12/6 | Brown | 7:00PM (ESPN+)

[PeterRamTime]

We are seriously overrated talent wise. It's becoming more obvious game by game.

The only people who have overrated our talent are the ones on this board who wave their pompoms at every player signed. Everyone without Rhody blinders on, knew we wouldn’t be a good team. I remember how Cam and Dubsky were gonna be important rotation pieces from day one and wouldn’t take long to be in the starting lineup. And anyone who dares to say anything negative is absolutely torn apart on the board.

I read the board consistently but post rarely as I see how sensitive people can get over others’ opinions. I think I might read it just for the ridiculously delusional takes. I know that’s what fans do, but some dose of reality would be helpful. There was even talk about how we could get an at-large bid!! We’ve become so bad that my friends (fans of other teams) no longer give me crap about Rhody bball because it’s like beating a dead horse.

I knew Connor wasn't going to play this year as he's not remotely ready, but I'm totally confused about why Cam doesn't get more minutes. He was one of the best players on the floor against a high major in Northwestern and seemed to be taking a turn. However, his playing time has been inconsistent: 30 minutes in one game, followed by 18, then 11, 9, and tonight, a mere 7 minutes. How is he supposed to establish any rhythm under these circumstances? It's not like people were playing well. Why can't he see the floor? I understood why Cam didn't play much against PC, as he looked petrified, but it makes no sense why Always received more minutes tonight when he's nowhere near the caliber of player Cam is. Always shouldn't even be part of the rotation, let alone getting more minutes than a player like Cam. Zek has been awful the last two games why not try and play one of the only offensive threats you have! Cam will be a good D1 player, but it likely won't be at URI.

And if you think our fans are the only ones who overrated our players, you clearly didn't read what our coach said about these players. He said Fuchs was one of the best freshmen in the country. He was super high on Luis, House, Zek, Brown etc...

Our head coaches rotations have absolutely sucked in multiple games this year. Bilau should be playing more. Weston should be playing more. Cam should be playing more. Why do we keep playing two bigs?!. The best we looked all year was when we went smaller! The most energy and excitement we had was when we went smaller! But nah, screw it. Let's play two slower bigs and force-feed a freshman. Heck of a coaching decision. Our team looks like they don't give a shit half the time, and we dig ourselves in holes. Oh and Blueram I was 100% wrong...Yale sucks. I thought they would have a good team this year. They don't. They suck, and we have zero good wins this year. We have beaten scrubs and have random good moments against good teams mixed in with some of the most uninspiring worst basketball I've seen in a Rhody uniform. That includes Cox.

I was genuinely thrilled when we acquired Archie. I had immense confidence in his abilities. I anticipated he would recruit outstanding players and, most importantly, put those players in the best place to succeed...But reality hasn't matched those expectations.. I gave him a pass last year. I heard all offseason from people very close to this team how much better we would be and how good our new players would be. It's disappointing because I truly believe we have talented players this season compared to last year. Yet, what's lacking is a team that seems effectively coached.

What I see is a team that is asleep for long stretches. Defensively, we often seem lost and stubbornly stick to strategies that aren't effective. Rotations suck. You don't press? Is that a fucking joke? Our free-throw shooting is abysmal, and we frequently get outcoached and outmaneuvered. This isn't what I envisioned under Archie Miller. Similar complaints arose among Indiana fans, which I chose to overlook. There were murmurs about his coaching from other sources, too, but I turned a blind eye. I was wrong.

This is the first time since we hired Archie that I'm seriously worried about the future of this program. What's the answer? A small point guard in Hammond? Cam Fuchs and Foumena will develop? Even if they do and stay, it doesn't matter if our coach can't figure out how to get the best out of his players...

Sorry for the rant...I'm clearly very emotional after a bad loss, so I'm probably overreacting, but this sucks. The bottom line is I'm done blindly believing in Archie, and I need to see some results moving forward.

Pretty sure any positivity about this team came from those offeason reports and quotes from Archie. Otherwise no one felt like any transfer was a home run, but there were positives that could be gleamed from all of them. Heaven forbid anybody did that! Or believed Archie.

I think it makes total sense to go full wait and see mode with Archie. Too many red flags and it mostly comes from our rotation issues. It's so inconsistent and unpredictable, but the two big focal point thing is a real head scratcher to me.

His Dayton teams did not play that way! I could be remembering incorrectly, but he would usually have one big in there no? Kavanaugh, Kendall Pollard? Sometimes just DeShawn Pierre and they had great spacing, multiple guys hitting threes or getting to the basket. Quick athletic guards. I know we are missing a stretch 4. Maybe that's what's missing. You could still have size, but wouldn't sacrifice the flow of the offense as much and create more mismatches.

The way this team is comprised is totally different. It's just not explosive ever...well unless they went to a damn four guard one big (Bilau) lineup.

Why the hell, did we not throw four guards out there, spread them out and get our guys more one on one opportunities? Spread the floor, get your bigger more athletic guards attacking the basket and kicking it out for open looks...like early 2010's Dayton lol

[Blue Man]

Fuchs was a -7 with 11 points. I rest my case.

If you score double digit points and your team is significantly worse with you on the floor you probably suck.

[steviep123]

I wasn’t able to watch so can’t speak too much to the playing but free throws!!

[section(105)]

Fuchs was a -7 with 11 points. I rest my case.

If you score double digit points and your team is significantly worse with you on the floor you probably suck.

Too much emphasis on the +/-

[RhowdyRam02]

Can people please stop talking about playing Bilau more? Yes, in a perfect world he'd be playing more. Unfortunately we don't live in a perfect world, we live in a world where he's come back early from a major knee injury/surgery and even with Archie babying him we have eye witness accounts that he was in obvious pain and getting treatment on the bench

[section(105)]

The morning after; not feeling any better than last night. During the spring Evening With Archie, Archie stated this team would be the one that we would look back on as the won that would turn the program around. The results thus far don’t show it. Much of the season remains. For me, this game will be the one where I start to question Archie, mainly on defensive strategy and the related dismissive comments on use of pressure defense. Come on Coach, you’re supposed to be better than this, No? The bloom is off the rose.

[spookydog]

I came to a revelation while watching the game last night struggling to get on my phone during the timeouts. The Ryan Center's wifi is purposely bad so you can't look up the stats on ESPN to track how awful the FT shooting percentage is during the game. Ingenious!

[Blue Man]

Fuchs was a -7 with 11 points. I rest my case.

If you score double digit points and your team is significantly worse with you on the floor you probably suck.

Too much emphasis on the +/-

Not when it lines up with what I saw with my own eyes. The lineup of Kortright/House/Montgomery/Weston/Bilau ironically were the only 5 with a positive +/- and ironically when that lineup was on the floor the few times we closed the gap.

+/- is easily the most obvious metric to back up what you’re seeing, provided you watched a game. I’ll agree it’s not the be all end all stat to cherry pick if you’re just reading a stat sheet.

But every stat is manipulated - scoring isn’t everything, because how efficient we’re you doing it?

Rebounding is fairly meaningless if you keep missing layups and then getting them back.

What I saw with my eyes was that our best lineup was Luis/House/Montgomery/Weston/Bilau. The +/- backs that up. I don’t care what anyone says - Fuchs is garbage, and obviously Archie disagrees - but then why is everyone (rightly) killing Archie for horrible rotations and lineups?

[SGreenwell]

The fixation on Fuchs is kind of bizarre to me. He had 11 points, eight rebounds and drew six fouls in 24 minutes. Unless he was the primary defender on Anya (5-for-7 from the field), he was fine.

Brown won because their starting guards combined to play 77 minutes and shoot 6-for-14 from 3. They combined for 35 points and only three turnovers. Just brutal defense on them.

Montgomery has mostly skated when it comes to criticism the past two games. He had a very quiet 8 points against Brown, and only five shots, 1-for-4 from the free throw line. Providence limited him to 10 points on 4-for-11 shooting. In those two games, he combined to have four rebounds, one block, one assist, seven turnovers, zero steals and seven personal fouls in 63 minutes played. He's too good to disappear like this in games he's not scoring.

Weston is back to vanishing. Six minutes, two missed shots, two rebounds. Four points and four rebounds against Providence. Estevez had one missed shot and two turnovers in six minutes. Foumena had seven boards and four missed shots in 13 minutes. Wright had one bucket and zero assists in 15 minutes. As I kind of expected coming into the year, depth is a major problem, as the bench combined for 11 points. Eight came from Bilau, who would almost certainly be starting if he was healthy. (Earlier, someone mentioned that he was in pain on the bench with heavily taped and iced knees, so that's why I assume he's not cracking 20 MPG.)

Progress isn't linear - you have ups and downs through a long season. It still sucks when that 'down' happens though, and especially when its a team we should handle.

[Rhody_NYCT]

Any way you cut it or who you blame, just a terrible loss.

[SGreenwell]

Fuchs was a -7 with 11 points. I rest my case.

If you score double digit points and your team is significantly worse with you on the floor you probably suck.

Too much emphasis on the +/-

Not when it lines up with what I saw with my own eyes. The lineup of Kortright/House/Montgomery/Weston/Bilau ironically were the only 5 with a positive +/- and ironically when that lineup was on the floor the few times we closed the gap.

+/- is easily the most obvious metric to back up what you’re seeing, provided you watched a game. I’ll agree it’s not the be all end all stat to cherry pick if you’re just reading a stat sheet.

But every stat is manipulated - scoring isn’t everything, because how efficient we’re you doing it?

Rebounding is fairly meaningless if you keep missing layups and then getting them back.

What I saw with my eyes was that our best lineup was Luis/House/Montgomery/Weston/Bilau. The +/- backs that up. I don’t care what anyone says - Fuchs is garbage, and obviously Archie disagrees - but then why is everyone (rightly) killing Archie for horrible rotations and lineups?

Ish had 20 games last year where his +/- was 0 or worse. It's not an especially great stat for anything, unless you have a stable rotation, which we don't have. I don't know how you even saw that lineup last night, since it played roughly 45 seconds together. Weston came in at 12:29 for Montgomery, subbed out at 9:52 in the first half. In that time span, Montgomery came back in for Foumena, hence the 45 seconds. Weston came back in with 3:36 left in the game for Bilau, who sat at that point. Montgomery ended the game with a +10 because he kept getting swapped out on defense because of his own personal fouls.

[Jersey77]

Fuchs was a -7 with 11 points. I rest my case.

If you score double digit points and your team is significantly worse with you on the floor you probably suck.

Too much emphasis on the +/-

Not when it lines up with what I saw with my own eyes. The lineup of Kortright/House/Montgomery/Weston/Bilau ironically were the only 5 with a positive +/- and ironically when that lineup was on the floor the few times we closed the gap.

+/- is easily the most obvious metric to back up what you’re seeing, provided you watched a game. I’ll agree it’s not the be all end all stat to cherry pick if you’re just reading a stat sheet.

But every stat is manipulated - scoring isn’t everything, because how efficient we’re you doing it?

Rebounding is fairly meaningless if you keep missing layups and then getting them back.

What I saw with my eyes was that our best lineup was Luis/House/Montgomery/Weston/Bilau. The +/- backs that up. I don’t care what anyone says - Fuchs is garbage, and obviously Archie disagrees - but then why is everyone (rightly) killing Archie for horrible rotations and lineups?

Blue Man I agree with the smaller line-up, which I have said all along, but maybe Bilau still isn't quite ready yet for the minutes we would like to see from him.

I just don't understand the bashing or pointing the finger at Fuchs, he was the least of our problems last night.
Remember he is still a freshman big and there is a learning curve, it takes time at this level.
Like I said before, when he first came, I expected very little from him.
I don't want to hear that he spent time with professionals, that is the case with many international players coming over.
Besides all his meaningful minutes/stats were with the developmental Orange Academy team not with the Ulm team.
I do blame Archie for much of his hype and rushing him along.

This team right now is lacking consistency and intensity.
We come out of the gate slow, can't put together a solid 40 minutes, and our defense has been terrible.
Put that together with our offensive struggles and foul shootings, it doesn't make for good results.

Our staff better figure things out quickly because it isn't going to get any easier and the conference schedule looming ahead in the very near future.

[Blue Man]

Maybe not wrong - and maybe my expectations are too high on Fuchs. I was just going off of the “best freshman in the conference” talking points we heard.

But that kid flat out gives up on plays. He gets beat on assignments and rebound and flat out stops playing. I have zero patience for that. I don’t want to watch someone give up as a fan. And now that they’re getting paid? Inexcusable. So yeah, I’m gonna kill the 6’9 kid for missing layups and not jumping for rebounds and not running up the floor.

This is the first time I’m having doubts about Archie. I thought he coached a phenomenal 2nd half against Yale. He was dogshit since.

It’s on the players to execute but the coach needs to put them in spots.

For the comments on Cam and West being off - it’s really hard to play for 2-3 minutes and then sit for 40 and be expected to contribute. Anyone who’s played any sport at any level could tell you that. Arch isn’t putting them in spots to be successful. If you think West gives you a chance to win at the end of the game, then you can play him more than 4 mins before that.

And SG, the 45ish seconds that lineup played together stuck out that much because the other 39:15 of the lineups were straight up dog shit.

This is easily the worst loss of the Archie era, and while success isn’t linear, this is concerning.

That said, the comparable for me was Fordham in 2016 and we reeled off 12 straight after that so who knows.

But I’m pretty low on this team right now.

[rhodylaw]

Hope that was a wake up call game. They tried to turn it on at the end, but too late. They need to play 40 minutes. Free throw shooting, barf. Should’ve won that game easily if we had guys who could shoot free a FT, missed front end of one and ones. Zek missed 2 late.

[NYGFan_Section208]

It seems clear Arch thought hyping Fuchs would carry/pull his performance upward somehow, which didn't seem like a terrible strategy. It clearly has not worked though, if you're talking about expectations. I do think that, if there had been no hype on the kid at all...folks would be talking more about his potential than his shortcomings (maybe?). Too lazy to look, but was he heavily recruited? Did we beat out a bunch of other teams?

I'm more concerned about Zek...where has he gone? He doesn't even look comfortable out there.

[ElmCityRhody]

Maybe not wrong - and maybe my expectations are too high on Fuchs. I was just going off of the “best freshman in the conference” talking points we heard.

But that kid flat out gives up on plays. He gets beat on assignments and rebound and flat out stops playing. I have zero patience for that. I don’t want to watch someone give up as a fan. And now that they’re getting paid? Inexcusable. So yeah, I’m gonna kill the 6’9 kid for missing layups and not jumping for rebounds and not running up the floor.

This is the first time I’m having doubts about Archie. I thought he coached a phenomenal 2nd half against Yale. He was dogshit since.

It’s on the players to execute but the coach needs to put them in spots.

For the comments on Cam and West being off - it’s really hard to play for 2-3 minutes and then sit for 40 and be expected to contribute. Anyone who’s played any sport at any level could tell you that. Arch isn’t putting them in spots to be successful. If you think West gives you a chance to win at the end of the game, then you can play him more than 4 mins before that.

And SG, the 45ish seconds that lineup played together stuck out that much because the other 39:15 of the lineups were straight up dog shit.

This is easily the worst loss of the Archie era, and while success isn’t linear, this is concerning.

That said, the comparable for me was Fordham in 2016 and we reeled off 12 straight after that so who knows.

But I’m pretty low on this team right now.

hate it when Blue Man is low

we need Pom Pom Blue Man

I expect to get it together for conference play

i guess thats all we had to hope for the past few seasons

FT's are tough.. i don;t expect us to be able to flip a switch and turn it around

Effort tho... that can be changed easily

Go Rhody <sigh>

[RhowdyRam02]

Maybe not wrong - and maybe my expectations are too high on Fuchs. I was just going off of the “best freshman in the conference” talking points we heard.

But that kid flat out gives up on plays. He gets beat on assignments and rebound and flat out stops playing. I have zero patience for that. I don’t want to watch someone give up as a fan. And now that they’re getting paid? Inexcusable. So yeah, I’m gonna kill the 6’9 kid for missing layups and not jumping for rebounds and not running up the floor.

This is the first time I’m having doubts about Archie. I thought he coached a phenomenal 2nd half against Yale. He was dogshit since.

It’s on the players to execute but the coach needs to put them in spots.

For the comments on Cam and West being off - it’s really hard to play for 2-3 minutes and then sit for 40 and be expected to contribute. Anyone who’s played any sport at any level could tell you that. Arch isn’t putting them in spots to be successful. If you think West gives you a chance to win at the end of the game, then you can play him more than 4 mins before that.

And SG, the 45ish seconds that lineup played together stuck out that much because the other 39:15 of the lineups were straight up dog shit.

This is easily the worst loss of the Archie era, and while success isn’t linear, this is concerning.

That said, the comparable for me was Fordham in 2016 and we reeled off 12 straight after that so who knows.

But I’m pretty low on this team right now.

Interesting to me that you brought up Fordham in 2016, because that's how I felt watching the game last night, though obviously different circumstances. Even during the comeback I was only half excited because of how pissed they made me the first 3/4 of the game and I figured they didn't have enough to pull it out. The Fordham game I thought our at large chances were done. Last night I thought the rebuild is way behind schedule and made me question how long everything would take.

Last year I thought was about building during the season, being tough in A10 play, and identifying pieces for the future. We ended up second to last in the A10 and the only piece we seem to really have is a season and a half of Bilau. Not nearly good enough, but ok, there were some unforeseen issues, and we're going to reshuffle the deck. Now I'm still not sure if we have enough pieces moving forward.

I know I'm just overreacting to one game, but damn, that sucked

[RI_Bred]

Maybe not wrong - and maybe my expectations are too high on Fuchs. I was just going off of the “best freshman in the conference” talking points we heard.

But that kid flat out gives up on plays. He gets beat on assignments and rebound and flat out stops playing. I have zero patience for that. I don’t want to watch someone give up as a fan. And now that they’re getting paid? Inexcusable. So yeah, I’m gonna kill the 6’9 kid for missing layups and not jumping for rebounds and not running up the floor.

It seems like he's mentally soft. Listening to Mobley talk about himself and his teammates here at URI as a player over the past few days, we could use some of that.

I wonder about Miller...we all know he has had great success, but it's been a while now. Does he still have what it takes? I'm not ready to give up on him or the team yet though. Marathon not sprint...

[Blue Man]

Maybe not wrong - and maybe my expectations are too high on Fuchs. I was just going off of the “best freshman in the conference” talking points we heard.

But that kid flat out gives up on plays. He gets beat on assignments and rebound and flat out stops playing. I have zero patience for that. I don’t want to watch someone give up as a fan. And now that they’re getting paid? Inexcusable. So yeah, I’m gonna kill the 6’9 kid for missing layups and not jumping for rebounds and not running up the floor.

This is the first time I’m having doubts about Archie. I thought he coached a phenomenal 2nd half against Yale. He was dogshit since.

It’s on the players to execute but the coach needs to put them in spots.

For the comments on Cam and West being off - it’s really hard to play for 2-3 minutes and then sit for 40 and be expected to contribute. Anyone who’s played any sport at any level could tell you that. Arch isn’t putting them in spots to be successful. If you think West gives you a chance to win at the end of the game, then you can play him more than 4 mins before that.

And SG, the 45ish seconds that lineup played together stuck out that much because the other 39:15 of the lineups were straight up dog shit.

This is easily the worst loss of the Archie era, and while success isn’t linear, this is concerning.

That said, the comparable for me was Fordham in 2016 and we reeled off 12 straight after that so who knows.

But I’m pretty low on this team right now.

hate it when Blue Man is low

we need Pom Pom Blue Man

I expect to get it together for conference play

i guess thats all we had to hope for the past few seasons

FT's are tough.. i don;t expect us to be able to flip a switch and turn it around

Effort tho... that can be changed easily

Go Rhody <sigh>

Me too buddy. Me too.

Unfortunately the switch is either full go or full stop. We pulled the e-brake at 75 last night.

[KeaneyBluBallz]

can we stop with any and all talk of making an NCAA Tourney again anytime soon? it'll be 20 years before we sniff that girls panties again.

an at large bid? you kidding me? an at large bid? i just want to win a game.

[Blue Man]

It seems clear Arch thought hyping Fuchs would carry/pull his performance upward somehow, which didn't seem like a terrible strategy. It clearly has not worked though, if you're talking about expectations. I do think that, if there had been no hype on the kid at all...folks would be talking more about his potential than his shortcomings (maybe?). Too lazy to look, but was he heavily recruited? Did we beat out a bunch of other teams?

I'm more concerned about Zek...where has he gone? He doesn't even look comfortable out there.

If you want me to go really low and where my head went at halftime last night -

Austin Carroll was brought in to be the bridge from former team to new team, everyone left (most didn’t belong anyway) but Ish, who I watched beat up on West Virginia, couldn’t be retained.

Austin Carroll also never brought in recruits. Except for Fuchs.

Tyson Wheeler wanted to work here so bad.

I couldn’t help think watching those 3 on the court last night, what if Archie hired Tyson instead of Austin? We traded Tyson for Fuchs. I hate it here.

I’m gonna go take a cold shower, curl up in a ball, and blast some really existential Zach Bryan until I cry for 2-3 hours. Bye.

[NYGFan_Section208]

It seems clear Arch thought hyping Fuchs would carry/pull his performance upward somehow, which didn't seem like a terrible strategy. It clearly has not worked though, if you're talking about expectations. I do think that, if there had been no hype on the kid at all...folks would be talking more about his potential than his shortcomings (maybe?). Too lazy to look, but was he heavily recruited? Did we beat out a bunch of other teams?

I'm more concerned about Zek...where has he gone? He doesn't even look comfortable out there.

If you want me to go really low and where my head went at halftime last night -

Austin Carroll was brought in to be the bridge from former team to new team, everyone left (most didn’t belong anyway) but Ish, who I watched beat up on West Virginia, couldn’t be retained.

Austin Carroll also never brought in recruits. Except for Fuchs.

Tyson Wheeler wanted to work here so bad.

I couldn’t help think watching those 3 on the court last night, what if Archie hired Tyson instead of Austin? We traded Tyson for Fuchs. I hate it here.

I’m gonna go take a cold shower, curl up in a ball, and blast some really existential Zach Bryan until I cry for 2-3 hours. Bye.

go Indica, then you can probably just nod off without the tears?

[bigappleram]

The Fuchs bashing is so off base.

Yes he had moments in Mohegan where he seemingly either dogged it or was so dejected he gave up. But since then he has shown more motor IMO.

He’s averaging 7 and 7 in 20 minutes of action while adjusting to a new style of play, new country and new lifestyle. If he picks up that production a bit in conference play that’s not far off from all rookie type performance.

Our bigger issues IMO are on defensive end both in terms of intensity, urgency and connectedness. And strategy and rotation.

There were numerous matchups to exploit last night that we never went to. Lilly could not cover Kortright if he backed him down. We went there the first play of game they brought a double which opened up passing lanes and we never tried that again.

Overplayed Wright. I’d rather throw Cam out there to grow through mistakes; his upside seems much greater at this point.

I’m not with these guys every day but I can tell you putting in Weston after he sat for 20 isn’t going to end well. While he’s shown scoring ability at times he seems to have zero awareness and bball IQ. I don’t think that comes with more time. But I know it doesn’t by sitting him for long stretches. Either put him in the rotation or don’t use him at all he’s not the guy to give you 10 great minutes after riding the bench for long stretches.

[bigappleram]

It seems clear Arch thought hyping Fuchs would carry/pull his performance upward somehow, which didn't seem like a terrible strategy. It clearly has not worked though, if you're talking about expectations. I do think that, if there had been no hype on the kid at all...folks would be talking more about his potential than his shortcomings (maybe?). Too lazy to look, but was he heavily recruited? Did we beat out a bunch of other teams?

I'm more concerned about Zek...where has he gone? He doesn't even look comfortable out there.

If you want me to go really low and where my head went at halftime last night -

Austin Carroll was brought in to be the bridge from former team to new team, everyone left (most didn’t belong anyway) but Ish, who I watched beat up on West Virginia, couldn’t be retained.

Austin Carroll also never brought in recruits. Except for Fuchs.

Tyson Wheeler wanted to work here so bad.

I couldn’t help think watching those 3 on the court last night, what if Archie hired Tyson instead of Austin? We traded Tyson for Fuchs. I hate it here.

I’m gonna go take a cold shower, curl up in a ball, and blast some really existential Zach Bryan until I cry for 2-3 hours. Bye.

Also look at what Tyson did with Noah Fernandes and Lilly. I agree he should have been hired and he badly wanted to be when Archie was hired. It would take a really secure coach to hire a former legend to sit next to him but Archie should have been that guy and wasn’t.

[rhodylaw]

Too much emphasis on the +/-

Not when it lines up with what I saw with my own eyes. The lineup of Kortright/House/Montgomery/Weston/Bilau ironically were the only 5 with a positive +/- and ironically when that lineup was on the floor the few times we closed the gap.

+/- is easily the most obvious metric to back up what you’re seeing, provided you watched a game. I’ll agree it’s not the be all end all stat to cherry pick if you’re just reading a stat sheet.

But every stat is manipulated - scoring isn’t everything, because how efficient we’re you doing it?

Rebounding is fairly meaningless if you keep missing layups and then getting them back.

What I saw with my eyes was that our best lineup was Luis/House/Montgomery/Weston/Bilau. The +/- backs that up. I don’t care what anyone says - Fuchs is garbage, and obviously Archie disagrees - but then why is everyone (rightly) killing Archie for horrible rotations and lineups?

Ish had 20 games last year where his +/- was 0 or worse. It's not an especially great stat for anything, unless you have a stable rotation, which we don't have. I don't know how you even saw that lineup last night, since it played roughly 45 seconds together. Weston came in at 12:29 for Montgomery, subbed out at 9:52 in the first half. In that time span, Montgomery came back in for Foumena, hence the 45 seconds. Weston came back in with 3:36 left in the game for Bilau, who sat at that point. Montgomery ended the game with a +10 because he kept getting swapped out on defense because of his own personal fouls.

I agree with Blue Man that is the best lineup - mainly because those are the best and most experienced players. I don’t need a plus/minus stat to tell me that.

However, we Need to play other guys to develop them. It is a balance this year, winning and seeing if we have pieces to keep going forward outside of those 5 guys. We should be able to do both against Brown except we cannot hit a FT to save our life. Under 50% as a team is pathetic. Shoot 60% as a team (still pathetic) and we win that game easily.

[spar]

Talk about deflating, frustrating, pathetic, you name it. I was a bit concerned with the shady line, but this?? THIS?? How can you not have had this team foaming at the mouth and ready to destroy their next opponent after that PC loss?! Coach has to take the blame, but are our players mentally soft? They played timid, no heart, guys seem disinterested at times. The body language on a few of them doesn't look good either. They just don't look anywhere near a cohesive unit. I get they're all new playing together, some don't have a ton of D1 experience yet, but something seems off to me. I just don't see that grittiness or tenacity with any of these guys. Like where is the fire? Staff takes blame, players take blame. Puzzling coaching decisions to boot. Going to try hard to get the taste of vomit out of my mouth today, but it won't be easy. GET YOUR SH*T TOGETHER ARCH AND TEAM!!

[PlayMikeMotenMore]

We are seriously overrated talent wise. It's becoming more obvious game by game.

The only people who have overrated our talent are the ones on this board who wave their pompoms at every player signed. Everyone without Rhody blinders on, knew we wouldn’t be a good team. I remember how Cam and Dubsky were gonna be important rotation pieces from day one and wouldn’t take long to be in the starting lineup. And anyone who dares to say anything negative is absolutely torn apart on the board.

I read the board consistently but post rarely as I see how sensitive people can get over others’ opinions. I think I might read it just for the ridiculously delusional takes. I know that’s what fans do, but some dose of reality would be helpful. There was even talk about how we could get an at-large bid!! We’ve become so bad that my friends (fans of other teams) no longer give me crap about Rhody bball because it’s like beating a dead horse.

I knew Connor wasn't going to play this year as he's not remotely ready, but I'm totally confused about why Cam doesn't get more minutes. He was one of the best players on the floor against a high major in Northwestern and seemed to be taking a turn. However, his playing time has been inconsistent: 30 minutes in one game, followed by 18, then 11, 9, and tonight, a mere 7 minutes. How is he supposed to establish any rhythm under these circumstances? It's not like people were playing well. Why can't he see the floor? I understood why Cam didn't play much against PC, as he looked petrified, but it makes no sense why Always received more minutes tonight when he's nowhere near the caliber of player Cam is. Always shouldn't even be part of the rotation, let alone getting more minutes than a player like Cam. Zek has been awful the last two games why not try and play one of the only offensive threats you have! Cam will be a good D1 player, but it likely won't be at URI.

And if you think our fans are the only ones who overrated our players, you clearly didn't read what our coach said about these players. He said Fuchs was one of the best freshmen in the country. He was super high on Luis, House, Zek, Brown etc...

Our head coaches rotations have absolutely sucked in multiple games this year. Bilau should be playing more. Weston should be playing more. Cam should be playing more. Why do we keep playing two bigs?!. The best we looked all year was when we went smaller! The most energy and excitement we had was when we went smaller! But nah, screw it. Let's play two slower bigs and force-feed a freshman. Heck of a coaching decision. Our team looks like they don't give a shit half the time, and we dig ourselves in holes. Oh and Blueram I was 100% wrong...Yale sucks. I thought they would have a good team this year. They don't. They suck, and we have zero good wins this year. We have beaten scrubs and have random good moments against good teams mixed in with some of the most uninspiring worst basketball I've seen in a Rhody uniform. That includes Cox.

I was genuinely thrilled when we acquired Archie. I had immense confidence in his abilities. I anticipated he would recruit outstanding players and, most importantly, put those players in the best place to succeed...But reality hasn't matched those expectations.. I gave him a pass last year. I heard all offseason from people very close to this team how much better we would be and how good our new players would be. It's disappointing because I truly believe we have talented players this season compared to last year. Yet, what's lacking is a team that seems effectively coached.

What I see is a team that is asleep for long stretches. Defensively, we often seem lost and stubbornly stick to strategies that aren't effective. Rotations suck. You don't press? Is that a fucking joke? Our free-throw shooting is abysmal, and we frequently get outcoached and outmaneuvered. This isn't what I envisioned under Archie Miller. Similar complaints arose among Indiana fans, which I chose to overlook. There were murmurs about his coaching from other sources, too, but I turned a blind eye. I was wrong.

This is the first time since we hired Archie that I'm seriously worried about the future of this program. What's the answer? A small point guard in Hammond? Cam Fuchs and Foumena will develop? Even if they do and stay, it doesn't matter if our coach can't figure out how to get the best out of his players...

Sorry for the rant...I'm clearly very emotional after a bad loss, so I'm probably overreacting, but this sucks. The bottom line is I'm done blindly believing in Archie, and I need to see some results moving forward.

Do you live in Fansville? Are you drinking Dr. Pepper?

[rhodysurf]

It seems clear Arch thought hyping Fuchs would carry/pull his performance upward somehow, which didn't seem like a terrible strategy. It clearly has not worked though, if you're talking about expectations. I do think that, if there had been no hype on the kid at all...folks would be talking more about his potential than his shortcomings (maybe?). Too lazy to look, but was he heavily recruited? Did we beat out a bunch of other teams?

I'm more concerned about Zek...where has he gone? He doesn't even look comfortable out there.

If you want me to go really low and where my head went at halftime last night -

Austin Carroll was brought in to be the bridge from former team to new team, everyone left (most didn’t belong anyway) but Ish, who I watched beat up on West Virginia, couldn’t be retained.

Austin Carroll also never brought in recruits. Except for Fuchs.

Tyson Wheeler wanted to work here so bad.

I couldn’t help think watching those 3 on the court last night, what if Archie hired Tyson instead of Austin? We traded Tyson for Fuchs. I hate it here.

I’m gonna go take a cold shower, curl up in a ball, and blast some really existential Zach Bryan until I cry for 2-3 hours. Bye.

Also look at what Tyson did with Noah Fernandes and Lilly. I agree he should have been hired and he badly wanted to be when Archie was hired. It would take a really secure coach to hire a former legend to sit next to him but Archie should have been that guy and wasn’t.

Not even just lily, Ferrari made the entire team look silly all night too

[rambone 78]

Poor FT shooting is only one of the problems here.
Sure if we made more last night we win, but still would be a hollow victory imo.
Lousy rebounding and defense
Not getting better, maybe even worse.
The 2 big system isnt working, it bogs down the offense, no fluidity.
A multitude of issues.
I put the blame at 50/50 players and coaching.
Very disappointing to say the least.
Let's hope things dont get so bad, that someone starts a Cox 2.0 thread. Just kidding I hope.

[Billyboy78]

The fixation on Fuchs is kind of bizarre to me. He had 11 points, eight rebounds and drew six fouls in 24 minutes. Unless he was the primary defender on Anya (5-for-7 from the field), he was fine.

Brown won because their starting guards combined to play 77 minutes and shoot 6-for-14 from 3. They combined for 35 points and only three turnovers. Just brutal defense on them.

Montgomery has mostly skated when it comes to criticism the past two games. He had a very quiet 8 points against Brown, and only five shots, 1-for-4 from the free throw line. Providence limited him to 10 points on 4-for-11 shooting. In those two games, he combined to have four rebounds, one block, one assist, seven turnovers, zero steals and seven personal fouls in 63 minutes played. He's too good to disappear like this in games he's not scoring.

Weston is back to vanishing. Six minutes, two missed shots, two rebounds. Four points and four rebounds against Providence. Estevez had one missed shot and two turnovers in six minutes. Foumena had seven boards and four missed shots in 13 minutes. Wright had one bucket and zero assists in 15 minutes. As I kind of expected coming into the year, depth is a major problem, as the bench combined for 11 points. Eight came from Bilau, who would almost certainly be starting if he was healthy. (Earlier, someone mentioned that he was in pain on the bench with heavily taped and iced knees, so that's why I assume he's not cracking 20 MPG.)

Progress isn't linear - you have ups and downs through a long season. It still sucks when that 'down' happens though, and especially when its a team we should handle.

It was just one knee, but I'm assuming it was the surgically repaired knee.

[Jersey77]

Poor FT shooting is only one of the problems here.
Sure if we made more last night we win, but still would be a hollow victory imo.
Lousy rebounding and defense
Not getting better, maybe even worse.
The 2 big system isnt working, it bogs down the offense, no fluidity.
A multitude of issues.
I put the blame at 50/50 players and coaching.
Very disappointing to say the least.
Let's hope things dont get so bad, that someone starts a Cox 2.0 thread. Just kidding I hope.

Don't think it will quite get to that point, doubt Archie lost all his Mojo.

I hope this loss is a huge wake-up call to both the players and the staff.

At this point, I would think Archie will make the proper adjustments.
The players certainly need to up their game.

[steviep123]

There's no other way to slice it. Losing to Brown is never a good loss and 3 in a row? That hasn't happened in like 50ish years. It's clear they are talented enough to win these games and while I fully admit I wasn't able to watch, from what I'm reading it seems like they essentially slept walked through most of the game and only turned it on in spurts (hence making a good chance to tie it late). Also FTs (which would have made a difference). All that said, this is typical of a rebuilding team - they will lose some games they shouldn't (and I'm waiting for the also "win the game they have no business winning"). I'm not as bummed as most of you because I never expected as much this year, but it's still disheartening to see them lose to Brown, but also it should be a wake up call that they are simply not good enough to take any team lightly.

[steviep123]

Poor FT shooting is only one of the problems here.
Sure if we made more last night we win, but still would be a hollow victory imo.
Lousy rebounding and defense
Not getting better, maybe even worse.
The 2 big system isnt working, it bogs down the offense, no fluidity.
A multitude of issues.
I put the blame at 50/50 players and coaching.
Very disappointing to say the least.
Let's hope things dont get so bad, that someone starts a Cox 2.0 thread. Just kidding I hope.

Or a Baron 3.0?

[scine20]

I honestly don't follow the program like I used to for various reasons and I haven't watched a game yet this year so maybe someone will push back on this but the honeymoon is over for this guy. You absolutely cannot lose at home to Brown if you are The University of Rhode Island. I do not care who the coach is, who the players are, what players are available, what players are not available, how big of a crowd there is, what the weather is, how good the food tastes, etc. It is inexcusable and indefensible. Period and end of discussion.

[JFrech21]

It seems clear Arch thought hyping Fuchs would carry/pull his performance upward somehow, which didn't seem like a terrible strategy. It clearly has not worked though, if you're talking about expectations. I do think that, if there had been no hype on the kid at all...folks would be talking more about his potential than his shortcomings (maybe?). Too lazy to look, but was he heavily recruited? Did we beat out a bunch of other teams?

I'm more concerned about Zek...where has he gone? He doesn't even look comfortable out there.

If you want me to go really low and where my head went at halftime last night -

Austin Carroll was brought in to be the bridge from former team to new team, everyone left (most didn’t belong anyway) but Ish, who I watched beat up on West Virginia, couldn’t be retained.

Austin Carroll also never brought in recruits. Except for Fuchs.

Tyson Wheeler wanted to work here so bad.

I couldn’t help think watching those 3 on the court last night, what if Archie hired Tyson instead of Austin? We traded Tyson for Fuchs. I hate it here.

I’m gonna go take a cold shower, curl up in a ball, and blast some really existential Zach Bryan until I cry for 2-3 hours. Bye.

Blue Man, I love you man.....

I couldn't agree more about your Tyson Wheeler point. I'm a bit biased on that though, considering he's my favorite athlete in my lifetime, my dog is named Tyson, my number was 21, I would wear the same basketball shoes as him....I have 4 daughters but if I ever had a son I would have fought hard for naming him Tyson (would have been confusing with my dog and son having the same name). So yeah, I agree that we should have found a spot for him on our bench.

I sat behind the Brown bench last night and was very impressed by their coaching staff and their energy from their bench. Our bench had similar energy in the PC game, but NOT TONIGHT.

Back to the Fuchs thing, I completely understand if you're basing your opinion on him off of the Archie comments. He is not the best freshman in the A-10, he's not even close. Besides watching the Brown coaching staff, I focused a lot of my attention on Fuchs last night because I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something based on what you have been saying about him. He made mistakes, sure. He missed some bunnies, sure. He did jog slowly up the court on offense a few times but I think that is because he is an outlet at the top of the key in their first pass of their offensive set. He made some freshman mistakes, sure. He is not a great big man, maybe not even a good one "yet". But he is far from our teams biggest problem right now, I wouldn't put him in the top 10 problems with our team.

The things I like from him.....He has a veteran big-man body. He attacks the rim on offense. He passes the ball well, especially in the high-low game. I thought he played decent defense last night. I don't think he's our best big man on our team but he was last night, and he is our best healthy big man right now. Over the last 35 years or so since I started watching this team, we have not seen many true freshmen big men get much playing time. I believe he has potential to be a big piece for us if he stays for 4 years.

Someone else made the point about Langevine early on in his career. His freshman year he played 13.2 min per game and averaged 3.2 points and 4.5 rebounds. His sophmore year he played 18.1 min per game and averaged 6.1 points and 5.8 rebounds. After that he was a walking double double guy. It took him time to develop.

Right now Fuchs is averaging 20.6 min, and averaging 7.2 points and 6.9 rebounds. And that includes 2 games where he should have stayed on the bus up at Mohegan. I agree that you can't just go off of stats. But you can't just go off of +/- either. There are 9 other guys on the court at a time. It's a mix of stats, +-, eye test, etc....

All we are saying, is Give Fuchs a Chance!!! (you're supposed to sing that line in your head)

[rambone 78]

Well we have far too many on this team that can't make FT's, especially guards which is insane.
Can't get rid of them all so we are stuck with bad FT shooting for the foreseeable future.
Great huh?
Scine especially losing to a bad Brown team.
We are starting to hear the excuse train from Archie.
Paying 8 plus million for 5 years for another underachieving coach wasn't the plan.

[section(105)]

Poor FT shooting is only one of the problems here.
Sure if we made more last night we win, but still would be a hollow victory imo.
Lousy rebounding and defense
Not getting better, maybe even worse.
The 2 big system isnt working, it bogs down the offense, no fluidity.
A multitude of issues.
I put the blame at 50/50 players and coaching.
Very disappointing to say the least.
Let's hope things dont get so bad, that someone starts a Cox 2.0 thread. Just kidding I hope.

Don't think it will quite get to that point, doubt Archie lost all his Mojo.

I hope this loss is a huge wake-up call to both the players and the staff.

At this point, I would think Archie will make the proper adjustments.
The players certainly need to up their game.

Time for another team meeting?

[RhowdyRam02]

Well we have far too many on this team that can't make FT's, especially guards which is insane.
Can't get rid of them all so we are stuck with bad FT shooting for the foreseeable future.
Great huh?
Scine especially losing to a bad Brown team.
We are starting to hear the excuse train from Archie.
Paying 8 plus million for 5 years for another underachieving coach wasn't the plan.

What excuses did Archie make? If you listen to his post game he was pretty candid about the team's deficiencies

[rhodyrudder]

The guys don’t look like they know what they’re supposed to do on offense.
Pass and shoot.
Or dribble-drive (but not into 3 tall guys).
Or drive and kick.
Something!!!

Too many turnovers from bad passes, too much standing around.
Too many times they go 1 on 3.
Too many missed free throws.
Not enough rebounds.
Not enough fast break opportunities.

Not enough energy.

The RC is not likely to sell out any time soon.

UNH and Northeastern coming up.
Is there really any reason why we shouldn’t go 2-0?

I’m just rambling, but I am so tired of this crap.
It’s not worth my effort any more.
I will probably not pay attention to Sunday’s game at all.
Can’t remember the last time that ever happened.
1980?

[KeaneyBluBallz]

The guys don’t look like they know what they’re supposed to do on offense.
Pass and shoot.
Or dribble-drive (but not into 3 tall guys).
Or drive and kick.
Something!!!

Too many turnovers from bad passes, too much standing around.
Too many times they go 1 on 3.
Too many missed free throws.
Not enough rebounds.
Not enough fast break opportunities.

Not enough energy.

The RC is not likely to sell out any time soon.

UNH and Northeastern coming up.
Is there really any reason why we shouldn’t go 2-0?

I’m just rambling, but I am so tired of this crap.
It’s not worth my effort any more.
I will probably not pay attention to Sunday’s game at all.
Can’t remember the last time that ever happened.
1980?

good thing we have a shiny new practice facility.

leave your Jordan's on boys, you've got practice.

[RI_Bred]

Well we have far too many on this team that can't make FT's, especially guards which is insane.
Can't get rid of them all so we are stuck with bad FT shooting for the foreseeable future.
Great huh?

Can't stress enough what a liability this is on a developing young team. It's just shooting themselves in the foot with what should be, at a MINIMUM, an equalizer against other teams, if not an advantage. SO FRUSTRATING.

[RI_Bred]

Well we have far too many on this team that can't make FT's, especially guards which is insane.
Can't get rid of them all so we are stuck with bad FT shooting for the foreseeable future.
Great huh?
Scine especially losing to a bad Brown team.
We are starting to hear the excuse train from Archie.
Paying 8 plus million for 5 years for another underachieving coach wasn't the plan.

What excuses did Archie make? If you listen to his post game he was pretty candid about the team's deficiencies

Even my wife was like wow he's not holding back...and she barely pays attention to the post-game as we drive home. That's because she's catching up on all of the stuff on her phone from being at the Ryan.

[rambone 78]

Archie knows what's wrong, of course he does.

Doesn't excuse the poor rotations he's putting out there, however.

It's just so discouraging to realize how far away we are from being good again. Forget great, just good.

I expected at the very least, a winning record this year. Not happening from what we're seeing now.

Good coaches make their teams better than the sum of their parts. Also with so much turnover with the transfer portal, it's the challenge of making a bunch of strangers into a coherent team in a hurry. Good coaches do this.

It's not happening here, far from it. Archie is not adapting to the new reality very well.

[NYGFan_Section208]

The guys don’t look like they know what they’re supposed to do on offense.
Pass and shoot.
Or dribble-drive (but not into 3 tall guys).
Or drive and kick.
Something!!!

Too many turnovers from bad passes, too much standing around.
Too many times they go 1 on 3.
Too many missed free throws.
Not enough rebounds.
Not enough fast break opportunities.

Not enough energy.

The RC is not likely to sell out any time soon.

UNH and Northeastern coming up.
Is there really any reason why we shouldn’t go 2-0?

I’m just rambling, but I am so tired of this crap.
It’s not worth my effort any more.
I will probably not pay attention to Sunday’s game at all.
Can’t remember the last time that ever happened.
1980?

good thing we have a shiny new practice facility.

leave your Jordan's on boys, you've got practice.

I heard people b*tching on the way out that the practice facility is rarely used...not sure if that's the case or not, but I wonder...is it?

[Billyboy78]

The guys don’t look like they know what they’re supposed to do on offense.
Pass and shoot.
Or dribble-drive (but not into 3 tall guys).
Or drive and kick.
Something!!!

Too many turnovers from bad passes, too much standing around.
Too many times they go 1 on 3.
Too many missed free throws.
Not enough rebounds.
Not enough fast break opportunities.

Not enough energy.

The RC is not likely to sell out any time soon.

UNH and Northeastern coming up.
Is there really any reason why we shouldn’t go 2-0?

I’m just rambling, but I am so tired of this crap.
It’s not worth my effort any more.
I will probably not pay attention to Sunday’s game at all.
Can’t remember the last time that ever happened.
1980?

good thing we have a shiny new practice facility.

leave your Jordan's on boys, you've got practice.

I heard people b*tching on the way out that the practice facility is rarely used...not sure if that's the case or not, but I wonder...is it?

I remember a player pretty recently that missed a key free throw in a game staying after and shooting them for a couple of hours. I think it was Jeff Dowtin. Do any of the current players do this? Especially since they have access 24/7?

[NYGFan_Section208]

Well we have far too many on this team that can't make FT's, especially guards which is insane.
Can't get rid of them all so we are stuck with bad FT shooting for the foreseeable future.
Great huh?
Scine especially losing to a bad Brown team.
We are starting to hear the excuse train from Archie.
Paying 8 plus million for 5 years for another underachieving coach wasn't the plan.

What excuses did Archie make? If you listen to his post game he was pretty candid about the team's deficiencies

Even my wife was like wow he's not holding back...and she barely pays attention to the post-game as we drive home. That's because she's catching up on all of the stuff on her phone from being at the Ryan.

Yep, it's like when you take time off from work, and come back to all kinds of email...

[theblueram]

good thing we have a shiny new practice facility.

leave your Jordan's on boys, you've got practice.

I heard people b*tching on the way out that the practice facility is rarely used...not sure if that's the case or not, but I wonder...is it?

I remember a player pretty recently that missed a key free throw in a game staying after and shooting them for a couple of hours. I think it was Jeff Dowtin. Do any of the current players do this? Especially since they have access 24/7?

We were told by Coach Cunningham the players shot 2,900 free throws in practice. That like 225 per player if counting all 13. Not sure if he said the timeframe but I would assume in the last week.

[Billyboy78]

I heard people b*tching on the way out that the practice facility is rarely used...not sure if that's the case or not, but I wonder...is it?

I remember a player pretty recently that missed a key free throw in a game staying after and shooting them for a couple of hours. I think it was Jeff Dowtin. Do any of the current players do this? Especially since they have access 24/7?

We were told by Coach Cunningham the players shot 2,900 free throws in practice. That like 225 per player if counting all 13. Not sure if he said the timeframe but I would assume in the last week.

I remember seeing the board when we got the tour of the practice facility. They were taking 100 at a time. Most of the team was shooting in the 80s and some in the 90s. Obviously it's easier to shoot them in practice, but the difference between shooting them in the 80s and 90s in practice to shooting them in the 40s and 50s in games is astounding. We need a guy like Justin Sua who Hurley had here to help with the mental aspects of the game and things like taking deep breaths and relaxing when shooting a free throw. The kids have proven they can make them. They just can't make them during the pressure of a game.

[RhowdyRam02]

good thing we have a shiny new practice facility.

leave your Jordan's on boys, you've got practice.

I heard people b*tching on the way out that the practice facility is rarely used...not sure if that's the case or not, but I wonder...is it?

I remember a player pretty recently that missed a key free throw in a game staying after and shooting them for a couple of hours. I think it was Jeff Dowtin. Do any of the current players do this? Especially since they have access 24/7?

You're right about Dowtin.

There was someone shooting hoops after the game last night, you could clearly hear it on the postgame. No idea who it was though

[Billyboy78]

I heard people b*tching on the way out that the practice facility is rarely used...not sure if that's the case or not, but I wonder...is it?

I remember a player pretty recently that missed a key free throw in a game staying after and shooting them for a couple of hours. I think it was Jeff Dowtin. Do any of the current players do this? Especially since they have access 24/7?

You're right about Dowtin.

There was someone shooting hoops after the game last night, you could clearly hear it on the postgame. No idea who it was though

Probably Tyson, Cat and ARD.