KeaneyBlue - The URI Basketball Forum

He's from Milwaukee. Garrett's from Milwaukee.

That's nice. Are they buds?

If so, then maybe?

No, I think they visited Rashard Figures today because they know Sprewell is going to WKU. WKU was recruiting Figures too. If Sprewell is signing with WKU, Figures is not. So now, attention is turned to Figures.

Jordan Wells ‏@JWellsScout · 14h
JuCo guard Ayinde Sprewell (@Spree_Breezy) says his #WKU visit went "very well".

Great. So we've lost players to Longwood, WKU and Murray State.
Just makes you feel warm and fuzzy about things.

I would love for him to commit here now. Granted, not likely given that he hasn't taken a visit, but we're all gloom and doom 3 hours before he announces either way.

Next.

So, you think Sprewell is going to declare for URI, even though he
hasn't visited, but had a nice visit at WKU?
Oh, OK......

I doubt it, but stranger things have happened...

True, but you have to admit, that would be pretty strange.
Never heard of anyone committing to a school without a visit.

Western Kentucky doesn't have any room on paper but we all know that doesn't mean anything. It would definitely be strange for him to choose us without a visit but its already strange that we're in his final 2 without a visit. The only source of URI's involvement has been Sprewell himself. If he never tweeted about URI, we wouldn't even know about him. If he was just naming a second school for dramatic decision purposes, why us? Why not one of the schools that's been on him and is actually linked to him by the recruiting sites?

I like that he's thinking A-10 vs. CUSA. To me, that's a no brainer!

As expected its WKU per Evan Daniels.

Another one bites the dust.
This is getting almost comical.

This is not good at all. Before JG signed we were lamenting the loss of Bobby on the recruiting front...now we lose PM, those are 2 very big losses to have to make up for in consecutive years.

CT Rhody wrote:

Weird.

Yup, just like PC wasn't recruiting any of the guys who got away.

rodfromcranston wrote:Yup, just like PC wasn't recruiting any of the guys who got away.

A lot easier to believe though, given that Sprewell himself was the only one who ever mentioned a connection with URI.

That said, I'd greatly appreciate it if we could sign another player, and soon. Please and thank you, DH.

rodfromcranston wrote:Yup, just like PC wasn't recruiting any of the guys who got away.

This isn't some fan saying this; this is someone at URI telling DiSano this. Why would they lie?

Based on the happening of the last few days, I have no clue what's going on.
Like coaches never fib, right?
Seems Dan had direct face to face contact with at least two players, who almost immediately signed
with another school, without taking a visit.
So, the wagons are being circled for protection from critics.
I've talked to Dan about players who visited and said it was between URI and another school.
Dan saying they were never going to sign that player.
Saving face? Maybe.

Social media means more info, but also more bad info. I'm now seriously questioning that Dan went to NC last Friday. Flomo was visiting another school this weekend, so it seems doubtful that he met with Dan on Friday. We can't take one tweet as gospel.

Wku? That's embarrassing

I just wanted to correct some information some of you have

Here's the link showing RI was recruiting this kid

http://www.independentri.com/independents/sports/a rticle_c4bccf1f-8ffd-5905-ba56-713ebd37d4c1.html

part of the article

"URI is currently involved with a handful of prospects to fill out its 2014-15 class, including Oak Hill (Va.) power forward Rokas Gustys and Daytona State (Fla.) junior college guard Ayinde Sprewell. Gustys and Sprewell are the focus of other members of the coaching staff. The Rams will have at least two scholarships to fill in 2015-16 after the scheduled graduations of Buchanan and Gilvydas Biruta."


Also a little info on WKU so it wont be so embarrassing to some of you fans that

Street & Smith's publication "100 Greatest Programs", ranked WKU #31

1692 WINS 16th alltime
1692-855, .664 W-L% last time I checked that was 8th best in the NCAA

11 out of the past 13 years with 20+ wins (23.4 avg for those 11 years)

total of 41 20+ win seasons

47 conference championships 3rd all-time in the NCAA behind uk and UNC

NCAA Tournament: 23 Years (19-24), 1 Final Four, 5 sweet 16s

NCAA TOURNEY 4 OUT OF THE LAST 7 YEARS (with 4 wins...1 sweet 16) AND 7 OUT OF THE LAST 14


WKU has had 30 All Americans

E.A. Diddle Arena was ranked 23rd best college basketball arena. When John Thompson brought his #1 Georgetown team in with Ewing he called it...a sea of noise and as loud as any arena the ever coached in.

Atmosphere

When the lights go out, the fans come alive then listen respectfully to the montage honoring the history of Western Kentucky basketball from E.A. Diddle's teams to modern day. When the lights come back on, the crowd cheers loudly again, and the team enters the court, circling the floor, and bumping fists with radio play-by-play man, Randy Lee, before beginning their final warm-ups.

The approximately 40-member WKU pep band represents the school well, as does the student section which fills up well before the tip even against a lower-tier opponent.

Most of the 100 and 200 level seats are comfortable chairs with seatbacks and cupholders. The first ten rows behind the court (104-106 and 111-113) are leather seats and are amazingly comfortable. If you snag one of those you will have a very comfortable night, not to mention a great view of the action. Remaining seats in the 100 and 200 level are theatre type seats.

The student section also gets chairs with backs, but they are somewhat more uncomfortable (probably with the hope that students will remain on their feet most of the game- which they are).

The atmosphere feels like big time college basketball with the level of energy that is developed in the introduction and by the students. That same high level continues throughout the contest, and makes for a great experience.


Fans

As the opposing team is announced, the student section yells in unison "SUCKS" after each player is called. Then the lights go down again, and spotlights traverse the court, as those same students begin to work themselves into a frenzy. It is a very impressive display and gets you immediately into the game, waving those red towels as the tip approaches. The rest of the crowd does their job as well, but it is clearly the student section that carries the day. They remain standing and cheering throughout the game.


Well good luck I hope you get the other guard that has RI on his list...

I just wanted to let you fans know there nothing to be embarrassed about. While the A10 had a great season and conference USA was down this past season when you consider our arena, fans, and history I think you can see it would have been the WKU fans that would have been embarrassed if we lost this recruit to RI.

Rhodymob05 wrote:Wku? That's embarrassing

NCAA Tournament 4 out of the last 6 years, I wish we could be that embarrassing!

Well there are probably targeted players that DH has in mind. The fact that he isn't really sharing that info is probably for the best. More so now than ever, now that Preston is gone. I am sure that if that is the case...we will probably hear something sooner than later.

Whoopdie doo!
EVERY SEAT at Ryan Center is a chair. We also have luxury suites.
Most programs are better than we've been in the last 15 years.
Doesn't take much. Our montage goes back to Frank Keaney, the inventor of the fast break.
We've had three players as national scoring champions a total of seven years.
30 AA's????? What are you like these clowns around here counting honorable mentions?
We had a player with a show on the E network, and several NBA rings.
Derek Gordon didn't think it was so peachy.
Whatever, none of comparing is relevant.

adam914 wrote:

Rhodymob05 wrote:Wku? That's embarrassing

NCAA Tournament 4 out of the last 6 years, I wish we could be that embarrassing!

Well those have been extremely QUIET tournament appearances. The only time I've seen them on national television is when they get spanked NY Louisville.

Rhodymob05 wrote:

adam914 wrote:

Rhodymob05 wrote:Wku? That's embarrassing

NCAA Tournament 4 out of the last 6 years, I wish we could be that embarrassing!

Well those have been extremely QUIET tournament appearances. The only time I've seen them on national television is when they get spanked NY Louisville.

But my point is, are we really in any kind of position to be passing those kinds of judgements on other schools right now?

Hillotopper, thanks for your response. I am sure that you folks are proud of your arena, team, lights out, etc

I am guessing that you feel the same way about your in state rival as we do towards ours.

Your statistics are just that, statistics. The facts are that Bowling Green in only safer than 5% of us cities of similar size, that your property crime rate is TWICE that of the National and Kentucky average. The facts are that the A 10 has been ranked as either 7 or 8 best conference the last three years. The Sun Belt, which is where you have been playing, has been ranked on average 21st the last three years. Your competition in the SunBelt has been Georgia State, Louisiana-Lafayette, Arkansas State, Texas State etc

The A10 is closer to the Big Ten in these ratings 79 vs 83(the top conference according to Sagarin) that the Sun Belt is to the A 10.

So, at the end of the day, comparing your conference ncaa appearances are neither impressive or non-impressive. Just the results within the Sun Belt are just what they are...

Congratulations on moving up to CUSA next year. Better than the Sun Belt, but loaded with wanna bees,
and certainly not up to the track record of the A 10

Hope you do well, and Sprewell fulfills his dreams; but I agree that most impartial third parties agree with this board.

Even last year, which was a very challenging year for URI our Sagarin RPI was significantly better than Western Kentucky. 132 ranked vs 162

I see your point Adam, But their conference stinks like my fathers high school basketball sneakers

I don't really care about this because I don't think anyone thought he was coming here. But I can't let the moment pass without saying that anyone that would purposely live in Kentucky over New England should have their head examined. Good riddance to the lot of them.

(Admittedly my mother's family is from Cincinnati which is basically Kentucky and I've made the trip down to visit the distilleries, and that is a pretty good reason to visit. Not sure I'd move there unless they gave me one of them, though.)

Thank you for coming on here to show us how much better your school is than ours.
Tip:
If I was the coach, I wouldn't wear a necktie.

CT Rhody wrote:

Well that makes a little more sense as to why the Koch tweets disappeared. So basically the only person that said URI was recruiting Sprewell was Sprewell himself. Hm.

Lots of CYA stuff lately with deleted tweets all around
on several fronts.
Ah, the internet. Love it and hate it all at once.

There is an easy answer to all of this. Staff can't comment on recruits until they sign, so if a player says a school is hard after them it makes it extremely difficult to almost impossible to verify. In this case it made sense that we were after this player due to his position, abilities etc when in reality we weren't. And honestly you can't compare the A-10 which plays like a high major league to a now annual one bid conference, apple and oranges.

This kid is on twitter a lot. He tweets and retweets all the time. I asked him a couple of days ago when did he visit Rhode Island. He did not answer. This was definitely a weird one.

Billyboy78 wrote:This kid is on twitter a lot. He tweets and retweets all the time. I asked him a couple of days ago when did he visit Rhode Island. He did not answer. This was definitely a weird one.

Wasn't there also a European kid playing at a Florida high school that similarly said URI was interested in him, or he was interested in the school, but there wasn't any truth to it? It's the Internet, so weird stuff can happen in general, and I usually don't follow all the recruiting news all that much until there is actually a verbal or signing.

SGreenwell wrote: Wasn't there also a European kid playing at a Florida high school that similarly said URI was interested in him, or he was interested in the school, but there wasn't any truth to it? It's the Internet, so weird stuff can happen in general, and I usually don't follow all the recruiting news all that much until there is actually a verbal or signing.

Ilker Er!! That was classic. He "verballed" to URI, only to find out that we never really offered...just googled him, but not entirely sure where he ended up? There was some chatter about him going to LSU, but he was never listed on their roster.

Yeah, this thread needs to be put to bed.

The kid had no intention of signing with us. Played us like a violin. We can do without it.

I thought it was interesting that he made this into a competition between conferences, CUSA v A10, in his tweets. I wonder if someone asked him to do this. I could see the request going something like this....

"Hey Ayinde, we know you've already made your decision to go to WKU... But we want to bolster the CUSA conference and want you to pick an A10 conference (read better conference) school and say you are deciding between them and WKU."

Maybe someone thought this "win" over the A10 would help with future recruiting.

Complete speculation, but it ran through my brain.

RJ, never thought of that, but your theory sounds quite plausible. And you're right - he mentioned the conferences in nearly every tweet.

I find the amount of jealous hate towards MY school and MY state quite laughable. You can take your pompous New England arrogance and shove it really far up an orifice of your choice.

It is true that economic woes have caused a spike in property crime in the region (this is a very blue collar/industrial area) and we have issues with violent crime, we are no worse off than any where else. You can pick and choose all the stats you want to shade cities as "bad" places. While we are quite disappointed with the level that WKU has fallen to in recent years (mismanagement post 2008 Sweet 16 run), WKU is back on track to return to our former prominence.

Aside from outstanding facilities for our athletes, WKU has a wide range of advantages. We have several stellar academic programs, a student oriented education philosophy, a breath-taking campus set in a charming town, and many more. I am sure that URI is similarly proud of your schools various charms and accomplishments as we are of ours.

I think that your NE bias, coupled with your "embarrassment" is what struck a nerve with our supporters. If you would like to scoff at being widely hailed as a top 25 - top 50 program in history, then scoff away. Our record and our national achievements speak for themselves and that tradition has garnered lots of envy and respect from all sorts of teams. If you all decide to join team frogger and be jealous, so be it. You are certainly not the first and won't be the last to take this stance.

Your arguments about conference alignment is a joke honestly. So you managed to gain early entrance into a conference that is a greaat group of schools. This does not make RI better. The fact that the SBC is not the same SBC that we joined, does not make WKU worse. The school's name is (and forever will be) larger than the patch for the conference.

rambone 78 wrote:Yeah, this thread needs to be put to bed.

The kid had no intention of signing with us. Played us like a violin. We can do without it.

He didn't play anyone officially within the program. He tried to create some hype for himself, that's it. He talked to local media (very easy to do with social media) and told them he wanted to set up something with URI.

Iggy1979 wrote:Social media means more info, but also more bad info.

Truth.

You used to have to have actual phone numbers, email addresses to reach people... now anyone can drop a line on social media and become "a source." Even somewhat legitimate media people try to connect the dots, with surprising inaccuracy, at times.

Witness the Shaka Smart "done deal' to Marquette.
I had media people arguing with me, when I told them Smart was
still in Richmond.

Of all schools Sprewell could have picked, why us? Where's the connection?

A coach watched a workout where he was and the Hurley name? Maybe he likes Rams or thinks the A10 is doing interesting things. Endless options...