The Rhode Island Rams will face a massive challenge Tuesday night at 11pm ET (ESPNU/WatchESPN.com) in their second round game of the 2013 NIT Season Tip-Off. Sean Miller's Wildcats (#5 AP, #4 Coaches) are 4-0 after dismantling Fairleigh Dickinson by a round score of 100-50 Monday night in their opening round match-up.
Rhode Island has lost its last 25 games vs Top 25 opponents. Their last win vs a ranked team came on Dec 2, 1998 vs Utah in a game played in Chicago as part of the Great 8 tournament.
Tonight's winner will advance to the semifinals at Madison Square Garden on November 27 with the final and 3rd place games to be played two days later. The losing team will host a consolation pod of games at their home arena next Monday and Tuesday.
for me, this game in one of those valuable experiences that our young team can use in understanding how the upper tier teams are comprised and level of play......looking to hang in there for a while.....looking for a player or two to play up in the face of stronger opponent.......
I think if we start EC or at the very least Biggie, we'll at least be able to keep controlled and make it reasonable for the first 20.
If Hurley goes with Powell again it means a) no shot out of the gate and b) i'm gonna start questioning which games dan is watching that he thinks MP is deserving of a starting spot.
If you say you’re a Rhody fan, I know you are my brother. For you have suffered as I have suffered.
They should revert back to 2012-2013 Rhody tonight. Milk the shot clock down to 10 seconds and have EC drive the lane or pound it inside.
Limit the outside shooting unless it's a wide open look, so we do not get burned by their athletism. No silly fouls tonight as we only have 3 big men and we'll need them all tonight.
Good post, Leg. They will run the shit out of us if we try and uptempo. Uglyrama.
They are WAY better at that than we are at this point. Slow it down, limit the possessions, limit the fouls. All those things. And make a few shots. Outside ones that is.
If we struggle against smaller teams making layups, we will REALLY have a hard time with that tonight.
Blue Man, I have no idea what Hurley will do tonight re: lineups. I do know that it doesn't really matter who "starts." I'm sure that right now Biggie has earned increased minutes with his play the last two games.
"If you build it, they will come." --Us, circa 2011
Sean Miller is one of the best coaches in college basketball and his team is absolutely loaded. I look at this as a gut check for our guys, let's see if they can toughen up the D and hang with Arizona. I'm psyched for this game!
No one has tested them, so no one even knows what that would look like.
I want Hurley to try to test them. FDU gave up after 10 mins. They ran out of gas it it looked like Div 1 vs a high school team. FDU guards wouldn't even attempt to move the ball inside the three point line, they just kept chucking up three point bricks.
I want URI to abandon the outside game except to keep things a little honest. But remember, the rules state that the offensive man as the advantage if they can beat the defensive man before he can set up.
We should be trying to drive it up theirs. You can tell they have practiced setting their feet over and over, but URI has much faster guys than FDU had. If EC, Biggie, JR, and Martin go showtime on them we should get a share of calls.
I'm with Sweep on this one.
Slow the tempo down as much as possible, to shorten the game,
and get them out of rhythm.
We're going to get one shot a trip down the floor. Make it count.
Hopefully, Munford is on, and gets some help on the perimeter from Reischel,
and EC.
You can't go inside on 7", 6'10" and 6'9". That would be foohardy.
Dan hasn't played zone all year, but it might be a good time to do so,
to keep Biruta and Onyekaba out of foul trouble.
Good luck to our guys tonight. We'll need every break.
Well, you are right of course. You've forgotten more about bball than I know. But, the rule change does change that to a certain extent. If you can draw the foul, you don't even necessarily have to get the shot to fall. It's the blocks you have to worry about.
I mean, they are tall trees, but they aren't the old Chaney Temple match up zone. The most success guys like Harrick and Skinner had on Chaney was a combination of both outside shooting, and driving them.
I'd just like to see anything beside what the other teams have tried to do against them at this point, which is stand around the perimeter and take a long shot with 28 secs on the clock.
That drive and dish out someone mentioned could be mixed in there.
The Rams have lost 25 straight games to Top 25 opponents since beating No. 21 Utah on Dec. 2, 1998. They have dropped 13 consecutive road games to ranked teams since knocking off No. 18 Massachusetts on Feb. 18, 1998.
Tar-alsdkjlj-ski is going to be our biggest problem tonight. His size and mobility are formidable. Our best bet for him is for Iffy and Gil to muscle him off the block and pray we don;t foul constantly as he makes moves. That being said, if we cant box out, their athletes are going to kill us on the glass 3-1.
We need to shoot the lights out. Like miracle stuff. 10 of 15 from 3.
We need to not miss a single shot at the basket. Layups have to go down.
We need to hit 80% or better of our shots at the line.
Shoot like 45% from the field.
More importantly we need to keep this game in the 70s.
We can't run with zona, and if we let them into the 80s, we're not going to be able to match them.
Let's hope for miracles!
If you say you’re a Rhody fan, I know you are my brother. For you have suffered as I have suffered.
they are scary good, strong at almost every facet, only thing u can really say about them is that they are young and fairly inexperienced as a unit playing together. would be perfect time for X and Gil, who should not be intimidated by the big time stage, to step up and carry us for a bit. EC is going to struggle one of these games, all FR do. tonight could be that game given that if you watch tape on us thus far he looks like the guy you want to key on stopping. i doubt given the small sample size any of our first 3 opponents paid special attention to EC, that will change soon. Zona has a couple of uber athletic guards that could give him fits tonight, frustrate him, and cause him to start forcing things. Finishing at the rim against Zona is a lot tougher than against Maine. we would need to play out of our heads tonight to keep it within 10-12 pts IMO.
even if EC doesn't play great against one of the best teams in the country sky is still the limit. he is a FR, he will have off nights, esp when teams start focusing on stopping him.
Yeah, agree with many of the posts here. Good thread so far, which is refreshing.
Need to value possessions. Sloppy play like 1st half yesterday will make this game a laugher. I can see a slower approach similar to last year's style where we limit possessions and take our chances in straight up defense. Rebounding will be essential, since every miss from AZ will be precious and we'll need to end possessions.
Hoping that the improved shooting will help the team execute some offensive sets and keep AZ's defense honest. We need to keep this respectable and within no more than 20 and hopefully much closer through the bulk of the game.
45% isn't going to cut it tonight. They need a miracle, like 60% to
even make a game of it.
Any time there's a huge upset, the numbers are usually off the charts for the
underdog, and way down for the favorite.
I've debated in my head about the style of play question.
At first I said.. Of course, we need to slow the game down and revert back to the style of last season. Run down the shot clock and hope to get off a good shot with a few seconds to spare.
I've changed my mind. One, I don't think it gives us the best chance to win. We don't need to play that way. If we get a shot early in the possession we need to take it. We have enough talent to get open shots. It will be tough to hold the ball for 32 seconds against this team anyway with the pressure defense they play.
Two, we haven't played or practiced this style all season. What makes anyone think we can revert to this style with success? Maybe I'm overcomplicating it but I don't think it's that simple or effective. I think when you make changes offensively it's still within your overall philosophy/ approach. I don't see how changing style game to game can work. We will surely see specific plays for Arizona but the overall style won't change.
Finally, how does slowing down to a 2012-2013 style in this one game help you moving forward? I think it impedes their progress. I want to see them play their style and continue to improve at it.
I'll be very interested to see how this plays out tonight.
Maybe Dan should play 300 for the team.
You know, 300 Spartans defending against a million Persians.
Oh, never mind. All the 300 died in the end.
Ancient history lesson number two.
URI went into Alumni Hall in 1966. PC had a 31 game win streak at home.
Ernie Calverley decided to play a zone against the top 10 nationally, Friars.
Never played a zone in his entire coaching career to that point.
Rams destroyed PC that night, 84-61.
You can do something you've never done before and have it work.
It takes guts, and knowing it's the right thing at the time.
Well, if we play zone tonight, it's because it's the right time for it, and obviously they will have practiced it a lot. Just haven't seen it in a game yet.
But what a game and team to start playing it against, if it happens.
I think at this point so early in the season you don't change the way you want to play or a style you are trying to build to stay competitive in 1 game. If this was a tourney game, or even later in the season when we were more comfortable with who we were as a team I think you might go that route. But we aren't good enough at who we want to be, to resort back to who we were, at this point.
Arizona is no more daunting to face tonight, than us beating Jimmy Walker, Mike Riordan et al
in 1966.
Anything is possible. It why they play the game.
The macho, "We always play man, so we won't change", is counter productive.
Harrick, Skinner, Penders, Kraft, all played multiple defenses, depending on the opponent or
what was happening within a game.
Being flexible is just good coaching.
Last edited by rodfromcranston10 years ago, edited 3 times in total.
RoadyJay wrote:I've debated in my head about the style of play question.
At first I said.. Of course, we need to slow the game down and revert back to the style of last season. Run down the shot clock and hope to get off a good shot with a few seconds to spare.
I've changed my mind. One, I don't think it gives us the best chance to win. We don't need to play that way. If we get a shot early in the possession we need to take it. We have enough talent to get open shots. It will be tough to hold the ball for 32 seconds against this team anyway with the pressure defense they play.
Two, we haven't played or practiced this style all season. What makes anyone think we can revert to this style with success? Maybe I'm overcomplicating it but I don't think it's that simple or effective. I think when you make changes offensively it's still within your overall philosophy/ approach. I don't see how changing style game to game can work. We wrill surely see specific plays for Arizona but the overall style won't change.
Finally, how does slowing down to a 2012-2013 style in this one game help you moving forward? I think it impedes their progress. I want to see them play their style and continue to improve at it.
I'll be very interested to see how this plays out tonight.
I couldn't disagree more. So, you want to run with a more athletic and talented team in their home court when two of your best players are nursing foot injuries?
How do you know they don't practice a slower half court offense? Have you been every closed practice? And everyone other the EC and Hassan has played that style last year. Are they not smart enough players to revert back?
And coaches game plan for teams, the site of the game and a myriad of different reasons. If you don't then you are not a good coach. A team's style should not be one dimensional.
I am partial to Roady Jay's and BAR's points about not betraying your identity this early in the season, but I think you have to try to win the game and I don't think we should be the kind of team that can only play one way. Maybe playing zone wouldn't give us a better chance tonight, but if Dan thinks it would then we should play it. Certainly pride or stubbornness aren't good reasons to do anything, including playing man-to-man defense. Good teams should at least be capable of playing different styles, even if they prefer one over the others.
"If you build it, they will come." --Us, circa 2011
How about a "We've got nothing to lose", move?
Only a fool would try to run with Arizona.
Running infers that you get a rebound to start the break.
Not happening tonight.
Adapt or die.
