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

[RF1]

Losing at home to Brown in year 2 of the regime of the highest paid coach in program history is not acceptable. This staff is well compensated and has been given all the resources (incl new practice facility) it needs to compete. I gave Archie a lot of leeway last year and have been more patient than many as I expected the rebuild to take a few years. I however do not accept losing at home to Brown, the third consecutive loss in a row to them. The honeymoon grace period for this staff is now over. It needs to take on a sense of urgency in righting the ship. It can no longer complacently sit back letting things play out as is which seemed on display by all last night.

[RIFan]

While the overall talent level of this team is greater than last year we still do not have a star player, our current best players should be our 2nd, 3rd or 4th on an actual good team. The FT issue may be a big problem for a while as most of this team is projected back...I thought I read somewhere that Tyson had issues with FT's for a while after the Stanford game. It's all between you ears with FTs.

Gotta say, when we stink at something, we stink:

349 Rhode Island 9 116 201 57.71

We are 349/351

Hard to overcome that deficiency. That percentage is bad for one starter to have, nevermind be the team average.

[NYGFan_Section208]

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.

I'm not sure they have shown they can make them....has anyone actually seen it?

[rhodyram22]

Losing at home to Brown in year 2 of the regime of the highest paid coach in program history is not acceptable. This staff is well compensated and has been given all the resources (incl new practice facility) it needs to compete. I gave Archie a lot of leeway last year and have been more patient than many as I expected the rebuild to take a few years. I however do not accept losing at home to Brown, the third consecutive loss in a row to them. The honeymoon grace period for this staff is now over. It needs to take on a sense of urgency in righting the ship. It can no longer complacently sit back letting things play out as is which seemed on display by all last night.

The record this year has to be significantly better than last year’s or Archie should be fired. This team should not be losing to Brown in year #2. Unacceptable.

[reef]

Items from the night

Brown Coaches all in business attire with Ties
Out staff in sweats
Couldn’t help but think maybe we should have had the formal attire considering the Recognition event

Quite a few people left with 5,4 and 3 minutes left. They missed the nice comeback by URI

One long term fan could be overheard saying “I’ve had enough of this” as he climbed the stairs to exit

Overheard going to the parking lot “we are getting worse since the start of the season, not better”

Good enthusiasm from student section

Overheard the last couple minutes of the game “now we show a sense of urgency!” Couldn’t help but think if we pressed and gave the effort we did the last 1-2 minutes of the game that things could have been different as to the outcome.

I’ve noticed across the country some coaches are going back to the suit and ties and others are going casual with team issued gear

[steveystuds06]

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?

Do you ever comment on the actual topic, or do you just come on here to criticize what other people post? Then again, I never took anything you said seriously after you claimed that Fatt's shot against Oklahoma was a bad shot...

[KeaneyBluBallz]

Losing at home to Brown in year 2 of the regime of the highest paid coach in program history is not acceptable. This staff is well compensated and has been given all the resources (incl new practice facility) it needs to compete. I gave Archie a lot of leeway last year and have been more patient than many as I expected the rebuild to take a few years. I however do not accept losing at home to Brown, the third consecutive loss in a row to them. The honeymoon grace period for this staff is now over. It needs to take on a sense of urgency in righting the ship. It can no longer complacently sit back letting things play out as is which seemed on display by all last night.

The record this year has to be significantly better than last year’s or Archie should be fired. This team should not be losing to Brown in year #2. Unacceptable.

hot take

what's your record line?

[reef]

Really good points being made about we should have hired Tyson as assistant coach when Arch first got the job

Also our spacing on offense is terrible , where is the good ball movement leading to good shots ??

Design more plays for Zek to get some open 3s , if you can’t shoot the 3 ball in college hoops your probably not going to be very good

[RhowdyRam02]

Losing at home to Brown in year 2 of the regime of the highest paid coach in program history is not acceptable. This staff is well compensated and has been given all the resources (incl new practice facility) it needs to compete. I gave Archie a lot of leeway last year and have been more patient than many as I expected the rebuild to take a few years. I however do not accept losing at home to Brown, the third consecutive loss in a row to them. The honeymoon grace period for this staff is now over. It needs to take on a sense of urgency in righting the ship. It can no longer complacently sit back letting things play out as is which seemed on display by all last night.

The record this year has to be significantly better than last year’s or Archie should be fired. This team should not be losing to Brown in year #2. Unacceptable.

hahahaha WUT

[Bos8]

Losing at home to Brown in year 2 of the regime of the highest paid coach in program history is not acceptable. This staff is well compensated and has been given all the resources (incl new practice facility) it needs to compete. I gave Archie a lot of leeway last year and have been more patient than many as I expected the rebuild to take a few years. I however do not accept losing at home to Brown, the third consecutive loss in a row to them. The honeymoon grace period for this staff is now over. It needs to take on a sense of urgency in righting the ship. It can no longer complacently sit back letting things play out as is which seemed on display by all last night.

I don't really understand the cliche phrase of "not acceptable" in this situation.

What exactly do you mean you don't accept it? Are you speaking in your view point as a fan? Are you speaking as if you are Athletic Director or University President?

If you are the AD and something happens that is unacceptable- Does this mean you fire Coach? Are you bringing him in and sitting him down like a child to scold him? Does sitting him down mean that he is going to magically try harder?

I'm also not a fan of using the concept of the highest paid coach in program history line. Because if you get rid of Archie, the next coach should most certainly be the highest paid coach in program history. I can't imagine what type of coach would come here on a reduced rate to take over a program that chased out a guy who had success in the conference in year 2.

I don't know, I just have a lot of questions about this point (and one's similar to yours. I chose to respond to yours because I know RF1 would give me a well thought out response...) Do you not thinking Archie and staff are trying hard? What specifically makes you say that?

I can guarantee Archie and his staff giving this thing their all. They know more about basketball and the landscape of college basketball then posters here who aren't satisfied. They've demonstrated they can be successful. Things could certainly be falling apart behind the scenes. At which point, I would expect Thorr to step in. But without being on the inside, we really don't know that is the case. Administration hired the coach. He's going to try his absolute best to win. As the administrator you support that as best as you humanly can. And if you feel that he is not longer the right guy for the job, you move on. There isn't really a whole lot of in between and saying it's unacceptable is in between. You either fire him, or you support him. All this "tough talk" is just a bunch of noise.

[steveystuds06]

There is zero chance Archie gets fired, but ya last night is rock bottom. The team has had some good moments against legitimate competition, which is better than last year. But he needs to do something different. If he comes out with the same lineup next game, I think I'll lose all faith in Archie. If Bilau isn't ready, start Weston. If you don't want to start Weston, then start Cam and deal with the growing pains of a young up-and-coming guard. Change the defense. Maybe add a press. Idk. He's the coach. But do literally anything to try and jumpstart this team because we look horrible right now.

[RI_Bred]

There is zero chance Archie gets fired, but ya last night is rock bottom.

Man let's hope so.

[RhowdyRam02]

Frankly, I feel it's unacceptable we've lost two years in a row to Brown. Does that mean I'm thinking we should fire Archie? I believe my highly technical response is hahaha WUT. Do I think Thorr needs to have a sit down with Archie? No. But he should always be grading Archie and the program's performance and this absolutely falls into "big failure" category. Also fans are constantly assessing the program to determine whether they should invest more or less time and money. A result like last night absolutely negatively affects that.

I think in the long run we'll laugh about this result, or at the very least realize it was just a bump in the road, but less than 24 hours out people are rightfully pissed. It seemed for a large portion of the game that one group of guys wanted to play to honor their assistant coach and one group of guys didn't care enough to honor three legends that helped establish the uniform they put on every game. That's probably an unfair statement, but that's certainly how it looked from the stands last night, and I think that's also part of what makes this feel unacceptable

[Jersey77]

Losing at home to Brown in year 2 of the regime of the highest paid coach in program history is not acceptable. This staff is well compensated and has been given all the resources (incl new practice facility) it needs to compete. I gave Archie a lot of leeway last year and have been more patient than many as I expected the rebuild to take a few years. I however do not accept losing at home to Brown, the third consecutive loss in a row to them. The honeymoon grace period for this staff is now over. It needs to take on a sense of urgency in righting the ship. It can no longer complacently sit back letting things play out as is which seemed on display by all last night.

The record this year has to be significantly better than last year’s or Archie should be fired. This team should not be losing to Brown in year #2. Unacceptable.

hot take

what's your record line?

Big difference between "should" and "will" although I don't agree with either and definitely not happening.
Our record will definitely be better than last year's, how significantly who knows.

Like I said, give this team the rest of this year, keep the core players along with adding Green to the mix, the 2 recruits, and maybe a couple of pieces in the portal, and we should start to see that drastic jump in our performance going forward.

[KeaneyBluBallz]

The record this year has to be significantly better than last year’s or Archie should be fired. This team should not be losing to Brown in year #2. Unacceptable.

hot take

what's your record line?

Big difference between "should" and "will" although I don't agree with either and definitely not happening.
Our record will definitely be better than last year's, how significantly who knows.

Like I said, give this team the rest of this year, keep the core players along with adding Green to the mix, the 2 recruits, and maybe a couple of pieces in the portal, and we should start to see that drastic jump in our performance going forward.

I said nothing of the sort, RR22 did.

[rhodyram22]

Losing at home to Brown in year 2 of the regime of the highest paid coach in program history is not acceptable. This staff is well compensated and has been given all the resources (incl new practice facility) it needs to compete. I gave Archie a lot of leeway last year and have been more patient than many as I expected the rebuild to take a few years. I however do not accept losing at home to Brown, the third consecutive loss in a row to them. The honeymoon grace period for this staff is now over. It needs to take on a sense of urgency in righting the ship. It can no longer complacently sit back letting things play out as is which seemed on display by all last night.

The record this year has to be significantly better than last year’s or Archie should be fired. This team should not be losing to Brown in year #2. Unacceptable.

hot take

what's your record line?

Hahaha. I’m just being a prick, but still, we need to see significant improvement or he should be on the hot seat. Right?

[rhodyram22]

Losing at home to Brown in year 2 of the regime of the highest paid coach in program history is not acceptable. This staff is well compensated and has been given all the resources (incl new practice facility) it needs to compete. I gave Archie a lot of leeway last year and have been more patient than many as I expected the rebuild to take a few years. I however do not accept losing at home to Brown, the third consecutive loss in a row to them. The honeymoon grace period for this staff is now over. It needs to take on a sense of urgency in righting the ship. It can no longer complacently sit back letting things play out as is which seemed on display by all last night.

The record this year has to be significantly better than last year’s or Archie should be fired. This team should not be losing to Brown in year #2. Unacceptable.

hahahaha WUT

[section(105)]

There is zero chance Archie gets fired, but ya last night is rock bottom. The team has had some good moments against legitimate competition, which is better than last year. But he needs to do something different. If he comes out with the same lineup next game, I think I'll lose all faith in Archie. If Bilau isn't ready, start Weston. If you don't want to start Weston, then start Cam and deal with the growing pains of a young up-and-coming guard. Change the defense. Maybe add a press. Idk. He's the coach. But do literally anything to try and jumpstart this team because we look horrible right now.

Unfortunately adding a press appears to be out of the question. In the post game, when asked about press his response was, “we don’t do that here…..”. Seems he is sticking with his packline, and just will keep coaching it with emphasis on more effort energy to try to turn some defense into offense. We/ll see.

[RhowdyRam02]

There is zero chance Archie gets fired, but ya last night is rock bottom. The team has had some good moments against legitimate competition, which is better than last year. But he needs to do something different. If he comes out with the same lineup next game, I think I'll lose all faith in Archie. If Bilau isn't ready, start Weston. If you don't want to start Weston, then start Cam and deal with the growing pains of a young up-and-coming guard. Change the defense. Maybe add a press. Idk. He's the coach. But do literally anything to try and jumpstart this team because we look horrible right now.

Unfortunately adding a press appears to be out of the question. In the post game, when asked about press his response was, “we don’t do that here…..”. Seems he is sticking with his packline, and just will keep coaching it with emphasis on more effort energy to try to turn some defense into offense. We/ll see.

People keep quoting only a portion of that response. He went on to say they might have to do something different

[theblueram]

There is zero chance Archie gets fired, but ya last night is rock bottom. The team has had some good moments against legitimate competition, which is better than last year. But he needs to do something different. If he comes out with the same lineup next game, I think I'll lose all faith in Archie. If Bilau isn't ready, start Weston. If you don't want to start Weston, then start Cam and deal with the growing pains of a young up-and-coming guard. Change the defense. Maybe add a press. Idk. He's the coach. But do literally anything to try and jumpstart this team because we look horrible right now.

Unfortunately adding a press appears to be out of the question. In the post game, when asked about press his response was, “we don’t do that here…..”. Seems he is sticking with his packline, and just will keep coaching it with emphasis on more effort energy to try to turn some defense into offense. We/ll see.

People keep quoting only a portion of that response. He went on to say they might have to do something different

He's at .500 so far this year. When does might turn into action?

[SGreenwell]

We're 322nd in steals per game, and teams are only averaging 8.8 turnovers per game against us. We're 294th in fouls per game, which seems good on the surface, but suggests we're being too passive on defense because we're not generating steals, blocks (227th), or especially low shooting percentages (109th in opponent 2-point percentage, but 274th in opponent 3-point percentage). I'm dubious that a full-time press would be effective for us - we're not deep enough, and we're not *that* athletic of a team - but some situational usage or going fullcourt man from time to time might get the players more locked in, in general.

[reef]

The record this year has to be significantly better than last year’s or Archie should be fired. This team should not be losing to Brown in year #2. Unacceptable.

hot take

what's your record line?

Big difference between "should" and "will" although I don't agree with either and definitely not happening.
Our record will definitely be better than last year's, how significantly who knows.

Like I said, give this team the rest of this year, keep the core players along with adding Green to the mix, the 2 recruits, and maybe a couple of pieces in the portal, and we should start to see that drastic jump in our performance going forward.

Agree with this it’s still very early in the process and we have to let it play out , while I’m pessimistic about the play this far in year 2 of the process you need to give Arch a full 4 years to see where we are at before making a change

[NYGFan_Section208]

There is zero chance Archie gets fired, but ya last night is rock bottom. The team has had some good moments against legitimate competition, which is better than last year. But he needs to do something different. If he comes out with the same lineup next game, I think I'll lose all faith in Archie. If Bilau isn't ready, start Weston. If you don't want to start Weston, then start Cam and deal with the growing pains of a young up-and-coming guard. Change the defense. Maybe add a press. Idk. He's the coach. But do literally anything to try and jumpstart this team because we look horrible right now.

Unfortunately adding a press appears to be out of the question. In the post game, when asked about press his response was, “we don’t do that here…..”. Seems he is sticking with his packline, and just will keep coaching it with emphasis on more effort energy to try to turn some defense into offense. We/ll see.

I'm no coach, but... do they practice against the press? If so, what about maybe getting those guys out to give that whirl before instead of waiting til you have to foul? I mean, I don't want to buy it - I just want to rent it for a minute or two.

Can you train 3 guys to press and two bigs to hang back? Maybe a h/a hacking zone press? Not asking for hHavoc or anything, but does it seem like maybe something to take a shot at ahead of fouling time? Plus...again, not a coach, or even a big Holiday Inn fan, but if I did play a coach on TV, isn't the message to those tv coaches, "OK, they say pressing is "not something they do" at Rhody. That tells me, they probably aren't practicing it much if at all...and they probably aren't practicing against it much, if at all either. And if they were practicing realistically and regularly against it, then they'd at least have something to roll out in times of desperation for a minute or two, because well, someone's doing it in practice, right? Since they don't, that means I should probably press them all the time."?

Maybe...could Arch maybe make it illegal to press in Rhode Island? Any team, not just URI. When you're in the state, no pressing. "You come play a school in RI doesn't matter - no pressing...we don't do that here. Maybe that's what he meant the whole time?

[section(105)]

We're 322nd in steals per game, and teams are only averaging 8.8 turnovers per game against us. We're 294th in fouls per game, which seems good on the surface, but suggests we're being too passive on defense because we're not generating steals, blocks (227th), or especially low shooting percentages (109th in opponent 2-point percentage, but 274th in opponent 3-point percentage). I'm dubious that a full-time press would be effective for us - we're not deep enough, and we're not *that* athletic of a team - but some situational usage or going fullcourt man from time to time might get the players more locked in, in general.

I think we had ‘October deepth’

[mmerf8281]

I came to the Wagner game and saw a much different Miller that night. Ahead by double digits with 2 minutes to go that night, I saw him rip into a kid who had made a dumb play. He had some real fire, even at that point in the game. I didn't see any of that last night. He stood leaning against the scorers table with his arms folded for much of the night. If there was ever a night when the coach needed to light a fire under the guys early on, it was last night. But I just didn't see it. Wondering if others saw that last night too. I sit behind URI bench, so have a good vantage point.

[rjv]

Is Rory still on the team or hurt?

[Rhody15]

Is Rory still on the team or hurt?

Out of the rotation

[steveystuds06]

There is zero chance Archie gets fired, but ya last night is rock bottom. The team has had some good moments against legitimate competition, which is better than last year. But he needs to do something different. If he comes out with the same lineup next game, I think I'll lose all faith in Archie. If Bilau isn't ready, start Weston. If you don't want to start Weston, then start Cam and deal with the growing pains of a young up-and-coming guard. Change the defense. Maybe add a press. Idk. He's the coach. But do literally anything to try and jumpstart this team because we look horrible right now.

Unfortunately adding a press appears to be out of the question. In the post game, when asked about press his response was, “we don’t do that here…..”. Seems he is sticking with his packline, and just will keep coaching it with emphasis on more effort energy to try to turn some defense into offense. We/ll see.

People keep quoting only a portion of that response. He went on to say they might have to do something different

Ya, I saw his comment, and I still think it's absolutely ridiculous. A good team prepares for EVERY scenario. Did he think we would never be down late in the second half and never need to pressure a team? You don't prepare for that? Cmon... That's a David Cox answer and I NEVER thought I would see that from Archie.

[4Diffs]

I have not read one post in this thread and that is the truth. I remember writing after the Wagner game that we no longer suck and was excited to be headed down to Mohegan to watch them against Northwestern. I think I regret writing those words. I was horrified by the Northwestern game and not just the start. We come out and fall behind 22-2 is mind boggling to me. Not sure how that happens but it speaks to not being prepared to me. Then in the second half we decide we are going to go against a Big 10 front court with four guards and one big. The results were predictable. That lineup was OK in short spurts but no way can you play that line up for extended periods of time, but we did. Washington State was not much better, we got lucky that Yale was missing its best player and we saw what happened at PC.

I am going to come out and say it directly, I do not think Archie Miller is a very good X and O's coach or tactician in anyway shape or form. And god knows he is not much of a motivator for anybody that has interacted with him. This is not a knee jerk reaction, I have had these thoughts since he first took over the team. Some on here act like he is some basketball savant because he did a good job at Dayton, the best job in the A10. That was a long time ago and is Dayton any worse now than they were then? Not sure they are. They had a final four level team in the Covid year. They are still at the top of the conference, yes the basketball sands has shifted and that no longer may mean an at large birth like it did in the past. Is Indiana better now than with Archie? Yes they are. Are we better than we were two years ago? I am not sure. Last year we clearly were not. We were 15-16 in Cox's last year and that was against a real non conference schedule. Yes the team quit towards the end of that year and finished 5-12 in the A10. That was 11th and was still worlds better than the 14th we finished last year.

I was extremely irritated by that game last night. It was not like Brown came out and played a great game last night and beat us, we were awful. And worse than that was some of the line up decisions that were being made. This team lacks any speed or athleticism at the guard position. The one guy who does Estevez plays very little for some reason. But this leads into my bigger point. This coach does the same thing every single game. He never changes anything. Last night screamed for something to change what was going on. Either the players playing or the style, anything something. But nope let's just keep on doing what we are doing. Then his comments after the game were horrifying to me. Asked about doing a full court press "We are not a pressing team" is his answer. I was stunned by that response. Did not even entertain the thought that doing something different may have been helpful. Even worse was his response about the defense and how bad they are. Yes we suck at playing defense correct. Have you changed a thing that we do on defense to try to help there? A zone. A half court trap? I mean the job of a coach is putting your players in the best position to win. If this is the worse defensive team you have ever had, maybe we should play zone. We can't keep Brown players in front of us and our guards are some of the worse defensive players I have seen. A zone would have been helpful against Providence as well. But nope you can tell he is never going to change a thing that we do. That may work if you recruited the players necessary to play that style of defense but clearly you have not for this year so change the defense that is being played please. He does not own any of this. You are the captain of the ship man. If you got sailors that cannot do a certain thing, find out what they can do and have them do that.

Sorry for the rant and I will not even get into the offense and how rudimentary it is and archaic with how prevalent the 3 point shot is in basketball today. I will just tell you that I spoke with a Northwestern assistant coach after that game and he basically told me the same thing and that his offense is very easy to defend. It is the same action every time down. The high low has not been a thing for like a decade but often that is the staple of our offense. And lastly I want to apologize to the people sitting around me last night. I was so disgusted by what I saw on the court last night when my favorite Rhody player of all time (ARD) was in the house, and I let my emotions get the better of me and used some words in describing what I was seeing that was unbecoming and unnecessary. I dislike being around those people, and last night I became one of them. It will not happen again.

[reef]

I came to the Wagner game and saw a much different Miller that night. Ahead by double digits with 2 minutes to go that night, I saw him rip into a kid who had made a dumb play. He had some real fire, even at that point in the game. I didn't see any of that last night. He stood leaning against the scorers table with his arms folded for much of the night. If there was ever a night when the coach needed to light a fire under the guys early on, it was last night. But I just didn't see it. Wondering if others saw that last night too. I sit behind URI bench, so have a good vantage point.

Yeah I thought Arch would be a bit more animated on the sidelines like DH , maybe that’s not his style

[bigappleram]

We're 322nd in steals per game, and teams are only averaging 8.8 turnovers per game against us. We're 294th in fouls per game, which seems good on the surface, but suggests we're being too passive on defense because we're not generating steals, blocks (227th), or especially low shooting percentages (109th in opponent 2-point percentage, but 274th in opponent 3-point percentage). I'm dubious that a full-time press would be effective for us - we're not deep enough, and we're not *that* athletic of a team - but some situational usage or going fullcourt man from time to time might get the players more locked in, in general.

This nails it on the head. Our biggest issue right now is how hard we play especially on defensive side of ball. We aren’t making anyone uncomfortable. Very few live ball turnovers.
We let Lilly dictate that game.

In Dan’s early years we were not there from a talent standpoint but the team played hard and defensively were miles ahead of this group in terms of making other teams uncomfortable. This group has the athleticism both on the perimeter and inside to be a much better defensive team. The pack line is the slack line thus far IMO. And to make matters worse we have guys like Jaden, Zek, Weston who would thrive more in an uptempo game vs half court. But if you can’t rebound or create turnovers you can’t run.

[section(105)]

I think Archie has a strong core belief in his defensive philosophy and system, and expects the teaching and execution of that lies in its principles and aggressive max effort to make it work and turning defense into offense.

[theblueram]

Whatever the issues are, Archie better fix em. That was some uninspiring basketball last night.

[KeaneyBluBallz]

I think Archie has a strong core belief in his defensive philosophy and system, and expects the teaching and execution of that lies in its principles and aggressive max effort to make it work and turning defense into offense.

that's fine, but whatever his systems, beliefs, philosophy, ect are, it's his job to being in players that fit those characteristics and do it at a high level.

round peg, round hole.

Dont bring in guys that don't fit your systems. I'm not saying this is the case but let's not use it as an excuse. Arch brought in these guys in for whatever reason, figure it out, coach.

[Jersey77]

I think Archie has a strong core belief in his defensive philosophy and system, and expects the teaching and execution of that lies in its principles and aggressive max effort to make it work and turning defense into offense.

that's fine, but whatever his systems, beliefs, philosophy, ect are, it's his job to being in players that fit those characteristics and do it at a high level.

round peg, round hole.

Dont bring in guys that don't fit your systems. I'm not saying this is the case but let's not use it as an excuse. Arch brought in these guys in for whatever reason, figure it out, coach.

Yes KBB, it is on him to make it work.

This loss to Brown really caught me off guard, still trying to recover from it.
And I was one of those who was cautious but still didn't figure we would lose this one.

[RI_Bred]

I mean, I don't want to buy it - I just want to rent it for a minute or two.

I caught that...

[jcru]

There are no simple answers.

If you read that pdf about the Pack Line defense, part of the defense philosophy is that the Pack Line is never wrong, (to players) you're simply not doing a good job executing it.

I'm sure that goes over real well after each loss. That's the risk you face when you go "all in" on something. When you are rocking and rolling, it's all good, and I'm sure the effort just gets better and better each game. But when things are going south, you risk losing everyone all together, as their faith in it starts to falter.

[Jdrums#3]

Nothing much to add that hasn’t been posted already.

Still in shock and still reading and rereading through the thread. Many excellent comments and insights here with some positive, and some negative - which is to be expected from all the passionate fans here. It’s one of the things that makes this place enjoyable though sometimes wearisome.

Wish there was a way to bottle up the KB passion and inject it into the players and coaching staff.

Any pharmacy grads on the board that can assist with that pronto ?

[section(105)]

For me, that is the issue/problem with system coaches. There are system coaches and feel coaches. I think the system coaches are so locked in that less than near perfect execution results in breakdowns. Feel coaches take the assembled players and talents and schemes both sides of the ball to those skill sets. Not exactly a news flash here at all. I think we are experiencing some moments where the players effort to deliver the system is the problem not the system. Correct, no easy answers. We got a system coach.

[theblueram]

For me, that is the issue/problem with system coaches. There are system coaches and feel coaches. I think the system coaches are so locked in that less than near perfect execution results in breakdowns. Feel coaches take the assembled players and talents and schemes both sides of the ball to those skill sets. Not exactly a news flash here at all. I think we are experiencing some moments where the players effort to deliver the system is the problem not the system. Correct, no easy answers. We got a system coach.

Honestly 105, don't care what he employs as a basketball philosophy. He just needs to win games. We go into next year, with a NET of 250+, things are not good.

[rhodyblue12]

I did not listen to the post game, so looking for some help understanding the "we don't do that here" reply when asked why we did not press.
Was Archie indeed talking about his coaching philosophy, or was that comment a sarcastic swipe at his players saying they don't play hard enough to press properly?

[jcru]

It reminds me of, 22 years ago, when URI hired Stowers for FB coach. And he had that Spread Offense he brought over from Georgia Southern. And many things have been called "spread offense" over the years, but his was actually a variation of the wishbone option offense, just disguised and modified. Instead of two running backs behind the quarterback, you had one, and two wide receivers one on either side who ran play action on every single play, one of them essentially became the second running back, depending on which side the play was going.

And at first, it was working. 7-0. We beat Delaware in Delaware, I was there. We beat JMU at JMU, I was there. We beat Hofstra at Hofstra, I was there to see it. We beat everybody for 7 straight weeks.

And then a funny thing happened. People studied the game films. And they figured us out. Georgia Southern had a running back that went to the NFL. In order for that Offense to truly be dominating, just like anything else, you needed dominating talent running it. URI had avg CAA level talent. So, once the opposing Defenses starting locking into our game plan, it became a matter of will at the line of scrimmage, if we were going to keep rolling, or if they were going to stop us. And if they stopped us on just enough plays, we couldn't win.

People from the South had a saying: "nothing has ever beaten the 'Bone" It's definitely a Southern philosophy as the wish bone remained very popular in the South for a long time. What they meant was, if you had dominating talent, all you had to do was run option plays out of that formation, and your team would just grind the other team's defense into pulp, given time, even if they knew what was coming, every play. And with it, all the benefits of a grind it out, ball control running offense: the other team would scramble as they had very little time or opportunity to execute anything, especially if your defense was lighting them up too.

Now enter Archie. He has the one philosophy: the Pack Line. Whether that Defense is going to be successful or not, pretty much comes down to your talent level and how confident and how much your players buy in to running that defense. That has to be what he's stressing to them in practice and in the locker room: do you have the will to commit to this defense and execute it?

He has a window to reel them in and get this to work, but the only problem with doing that is, after a while, if they don't win, and the players don't see the hard evidence first hand, and their effort isn't rewarded with results, they will eventually start to tune him out.

The only recourse may be, as other have suggested, shake up the lineup. The obvious change would be Fuchs. But the overall thrust would be getting your better defensive players in there, while balancing keeping your best offensive players in there.

Keep in mind, Hurley didn't have this problem after a few years, because if you couldn't play defense, and survive his puke sessions in practice, he wasn't even interested in recruiting you. You couldn't be an "offense only" player and make it on his team. That is the Hurley philosophy going back to his father and older brother to a T.

[DeanDome88]

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.

Fuchs is neither a racehorse nor an impressive leaper but he occasionally looks like he can play a little bit. He gets decent position most of the time and almost never gets called for an illegal screen which is a nice change for this team. Fuchs seems more steady and reliable at the moment compared to the rest of the freshman class even though he has been mediocre.

[section(105)]

For me, that is the issue/problem with system coaches. There are system coaches and feel coaches. I think the system coaches are so locked in that less than near perfect execution results in breakdowns. Feel coaches take the assembled players and talents and schemes both sides of the ball to those skill sets. Not exactly a news flash here at all. I think we are experiencing some moments where the players effort to deliver the system is the problem not the system. Correct, no easy answers. We got a system coach.

Honestly 105, don't care what he employs as a basketball philosophy. He just needs to win games. We go into next year, with a NET of 250+, things are not good.

Agreed, results business. Those of us, including me, that want to use some pressure defense from time to time are frustrated we don’t see it. System coaches have difficult time deviating off their script, they can’t throw some stuff on wall and see what sticks when the system breaks down. Especially while on the fly.

[theblueram]

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.

Fuchs is neither a racehorse nor an impressive leaper but he occasionally looks like he can play a little bit. He gets decent position most of the time and almost never gets called for an illegal screen which is a nice change for this team. Fuchs seems more steady and reliable at the moment compared to the rest of the freshman class even though he has been mediocre.

Fuchs is a freshman. And not a 5* freshman. People need to lay off the guy. If you want him to develop, let him develop. If you want him off the team, keep beating him down and he will be in the portal next spring. Fuchs isn't the problem right now. We don't have a leader on this team. We don't have a badass on this team. Yet. We need a badass on this team that will bully our opponents.

[section(105)]

I did not listen to the post game, so looking for some help understanding the "we don't do that here" reply when asked why we did not press.
Was Archie indeed talking about his coaching philosophy, or was that comment a sarcastic swipe at his players saying they don't play hard enough to press properly?

Here is what I heard. In response to a media question on why not press earlier, his answer was like , we are not pressing team, we don’t do that. I took that to mean, we don’t work on it, don’t teach it. He expects the packline when executed properly will result in some defense to offense opportunities, and that is not happening, cause players were not playing hard enough on his defense.

[Rhodymob05]

Get Fuchs some motivaton and he'll be a beast in a year or two.

[jcru]

Can he play defense? That really is the only question now.

[theblueram]

Can he play defense? That really is the only question now.

Right now? Not really. But who else do we have? Not like he is being eased in. He's a freshman big. Question is, can he get better.

[RI_Bred]

Just like everyone else I want URI to be instantly successful. This is the world we live in now, and instant gratification is not a phenomenon pressed only on our younger generation(s) these days via social media and access to anything in seconds at the tip of your finger and in your pocket...

But that ain't real-world when it comes to sports...or anything else...

I think we all, including me, have to remind ourselves of this frequently. Yes, we should expect steady progress over time. But it's not gonna be this year or likely even next that URI men's hoops is really competitive. Hard to swallow, but it's a four year process at a minimum, if the chips fall on the right side of the line. Fourth year, we aren't at the top of the league and competing for a legit bid, that's a problem.