Game #20 - @ St. Joe - Wednesday, Jan. 22, 7pm

[rhodyrudder]

TV: Ocean State Network, Cox Channel 5/1005 and Comcast/TCN in Jersey/Philly
Video Streaming via Cox @ http://coxsportsonline.com/live-streaming/ $5
Live Radio: B101 FM

Rhody GameNotes: Click here for PDF

St. Joe's Schedule/Results 2013-14
Nov 9 @Vermont Won 74-64
Nov 13 Marist Won 81-62
Nov 16 Creighton Lost 79-83
Nov 28 vs. LSU Lost 65-82
Nov 29 vs. Siena Won 78-66
Dec 1 vs. Wash. State Won 72-67
Dec 4 @Temple Lost 69-77
Dec 7 Villanova Lost 68-98
Dec 18 Drexel Won 75-55
Dec 21 @Loyola-Md. Won 88-77
Dec 29 Boston U. Won 73-67
Dec 31 Binghamton Won 71-44
Jan 4 Denver Won 53-52
Jan 8 @UMass Lost 62-66
Jan 11 @George Mason Won 84-80
Jan 15 Duquesne Won 84-75
Jan 18 @Penn Won 85-68

[Ram Stampede!!!]

Let's give them their second loss in their last 10 games. It's LSU time baby!

[wakefield]

The game will also be on Comcast/TCN in Jersey. If you want an alternative for streaming check out the A10 network.

[luke]

Very tough place to get a win. The only way is to jump out big early, but this team doesn't ever do that, so I would be shocked if they win this one. Hope SJU comes in complacent

[rambone 78]

St Joes has jumped out to huge leads in the first half of their last two games.

If that repeats itself, just like our game against GW, we're toast.

If we can keep it within 10 at halftime, we might have a chance.

[Running Ram]

I always count away at St.Joe's a loss, it's ALWAYS 5 on 8. This is the one game, now that Temple has defected, that I would be shocked and pleasantly so, to win. Of course I still hope we kick their asses, I always hope for that. Second most despised opponent, right behind peecee.

[Ramtastico]

Speaking of 8 on 5, I was at the St Joes game in Philly back in the Abdul Fox days when the Hawks shot close to 60 free throws(no BS). It becomes deathly silent there when they shoot FTs, and during a pair of them I was standing up and yelling at the officials so bad Al S and the bench actually turned around. When I looked down there were a bunch of yellow jacketed security around me and they said if I opened my mouth again I was history. It was one of my friend's first road trip with me and he never did another!! Wimp...

[rodfromcranston]

I remember that game! It was one of the biggest rape jobs in NCAA
history.
Never saw anything even close to that.

[TruePoint]

St. Joe's is beatable, but tough task on the road. In Kingston, I would like us.

[rhodylaw]

I think every team in the A10 is beatable this year if X keeps rolling - we just cannot let our guard down for a minute.

Let's go boys!

[Seawrightspostgame]

This loss won't hurt. But a win! I would be psyched if we won this one. We have to win another game or 2 to add to the 1 point losses and the LSU victory in order for me to drink the progress kool aid.

[RF1]

Al Skinner once got t'd up for taking his jacket off at SJU and tossing it onto his seat.

It seems like many A-10 schools always get calls at home. URI is just not one of them.

[Ramtastico]

RF1 that was the same game I was at. I will try to find the box score. Rod, I agree it was one of the worst officiated games I ever saw at any level.

[rodfromcranston]

I just remember wondering, how the refs could justify such
an overwhelming discrepancy in fouls, when the game was pretty close,
if you take away the free throws.

[Running Ram]

I hope someone does find the boxscore for that game. I don't remember the actual numbers but I think we didn't even get into single bonus in the first half, and I'd bet we shot less than 20 free throws all together while SJU shot 60+ I remember thinking my dad was so dramatic about how refs called SJU games until that game happened then I had to give it to him, no denying the homer refs that game.

[TruePoint]

I can find the game: February 22, 1992. St. Joe's won, 88-85. But can't find the box score to this point.

[RhowdyRam02]

We lost 81-44 down there last year, with their bench outscoring our bench, and almost our whole team, 42-13. We went 1-20 from 3, with the only 3 coming from Munford. That 3 by Munford also happened to be his only 3 points on the game. Two of their top four scorers from last year's game, Ronald Roberts and Chris Wilson return for this one. Roberts was also their leading rebounder in the game with 11. And we had 21 fouls to their 10, as is tradition at St. Joe's.

We have to get a better start then we have been getting in general, and we need to play better than we have been playing in conference on the road. I don't like our chances at all in this one.

[theblueram]

If anyone is going to the game they should bring a blowup of Rhody putting the innertube over the pigeon, errr I mean hawk.

[ATPTourFan]

Reading these memories compelled me to post this... oh how I hate that the Hawk goes to EVERY game home and away.

[rodfromcranston]

Hey, so that's what a real team looked like?
I was there and had a birdseye view of the Hawk getting
tubed.
I've almost forgotten how good Wheeler was, and what a real
PG can do.

[theblueram]

I hope we barbeque some chicken on wednesday. Hate the hawk.

[CTRamfan]

Most of us thought it was pretty funny, except the president of St. Joes. We learned all about the tradition in the paper the next morning.

[Iggy1979]

Hey, so that's what a real team looked like?
I was there and had a birdseye view of the Hawk getting
tubed.
I've almost forgotten how good Wheeler was, and what a real
PG can do.

Love the smirk on Harricks face as the ref explains the Ram has been rejected.
I will never forget what a true PG looks like because weve seen 2 great ones

[rodfromcranston]

I put Jiggy Williamson in the conversation, too.
I remember CBS called us a "ghetto team", because
our guys used to play with their shirts out, and Jiggy played with his
famous toothpick.
These guys played with what they like to refer to these days as, "swagger".
Jiggy was PG on what myself and many others, consider our best team ever, the 1978
Rams.

[rambone 78]

I agree on that, Rod.

I would give the edge to the '78 team over the '98 team, even though the '98 team went further in the Dance.

We were oh-so-close to going a LONG way that year.

[Running Ram]

shows you how much some things have changed, lets hear a comentator call a team "ghetto" now-a-days.

[Billyboy78]

That's just a gorgeous pass by Tyson.

[Ram Stampede!!!]

Hey, so that's what a real team looked like?
I was there and had a birdseye view of the Hawk getting
tubed.
I've almost forgotten how good Wheeler was, and what a real
PG can do.

Easily my favorite player in basketball, period!

[Ram Stampede!!!]

I agree on that, Rod.

I would give the edge to the '78 team over the '98 team, even though the '98 team went further in the Dance.

We were oh-so-close to going a LONG way that year.

Its still burned into my retina...damn Mark Madsen...why couldn't he trip or something...

[Obadiah]

Returning to the subject of this thread, last season URI played St. Joseph's once, the next to the last game of season, and suffered its worse defeat, 81-44. URI did not start slow in that game and for the first 15 minutes, the game was relatively close, but quickly degenerated from there to give the Hawks a 37 margin win. In that game URI was 1-20 on treys as the Hawks put in 10. And there was the usual disparity on foul shots - 24 for SJU and 9 for the Rams. This year the teams play home and home, so we get another crack at them in mid February.

[rambone 78]

Yeah, we know how close the '98 team was to glory, but I was referring to the '78 NCAA game against Duke.

I still see Nelson's bank shot, an 8 ft. shot that he usually NEVER missed, bounce off the rim just before the buzzer.

As brutal a loss as any in Ram history, including the Stanford game.

[rambone 78]

Obie, the road game against Joe's is almost always a horror show.

I do not expect us to win, but hopefully at least keep it reasonable.

[neil]

I'd go with the '78 team also. Sitting in the top row of the CC watching the Friar fans leave while we celebrate the 65 -62 win - couldn't get much better.

As for the game, I think TJ should think more about shooting. He passes up so many shots. One would think that Martelli is planning on only three possible scorers. Also, didn't he have zero turnovers in 35 minutes on Saturday? Go Rhody!

[Ram Stampede!!!]

I'd go with the '78 team also. Sitting in the top row of the CC watching the Friar fans leave while we celebrate the 65 -62 win - couldn't get much better.

As for the game, I think TJ should think more about shooting. He passes up so many shots. One would think that Martelli is planning on only three possible scorers. Also, didn't he have zero turnovers in 35 minutes on Saturday? Go Rhody!

Sounds EPIC! Yeah I wasn't even born until 85. Was 78 the year that there was a standing ovation in the RI senate for PC and we were completely ignored? Feel like I had that story passed down to me...

[ramfan85]

The tubing of the hawk may have been the greatest moment in basketball history. It made Sports Center. Was that the game that a second ram appeared in the rafters to assist?
After the ref threw the ram out, I think the hawk went to the line and made one of two free throws.

[TruePoint]

Hey, so that's what a real team looked like?
I was there and had a birdseye view of the Hawk getting
tubed.
I've almost forgotten how good Wheeler was, and what a real
PG can do.

Easily my favorite player in basketball, period!

It probably isn't fair of me, but I still haven't totally forgiven Tyson for missing those free throws against Stanford. For years I couldn't even say his name. At least now I can appreciate all he did for Rhody and how fun it was to watch him play, but he broke my heart when I was 15 years old. That kind of shit scars you for life.

[rodfromcranston]

True. TP. He could have tied it. A great free throw shooter,
who bricked all three attempts.
It was like the world turned upside down.
He had gotten 3 free throws with no time left, to take Temple into
OT, the year before.
ARD throwing it away, prior to that, didn't help.

[TruePoint]

True. TP. He could have tied it. A great free throw shooter,
who bricked all three attempts.
It was like the world turned upside down.
He had gotten 3 free throws with no time left, to take Temple into
OT, the year before.
ARD throwing it away, prior to that, didn't help.

No, certainly wasn't all his fault. Similar to Buckner, whose blunder didn't singlehandedly cost the Red Sox the World Series and came after a series of mistakes had already put the game in jeopardy. But it was the last and most visible thing, and therefore the thing I blamed immediately after and the thing that has most stuck with me ever since (that and Mobley anticipating the contact and probably getting fouled before turning it over).

[Ram Stampede!!!]

I remember Harrick arguing the calls after the Stanford game like you can see at the end of the YouTube video. I was again reminded of that very same scheme when were cheated on the final call of the game vs UNC in the NIT a couple years back in Madison Square Garden. As much as these moments kill us, they also are what make us die-hard fans that come back for more. It's all about wanting to see these guys succeed. The atmosphere right now kind of reminds me of being a Red Sox fan. How many years will we go without a championship? Or in our case, an NCAA bid or EVEN. A win vs a Top 25 opponent. Is there a ghost that curses us from the past? Hahaha I sure hope not!
But let's rain on UMass!

[Running Ram]

I know he didn't lose it for us, but he had a chance to push us into ot and didn't. He's still my #2 Ram, right behind Kenny Green, but I feel your pain TP. Missing those free throws was not part of the script, sooo out of character, would it have been better if he hit two of three, I don't know, but three bricks out of three free throws, not what is supposed to happen when one of your superhero's has that opportunity.

[luke]

Yeah, St. Joes and Temple have always gotten every call at home. I can remember being at a game at Temple in which almost every time Jimmy Baron came around a baseline screen he had to pull off a defender's hand holding him by the shirt. And a couple of them occurred right in front of a ref and they just ignored it. Temple came from 19 down to win with the help of the players in the striped uniforms. I can't go to the games in Philly anymore even though it is only 40 minutes from my home because I can't take watching that stuff anymore. I expect similar stuff on Wednesday if the Hawks need the officials help and maybe even if they don't. I don't understand why URI has never seemed to get help at home as other teams do. I watched Richmond get the home court treatment against Dayton on Saturday. Maybe it isn't loud enough at the RC or the refs don't feel intimidated by all the empty seats. Whatever the reason, it is very frustrating. My wife refuses to watch college basketball anymore because she sees it as being tainted by the inequitable officiating.

[ace]

Given the local forecast, I'm not sure how the plan to practice and then drive down is going to work.

[section(105)]

Which Rhody team shows up; the LSU game or the GW game; any spread number?

[ATPTourFan]

Given the local forecast, I'm not sure how the plan to practice and then drive down is going to work.

Dan told me last night that they had an "early bus" tomorrow morning, so plans may have changed due to the forecast.

[Taylor Swift]

If anyone is going to the game they should bring a blowup of Rhody putting the innertube over the pigeon, errr I mean hawk.

I'd love to see that again! My arms just hurt looking at that rat with wings squawk around.

[ATPTourFan]

Taylor, was that you at the Mews last night!? Welcome to RI!

[Taylor Swift]

Taylor, was that you at the Mews last night!? Welcome to RI!

Yes! That was me, ATP! Thanks for the warm welcome. Go Rhody!!!

[ace]

Philly is starting to shut down. Public city schools are already closed for tomorrow, which rarely happens.

[rambone 78]

Hope they made it OK.

Going to be nasty tonight.

[ace]