has been here before would commit without a visit.

PC has already signed two transfers during this lock down. Can’t wait with 4 open slots.

[DC_Rams]

This program and this board need some positive news.

Is that too much to ask?

That may be tough to get right now with no visits able to be taken. Will the Mitchell twins commit without coming for a visit? Berry at least has visited so he may commit. Maybe a transfer that has been here before would commit without a visit.

PC has already signed two transfers during this lock down. Can’t wait with 4 open slots.

Those guys already knew that’s where they wanted to go.

[Rhodyhooopz]

So DC none of these kids transferring want to come to URI according to your previous statement

[theblueram]

This isn't looking good.

[Billyboy78]

So DC none of these kids transferring want to come to URI according to your previous statement

If you go by DC's reasoning, apparently not.

[DC_Rams]

What?

I’m saying they decided on a school before the transfer portal was on full spin.

Don’t put words in my mouth.

[Rhodyhooopz]

Not putting words in your mouth but transfer kids are committing all over the place this weekend. Not one of these kids in the portal has URI as their choice? That’s a concern for me. You can’t tell me there aren’t kids the staff doesn’t want

[rhodyblue12]

Uhhh - I think what he meant was that the kids who decided so quickly already knew where they were going.
Not that zero kids in the portal are interested in URI.
People need to relax a little.

[RamStock]

Not putting words in your mouth but transfer kids are committing all over the place this weekend. Not one of these kids in the portal has URI as their choice? That’s a concern for me. You can’t tell me there aren’t kids the staff doesn’t want

Devin Gage and his 4.5 pts game from DePaul has one more year left and was linked to URI

[DC_Rams]

Uhhh - I think what he meant was that the kids who decided so quickly already knew where they were going.
Not that zero kids in the portal are interested in URI.
People need to relax a little.

Thanks man, people are getting beside themselves.

[PCFriars]

Devin Gage can play. He’d be a good addition

[RF1]

With the current state of things, it would appear that this may have been one of the worst years ever to have several in season outbound transfers.

[phipsiGD'11]

We are not getting the same level recruits now that Hurley left.

Hurley left for many reasons, one of them being that our University does not invest into the basketball program at a level that can compete with other programs.

We want recruits from the 50-100 range? Have a coach with the profile of Hurley. Want to keep a coach with the profile of Hurley? Invest in the program.

Some of you expect Cox to perform on the same level as Hurley. He has less resources (I say less resources because we are no longer able to attract Assistant Coaches at the level we were before. Not to say that TJ and Austin can't become great in their own right but currently they are not). We expect him to perform at the highest level of the A10 yet he is not given the tools to do that. I would say based on what he is given to work with he somewhat overachieved these past 2 years. However that still doesn't meet my expectations for the program which is NCAA or Bust.

Why do we not invest more into the program? I'll leave that for our University leaders to answer.

[section(105)]

........agreed, however the appreciation email just sent from Athletics listed all the achievements of this past season, and seems to suggest, to me, staying the current course is where we are at......

[rhodyfan3000]

I got to say, it is way too quiet on the recruiting front, with two starters, and three of the 8 man rotation, leaving town.

I understand that we cannot possibly know what is going on, but if April 15 comes around and Cox scores at least 3 impact players, we roll on.

If April 15 comes, and nothing. Then April 16. Then April 30. We're basically screwed. The NCAA just opened up pandora's box with this new rule change. Next year will be a transition year that will tell us a lot about exactly what is the future of this program. We don't capitalize year one, it's only going to get worse from there.

[reef]

How much recruiting can we do though because of the virus ??

[adam914]

We are not getting the same level recruits now that Hurley left.

Hurley left for many reasons, one of them being that our University does not invest into the basketball program at a level that can compete with other programs.

We want recruits from the 50-100 range? Have a coach with the profile of Hurley. Want to keep a coach with the profile of Hurley? Invest in the program.

Some of you expect Cox to perform on the same level as Hurley. He has less resources (I say less resources because we are no longer able to attract Assistant Coaches at the level we were before. Not to say that TJ and Austin can't become great in their own right but currently they are not). We expect him to perform at the highest level of the A10 yet he is not given the tools to do that. I would say based on what he is given to work with he somewhat overachieved these past 2 years. However that still doesn't meet my expectations for the program which is NCAA or Bust.

Why do we not invest more into the program? I'll leave that for our University leaders to answer.

Agree with a lot of this, we definitely are not investing in the program as much as we need to. But Cox does have to take some responsibility for that to. Hurley was able to do what was necessary to get that status quo to finally change and get more resources (still not enough, but more). It appears so far that Cox does not have that same ability. We need the type of coach here that is going to actually push the administration to do more.