KeaneyBlue - The URI Basketball Forum

OK, we now begin Week #13 of the college basketball season.The A-10 is back in the rankings as Dayton snares the #24 postion in both the AP poll and the USA Today poll. In the other votes category, VCU and Saint Joseph's got votes in both the AP and USA Today polls.

Among URI OOC opponents, Maryland grabbed the #4 slot in the AP poll and the #3 slot in the USA Today poll. PC came in #11 in both polls. Valparaiso got some votes in both the AP poll and the USA Today poll.

Performance by URI OOC opponents showed a slight improvement over the previous week and the cumulative win-loss record now stands at 152-125, a winning percentage of .549.

Several key URIratings improved and as of February 1 are:

RPI - 104
BPI - 64
KenPom - 80
Sagarin - 77


No A-10 games scheduled for Monday night.


In games involving URI OOC Opponents:

* Iona at St. Peter's. 7 PM.

* SMU at Houston. 8 PM. On CBS Sports.

* Holy Cross at American. 7:30 PM.


Note: This thread is most relevant when URI is in the hunt for a post-season berth, especially a NCAA at-large bid and to a lesser extent the NIT. The NCAA prospect was greatly diminished with last Saturday's loss to Saint Joseph's and a URI loss at UMass on Tuesday will render this thread totally irrelevant.

But totally entertaining!

I still like having it as a place to discuss other games throughout the week and keep a tab on things. That said, I can't blame you if you no longer feel the need/desire to keep it going.

I like it, too. A good read and, more than once has been my go-to source for what to watch. Like the previous poster, though, wouldn't blame you if you decided not to continue.

Next year a tie-breaker in Obadiah's contest will be predicting in which week this thread becomes irrelevant.....

uh oh......Ramulous, be careful......

Agree, an outstanding thread. Most enjoyable and fact based. Obadiah does a tremendous job. I look forward to this thread every week and the related commentary as the games are played.

A great job by Obie. My favorite thread. And, probably the only one without arguments.

SMU Houston...very good game.....

Great game. Houston beats SMU by 3.

URI beats Houston...and Houston beats #12 SMU...gotta love this game...

Thanks for the support and comments. If the URI season turns further south, I will continue the thread, but with a focus only on the A-10. The conference finish will key the pairings for the tournament which will then be the only URI route to the NCAA and as we all know, your RPI is irrelevant in getting the automatic invite.

Back to tonight's action:

No A-10 game scheduled for Monday night.

Results of games involving URI OOC Opponents:

* Iona on a strong first half beat St. Peter's, 75-67.

* Houston rallied from a 11 point deficit in the second half to upset league leading SMU, 71-68.

* In a game re-scheduled due to the recent DC snowstorm, Holy Cross lost its sixth game in its last eight as the Crusaders fall at American, 58-45.

Thank you

Obadiah wrote:Thanks for the support and comments. If the URI season turns further south, I will continue the thread, but with a focus only on the A-10. The conference finish will key the pairings for the tournament which will then be the only URI route to the NCAA and as we all know, your RPI is irrelevant in getting the automatic invite.

Makes total sense, thanks.

ramster wrote:Thank you

+1 And...if you find yourself with the time....Top 25 matchups are always fun to read about, too

Only A-10 game tonight is the URI at UMass match-up.

In games involving URI OOC Opponents:

* Rider at Manhattan. 7 PM.

* TCU at #1 Oklahoma. 8 PM. On ESPNN.

* #11 PC at DePaul. 9 PM. On FS1.

This is just about the only sanctuary from those who would prefer to jockey for the "I saw our demise first!" award. Thank you, Obadiah.

PC looks ready for another road win, and TCU could be demolished tonight.

ATPTourFan wrote:This is just about the only sanctuary from those who would prefer to jockey for the "I saw our demise first!" award. Thank you, Obadiah.
PC looks ready for another road win, and TCU could be demolished tonight.

ATP,
Not everyone sees it as a demise but I agree this thread is solid. Plus the Recruiting Section is a good sanctuary as well.

#14 West Virginia at #13 Iowa State is an interesting game tonight. ESPN2 9:00PM
WVU is tied with Oklahoma for 1st in Big 12 at 6-2. ISU is 5-3.
Does Huggins overcome the loss of Holton? Big game for WVU to continue to keep pace
Interesting stat on Holton (7.5 RPG) - for all players in the NCAA averaging 7 rebounds or more, he is the only player averaging more offensive rebounds than defensive rebounds.
WVU Board seems to think Holton will be back after 3 game suspension.

Nice win by West Virginia in hostile environment Iowa State. Well played game and enjoyable to watch.

PC with a bad loss to DePaul (1-8 in BE). Dunn with a bad shooting night going 5-20 plus he missed the front end of 2 "one and one's" in the final 2.5 minutes of the game.
PC got destroyed on the boards 48-24.

Four games highlight the Wednesday night A-10 schedule:

* Davidson at GW. 7 PM.

* George Mason at Richmond. 7 PM.

* VCU at La Salle. 7 PM.

* Saint Bonaventure at Saint Joseph's. 7 PM. Go Bonnies!

In the top 25, #4 Maryland travels to play Nebraska. The Cornhuskers have an overall record of 12-10 and 4-5 in the B10 which exactly matches the current URI records.

Ugh, still upset that we lost to the Huskers.

Results in Wednesday A-10 action:

* Davidson falls to GW, 79-69. This was a tight battle most of the way with GW finally managing some separation in the last seven minutes of game. Davidson kept up due to Jack Gibbs 25 point performance and a barrage of treys. GW controlled the boards and scoring in the paint.

* George Mason in a surprising road win over at Richmond, 78-74. In a foul plagued game - a total of 65 FT attempts were made - GMU built an eleven point lead with 6 minutes left and held off a Richmond rally for the win. This was the second A-10 road win for GMU.

* Keyed by some terrific three point shooting VCU easily handled La Salle, 88-70, to win their 12th straight game.

* Saint Bonaventure, led by Jaylen Adams career high 31 point contribution including six 3-pointers, beat Saint Joseph's, 83-73. Big win for the Bonnies as they strengthen their chances at getting a tournament bye.

Big win by St. Bonaventure over Martelli's Goon squad in Philadelphia. Both teams are battling for an NCAA bid but neither team has many signature wins. The victory last night by the Bonnies is actually the only top 50 win between them. SBU however has more blemishes with losses to Siena, Hofstra, and Duquesne. Each team will likely have records worthy of NCAA consideration at year end but unless they get wins over VCU and or Dayton, they will not have wins over teams of note.

I hope not one A-10 coach comes out in public support for an NCAA bid for St Joe's. It would be poetic justice considering Martelli actually publicly dismissed an A-10 team's chance in the past (namely our Rams). If an A-10 coach felt a fellow team was not deserving of an NCAA bid, the classy thing would be to not say anything. Publicly downplaying a fellow conference member to the press is however extremely bush league.


http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/colle ... e-1.369374

Bush league and Martelli are equal. They can't lose enough for me.

In addition to the URI at LaSalle matchup at 8 PM, other games in Saturday A-10 action are:

* GW takes on VCU in Richmond. 12 PM. On CBS Sports.

* Davidson at Duquesne 12:30 PM. On NBC Sports.

* Saint Joseph's at Fordham. 2 PM. Go Metro Rams!

* #24 Dayton at George Mason. 6 PM.

* UMass at Richmond. 6 PM.

GW got an important road win at VCU beating the Southern Rams, 72-69. Guarino had 27 points

Obadiah wrote:GW got an important road win at VCU beating the Southern Rams, 71-69. Guarino had 27 points

GW is probably the best 3rd bid possibility for the league. They have nice OOC wins over Virginia and Seton Hall. St. Joe's and SBU have no signature OOC wins and no A-10 wins over Dayton, VCU, or GW.

While I do not have much affinity for the A-10 these days, more tourney teams means a bigger NCAA payout for URI.

Sure is fun watching PC getting beat up by 20 in the first half at home in front a sellout crowd. No doubt in my mind that they'll come back and make it a game or win, but its still fun for the time being.

If Dunn gets hot they could come back, but with Bentil limited, that's a big hit.

rambone 78 wrote:If Dunn gets hot they could come back, but with Bentil limited, that's a big hit.

Wait.........I thought the great Cooley could win even with injured players.

PC within 6 now. 6 mins left

Friars shooting 30% FG and are enjoying a 14 to 3 Free Throw attempt advantage over Nova. Just 8 fouls on PC for the entire GAME!

Too funny! Gus just said these officials in the PC - Nova game deserved "a lot of credit for doing a SPECTACULAR job"... Just got back from the store, listening to the radio broadcast 5 minutes ago and those guys were all over the refs...called them "hideous" and said they will probably need "to duck and hide" to get out of there...

Same refs..."hideous" and "spectacular" in a 5 minute span.....Interesting thing...'perspective'...

Lots of people leaving early

rambone 78 wrote:If Dunn gets hot they could come back, but with Bentil limited, that's a big hit.

Big if, So much for Dunn getting hot.
Dunn was 5-20 in the loss to DePaul last game, then 4-15 in today's loss. Plus 5-10 FT shooting with several of those misses front end of 1 and 1's.
Bentil played well considering the ankle but he was not enough.

ramster wrote:

rambone 78 wrote:If Dunn gets hot they could come back, but with Bentil limited, that's a big hit.

Wait.........I thought the great Cooley could win even with injured players.

They lost to the #3 team in the country not UMass...

STC wrote:

ramster wrote:

rambone 78 wrote:If Dunn gets hot they could come back, but with Bentil limited, that's a big hit.

Wait.........I thought the great Cooley could win even with injured players.

They lost to the #3 team in the country not UMass...

And lost 3 of their last 4. Plus Villanova was short handed playing without their starting big man, Ochefu, due to concussion.

And despite that, PC will still be dancing again this year while we're not.

After racing out to a 7-0 lead, Fordham with ball possession then missed a three point shot and at that point Saint Joseph's took over the game and within minutes built a lead the Hawks steadily expanded the rest of the way to win 82-60. That is how you play inferior teams on their own home court.

Obadiah wrote:After racing out to a 7-0 lead, Fordham with ball possession then missed a three point shot and at that point Saint Joseph's took over the game and within minutes built a lead the Hawks steadily expanded the rest of the way to win 82-60. That is how you play inferior teams on their own home court.

How many Fordham players did St Joe's send to the hospital?

Obadiah wrote:After racing out to a 7-0 lead, Fordham with ball possession then missed a three point shot and at that point Saint Joseph's took over the game and within minutes built a lead the Hawks steadily expanded the rest of the way to win 82-60. That is how you play inferior teams on their own home court.

You mean St Joes didn't need a last second, buzzer beating tip in to beat Fordham?

Nova is good.
PC without a full strength Bentil hard pressed to beat a team that talented.
Only warning sign is fatigue for Dunn/Bentil -- they have carried them with superman performances almost every night and lots of minutes.
Could rear its head as they enter home stretch. Barring a Jim Baron-like collapse (lose 7-8 in a row) they are a lock.

PC seems to have hit a bit of rough patch...

Purdue - Maryland seems to be a pretty good watch.

Watch it BAR.
Some clown will be calling you a PC fan.

Bentil certainly didn't seem too limited in the 2nd half.

The guy is a beast, and only a sophomore. If Dunn had one more year, that would be a FF contender.

And if anybody calls me a PC fan, I'll beat them to death with my sling.....

^ I agree....but, is it possible this year's team has peaked already? Just askin'.....

Too early to say, 208.

When they were ranked eighth, that was too high.

They are probably in the 15-20 range, by the end of the season, imo.

They will be around a 5 or 6 seed. The pressure will be on Cooley to finally win a tourney game.

Wish we had that "problem". Sigh.

rambone 78 wrote:Too early to say, 208.

When they were ranked eighth, that was too high.

They are probably in the 15-20 range, by the end of the season, imo.

They will be around a 5 or 6 seed. The pressure will be on Cooley to finally win a tourney game.

Wish we had that "problem". Sigh.

...my guess is that, if URI DID 'have that problem'...it would NOT be "too early" for you to call it Croaksville....

Rumor has it that after the PC loss to Villanova, most of crowd trying to keep its somber psyche, went over to City Hall to attend the Buddy Cianci wake.