3/12 | Saint Louis | 4:30PM (ESPN+) | A-10 1st Round

[steveystuds06]

Estevez still looks like a freshman. I was hoping he would finish the year strong.

Did you not watch the first half? He led the team in scoring... Archie then barely played him in the second. He looks much better on the defensive end than earlier in the year. He'll be a better player next year. Archie was bad yet again in this game. Outcoached by a coach who's going to get fired. Terrible season yet again.

You know I agree about the Zek piece, but I won’t say he got outcoached. The gameplan change to go to the rim and play in transition was apparent and worked.

The defensive changes to extend the packline to the 3 point line stymied their offense.

We outscored them significantly and stopped their offense in the 2nd. If house hits those 2 FTs we win the game with or without zek’s lapses.

I still believe. Love and trust.

I think Ford outcoached him in the first half. Archie definitely outcoached him for most of the second half except when it was most important. His rotations late sucked. The bottom line is Ford played Archie twice and beat him twice... Don't forget St. Louis didn't have their best player.. Huge letdown and not good enough!

[steveystuds06]

Well said. In year 3 he has two recruits coming in. Hammond and Farrell. Are these cornerstone players? Based on rankings, I'm not so sure. We hired Miller to bring in top recruits and players. He hasn't delivered so far. And his assistants, who are being paid the most ever in URI history? WTH are they doing?

Honestly, one would have to think Hammond would rethink his commitment. His handlers have to think and say, is this what you want? Unless he is a real pioneer going into the Kingston wilderness. Please spare the fan talk here be a factor if he decides to go elsewhere.

And I'm sure there are plenty of schools who would want him now, after making 1st team all WCAC along with his 5 star teammate at Paul VI and ahead of his two 4 star teammates. Oh, and those tourney MVPs.

I still think most high majors would stay away due to his size. It wouldn't surprise me if Hammond has the highest NIL on the team or close. We need to do whatever we can to keep him.

[NYGFan_Section208]

Well said. In year 3 he has two recruits coming in. Hammond and Farrell. Are these cornerstone players? Based on rankings, I'm not so sure. We hired Miller to bring in top recruits and players. He hasn't delivered so far. And his assistants, who are being paid the most ever in URI history? WTH are they doing?

Honestly, one would have to think Hammond would rethink his commitment. His handlers have to think and say, is this what you want? Unless he is a real pioneer going into the Kingston wilderness. Please spare the fan talk here be a factor if he decides to go elsewhere.

He's been a very popular name for a while. If he was going to back out, I feel like that would have already happened. But of course, you never know. KJ has done a great job promoting Hammond all year on social media, and my guess is he and Archie talk to him daily. If Hammond doesn't come, that may break me. He Cam Fuchs are the only thing that kinda gives me hope.

it would be good to have them, I suppose...but, I'm hopeful that the best players on next year's team are better than those guys

[steveystuds06]

Honestly, one would have to think Hammond would rethink his commitment. His handlers have to think and say, is this what you want? Unless he is a real pioneer going into the Kingston wilderness. Please spare the fan talk here be a factor if he decides to go elsewhere.

He's been a very popular name for a while. If he was going to back out, I feel like that would have already happened. But of course, you never know. KJ has done a great job promoting Hammond all year on social media, and my guess is he and Archie talk to him daily. If Hammond doesn't come, that may break me. He Cam Fuchs are the only thing that kinda gives me hope.

it would be good to have them, I suppose...but, I'm hopeful that the best players on next year's team are better than those guys

Our best players next year will definitely need to be better than them. I think they'll both be better players, but I don't think they'll take a huge leap and become the best players on the team. Now, the goal is that by junior and senior year, they develop into good, hopefully great starters. Look at Ish for example. Solid freshman year, below average sophomore year, great junior year, ACC 6th man of the year senior year...Cam and Fuchs both have the talent and upside to keep improving similar to Ish.

[McRam]

Archie totally blew this game. How can he have weston on the bench and Montgomery out there. Horrendous in game coaching.

Weston has 4 fouls I believe

Yes , u r right , he had 4fouls but in crunch time with under 5 left, what do,u have to,lose. u still have him in.

[McRam]

I don’t think anybody can criticize the effort today. They played hard,the whole game, clawed,their way back and seemed to be in control until the slow,down. Estavez and House played good or very good defense. Nice to see some pressure, which turned the game around. Did Archie stop the pressure because we were getting too tired?

[PeterRamTime]

He's been a very popular name for a while. If he was going to back out, I feel like that would have already happened. But of course, you never know. KJ has done a great job promoting Hammond all year on social media, and my guess is he and Archie talk to him daily. If Hammond doesn't come, that may break me. He Cam Fuchs are the only thing that kinda gives me hope.

it would be good to have them, I suppose...but, I'm hopeful that the best players on next year's team are better than those guys

Our best players next year will definitely need to be better than them. I think they'll both be better players, but I don't think they'll take a huge leap and become the best players on the team. Now, the goal is that by junior and senior year, they develop into good, hopefully great starters. Look at Ish for example. Solid freshman year, below average sophomore year, great junior year, ACC 6th man of the year senior year...Cam and Fuchs both have the talent and upside to keep improving similar to Ish.

Cam is so smooth, just needs maybe 10 pounds of muscle on his frame and he'll start being a force.

[Rhody_NYCT]

I listened to the game in my car…unfortunately, only the last 4 minutes due to work. From my perspective, House missing 2 free throws with a few minutes left (and we were up two), was the beginning of the end. Then Montgomery missed a 3 badly and a point blank layup. I hope my memory is correct. That’s all she wrote. What an awful season.

[Rhody Sody]

Archie totally blew this game. How can he have weston on the bench and Montgomery out there. Horrendous in game coaching.

Weston has 4 fouls I believe

Yes , u r right , he had 4fouls but in crunch time with under 5 left, what do,u have to,lose. u still have him in.

Agreed, Weston should have been in

[eli#10]

As someone said to me at one of our recent games: "a good point guard makes everyone on the team a better player". Not necessarily a better free throw shooter but a better player and shooter. Kourtwright did an OK job this year playing out of position at the point but we need a true point guard who can run the ball up the court and distribute the ball to open guys down low or at the 3 point line.

Hammond will certainly get the ball up court in a hurry which is a start for what we need.

P.S. House played a great game but all was lost when he missed the free throws.

[BobfromMatunuck]

Looking forward to an offseason of progress. The collective is laying the groundwork. Culture needs to be installed now. Portal work starts now. Mental toughness will get a group very far in the A10. I see that as a large part of a successful URI team’s identity. Trust

[reef]

Agree about House miss FTs , that was out of a TO and would have put us up 4 with 250 left then it was a crap show after that
House was good up until then with 18 , free throws killed us all year

[RI_Bred]

I mean if that were the case than why did EC come here? Dan was an aspiring coach who’s best collegiate accolade was a mid major finals loss.

Some kids want to be the cornerstone and become a legend. Those are the kids you want.

That was before $$ was dangling freely in front of them from many suitors...

Just saying...

[Blue Man]

I mean if that were the case than why did EC come here? Dan was an aspiring coach who’s best collegiate accolade was a mid major finals loss.

Some kids want to be the cornerstone and become a legend. Those are the kids you want.

That was before $$ was dangling freely in front of them from many suitors...

Just saying...

So then everyone should start committing to the NIL collective then!

[RhowdyRam02]

I mean if that were the case than why did EC come here? Dan was an aspiring coach who’s best collegiate accolade was a mid major finals loss.

Some kids want to be the cornerstone and become a legend. Those are the kids you want.

That was before $$ was dangling freely in front of them from many suitors...

Just saying...

This is such a naive view of college athletics. The college athletics you're talking about hasn't existed in at least 60 years. The only differences are even the small time schools can do it now when they used to get nailed for less than what bluebloods were allowed to pull and it's all out in the open now

[RI_Bred]

I mean if that were the case than why did EC come here? Dan was an aspiring coach who’s best collegiate accolade was a mid major finals loss.

Some kids want to be the cornerstone and become a legend. Those are the kids you want.

That was before $$ was dangling freely in front of them from many suitors...

Just saying...

This is such a naive view of college athletics. The college athletics you're talking about hasn't existed in at least 60 years. The only differences are even the small time schools can do it now when they used to get nailed for less than what bluebloods were allowed to pull and it's all out in the open now

That's a big generalization.

[ramster]

Good:
- House played very hard on both ends of the court. Good attitude. Could tell he really wanted this game. 8-12 FG for 18P
- Green solid went for 14P all in the 2nd half. Green picked up 2 fouls in 1st half and Miller sat him rest of half. Only played a total of 24 minutes
- Weston was assigned to cover Gibson Jimerson man to man. Weston was on Jimerson very tightly. Unfortunately Weston picked up foul #1 just 19 seconds into the game. Then picked up his 2nd, got pulled and reinserted based on dire need but picked up foul 3 in the 1st half. Weston played only 21 minutes before fouling out but was easily a team high +15 largely due to his defense of Jimerson.
- Kortright played hard and well. After Miller gave Jimerson man to man assignment to Montgomery with low success, Miller gave Kortright the job. I was very impressed with how well Kortright guarded Jimerson.
- Fuchs, Brown and Estevez were steady
- The team player hard, they really wanted to win. They played hard at Fordham on Saturday too and came out on top.



Challenges
- Montgomery really struggled with Jimerson . Jimerson knew he could take Montgomery and he did, plus his teammates knew it too. After Miller put Kortright on him, then Weston again in the 2nd half, I was surprised Miller went back to Montgomery man to man on Jimerson. On top of the defensive challenges Montgomery went only 1-8 FG. The defensive job may have worn him out and hurt his offense.
- I liked Miller’s strategy to cover Jimerson man to man it just didn’t work well for Montgomery who finished with a game low -17 (+/-). If Weston could have avoided the cheap fouls he could have played more than 21 minutes during which his defense was impressive. Estevez or maybe Green could have been more effective on Jimerson.