Jacob Toppin Transferring....

[Billyboy78]

Slide into mediocrity? We have the highest rated front court (assuming transfer rule passes) ever at URI. JH, Walker and the twins is a huge advantage over almost any team in the A10 and should give us the guys to compete with Dayton and St Louis. JH was the only guy in that Dayton game who looked promising.

We have 3 freshmen guards who look extremely talented. We have Fatts. We have Shepherd and Martin who have shown the ability to play at the college level. I’m not worried about sliding to mediocrity. It’s a bump in the road, but Cox adjusted fast. Transfer rule passes we are NCAA team next year. Book it.

Seriously? These kind of comments sound foolish. It is one thing to hope for the best and another to make false comments with nothing to back this on. Best front court in URI history-this is ridiculous! I like Harris and have always backed him, but he is more of a nice complementary player. Walker is undersized and horrible on defense in my opinion. He has no position because he can’t shoot. Have you seen the Mitchell Twins play? They haven’t accomplished anything yet. Why not wait to see them before declaring them better than Reynolds Dean and Luther Clay or Martin and Cyril. If you are going by recruiting rankings than you must think we have one of the worst backcourts of all time coming in by the current rankings in the 300 and 400’s. Leggett and Berry look to be good under the radar players which Cox has done a good job at recruiting since being here, but can we wait to see them play at this level. Are we really going to declare this team an NCAA tournament team? They could easily end up in 7th instead of first. You must be expecting freshman guards to come in and deliver big time stats for this to happen.

We also had a frontcourt of Sly Williams, Stanley Wright and Irv Chatman with Jimmy Wright off the bench. We also had one with Kenny Green, Bonzie Colson and John Evans. I laughed hysterically when I saw the comment about the best frontcourt in URI history.

[NJRhodyFan]

.......I guess that is one measure of player development, another for me, would be a demonstrated improvement in post footwork, low post shot development, and other post play of Jermaine, accomplished by the current staff.....

Cox may have turned him into a Kentucky recruit but the player left for what looks like less time on the court. This leaves me to believe that he felt that even though there may be less minutes at KY, the coaching / player development/ exposure would be better in the long run. Jacob and/or his family couldn't have been thrilled with his lack physical development(right or wrong). I would have love to see how much weight/muscle he could have put on working out over the summer.

Comparing Kentucky to URI is like comparing Las Vegas to a Riverboat Casino operating off the coast of Podunk, Mississippi. Not only do they have a state-of-the-art practice facility, but their have state-of-the-art dorms for the basketball players. The dorms have a private chef, theater-style lounge area, etc. Not to forget the basketball history, both collegiate success and guys into the NBA. The statement doesn't always have to be "Jacob and/or his family couldn't have been thrilled with his lack physical development(right or wrong)." Sometimes the player is just drawn to the bright lights. It's not the Riverboat's fault that they can't compete with Vegas money.

Amen! I can't even believe some of the comments I'm reading on here. It doesn't matter if Cox guaranteed Toppin 40 minutes per game, a private trainer, private chef and the keys to a new Bentley. He was leaving anyway! We're talking about Kentucky, the pinnacle of college basketball. There is nothing Cox or anyone else could have done to keep him here. Toppin has made it clear that having the name of a premier program on the front of his jersey was his main objective, not playing time or winning a conference championship. The fact that he joined Kentucky to be the last guy off their bench should tell you all that you need to know.

I'm not saying that Cox is immune to criticism because the jury is still out on his ability to run a successful program. But to blame him for Toppin leaving, and Martin too for that matter, just seems unwarranted given the circumstances. Both of those guys were given ample opportunity to succeed here, they just wanted something bigger. I really believe it's as simple as that.

Guys like JT, EC, Hass, Jeff, Cyril -it makes you appreciate them even more because they made a commitment to URI and they stuck to it. They gave this program everything they had and were always TEAM-first guys. Unfortunately, players like that are becoming few and far between. I'm hoping some of the new players coming in will display the same type of loyalty and commitment, but time will tell.

[Rhodyhooopz]

Slide into mediocrity? We have the highest rated front court (assuming transfer rule passes) ever at URI. JH, Walker and the twins is a huge advantage over almost any team in the A10 and should give us the guys to compete with Dayton and St Louis. JH was the only guy in that Dayton game who looked promising.

We have 3 freshmen guards who look extremely talented. We have Fatts. We have Shepherd and Martin who have shown the ability to play at the college level. I’m not worried about sliding to mediocrity. It’s a bump in the road, but Cox adjusted fast. Transfer rule passes we are NCAA team next year. Book it.

Hitting the liquor cabinet a little early today? Right now the twins or martin aren't eligible. Harris is 50 50 and Fatts, who knows whats going on there.

Best Frontcourt in URI history??? How much do you know about URI history? 78,88, 98 and 2017. I would start there. Rhody72 might add some older ones to the list. Maybe one of Al's mid 90's teams.

[CHICO 78]

Even with the transfer rule in play the NCAAT will not be easy. Don't know if Fatts will be back. if not we have 3 freshman guards
and one guard who hasn't played in a game for over 2 years. The twins are basically freshmen as they only played in 10 or 15
games at Maryland , Walker showed flashes but was really inconsistent last year, Harris, if he stays needs to take
a major jump in production and show that he can not foul himself to the bench every game. We don't know when they will be
able to practice together. So many variables at this point. Our best hope is that through the OOC and the middle of the season
we learn to play together and go on a late season run and win the conference tournament for the automatic bid. Other than
that scenario I think some of the people on this board need to take off the Keaney blue glasses as see reality in the sunlight.

[rhodyfan3000]

IF they are eligible, the twins, Harris, and Walker could be right up there with the best.

99 was Odom and Clay, both high school All Americans, but Clay kind of crawled to the finish line second half of the season.

98 was Clay, Arigbabu, and Josh King. Barely enough rebounding with that outstanding backcourt. The NCAA tourney was Clay's coming out party.

We had Martin and Cyril.

We had Michael Andersen.

88 was Kenny Green.

An Akeem that could come off the bench as a frosh and provide 10-15 solid minutes of rebounding the way Cyril did his first year would pretty much close the deal on this.

[Rhodyhooopz]

IF they are eligible, the twins, Harris, and Walker could be right up there with the best.

99 was Odom and Clay, both high school All Americans, but Clay kind of crawled to the finish line second half of the season.

98 was Clay, Arigbabu, and Josh King. Barely enough rebounding with that outstanding backcourt. The NCAA tourney was Clay's coming out party.

We had Martin and Cyril.

We had Michael Andersen.

88 was Kenny Green.

An Akeem that could come off the bench as a frosh and provide 10-15 solid minutes of rebounding the way Cyril did his first year would pretty much close the deal on this.

DUDE how do you forget ARD in 98 and 99.

88 do you realize how important Colson, Sina and Evans were to that team. Just because they weren't big scorers they did a lot of dirty work.

[CHICO 78]

IF they are eligible, the twins, Harris, and Walker could be right up there with the best.

1978 Sly Williams, Irv Chatman , Jimmy Wright (27-8) took Duke to the wall vs Mike Gminski, Eugene Banks,

I'm looking forward to seeing them star and prove you right , but let's not anoint them just yet.

[Billyboy78]

IF they are eligible, the twins, Harris, and Walker could be right up there with the best.

99 was Odom and Clay, both high school All Americans, but Clay kind of crawled to the finish line second half of the season.

98 was Clay, Arigbabu, and Josh King. Barely enough rebounding with that outstanding backcourt. The NCAA tourney was Clay's coming out party.

We had Martin and Cyril.

We had Michael Andersen.

88 was Kenny Green.

An Akeem that could come off the bench as a frosh and provide 10-15 solid minutes of rebounding the way Cyril did his first year would pretty much close the deal on this.

DUDE how do you forget ARD in 98 and 99.

88 do you realize how important Colson, Sina and Evans were to that team. Just because they weren't big scorers they did a lot of dirty work.

That 88 frontcourt averaged 40 pts. per game and 25 rebounds per game. Those are damn good numbers especially since they weren't asked to score much. We had 2 guards that BOTH averaged over 20 pts. per game. Saying this year's frontcourt is even close to that one is ridiculous. And the 78 team....forget it, two all-time greats in Stanley and Sly (the greatest Ram of all) and a damn good center in Irv. Laughable.

[Seawrightspostgame]

Maryand hammered URI when we played them. Rhody was cooking and then the Terrapins just dropped the hammer. They scored every time down the floor no matter what because they just kept getting the rebounds. Those guys are now on our team!

[RamStock]

Maryand hammered URI when we played them. Rhody was cooking and then the Terrapins just dropped the hammer. They scored every time down the floor no matter what because they just kept getting the rebounds. Those guys are now on our team!

The two Twins combined to play 10 minutes and had 2 points and 3 rebounds total between them. Not sure they were the reason

[CHICO 78]

People talk about Lamar's one season here but for my money Sly was the Greatest Ram of all. He was a 6'7" guard in
a forward's body. I saw him drop 44 points one night and it was effortless. Jimmy Wright was a beast and Irv Chatman
could absolutely sky. The twins will have to do a lot to match that 78 team, and I would love to see it. But let's
pump the brakes a little here.

[reef]

Putting JH name in there with all of our all time greats is laughable he hasn’t done anything in 2 years

[rhodyfan3000]

DUDE how do you forget ARD in 98 and 99.

88 do you realize how important Colson, Sina and Evans were to that team. Just because they weren't big scorers they did a lot of dirty work.

Whoops.

Because I'm trying to do it from memory, and my memory isn't that great. I'm not a walking encyclopedia. But I'm a bit red faced for forgetting ARD.

Besides my experience starts with the post season of Pender's last year. So, I don't go that far back.

[rhodyfan3000]

Hey, if it makes you feel any better, I'm sure there are some entire teams from the Baron years where I could barely name a single player on the team. My favorite was Dustin Hellenga, what did he last, two seasons? Maybe not even as long as Tyrese did.

[NYGFan_Section208]

So Cox took an unranked player who didn’t even start on his prep school team and in less than a year turned him into a Kentucky recruit. How’s that for player development?

Looks like that was just an audition, for an opportunity to redshirt and then play for a blueblood. Probably not for everyone, but doesn't seem like a bad strategy for him at all, really....

[rhodyfan3000]

Hey, you know what? Since we are now the Pawtucket Red Socks of Men's College Basketball, I don't see the downside of Akeem signing here.

Come here, make the most of your minutes, get a few baskets a game, some rebounds, get to the free throw line, shoot 80%, BINGO. Onto Kentucky.

[giovanni]

[steviep123]

Listening now - Koch coming on after this next commercial. They are calling this take in toppin and develop him a non Calipari like move. He's not one to let most players sit back and develop. It's not his normal MO. They mention if this is a start of a new trend for him, they welcome it. I agree that it's a non Calipari move while at Kentucky, but I think he has done well to develop players at UMass and Memphis.

[RamStock]

IF they are eligible, the twins, Harris, and Walker could be right up there with the best.

99 was Odom and Clay, both high school All Americans, but Clay kind of crawled to the finish line second half of the season.

98 was Clay, Arigbabu, and Josh King. Barely enough rebounding with that outstanding backcourt. The NCAA tourney was Clay's coming out party.

We had Martin and Cyril.

We had Michael Andersen.

88 was Kenny Green.

An Akeem that could come off the bench as a frosh and provide 10-15 solid minutes of rebounding the way Cyril did his first year would pretty much close the deal on this.

When did we get Akeem or is this whole situation just a dream? Walker and Harris aren’t even close to any of those guys. There is nothing special at all about Walker. Once again the Twins have nothing as of yet-absolutely zero and we want to crown them the best front court in Rhody history. Absolute insult to probably 10 URI teams that had legislate good front court players. Does Reynolds-Dean count from the 1998 team? You can’t be serious.

[Rhody15]

IF they are eligible, the twins, Harris, and Walker could be right up there with the best.

99 was Odom and Clay, both high school All Americans, but Clay kind of crawled to the finish line second half of the season.

98 was Clay, Arigbabu, and Josh King. Barely enough rebounding with that outstanding backcourt. The NCAA tourney was Clay's coming out party.

We had Martin and Cyril.

We had Michael Andersen.

88 was Kenny Green.

An Akeem that could come off the bench as a frosh and provide 10-15 solid minutes of rebounding the way Cyril did his first year would pretty much close the deal on this.

There is literally not one shred of evidence that Harris, Walker, and the twins are anything more than slightly above average front court as of now. The results are just not there.


Don't see many people taking Harris, Walker and the twins over Hassan, Kuran, and yes, even freshman Cyril.

Hassan and Kuran would abuse and embarrass Harris and Walker.

[giovanni]

[SandorClegane]

Slide into mediocrity? We have the highest rated front court (assuming transfer rule passes) ever at URI. JH, Walker and the twins is a huge advantage over almost any team in the A10 and should give us the guys to compete with Dayton and St Louis. JH was the only guy in that Dayton game who looked promising.

We have 3 freshmen guards who look extremely talented. We have Fatts. We have Shepherd and Martin who have shown the ability to play at the college level. I’m not worried about sliding to mediocrity. It’s a bump in the road, but Cox adjusted fast. Transfer rule passes we are NCAA team next year. Book it.

Tough to gauge. But it will probably one of the highest combined ratings (coming out of hs) for Rhody. Hoping Fatts returns and all these guys get to play together day 1.

[15 Year Lurker]

IF they are eligible, the twins, Harris, and Walker could be right up there with the best.

99 was Odom and Clay, both high school All Americans, but Clay kind of crawled to the finish line second half of the season.

98 was Clay, Arigbabu, and Josh King. Barely enough rebounding with that outstanding backcourt. The NCAA tourney was Clay's coming out party.

We had Martin and Cyril.

We had Michael Andersen.

88 was Kenny Green.

An Akeem that could come off the bench as a frosh and provide 10-15 solid minutes of rebounding the way Cyril did his first year would pretty much close the deal on this.

This is f**** embarrassing

Antonio Reynolds dean. Luther clay. Lamar Odom? How does one forget Reynolds dean it wasn’t even that long ago.

God I miss rod in Cranston right now

Best frontcourt in history? I hope it is but what are you smoking?? That’s not even fair to them

[rhodyfan3000]

Antonio Reynolds-Dean and Lamar Odom never played on the same floor together, except in practice.

I do remember that much, Jerry D.

[rhodyfan3000]

ARD was a nice player, undersized, but hard working. As Don Kaull said BACK THEN, he was 6'6" if he was lucky. And, of course, was a healthy part of the biggest 60 second choke job in school history.

One thing about the choke job: it was a true team effort.

Phantom pass by ARD out of bounds to a player that didn't exist.
Cuttino Mobley, who had, prior to that year, been criticized for having a weak handle, stripped of the ball by Arthur Miller, who went coast to coast.
Tyson Wheeler, missing all three free throws at the line.

[RhodysRelevant]

ARD was a nice player, undersized, but hard working. As Don Kaull said BACK THEN, he was 6'6" if he was lucky. And, of course, was a healthy part of the biggest 60 second choke job in school history.

One thing about the choke job: it was a true team effort.

Phantom pass by ARD out of bounds to a player that didn't exist.
Cuttino Mobley, who had, prior to that year, been criticized for having a weak handle, stripped of the ball by Arthur Miller, who went coast to coast.
Tyson Wheeler, missing all three free throws at the line.

Going off topic, but Mobley was fouled.

[RamStock]

ARD was a nice player, undersized, but hard working. As Don Kaull said BACK THEN, he was 6'6" if he was lucky. And, of course, was a healthy part of the biggest 60 second choke job in school history.

One thing about the choke job: it was a true team effort.

Phantom pass by ARD out of bounds to a player that didn't exist.
Cuttino Mobley, who had, prior to that year, been criticized for having a weak handle, stripped of the ball by Arthur Miller, who went coast to coast.
Tyson Wheeler, missing all three free throws at the line.

What is wrong with you??? This was one of the best URI teams in history. The 2020-21 team is not. If you want to talk about undersized than right in front of you is Antwan Walker. The difference is Reynolds Dean was a great ball player and Walker can’t even be classified as a good player. I’m a Harris supporter, but he’s not even close to ARD. For you to even bring up those URI teams compared to this version is insulting and to point out how they choked is what you remember. Last years team choked the whole way down the stretch and this years team most likely won’t choke because they will be playing meaningless games come the end of the year. Great job making light of some of the best URI teams in history.

[TruePoint]

Antonio Reynolds-Dean and Lamar Odom never played on the same floor together, except in practice.

I do remember that much, Jerry D.

How can you be this wrong with this much confidence?

[DeanDome88]

Antonio Reynolds-Dean and Lamar Odom never played on the same floor together, except in practice.

I do remember that much, Jerry D.

How can you be this wrong with this much confidence?

If your memory is starting to go then google is your friend.

[rhodyfan3000]

We have a lot of zealots on this site.

Sure we had great frontcourts for very discrete years, 78 (I was 5 years old, and didn't know URI Basketball existed, how old is the avg age of this site?), 88, 98, 99, 20 years later....

Wonderful, I believe the original point was, what about all of those years in between?

78 to 88 = 10 years
88 to 98 = 10 years

99 to what 2017? 18 years?

This program is not actually known for having an endless supply of quality frontcourt players

[rhodyfan3000]

Jim Baron's first year, the tallest guy on the team was 6'5"

John Clark was the frontcourt powerhouse of the Jim Baron error. Whose fault was that?

[steviep123]

Antonio Reynolds-Dean and Lamar Odom never played on the same floor together, except in practice.

I do remember that much, Jerry D.

1999

[rhodyfan3000]

Let's have a show of hands here. How many people here are over the age of 55?

How about 60?

65?

Pfft, then you wonder why you don't have the money support football has. A bunch of Q tips that are dying off. Always trying to run the head coach out of town, even Hurley wasn't immune.

[rhodyfan3000]

Antonio Reynolds-Dean and Lamar Odom never played on the same floor together, except in practice.

I do remember that much, Jerry D.

1999

Yeah, great. ARD must have been practically invisible that year. The most memorable part of that season was having one guard in Preston Murphy and Odom's first game of the season, and his game winning shot in the A-10 finals.

[steviep123]

ARD was a nice player, undersized, but hard working. As Don Kaull said BACK THEN, he was 6'6" if he was lucky. And, of course, was a healthy part of the biggest 60 second choke job in school history.

One thing about the choke job: it was a true team effort.

Phantom pass by ARD out of bounds to a player that didn't exist.
Cuttino Mobley, who had, prior to that year, been criticized for having a weak handle, stripped of the ball by Arthur Miller, who went coast to coast.
Tyson Wheeler, missing all three free throws at the line.

Going off topic, but Mobley was fouled.

EVERYONE other than the three refs knew Stanford was trying to purposely foul Mobley there. EVERYONE! The refs (for reasons passing understanding) refused to call. Watch the replay (and the ensuing “foul” on ARD on the Madsen dunk after the steal was much less of a foul that was not called on on the Mobley “strip”.

After that the wheels came off. The refs call the foul as the should URI wins.

[rhodyfan3000]

God I miss rod in Cranston right now

Yeah, I miss Rod too.

I miss when he used to roast all of you know it alls in print everyday.

[steviep123]

Antonio Reynolds-Dean and Lamar Odom never played on the same floor together, except in practice.

I do remember that much, Jerry D.

1999

Yeah, great. ARD must have been practically invisible that year. The most memorable part of that season was having one guard in Preston Murphy and Odom's first game of the season, and his game winning shot in the A-10 finals.

Dude you bring up many valid points to the board but this is not one of them. Admit you made a mistake about ARD and move on.

[rhodyfan3000]

EVERYONE other than the three refs knew Stanford was trying to purposely foul Mobley there. EVERYONE! The refs (for reasons passing understanding) refused to call. Watch the replay (and the ensuing “foul” on ARD on the Madsen dunk after the steal was much less of a foul that was not called on on the Mobley “strip”.

After that the wheels came off. The refs call the foul as the should URI wins.

yeah, and Final Four teams don't fall apart at the seams over one steal and basket, and 55 seconds left to play

[rhodyfan3000]

1999

Yeah, great. ARD must have been practically invisible that year. The most memorable part of that season was having one guard in Preston Murphy and Odom's first game of the season, and his game winning shot in the A-10 finals.

Dude you bring up many valid points to the board but this is not one of them. Admit you made a mistake about ARD and move on.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. whatever. ARD.

[Rhodymob05]

Baron actually had quality bigs, Will Martel, Seawright, Mbang, Outterbridge, Jordan hare , Jonathan Holton, to name a few.

[rhodyfan3000]

The legendary Jordan Hare.

Seawright and Outterbridge were pretty good, I admit.

[Rhodyhooopz]

Antonio Reynolds-Dean and Lamar Odom never played on the same floor together, except in practice.

I do remember that much, Jerry D.

1999

Yeah, great. ARD must have been practically invisible that year. The most memorable part of that season was having one guard in Preston Murphy and Odom's first game of the season, and his game winning shot in the A-10 finals.

yea 13 and 7 is invisible.

Are you a URI fan? Trashing the 1998 team? That is the most successful team in URI history. Although I think the 88 team would kill them.
Just because people call you out for inaccurate takes is no reason to bash these historic teams.

[rhodyfan3000]

I remember some nut kept saying Jordan Hare was going to be the be all, end all player at URI, enough to make you forget about Sly and Lamar.

No one ever felt the need to drill him into the ground, they just chalked it up to optimism.

Back in the day (15 years ago), people would always say the new players were going to be the greatest players ever, I don't remember any of them needing a slap down, reality check by the cretins on this board. People would just say "Hey, that's great, here's hoping you are right, look forward to it"

I guess Baron had a 20 year contract, so there was no sinister agenda at play back then.

[rhodyfan3000]

Are you a URI fan?

There's a new NCAA rule going into affect soon. If URI wants to keep me as a fan, they are going to have to re recruit me every year, else I'm gone like Martin, Long, and Toppin.

[DeanDome88]

rhodyfan3000 we are all hopeful that our current group of bigs can play exciting basketball in the future. Most of us would like to see it on the court before we anoint them as all time greats. Personally, I am satisfied with the work done by Cox so far and am waiting to find out where my seasons ticket seats are going to be. We are living in interesting times.

[rhodyfan3000]

The Mitchell's mom is reading this board, I'm sure. I'm a big fan of the Mitchell's mom. She's sassy.

We need more of that around here.

People were excited when Odom came here. All we saw were a bunch of street games and maybe some had access to some closed session practices. We didn't see him on the court prior to anointing. It's not just interesting times. It's strange times.

We have one poster in particular who managed a trash campaign against Hurley for taking too long just prior to back to back NCAA appearances and got off scott free on this site. That pretty much says it all. Maybe he actually believes he provided the "fire" under Hurley's ass to motivate him to get the job done, else why would he keep doing it? And also, why does quite a few on this site think it's just wonderful that he does?

[rambone 78]

WAAAAY too much time on our hands right now...…………...

[DC_Rams]

The Mitchell's mom is reading this board, I'm sure. I'm a big fan of the Mitchell's mom. She's sassy.

We need more of that around here.

People were excited when Odom came here. All we saw were a bunch of street games and maybe some had access to some closed session practices. We didn't see him on the court prior to anointing. It's not just interesting times. It's strange times.

We have one poster in particular who managed a trash campaign against Hurley for taking too long just prior to back to back NCAA appearances and got off scott free on this site. That pretty much says it all. Maybe he actually believes he provided the "fire" under Hurley's ass to motivate him to get the job done, else why would he keep doing it? And also, why does quite a few on this site think it's just wonderful that he does?

She definitely is reading ALL OF IT.

[Billyboy78]

Let's have a show of hands here. How many people here are over the age of 55?

How about 60?

65?

Pfft, then you wonder why you don't have the money support football has. A bunch of Q tips that are dying off. Always trying to run the head coach out of town, even Hurley wasn't immune.

Don't worry. Most of us 60+ people will be dead once the virus is done. Then you can be happy.

[steviep123]

EVERYONE other than the three refs knew Stanford was trying to purposely foul Mobley there. EVERYONE! The refs (for reasons passing understanding) refused to call. Watch the replay (and the ensuing “foul” on ARD on the Madsen dunk after the steal was much less of a foul that was not called on on the Mobley “strip”.

After that the wheels came off. The refs call the foul as the should URI wins.

yeah, and Final Four teams don't fall apart at the seams over one steal and basket, and 55 seconds left to play

Like I said, the wheels came off after that...but that non call was the start of the cascade. It doesn't happen without it and it doesn't excuse the referees atrocious lack of a call that is called NEARLY EVERY OTHER GAME IN THAT SITUATION.