11/9 | Fairfield | 7:00PM (ESPN+)

[RhodyRam86]

I wonder if Blue Man is still at the RC. He seemed to be encouraging the refs to keep calling fouks so he could savor the impending victory.

[TruePoint]

Weird, what did Foumena do? Anyone see it?

No did they show a replay ??

Would he be suspended for next game

No replay. Announcers seemed a little confused.

Evergreen comment

[SGreenwell]

Very surprised they called that a flagrant foul 2 on Foumena. Did not really see it live but looked at it when I got home. It looked to me that they locked arms and his left elbow did hit the dude in the face. But it came up from the hip and was not very forceful. Flagrant 1 was the correct call, there was nothing there that justified an ejection. A massive overreaction to an inadvertent, non-forceful elbow. Is he out for the next game? Does anybody know the rule on that.

It was a blow out, so there's always the chance they just went flagrant 2 to get him out of there and keep the temperature lower.

[rhodyram22]

Sooo Foumena > Tchikou?

[RhodyRam86]

Did anybody notice House rubbing his right shoulder and wincing a bit a bunch of times? Hopefully it's something minor. It didn't seem to bother his play tonight.

I only noticed it once. He rubbed it a bit, then everything seemed pretty normal. Couldn’t see his facial expression. Hopefully nothing, but makes you wonder if there was more than one reason he only got a handful of minutes playing time in the second half.

[RhowdyRam02]

Very nice to have these two wins under our belt but not unexpected.
Sorry but Fairfield is terrible, and they are still without probably their 2 best players Fields and Yetna.
Yes, we are much better than last season so that is very much a positive.

I understand that being up by over 30 points in the 2nd half, you tend to pump the brakes and go deep in the bench.
But still no excuse to give up 56 points in the 2nd half and play lazy defense.
I couldn't believe how many open 3's (48%) they got after the break.
I am sure Archie will lay into them and not tolerate any of the players getting into bad habits and easing up on D.

As well as Ways played last game, he was that much worse tonight on both ends of the floor.

Freshmen Cam, Fuchs, and Fomena will be fun to watch, and our future should be bright.

House has lived up to our expectations, so let's hope that continues as the competition gets better.

I can't wait until you finally have to give URI half as much credit as you give Fordham-Chicago

[reef]

Very surprised they called that a flagrant foul 2 on Foumena. Did not really see it live but looked at it when I got home. It looked to me that they locked arms and his left elbow did hit the dude in the face. But it came up from the hip and was not very forceful. Flagrant 1 was the correct call, there was nothing there that justified an ejection. A massive overreaction to an inadvertent, non-forceful elbow. Is he out for the next game? Does anybody know the rule on that.

In Arch presser they seemed to think he doesn’t have to miss a game

[reef]

Also in Arch presser they asked him about Jaden and he called him a natural born scorer , we are going to have fun with him

[jcru]

Very nice to have these two wins under our belt but not unexpected.
Sorry but Fairfield is terrible, and they are still without probably their 2 best players Fields and Yetna.
Yes, we are much better than last season so that is very much a positive.

I understand that being up by over 30 points in the 2nd half, you tend to pump the brakes and go deep in the bench.
But still no excuse to give up 56 points in the 2nd half and play lazy defense.
I couldn't believe how many open 3's (48%) they got after the break.
I am sure Archie will lay into them and not tolerate any of the players getting into bad habits and easing up on D.

As well as Ways played last game, he was that much worse tonight on both ends of the floor.

Freshmen Cam, Fuchs, and Fomena will be fun to watch, and our future should be bright.

House has lived up to our expectations, so let's hope that continues as the competition gets better.

I can't wait until you finally have to give URI half as much credit as you give Fordham-Chicago

omg, right?

Some of the comments are just beyond ridiculous now. Fairfield lost their first game to B.C by single digits 11 pts in Boston. We absolutely murdered them, regardless of the score. Could you imagine if they kept House in after the 9 and change mark of the first half? Archie has a legit 9 man rotation now, if he just goes with that, gives his top two or three scorers max mins and doesn't clear the bench, the score would be vicious.

This team has a few things to work on. Three point and FT accuracy being two of them. But if you cannot see the night and day difference between the ball protection and efficiency alone, not to mention the scoring and defensive tenacity, you have to be blind at this point. This team does not resemble last year's team, not even remotely.

I was going to say something, but I'm glad someone else did first.

[Jersey77]

Very nice to have these two wins under our belt but not unexpected.
Sorry but Fairfield is terrible, and they are still without probably their 2 best players Fields and Yetna.
Yes, we are much better than last season so that is very much a positive.

I understand that being up by over 30 points in the 2nd half, you tend to pump the brakes and go deep in the bench.
But still no excuse to give up 56 points in the 2nd half and play lazy defense.
I couldn't believe how many open 3's (48%) they got after the break.
I am sure Archie will lay into them and not tolerate any of the players getting into bad habits and easing up on D.

As well as Ways played last game, he was that much worse tonight on both ends of the floor.

Freshmen Cam, Fuchs, and Fomena will be fun to watch, and our future should be bright.

House has lived up to our expectations, so let's hope that continues as the competition gets better.

I can't wait until you finally have to give URI half as much credit as you give Fordham-Chicago

omg, right?

Some of the comments are just beyond ridiculous now. Fairfield lost their first game to B.C by single digits 11 pts in Boston. We absolutely murdered them, regardless of the score. Could you imagine if they kept House in after the 9 and change mark of the first half? Archie has a legit 9 man rotation now, if he just goes with that, gives his top two or three scorers max mins and doesn't clear the bench, the score would be vicious.

This team has a few things to work on. Three point and FT accuracy being two of them. But if you cannot see the night and day difference between the ball protection and efficiency alone, not to mention the scoring and defensive tenacity, you have to be blind at this point. This team does not resemble last year's team, not even remotely.

I was going to say something, but I'm glad someone else did first.

OMG, some here really like to twist my post.

I always said that I feel this team is a major improvement over last year and love the way the staff put together this roster.
There are many things I liked about our play and few things we need to clean up.

My only negative take-away was our poor defense in the 2nd half.
That is something that I am sure Archie will address in the video room and on the practice court.
I guess some here feel we aren't allowed to say "anything" critical about our play.

Although Ways struggled last night, I give him a pass because he is still learning, and this is only his 2nd Div. 1 game.

As I said before, our best test will be at the Mohegan Sun.
I will be there to cheer them on.

[section(105)]

Who is not being talked about enough IMO in these first two games….

Brandon Weston.
He’s 7-8 from the field, 3-3 from three in 2 games.
Added 3 rebounds in both games and 3 assists tonight.

But most importantly he looks engaged. Is playing his role. Defending at a higher level and not making any stupid plays.
Kid has so much potential and is being a bit lost in all the Jaden Shit Housery of the first two games. Could be a key piece off the bench as the competition stiffens. Would like to see us run some action for him in future.

Yes, and not mentioned by me, noticed yes. I was kinda down on his play and he was in need of breakout game to avoid deep bench occupancy. Nice to see for him and the team progression. Let’s go Brandon!

[bigappleram]

Very nice to have these two wins under our belt but not unexpected.
Sorry but Fairfield is terrible, and they are still without probably their 2 best players Fields and Yetna.
Yes, we are much better than last season so that is very much a positive.

I understand that being up by over 30 points in the 2nd half, you tend to pump the brakes and go deep in the bench.
But still no excuse to give up 56 points in the 2nd half and play lazy defense.
I couldn't believe how many open 3's (48%) they got after the break.
I am sure Archie will lay into them and not tolerate any of the players getting into bad habits and easing up on D.

As well as Ways played last game, he was that much worse tonight on both ends of the floor.

Freshmen Cam, Fuchs, and Fomena will be fun to watch, and our future should be bright.

House has lived up to our expectations, so let's hope that continues as the competition gets better.

I can't wait until you finally have to give URI half as much credit as you give Fordham-Chicago

omg, right?

Some of the comments are just beyond ridiculous now. Fairfield lost their first game to B.C by single digits 11 pts in Boston. We absolutely murdered them, regardless of the score. Could you imagine if they kept House in after the 9 and change mark of the first half? Archie has a legit 9 man rotation now, if he just goes with that, gives his top two or three scorers max mins and doesn't clear the bench, the score would be vicious.

This team has a few things to work on. Three point and FT accuracy being two of them. But if you cannot see the night and day difference between the ball protection and efficiency alone, not to mention the scoring and defensive tenacity, you have to be blind at this point. This team does not resemble last year's team, not even remotely.

I was going to say something, but I'm glad someone else did first.

Fwiw BC beat them by 19 and led wire to wire in similar fashion

We are shooting 42% from three in 2 games.

Free throw shooting hasn’t been great agree there.

But to me the biggest areas of improvement are defensive rebounding and ball protection. 19 turnovers last night is way too many.

21 assists on 32 baskets is pretty pretty good. Everyone seems to be a willing passer. That is certainly something we didn’t see the last couple years.

[theblueram]

I can't wait until you finally have to give URI half as much credit as you give Fordham-Chicago

omg, right?

Some of the comments are just beyond ridiculous now. Fairfield lost their first game to B.C by single digits 11 pts in Boston. We absolutely murdered them, regardless of the score. Could you imagine if they kept House in after the 9 and change mark of the first half? Archie has a legit 9 man rotation now, if he just goes with that, gives his top two or three scorers max mins and doesn't clear the bench, the score would be vicious.

This team has a few things to work on. Three point and FT accuracy being two of them. But if you cannot see the night and day difference between the ball protection and efficiency alone, not to mention the scoring and defensive tenacity, you have to be blind at this point. This team does not resemble last year's team, not even remotely.

I was going to say something, but I'm glad someone else did first.

Fwiw BC beat them by 19 and led wire to wire in similar fashion

We are shooting 42% from three in 2 games.

Free throw shooting hasn’t been great agree there.

But to me the biggest areas of improvement are defensive rebounding and ball protection. 19 turnovers last night is way too many.

21 assists on 32 baskets is pretty pretty good. Everyone seems to be a willing passer. That is certainly something we didn’t see the last couple years.

True Bar. But regarding turnovers, the starting 5 had only 6 turnovers. That squad is taking care of the ball.

[hrstrat57]

Dunno what y’all saw on ESPN+ but in the building this game was a absolute drubbing. Up 30 the team just got bored.

Could we have boxed out a little better, focused a little better and defended the perimeter even a tiny bit in the last 5 minutes? Sure.

This one was no contest I promise you. Same as the last game. Both opponents were absolutely blasted.

Maybe we play 40 minutes Tuesday night. Maybe it won’t matter. But the speed and technique displayed so far by this group vs the previous couple seasons is high level night and day. It will get better.

For those that go to the games suggest you try to arrive a bit early if you can. KJ runs a fantastic pre game warm up. The high /low was especially heavily rehearsed last night.

I’m pretty optimistic regarding our future.

Nice job EZ Buckets, please, please URI make the change permanent!

Go Rhody!

[jcru]

This team already has a definitive starting lineup, and a decent consistent bench. That being:

Kortright
House
Montgomery
Fuchs
Brown

Weston
Wright
Estevez
Foumena

They run with those 9 guys, they are going to be hard to beat. Maybe Bilau or Green makes it a full 10 man rotation, if either become available.

A lot of the woes that people are pointing out from the past game are due to clearing the bench and experimenting with different lineups. Miller himself said experimenting time was over. Weston has seemingly accepted the role of 6th man, and Wright will continue to push Kortright for PG minutes every chance he gets. That was "Always" the plan: if he get's an opportunity, he was going to run with it, and not look back, like he did against CCSU.

This team literally has nothing in common with last year's team, the only person bridging the gap is Weston.

Now, some people, are not going to concede that this team is already beyond the expectations that they had for them. Every game they are going to act shocked and surprised that we even won, nevermind dominated the other team. And, that's their prerogative to do that.

Personally, I recall just about everyone saying this was a weak non conference schedule prior to the beginning of the season. Still, people here will say "Fairfield is a horrible team". Yeah? Well, they may be a weaker team, but they are still a team that YOU thought was going to beat us. And the result was far from it. Not even close. Last year, we might have lost both of those two games.

I picked this team to go 11-2 in the non Conference slate. I picked them to go 9-9 in the Conference schedule. For good reason. Now, will they go 11-2 in non Conference? Maybe not. They may lose 3, even 4 (but I really doubt it), but I don't know who out there thought the likes of CCSU, Fairfield, Maine, New Hampshire, Delaware, Brown, Yale, and Northeastern were going to leave us with a 0.500 record, but that displays very little faith in this team and this coach. Providence in Providence maybe, yeah, that's a tough one. Northwestern? Possibly. But Johnson and Wales? No.

It's time for people to rub the sleepies out of their eyes and wake up to how good this team really is.

[KeaneyBluBallz]

Rams by 14

i'm off by a total of 3 points in my predictions thus far.

[bigappleram]

This team already has a definitive starting lineup, and a decent consistent bench. That being:

Kortright
House
Montgomery
Fuchs
Brown

Weston
Wright
Estevez
Foumena

They run with those 9 guys, they are going to be hard to beat. Maybe Bilau or Green makes it a full 10 man rotation, if either become available.

A lot of the woes that people are pointing out from the past game are due to clearing the bench and experimenting with different lineups. Miller himself said experimenting time was over. Weston has seemingly accepted the role of 6th man, and Wright will continue to push Kortright for PG minutes every chance he gets. That was "Always" the plan: if he get's an opportunity, he was going to run with it, and not look back, like he did against CCSU.

This team literally has nothing in common with last year's team, the only person bridging the gap is Weston.

Now, some people, are not going to concede that this team is already beyond the expectations that they had for them. Every game they are going to act shocked and surprised that we even won, nevermind dominated the other team. And, that's their prerogative to do that.

Personally, I recall just about everyone saying this was a weak non conference schedule prior to the beginning of the season. Still, people here will say "Fairfield is a horrible team". Yeah? Well, they may be a weaker team, but they are still a team that YOU thought was going to beat us. And the result was far from it. Not even close. Last year, we might have lost both of those two games.

I picked this team to go 11-2 in the non Conference slate. I picked them to go 9-9 in the Conference schedule. For good reason. Now, will they go 11-2 in non Conference? Maybe not. They may lose 3, even 4 (but I really doubt it), but I don't know who out there thought the likes of CCSU, Fairfield, Maine, New Hampshire, Delaware, Brown, Yale, and Northeastern were going to leave us with a 0.500 record, but that displays very little faith in this team and this coach. Providence in Providence maybe, yeah, that's a tough one. Northwestern? Possibly. But Johnson and Wales? No.

It's time for people to rub the sleepies out of their eyes and wake up to how good this team really is.

Fwiw Yale (picked to win the Ivy) and Charleston will be two tough games.

[jcru]

I realize that. I did mention Yale, but the point of that sentence is that we are going to win most of those games, not lose half of them.

Someone else in the contest said 10-3 non-con. Maybe they know better than I do. But it is not going to be 7-6

[ramster]

URI Handily Beats an Undermanned Fairfield - Now 2-0
Friday, November 10, 2023
Jim Malachowski, Sports Columnist

Interesting comments from Archie Miller in response to questions. Point Guard position discussed.

https://www.golocalprov.com/sports/uri- ... ld-now-2-0

[rhodylaw]

I realize that. I did mention Yale, but the point of that sentence is that we are going to win most of those games, not lose half of them.

Someone else in the contest said 10-3 non-con. Maybe they know better than I do. But it is not going to be 7-6

That was me - I can assure you I know less than most. However, if we are halfway decent than more than 3 losses in this OOC schedule will be bad. I bet on the team being good this year - so far so good. Last year I bet on the team being good and was made a fool. I was optimistic that brining in guys who were playing college ball (JUCO or lower levels) was going to be a better result than bringing in guys who rode the pine for a year and a malcontent in Freeman. Again, so far so good.

[steveystuds06]

I think we look much better and this team obviously has some real talent but we haven’t needed to win a game where we need to run a half court set to score most our pts,hit key free throws, or win a close one yet. Both games we used are speed and athleticism on the fast break to score a lot of easy pts. House and others won’t have all these lanes against some A10 teams and teams like Northwestern and PC. I need to see how we look against a team that matches our athleticism to know how good we actually are. It’s awesome that we killed our two inferior opponents and I think we’ll do the same Tuesday. If we can keep Northwestern somewhat close or pull out a W I’m gonna have all the faith in the world that this team can beat anyone. I’m excited to watch them play Dayton tonight.

[KingstonLane]

I don’t think anyone predicted us to lose to CCSU or Fairfield (especially without their best 2 players)

We took care of business. Thats all you can do.

Im optimistic about this team. But I think its still fair to say we haven’t proven anything yet

[ramster]

This team already has a definitive starting lineup, and a decent consistent bench. That being:

Kortright
House
Montgomery
Fuchs
Brown

Weston
Wright
Estevez
Foumena

They run with those 9 guys, they are going to be hard to beat. Maybe Bilau or Green makes it a full 10 man rotation, if either become available.

A lot of the woes that people are pointing out from the past game are due to clearing the bench and experimenting with different lineups. Miller himself said experimenting time was over. Weston has seemingly accepted the role of 6th man, and Wright will continue to push Kortright for PG minutes every chance he gets. That was "Always" the plan: if he get's an opportunity, he was going to run with it, and not look back, like he did against CCSU.

This team literally has nothing in common with last year's team, the only person bridging the gap is Weston.

Now, some people, are not going to concede that this team is already beyond the expectations that they had for them. Every game they are going to act shocked and surprised that we even won, nevermind dominated the other team. And, that's their prerogative to do that.

Personally, I recall just about everyone saying this was a weak non conference schedule prior to the beginning of the season. Still, people here will say "Fairfield is a horrible team". Yeah? Well, they may be a weaker team, but they are still a team that YOU thought was going to beat us. And the result was far from it. Not even close. Last year, we might have lost both of those two games.

I picked this team to go 11-2 in the non Conference slate. I picked them to go 9-9 in the Conference schedule. For good reason. Now, will they go 11-2 in non Conference? Maybe not. They may lose 3, even 4 (but I really doubt it), but I don't know who out there thought the likes of CCSU, Fairfield, Maine, New Hampshire, Delaware, Brown, Yale, and Northeastern were going to leave us with a 0.500 record, but that displays very little faith in this team and this coach. Providence in Providence maybe, yeah, that's a tough one. Northwestern? Possibly. But Johnson and Wales? No.

It's time for people to rub the sleepies out of their eyes and wake up to how good this team really is.

fwiw I picked the worst OOC record going 5-8. Even I had us winning the 1st 3 games. I doubt anybody in the contest had us losing to Central Connecticut, Fairfield or Wagner. Final scores of the 1st 2 games have been close to the Vegas odds as expected.

Central Ct State Home W
Fairfield Home W
Wagner Home W
Northwestern Neutral L
Mississippi State/Washington State Neutral L

[jcru]

so what 8 games did you pick URI to lose?

If you are saying that the first two games went exactly how you expected them to, then they are only going to win 3 more according to your prediction.

Which 3 games did you predict them to win, from the ones that are left?

[ramster]

so what 8 games did you pick URI to lose?

If you are saying that the first two games went exactly how you expected them to, then they are only going to win 3 more according to your prediction.

Which 3 games did you predict them to win, from the ones that are left?

doesn't matter. I withdrew from the contest

[jcru]

You know what Vegas's secret is?

They make an educated guess to what the spread is going to be, and then as people react by betting one way or the other, they adjust accordingly, to maximize how much they are going to make by cutting out as many people as possible and keeping their losses to a minimum.

So, it's actually the people betting who ultimately determine Vegas's oracle like predictions. They just react to other people's insight.

We have that insight. If this team was awful, don't worry, we wouldn't keep it a secret. The whole college basketball lovin' world would know.

They aren't awful. And we haven't seen House's best yet.

[ElmCityRhody]

[Jersey77]

I think we look much better and this team obviously has some real talent but we haven’t needed to win a game where we need to run a half court set to score most our pts,hit key free throws, or win a close one yet. Both games we used are speed and athleticism on the fast break to score a lot of easy pts. House and others won’t have all these lanes against some A10 teams and teams like Northwestern and PC. I need to see how we look against a team that matches our athleticism to know how good we actually are. It’s awesome that we killed our two inferior opponents and I think we’ll do the same Tuesday. If we can keep Northwestern somewhat close or pull out a W I’m gonna have all the faith in the world that this team can beat anyone. I’m excited to watch them play Dayton tonight.

Yes Stevey, very well said.

[ramster]

You know what Vegas's secret is?

They make an educated guess to what the spread is going to be, and then as people react by betting one way or the other, they adjust accordingly, to maximize how much they are going to make by cutting out as many people as possible and keeping their losses to a minimum.

So, it's actually the people betting who ultimately determine Vegas's oracle like predictions. They just react to other people's insight.

We have that insight. If this team was awful, don't worry, we wouldn't keep it a secret. The whole college basketball lovin' world would know.

They aren't awful. And we haven't seen House's best yet.

Absolutely right. They use all tools available to them to set the initial point spreads. And we say Vegas but it's far more wide reaching than that now. Big business - it's not Vegas as such. DraftKings, MGM, Caesars, Penn Gaming, Fanduel (owned by Flutter Entertainment) and many others. Point spreads adjust by the amount of betting each side of the spread. It's heavy AI. Huge money in gambling and growing. Not just betting the game but activity within the game itself is the big growth trend of the future. You bet right from your phone, right during the game itself, batter to batter, inning to inning, quarter to quarter. Anything to make a buck and get people to bet.

The initial point spread on our two games to date did not change a whole lot from the open if I recall correctly.

[bigappleram]

They make more than educated guesses. The uri prediction contest is educated guesses. Much more science goes into setting a spread. And while there is fluctuation it’s not usually by more than 1-2 points either way and merely to try and balance out the action. But even with that there will be games where the public money is heavily weighted in one direction or another regardless of spread movement.

[Mattrams94]

If you really look at it as a whole this team is welly constructed. Last year it was getting the ball to ISH and get out of the way. This year obviously the guy is House at least so far and we have three quality Bigs which is a vast improvement from last year. Always looks like a decent backup point guard and Weston looks to have taken a leap.

[ramster]

They make more than educated guesses. The uri prediction contest is educated guesses. Much more science goes into setting a spread. And while there is fluctuation it’s not usually by more than 1-2 points either way and merely to try and balance out the action. But even with that there will be games where the public money is heavily weighted in one direction or another regardless of spread movement.

Did I not say that? I know people who work in the software end of the industry AI is heavy in the gambling industry and that includes obviously the Stockmarket with programmed trading.

[bigappleram]

You didn’t say that Ramster. Jcru used those words above your post. But you did agree with him.

[adam914]

I had us at 8-5 in the prediction content for non-conference, with losses in the two Mohegan games, Yale, Providence, and Charleston. If I had a chance to change my prediction today, I'd probably change at least one of those to a win as we do look better than I expected so far. Still hard to make any definitive judgements at this point though until the level of competition picks up, as well as seeing how we do outside of the Ryan Center. Two games in, I'm cautiously optimistic, which is nice for a change!

[PeterRamTime]

so what 8 games did you pick URI to lose?

If you are saying that the first two games went exactly how you expected them to, then they are only going to win 3 more according to your prediction.

Which 3 games did you predict them to win, from the ones that are left?

Ramster picked us to be just as bad as last year 10-21 lolol

[ramster]

You didn’t say that Ramster. Jcru used those words above your post. But you did agree with him.

my bad then.

[ramster]

so what 8 games did you pick URI to lose?

If you are saying that the first two games went exactly how you expected them to, then they are only going to win 3 more according to your prediction.

Which 3 games did you predict them to win, from the ones that are left?

Ramster picked us to be just as bad as last year 10-21 lolol

PeterRamTime,
I picked for the contest. I'm out of the contest. No need to make fun of my guess when we are 2 games into the season.
You were all in, fat and happy with URI Football after a win or 2 and look what happened. Nobody saw that coming.

Long way to go in this season. Only 2 games in that are the equivalent of Exhibition games. Nobody thought we would lose any of our first 3 games. I had us winning all 3 easily. These are 300+ NET Teams for goodness sakes.

Completely new lineup.

Northwestern and Mississippi State/Washington State will tell a lot about this team.

[PeterRamTime]

Had to watch a replay after I got home from work.

I like being good enough to play with our food and be up 30+ that sure is a fun development.

I had watched the Fairfield BC game and it took BC a long time to out these guys away. We are definitely more athletic and talented than Boston College. They couldn't run, get to the basket or dominate inside nearly as well as we did.

Nice to see Luis show us what he's got a little bit. Didn't finish on some of those lay ups, but he's def got some athleticism and skill.

Hard to tell how good we are, but I'm pretty sure we are pretty dang good. At least 19-20 good.

Maybe somewhere around 14-15 and 19-20 good? NIT ish? We look at least that to me. Yeah we haven't played anybody, but just from watching a bunch of different teams so far, our talent level and athleticism seems pretty up there.

Won't really know until Northwestern, but I'll say right now it's probably 50/50. They Trailed Binghamton for 24 minutes and didn't put them away until the last minute of the game. I'd pick Dayton tonight, but I'm not sure without Smith.

[PeterRamTime]

so what 8 games did you pick URI to lose?

If you are saying that the first two games went exactly how you expected them to, then they are only going to win 3 more according to your prediction.

Which 3 games did you predict them to win, from the ones that are left?

Ramster picked us to be just as bad as last year 10-21 lolol

PeterRamTime,
I picked for the contest. I'm out of the contest. No need to make fun of my guess when we are 2 games into the season.
You were all in, fat and happy with URI Football after a win or 2 and look what happened. Nobody saw that coming.

Long way to go in this season. Only 2 games in that are the equivalent of Exhibition games. Nobody thought we would lose any of our first 3 games. I had us winning all 3 easily. These are 300+ NET Teams for goodness sakes.

Completely new lineup.

Northwestern and Mississippi State/Washington State will tell a lot about this team.

Football falling on its face was no surprise to me, I was just pointing out how good the offense looked and that they looked really good.

Kinda like we look good. The difference is, Archie is a competent all around coach and Fleming struggles mightily in the game management/gameplan department.

Also no team that finishes with 10 wins has ANY easy games

I also made fun of your prediction before we played CCSU to be fair

Yours was just the worst I saw, but I had the same sentiment towards the other low ballers.

[ramster]

I can't wait until you finally have to give URI half as much credit as you give Fordham-Chicago

omg, right?

Some of the comments are just beyond ridiculous now. Fairfield lost their first game to B.C by single digits 11 pts in Boston. We absolutely murdered them, regardless of the score. Could you imagine if they kept House in after the 9 and change mark of the first half? Archie has a legit 9 man rotation now, if he just goes with that, gives his top two or three scorers max mins and doesn't clear the bench, the score would be vicious.

This team has a few things to work on. Three point and FT accuracy being two of them. But if you cannot see the night and day difference between the ball protection and efficiency alone, not to mention the scoring and defensive tenacity, you have to be blind at this point. This team does not resemble last year's team, not even remotely.

I was going to say something, but I'm glad someone else did first.

OMG, some here really like to twist my post.

I always said that I feel this team is a major improvement over last year and love the way the staff put together this roster.
There are many things I liked about our play and few things we need to clean up.

My only negative take-away was our poor defense in the 2nd half.
That is something that I am sure Archie will address in the video room and on the practice court.
I guess some here feel we aren't allowed to say "anything" critical about our play.

Although Ways struggled last night, I give him a pass because he is still learning, and this is only his 2nd Div. 1 game.

As I said before, our best test will be at the Mohegan Sun.
I will be there to cheer them on.

77,

Glad you could make it up for the game last night and for tonight's game.
I left with about 7 minutes left in the game last night (which I never do- just had a commitment plus the game was very well in hand) and when I got close to home I got a phone update on the Final Score and I thought I was looking at it wrong or it was an error. I could not believe we won by only 13. Crazy how that gigantic lead dissipated and how it went so quickly. This early in the season losing a lead like that has it's plusses as Archie can review the tape in the new Practice Center on the new Screen to go over who that lead disappeared and what to learn from it. Better to have that happen early on as a wakeup call for players and coaches.

I didn't see the Foumena incedent. Did you? What did you think?

There are like Exhibition games with 300+ NET teams, and agree the real test will be Mohegan Sun, but it is good to get these 3 games in before heading into the Mohegan Sun games.

You shouldn't have to defend yourself and have to repeat that you are optimistic about the Coach and the future of the program. It should be well understood by all here that we all want what's best for this program. But I get that you feel the need to.

[Jersey77]

omg, right?

Some of the comments are just beyond ridiculous now. Fairfield lost their first game to B.C by single digits 11 pts in Boston. We absolutely murdered them, regardless of the score. Could you imagine if they kept House in after the 9 and change mark of the first half? Archie has a legit 9 man rotation now, if he just goes with that, gives his top two or three scorers max mins and doesn't clear the bench, the score would be vicious.

This team has a few things to work on. Three point and FT accuracy being two of them. But if you cannot see the night and day difference between the ball protection and efficiency alone, not to mention the scoring and defensive tenacity, you have to be blind at this point. This team does not resemble last year's team, not even remotely.

I was going to say something, but I'm glad someone else did first.

OMG, some here really like to twist my post.

I always said that I feel this team is a major improvement over last year and love the way the staff put together this roster.
There are many things I liked about our play and few things we need to clean up.

My only negative take-away was our poor defense in the 2nd half.
That is something that I am sure Archie will address in the video room and on the practice court.
I guess some here feel we aren't allowed to say "anything" critical about our play.

Although Ways struggled last night, I give him a pass because he is still learning, and this is only his 2nd Div. 1 game.

As I said before, our best test will be at the Mohegan Sun.
I will be there to cheer them on.

77,

Glad you could make it up for the game last night and for tonight's game.
I left with about 7 minutes left in the game last night (which I never do- just had a commitment plus the game was very well in hand) and when I got close to home I got a phone update on the Final Score and I thought I was looking at it wrong or it was an error. I could not believe we won by only 13. Crazy how that gigantic lead dissipated and how it went so quickly. This early in the season losing a lead like that has it's plusses as Archie can review the tape in the new Practice Center on the new Screen to go over who that lead disappeared and what to learn from it. Better to have that happen early on as a wakeup call for players and coaches.

I didn't see the Foumena incedent. Did you? What did you think?

There are like Exhibition games with 300+ NET teams, and agree the real test will be Mohegan Sun, but it is good to get these 3 games in before heading into the Mohegan Sun games.

You shouldn't have to defend yourself and have to repeat that you are optimistic about the Coach and the future of the program. It should be well understood by all here that we all want what's best for this program. But I get that you feel the need to.

I actually didn’t see what happened on that call regarding Foumena. Also to the other point, knowing how Archie feels about defense, I think he will get his message across. Regardless of our lead or whoever is on the floor, I don’t think he will tolerate relaxing on D.

[NYGFan_Section208]

so what 8 games did you pick URI to lose?

If you are saying that the first two games went exactly how you expected them to, then they are only going to win 3 more according to your prediction.

Which 3 games did you predict them to win, from the ones that are left?

doesn't matter. I withdrew from the contest

Not allowed

[PeterRamTime]

To be fair, it did seem like Fairfield couldn't miss at the end. Usually teams just mail it in, but they decided to make every single shot towards the end of the game.

From the 8:14 mark on they went 11-13 from the field and 6-7 from the foul line. Literally went 8-9 from three which is just insane.

Yeah we had bench players in there, but Fairfields late shooting was just absurd.

[4Diffs]

I don’t think anyone predicted us to lose to CCSU or Fairfield (especially without their best 2 players)

We took care of business. Thats all you can do.

Im optimistic about this team. But I think its still fair to say we haven’t proven anything yet

This is where I am. They are much more entertaining for sure, look more like an A10 team should look like and are much better than they were last year. And it is is a fun team to watch which means something to me. But still not sure how good they are, or will become. It is hard to tell based on who they have played so far, and much will depend on how they perform in close games. Last year, that team could have 3 or 4 more wins if they just closed games better. They did not, and probably were not able to, but this team will be in numerous close games where how they close will dictate how good their record would be.

I get the sense there are two polar opposites going on in this thread. Like you, I am in the middle, like what I see but in no way expect them to go 11-2 in the non-conference. JCRU, I would be shocked if that happens, and very happy to be proven wrong. But it is fun going to the Ryan Center again, not the slog it was last year.

[ramster]

To be fair, it did seem like Fairfield couldn't miss at the end. Usually teams just mail it in, but they decided to make every single shot towards the end of the game.

From the 8:14 mark on they went 11-13 from the field and 6-7 from the foul line. Literally went 8-9 from three which is just insane.

Yeah we had bench players in there, but Fairfields late shooting was just absurd.

It was just as absurd great as it was absurd terrible in the 1st half

[ElmCityRhody]

i love it how archie addressed it during the post game and that he will clean it up

also love that he was pissed about the FT shooting

that needs to get cleaned up

[jcru]

Northwestern is going to tell us everything. Ok.

Well, what happens if URI torches Northwestern?

Yale is going to be a challenge, but they are playing them at the Ryan. Charleston is going to be in SC. I really think that will be the difference.

I just don't think a lot of people here are ready to believe what their eyeballs are seeing. House isn't just some "nice player who looks like he could replace Ish's productivity". He's a phenom. He's an animal. They are clearly holding him back, and against one of these better teams, they are going to take the leash off.

[KingstonLane]

Northwestern is going to tell us everything. Ok.

Well, what happens if URI torches Northwestern?

Yale is going to be a challenge, but they are playing them at the Ryan. Charleston is going to be in SC. I really think that will be the difference.

I just don't think a lot of people here are ready to believe what their eyeballs are seeing. House isn't just some "nice player who looks like he could replace Ish's productivity". He's a phenom. He's an animal. They are clearly holding him back, and against one of these better teams, they are going to take the leash off.

If URI torches Northwestern, we’re no longer rebuilding in any sense of the word. We’re in control of our own destiny to make the NCAA tourney. They’re a top 50 Kenpom team. I’m not expecting to win let alone “torch” then. I’m optimistic we will play them well though.

I think there’s a reasonable middle ground here though that many are taking. Can lose a few OOC games and still be progressing meaningful as a program

[PeterRamTime]

Northwestern is going to tell us everything. Ok.

Well, what happens if URI torches Northwestern?

Yale is going to be a challenge, but they are playing them at the Ryan. Charleston is going to be in SC. I really think that will be the difference.

I just don't think a lot of people here are ready to believe what their eyeballs are seeing. House isn't just some "nice player who looks like he could replace Ish's productivity". He's a phenom. He's an animal. They are clearly holding him back, and against one of these better teams, they are going to take the leash off.

House and Zek look like they could play for anybody. Just watching teams around the country its pretty obvious.

[Rhody15]

Northwestern is going to tell us everything. Ok.

Well, what happens if URI torches Northwestern?

Yale is going to be a challenge, but they are playing them at the Ryan. Charleston is going to be in SC. I really think that will be the difference.

I just don't think a lot of people here are ready to believe what their eyeballs are seeing. House isn't just some "nice player who looks like he could replace Ish's productivity". He's a phenom. He's an animal. They are clearly holding him back, and against one of these better teams, they are going to take the leash off.

How are they holding him back?

18 shots in the first game, 11 last night.

20+ points both games.

33 minutes first game, 23 last.

He’s had the ball a ton, don’t see how you think Archie is holding him back.

He’s pretty much been allowed to do whatever he wants.