Games of Interest - Week #14

Obadiah · Unread post by **Obadiah** » 10 years ago

Arizona falls from the #1 ranking in the nation in both the AP and USA Today polls. Syracuse is the new #1 in both polls. As expected with twin losses last week, UMass falls from both polls. In the AP poll, Saint Louis moves up to #13. VCU gets votes and GW continues to get some votes despite its loss to SBU. SMU and Southern Miss also get votes.

In the USA Today poll, Saint Louis moves to #15. VCU, UMass, GW and St. Joseph’s get some votes. Also getting votes are Southern Methodist and Southern Miss.

PC did not get any votes in either poll.

Last week in the major ratings systems, the URI position was: RPI – 134, Sagarin – 150, and KenPom – 116. Following the loss to Fordham, those ratings decline: RPI – 142, Sagarin- 153, KenPom- 127.

The cumulative win-loss record of all URI OOC opponents improves slightly to 156-142, .523. The top records among URI’s OOC opponents are: Arizona at 21-1, Southern Miss at 19-3, Southern Methodist at 17-5, PC at 16-6 and LSU at 14-6. The only other OOC opponent above .500 is Brown at 11-7. The two D-2 teams URI played continue to excel: exhibition foe Southern Connecticut has a 18-2 record and NIT Season Tip-off rival Metro State sports a 18-1 mark. In the latest D2 rankings, Metro State is #3 and SCSU is # 19

No games in the A-10 tonight.

In OOC:

NJIT at UMass-Lowell.

North Carolina A&T at Howard.

ace · Unread post by **ace** » 10 years ago

Derrick Williams has left the Richmond program; he played a few years at St. Anthony in high school.

URIGONZO · Unread post by **URIGONZO** » 10 years ago

St. John's plus 4 is a lovely bet tonight.

SmartyBarrett · Unread post by **SmartyBarrett** » 10 years ago

LSU's Jordan Mickey was named the National Freshman of the Week by the USBWA, the first URI opponent to receive the award this season.

Obadiah · Unread post by **Obadiah** » 10 years ago

Not much action tonight and the two games involving URI OOC opponents are already underway. In the St. John's at PC game, the Red Storm leads 26-14 midway through the first half.

At Burlington, VT, Maine leads Vermont, 21-19, after 10 minutes of action.

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 10 years ago

What's going on, Big East?

They only have 2 locks for the Dance now, Creighton and Villanova.

PC and Xavier are stumbling. PC has 2 tough ones in a row on the road coming up.

Marquette is coming on.

How many do they get in? Maybe 3? Or 4, tops?

rjsuperfly66 · Unread post by **rjsuperfly66** » 10 years ago

The downside of having a deep conference. Dog eat dog, no real gimmies outside of DePaul. That's why the Big East this year is one of the best top to bottom. Should definitely have 3, still decent shot at 4, and outside chance at 5. St. John's is coming on strong and Gtown got a big win against MSU to keep them alive.

URIGONZO · Unread post by **URIGONZO** » 10 years ago

SLU St. Joes is going to be a battle tonight, I don't think it's on TV which sucks.

ace · Unread post by **ace** » 10 years ago

URIGONZO wrote:SLU St. Joes is going to be a battle tonight, I don't think it's on TV which sucks.

Looks like it's just on locally (TCN in Philly area).

theblueram · Unread post by **theblueram** » 10 years ago

A St Joe's win will put them in serious dance discussions.

rodfromcranston · Unread post by **rodfromcranston** » 10 years ago

Good, let's beat them when they come here and ruin their season!

RhowdyRam02 · Unread post by **RhowdyRam02** » 10 years ago

Tonight's LaSalle at UMass game is on CBS Sportsnetwork starting at 7.

Obadiah · Unread post by **Obadiah** » 10 years ago

A-10 games this evening:

Saint Louis at St. Joseph's. The Hawks got some votes in the latest USA Today poll. This game will tell if they will turn the corner on their way to a Dance invite.

Dayton at George Mason. What the Flyers couldn't accomplish at Ryan, they must at GMU if they have any serious chance to get into the Dance.

Duquesne at George Washington. At season start, GW was not considered to be a deep team, so the loss of three players hurt them in the defeat at Dayton. Kethan Savage is likely out for the season as he recovers from foot surgery to repair a fracture. Point guard Joe Mc Donald and Maurice Creek are also doubtful starters for this game. It should still be a win for GW who have now won eleven straight home contests. The ten wins this season were by an average of 18.5 points.

La Salle at UMass. Important game for UMass to reverse the last two road losses and get back NCAA dance credibility. The Minutemen cause will be aided that other than an road game at GW, their other key games versus A-10 leaders - SLU and VCU - will be held at Mullins.

St. Bona at Richmond. Can the Spiders reverse the earlier 84-70 loss at Olean? Bad news for Richmond is their leading scorer, senior guard Cedric Lindsay, 18.3 ppg, is out for season with knee injury.

Among OOC opponents:

Campbell at UNC-Asheville.

UMass-Lowell at Albany.

UNH at UMBC.

Also Ball State at Buffalo. A home game against a struggling team looks like a win for Bobby!

bigappleram · Unread post by **bigappleram** » 10 years ago

Good spin on that RJ. I guess that is one way to look at it....another way is that their are not any elite teams in the new BE, and a bunch of mediocre to good teams are beating up on each other like happens in most every other conference in America. If you don't think this is a downer year for the league then all the power to you. If this is the new norm I can assure you FS is not happy.

adam914 · Unread post by **adam914** » 10 years ago

ace wrote:
URIGONZO wrote:SLU St. Joes is going to be a battle tonight, I don't think it's on TV which sucks.
Looks like it's just on locally (TCN in Philly area).

Being streamed on collegechalktalk.com as well.

Unread post by **ATPTourFan** » 10 years ago

Adam beat me to it. A10 Digital Media deal in full effect.

ace · Unread post by **ace** » 10 years ago

Cedrick Lindsay reportedly out now for Richmond (knee injury). Huge loss.

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 10 years ago

BAR, there is very little star power in the NBE.

Look at all the buzz surrounding the new Duke-Syracuse rivalry.

That's where the action is. The NBE can sail on the same boat that the A10 is on. In other words, good conferences, but not on the same level as that one.

rjsuperfly66 · Unread post by **rjsuperfly66** » 10 years ago

bigappleram wrote:Good spin on that RJ. I guess that is one way to look at it....another way is that their are not any elite teams in the new BE, and a bunch of mediocre to good teams are beating up on each other like happens in most every other conference in America. If you don't think this is a downer year for the league then all the power to you. If this is the new norm I can assure you FS is not happy.

I don't think it's spin, both KenPom and JS rank the Big East 3rd, which would mean when the quality of teams is averaged together, they are one of the best. However I do agree with your assessment on the quality of teams. Decent to good, only 2 great teams. Villanova is in the running for a top seed and Creighton should be a top 20 team. Problem is the teams you wanted to hitch the wagons to were Gtown and St. John's, not Villanova and Creighton. Big East people are praying that they both have turned the corner with recent performances.

bigappleram · Unread post by **bigappleram** » 10 years ago

Villanova and Creighton are nice teams, but come NCAA tourney time they are not built for long runs. You stop McDermott and you beat Creighton. You catch Nova when they arent lights out from 3 and they are beaten. In half empty arenas in the first round, where neither of them is comfortable shooting, they could both be had by higher seeds. I would be shocked to see both of them advance past the first weekend. 1 of them maybe, I cant see both. So yes you have a balanced league of mediocre to good teams. From top to bottom. But you no longer have any national title contenders. There is a big drop from Zona, Cuse, Duke, Kansas, Florida to Creighton and Nova. The BE and A10 are as close as ever, despite you poaching some of our better programs. That is the new normal and I don't see a major reason for that to be any different next year, the year after, etc.

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 10 years ago

StLouis is doing a dance number on StJoes.

Martelli had really better work those refs at halftime!

Ditto UMass to LaSalle. They'll be alright. Won't be ranked on Sunday, though.

Dayton making a move, beating Mason easily on the road. Unusual for them.

Richmond struggling against StBonnie, no surprise, without their best player.

GW leading the Dukes, but not by a lot [yet].

Unread post by **ATPTourFan** » 10 years ago

Just as a reminder, you can watch Joe's host SLU LIVE in HD using one of (in my opinion) the best live streaming video players on the internet, courtesy of CollegeInsiders.com and CollegeChalkTalk.com.

I LOVE the DVR functionality of it.. you can go back and watch from the beginning or jump around to any point of the game. Awesome.

http://collegechalktalk.com/2014/02/04/ ... -5-at-7pm/

Obadiah · Unread post by **Obadiah** » 10 years ago

In the A-10 tonight:

Saint Louis beats St. Joseph's, 65-49. For the first 15 minutes it was a contest, but then SLU surged to give them a 13 point halftime lead. A competitive second half start keep the lead at that margin for a good way, but in the last 5 minutes, the Billikens broke it open. Rob Loe had a great game with 17 points. At game’s end the Hawks had an unmistakable NIT ringing in their ears.

Dayton over George Mason, 81-65. The Flyers are on the way to righting themselves after the Rhody and VCU losses. At least GMU is not agonizing over another close loss as Dayton after the first 10 minutes was in total command of game.

George Washington puts away Duquesne, 71-57. Joe McDonald and Maurice Creek returned to action and helped GW maintain its perfect record at the Smith Center. Each team had scoring streaks, but ultimately GW's 1-3-1 zone wore down the Dukes who were outscored in the paint, 36-26. Dominique McKoy had 14 points for Duquesne.

UMass overpowers La Salle, 79-67. A 10 point run late in first half helped UMass to a big halftime lead and they were not headed after that. Chaz Williams had 17 points and 4 assists to lead the Minutemen.

Richmond edged St. Bona, 64-62 . The Bonnies led in the first half by a as many as 14 points, but in last three minutes Richmond aided by three three-point shots closed to within five. In second stanza, the Spiders finally took the lead with 13 minutes left and built it to 6 points with 8 + minutes to go. From then the game became nip and tuck with no team leading by more than two points. With the game deadlocked at 62 all, a Kendall Anthony jumper with 5 seconds remaining clinched the win for Richmond.

Among OOC opponents:

UNC-Asheville beats Campbell, 86-73.

Albany routs UMass-Lowell, 73-56.

UMBC in a win over UNH, 68-57.

Also, Buffalo puts away Ball State, 69-48.

Obadiah · Unread post by **Obadiah** » 10 years ago

Not a lot of action tonight. Only game in A-10 is the URI visit to VCU.

In OOC action:

LSU at Georgia. At 7 PM. On ESPN2.

Temple at SMU. At 8 PM. On ESPNN.

Oregon at #2 Arizona. At 9 PM. On ESPN.

McNeese State at Northwestern State.

Also,

Bryant at Central CT State.

Davidson at Samford.

Obadiah · Unread post by **Obadiah** » 10 years ago

First, in a review of Friday night action:

Brown lost a tough one at Harvard, 52-45. Sean McGonagill did not have one of his better games. The two teams will meet again at the Pizz in the last game of season which could very well be for the IVY crown.

Also, Canisuis blows one at home versus Manhattan, 84-73, and fell out of a first place tie with Iona in the MAAC. Manhattan raced out to a 17-3 lead and while Canisius got to within 2 in the first half, Manhattan was able to extend the lead throughout rest of game to claim a big road win. As usual, Billy Baron, who played all 40 minutes, was games' top scorer with 22 points. Canisius has a big home date versus Iona this Sunday.

Lots of action Saturday. In the A-10:

George Mason visits Duquesne. Can GMU get its first conference win?

Dayton at St. Bonaventure. Another must win for the Flyers to resurrect their season.

Fordham visits GW.

# 13 Saint Louis at La Salle. At 5 PM. On ESPN2

VCU visits St. Jopseph’s. A deep team meets a good ironman team. Will the Havoc wear out the Hawks? At 8 PM. On CBS Sports.

In OOC action:

Providence at Xavier. At 3 PM. On Fox Sports.

Auburn at LSU. At 4 PM. On ESPN3.

#7 Cincinnati at SMU. A win here would put the Mustangs in the Top 25. At 7:30 PM. On ESPNU.

Florida A&M at NC A&T.

McNeese State at SF Austin. SFA is 10-0 in the Southland.

Brown at Dartmouth.

Liberty at UNC-Asheville.

Maine at Binghamton.

UNH at Stony Brook. Stony Brook at 9-1 is tied with Vermont for first place in America East.

UMass-Lowell at UMBC.

Also,

Mt. St Mary’s at Bryant.

Buffalo at Central Michigan. Bobby has good shot for a road win against a 1-8 MAC team.

Furman at Davidson.

ramfan85 · Unread post by **ramfan85** » 10 years ago

Seeing Canisius' early score of 17-3 brings back some bad memories. How many times did we start out like that when he was here?

Obadiah · Unread post by **Obadiah** » 10 years ago

Some of today's results.

George Mason wins its first ever A-10 conference game as they defeat Duquesne, 74-68 in Pittsburgh.

Providence loses at Xavier, 59-53. Friars got to within one in the last 90 seconds of game, but turnovers by Bryce Cotton, who had one of his rare bad games, stalled the Friars' effort to get the lead. Loss puts a dent in PC’s NCAA hopes.

UNC-Asheville edges Liberty, 75-72 .

Maine loses its 18th game of season, at Binghamton, 73-68.

UNH upsets AE co-leader, Stony Brook, 73-69.

UMass-Lowell beats UMBC, 71-61. Lowell now enjoys an above .500 record in the America East

Iggy1979 · Unread post by **Iggy1979** » 10 years ago

GW scores 56 points in first half against Fordham. Lonergan is coach of the year. Maybe it takes 3 years for a turnaround. GW won 13 games last year.

ramster · Unread post by **ramster** » 10 years ago

ramfan85 wrote:Seeing Canisius' early score of 17-3 brings back some bad memories. How many times did we start out like that when he was here?

and that was going down 17-3 AT HOME

Obadiah · Unread post by **Obadiah** » 10 years ago

Two barn burners underway in A-10. Dayton down 2 in their game at SBU with 3 minutes left.. SLU and La Salle are tied, 33 all, at the half.

Obadiah · Unread post by **Obadiah** » 10 years ago

Dayton in a big win at St Bonnies, 72-69. Exciitng game. Dayton led most of the first half, but Bonnies came back to tie at there half. SBU led most of the second half, but Dayton was able to get back the lead with 2 minutes left in game. The closing minutes saw some terrific clutch FT shooting by both teams. With Dayton leading by 3 with 12 seconds left, the Flyers opted to purposely foul and SBU's Charlon Kloof calmly put in 2 to cut margin to one. Dayton then was fouled and Devin Oliver calmly put in two to ice win.

Obadiah · Unread post by **Obadiah** » 10 years ago

Fordham routed by GW, 93-67. The game was no contest from the outset. Rhody had bad game against GW, but not nearly as bad as what Fordham accomplished today. How did we ever lose to Fordham?

RowdyPkunk · Unread post by **RowdyPkunk** » 10 years ago

VCU plays at St Joes at 8 PM tonight at CBS Sports Network... Should be a good game. GO RAMS!

Obadiah · Unread post by **Obadiah** » 10 years ago

Jordair Jett pulls it out with a lay-up with less than 4 ticks on the clock to give Saint Louis a hard fought win over La Salle, 65-63.

RowdyPkunk · Unread post by **RowdyPkunk** » 10 years ago

Game time!!! VCU vs St Joes.... GO RAMS!!!!

Sweep The Leg · Unread post by **Sweep The Leg** » 10 years ago

I truly hate St. Joe's. 6 fouls for VCU and 1 for St. Blow's. And an obvious backcourt violation missed. What does Martelli have on A-10 refs?

RowdyPkunk · Unread post by **RowdyPkunk** » 10 years ago

Sweep The Leg wrote:I truly hate St. Joe's. 6 fouls for VCU and 1 for St. Blow's. And an obvious backcourt violation missed. What does Martelli have on A-10 refs?

Yeah this is F-ing ridiculous. If VCU did that we'd get called for it 99 times out of 100. These refs are ridiculous

Sweep The Leg · Unread post by **Sweep The Leg** » 10 years ago

So, St. Joe's had 4 total fouls in the first half and one was intentional at the end of half. This is ridiculous against a team like VCU who push the action constantly. JR had four fouls alone against VCU in the first half.

On a happier note, SMU is making the Bearcats their bitch. Any school that Huggy Bear ever coached/drank at, I loath.

RowdyPkunk · Unread post by **RowdyPkunk** » 10 years ago

Hopefully the 2nd half VCU can get our act together. Minus the foul problems... We are taking dumb shots, and making really bad passes, not to mention letting them drive on us in the paint.

Sweep The Leg · Unread post by **Sweep The Leg** » 10 years ago

RowdyPkunk wrote:Hopefully the 2nd half VCU can get our act together. Minus the foul problems... We are taking dumb shots, and making really bad passes, not to mention letting them drive on us in the paint.

I love Smart and what he's done, but VCU is flawed this year and HAVOC masks many of their holes. There doesn't seem to be a consistent outside threat like Daniels was. A lot athletic players, but not many skilled basketball players. They are still NCAA worthy and I would not want to play them in the Dance and with the class coming in, they'll be more dangerous next year.

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 10 years ago

Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Life on the road ain't easy, even for good teams like VCU.

RowdyPkunk · Unread post by **RowdyPkunk** » 10 years ago

Sweep The Leg wrote:
RowdyPkunk wrote:Hopefully the 2nd half VCU can get our act together. Minus the foul problems... We are taking dumb shots, and making really bad passes, not to mention letting them drive on us in the paint.
I love Smart and what he's done, but VCU is flawed this year and HAVOC masks many of their holes. There doesn't seem to be a consistent outside threat like Daniels was. A lot athletic players, but not many skilled basketball players. They are still NCAA worthy and I would not want to play them in the Dance and with the class coming in, they'll be more dangerous next year.

It's not so much that we are not skilled, cause we are.

The problems imo are the following..
1. The new rule put in place about fouls have limited us a little bit

2. Reddic has been inconsistent most of the year especially b4 A-10 play started. Treveon & Bri have had to put the team on their backs a lot because of it. He's been like Larry Sanders in his Jr. Year b4 he went Pro, where he slacked off at times

3. We are shooting 3's way too much. You are absolutely correct when you say we don't have a consisten outside threat like Troy. Melvin had a huge day vs Tech, has been off and on since. Tre has had days where he hits em, others where he's ice cold. Rob hit 2 big ones in 2OT against LaSalle, but has been off and on all season.

Also FTs have killed us numerous times this season

RowdyPkunk · Unread post by **RowdyPkunk** » 10 years ago

rambone 78 wrote:Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Life on the road ain't easy, even for good teams like VCU.

Specially not when refs are VERY inconsistent on their calls. They call it for one team but not the other n such

Sweep The Leg · Unread post by **Sweep The Leg** » 10 years ago

RowdyPkunk wrote:
Sweep The Leg wrote:
RowdyPkunk wrote:Hopefully the 2nd half VCU can get our act together. Minus the foul problems... We are taking dumb shots, and making really bad passes, not to mention letting them drive on us in the paint.
I love Smart and what he's done, but VCU is flawed this year and HAVOC masks many of their holes. There doesn't seem to be a consistent outside threat like Daniels was. A lot athletic players, but not many skilled basketball players. They are still NCAA worthy and I would not want to play them in the Dance and with the class coming in, they'll be more dangerous next year.

It's not so much that we are not skilled, cause we are.

The problems imo are the following..
1. The new rule put in place about fouls have limited us a little bit

2. Reddic has been inconsistent most of the year especially b4 A-10 play started. Treveon & Bri have had to put the team on their backs a lot because of it. He's been like Larry Sanders in his Jr. Year b4 he went Pro, where he slacked off at times

3. We are shooting 3's way too much. You are absolutely correct when you say we don't have a consisten outside threat like Troy. Melvin had a huge day vs Tech, has been off and on since. Tre has had days where he hits em, others where he's ice cold. Rob hit 2 big ones in 2OT against LaSalle, but has been off and on all season.

Also FTs have killed us numerous times this season

Skilled may have been too broad. They don't seem to hit any mid-range jumpers in addition to their outside shooting. Their main offense is based on turnovers from HAVOC. They seem to struggle in the halfcourt set in the 6 games I've seen.

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 10 years ago

We feel your pain when it comes to FT's, Rowdy.

We've lost 4 games this year directly because of poor FT shooting.

63% in league games. A good HS team shoots them better than that.

RowdyPkunk · Unread post by **RowdyPkunk** » 10 years ago

@sweep the leg fair assessment

@rambone 78 yeah ours is horrible

We r keeping it close with SJU right now but we need to shut them down... And these refs need to seriously call the game better

Sweep The Leg · Unread post by **Sweep The Leg** » 10 years ago

RowdyPkunk wrote:@sweep the leg fair assessment

@rambone 78 yeah ours is horrible

We r keeping it close with SJU right now but we need to shut them down... And these refs need to seriously call the game better

For those scoring at home: Fouls- VCU 16 SJU 7. Seems about right for SJU home game.

Sweep The Leg · Unread post by **Sweep The Leg** » 10 years ago

If I'm VCU, I keep fouling. St. Joe's is worse than Rhody at FT shooting.

RowdyPkunk · Unread post by **RowdyPkunk** » 10 years ago

Sweep The Leg wrote:If I'm VCU, I keep fouling. St. Joe's is worse than Rhody at FT shooting.

Won't do us any good if we keep missing FTs ourself... And we keep missing shots

Sweep The Leg · Unread post by **Sweep The Leg** » 10 years ago

Horrible charging call. It should have been an and 1 for VCU.