KeaneyBlue - The URI Basketball Forum

Was lucky to have dinner with Al, Donna and Vaniecia this afternoon after his 400th victory. 138 of those were at URI! Great guy and I will always appreciate what he did for us with no where near the infrastructure or financial support we have now. Thanks and congrats Al and Donna!!!

Yes Congrats to Al. Think Dancing Gene and his nitwit side kick bozo Shaughnessy wishes BC kept Al? IDIOT!

GO RHODY!

I love trashing Shaughnessy as much as the next guy, but it was Bob Ryan who wrote the infamous article trashing Skinner.

Congrats Al good to see him still coaching maybe he gets a bigger gig soon

Nice work coach!

Yeah Bob Ryan might be revered in Boston, but on this he was an idiot.......what's happened to BC since is karma and then some.....

Bob Ryan basically was working PR for BC Athletic Director Gene DeFilippo. His character assassination hit job on Skinner made certain he was not hired for years. It furthermore guaranteed that he would never work again for a big time program. Al was never truly accepted at BC as he never fit the mold (read into that what you may). He was replaced by a man with the last name of Donahue who was never able to come near Al's success on the court.

Al's flex offense would be nice here.......something consistent and coherent......

What Al did at BC far surpassed what he did here.
Why he was fired certainly wasn't justified by his
record of accomplishment at BC.
I can't think of any program that went down to the depths
BCs has, because of a firing.
BC to the ACC ranks almost as bad a move as Skinner's dismissal.
With so many mediocre coaches around, why Al never got
a decent job after BC is a shame.
Now he's no kid, so the age factor works against him, too.

Wonder if we had hired Al back...would we have Danced by now? Hmmm..........

Good guy, congrats to Al.......

Approachable and personable.
I am not sure anyone would have straightened out CFL's residual mess, any quicker.

Here is what would be said on this board by some if Al was our coach ...

He can't win the big one
He let's teams go on runs without calling TOs
He's good to get us to the NCAA but can't get us beyond 1 win

Grass is always greener in keaney blue land.
Merry Christmas all.

bigappleram wrote:Here is what would be said on this board by some if Al was our coach ...

He can't win the big one
He let's teams go on runs without calling TOs
He's good to get us to the NCAA but can't get us beyond 1 win

Grass is always greener in keaney blue land.
Merry Christmas all.

People are always going to complain about stuff. You think Duke fans never complain about anything because they are consistently one of the best teams in college basketball? If those were the main complaints on this board then that'd be a good thing.

At least AL made BC good. Underrated good. Then scheduled the New England teams helping us all get a team that was good on the schedule that we cared about beating.

BC might never reach the level they were at in football and basketball in that mid 2000s.

Al is about as far from a self-promoter as there is. Because he never had much of a public persona it was easy for the Ryan hit piece to define him.

I wonder if Donna still screams her head off at games. . .

Clearly, Al is one of the best men in coaching. Hats off to AL.

1 in 4 Al. Who needs him. (We do).

Sure 1 in 4 beats 0 in 18 we take it

Thanks for posting, Ramtastico!

Congrats to Coach Skinner on reaching the 400 win milestone!

His tenure tends to be an after thought to some on this board but he was the backbone of URI hoops from '84-'97 having been the key recruiter of the '88 Sweet Sixteen team and of course the architect of the '98 Final Eight team and everything in between.

Some may disagree but I for one loved Al's low key approach. Instead of midnight madness, Al preferred a 7:00 am kick off to the season practice in Tootell gym. We had that chip on our shoulder mentality and his teams never quit. He ran a clean program and though he isn't a rah rah type of personality he was very approachable and friendly one on one. For a while there, he recruited kids to Kingston out of a trailer and a dilapidated Keaney Gym.

He never wanted to leave but BC gave him an offer he couldn't refuse. I think he was the second lowest paid coach in the A10 when he left (only in front of CFL at St. Bonnies) even though he was easily in the top four with Chaney, Jarvis and Calipari.

What happened to him at BC is a complete disgrace with Gene DeFilippo and that racist hatchet job by Bob Ryan. Of course, Al took the high road handling it with class and dignity.

Two more wins and Al will pass the great Frank Keaney!

95, agreed on all counts.....had a great time talking to him once in a while at Casey's...great guy

BTW, some of us used to complain about Al's coaching....no one is immune I guess....but he got it done with not much to work with at times.....

DH has a long way to go to match Al's record.......and that's not even including his time at BC......

I'd point out that in his final season, URI lost 8 games that we had a
double digit lead in.
Al refused to call timeouts when the opponent was on a run.
He'd stand there, blank faced like he was waiting for a bus.
As for the 1988 team, those were mainly Brendan Malone's recruits.
He was the top recruiter for Syracuse, and Silk Owens was
a guy he recruited for the Orange.
The first thing Harrick did when he came here, was make Cat Mobley the focal point of the offense.
Cat had a very spotty career under Skinner, starting only half the games
in his junior season.
Cat credit's Harrick for his long NBA career.
All that being said, we did make the NCAAs under Al, so that beats
the hell out of anything since 1999.
I'd take that in a heartbeat today.

Well deserve remarks for a great and classy guy. He wasn't a very public figure, but always took time for anyone who wanted to talk to him. Still upset over the way he was treated here.and the circumstances of his leaving. We really had some "beauties" (it's Christmas) in our administration.
I've never seen any coach who could get as much out of players as Al did.

All never saw a sweater he didn't love.

That being said, Merry Christmas and Happy Festivus to all on this board.

rodfromcranston wrote:I'd point out that in his final season, URI lost 8 games that we had a
double digit lead in.
Al refused to call timeouts when the opponent was on a run.
He'd stand there, blank faced like he was waiting for a bus.
As for the 1988 team, those were mainly Brendan Malone's recruits.
He was the top recruiter for Syracuse, and Silk Owens was
a guy he recruited for the Orange.
The first thing Harrick did when he came here, was make Cat Mobley the focal point of the offense.
Cat had a very spotty career under Skinner, starting only half the games
in his junior season.
Cat credit's Harrick for his long NBA career.
All that being said, we did make the NCAAs under Al, so that beats
the hell out of anything since 1999.
I'd take that in a heartbeat today.

There's a place to meet in the middle but I'd rather that than the micromanage time out coaches of today. Yes, he blew a few but also let his players work their way out of stuff and that served them well in the long run.

Yes, congratulations to Al, great guy who has accomplished a great deal in coaching, whether you like his style of not. 7 NCAA's and 1 NIT at BC while in the orginal BE and the ACC in 9 years. I don't think anyone, anywhere could complain about that. And I highly doubt BC will ever reach those heights in basketball again. Or anywhere close. And, he did have some great kids in his tenure here.

Like was said, I think Al was a perfect fit for URI based on general expectations for a program like ours.....an NCAA appearance here and there sprinkled in with a few NIT's.....

Anything more than that is asking a lot from a state school with limited funds and an alumni base that isn't loaded with millionaires donating to the program.....especially nowadays.....

Of course that's setting the bar higher than what we're getting now......we should start a poll soon...on how many years do we think Dan has left if we don't Dance?

Or how many more years SHOULD he get if we don't make the tourney.......

Haha! Rod doesn't forget a thing about Rhody ball.

It's true some of the most frustrating games were Skinner contests. Rod you refuse to romanticize Big Al's time here even in the wake of his 400th win. That's great! Al was a better coach than many other coaches, but I had my gripes about some of his decisions too, refusing to call time-outs when the team was in the middle of squandering a double digit lead was infuriating. I remember one game at Temple in particular, pretty sure it was one of Al's last seasons where we had the Owl's all but beaten, down by about 15 in the second half, Temple stormed back and Al never called a TO until we lost the lead all together. Still, I love Big Al, he did more with less than anyone since (that wasn't two and done).

Rod, Al had a limited ceiling.....I think he only made the sweet 16 once at BC... or was it the second round?....and Harrick did take that 1998 team farther than Al would have.....

but all in all, I'd take it in a heartbeat now too......

I wasn't being revisionist...maybe just a little

Of course, Al had his deficiencies when he was here but he also cut his teeth as a head coach at URI. He was in his mid-thirties when he took over. We grew with him. I also liked how he didn't micromanage everything and let his kids work through situations.

He and Cat had their issues for sure but I've always found it fascinating how some think we matter-of-factly never would have achieved what we did in '98 if Al had been at the reigns. In addition to talent and coaching, deep runs also include healthy doses of luck and circumstance.

I've always wondered how good we would have been if Sean Colson hadn't gotten hurt and transferred? He and Cat were a package deal and both ended up in the NBA...Colson for a cup of coffee but he still made it.

Don't get me wrong, Harrick was by far the best in-game coach I've seen in my years as a Rhody fan. His decision to go through Cat as the main guy over Tyson benefited both players and the team greatly.

Sheesh...the things we used to talk about on this board?

rambone 78 wrote:Rod, Al had a limited ceiling.....I think he only made the sweet 16 once at BC... or was it the second round?....and Harrick did take that 1998 team farther than Al would have.....

but all in all, I'd take it in a heartbeat now too......

Got to the Sweet 16 and lost in OT to Nova in a game Craig Smith broke his hand. Won the Big East tournament and regular season title, too. Not a good but a great coach and, I've said before, should have been a call DH made to be part of the staff. As for BC, they went to Elite 8s and Sweet 16s in the 80s and 90s with Tom Davis, Gary Williams, and Jim O'Brien. It's basketball history is equal to or maybe better than URI. With the amount of talent in New England, it just takes the right coach. Easier said than done, though. They could be in the middle of their own 19 year stretch.

Gonebarongone wrote:

rambone 78 wrote:Rod, Al had a limited ceiling.....I think he only made the sweet 16 once at BC... or was it the second round?....and Harrick did take that 1998 team farther than Al would have.....

but all in all, I'd take it in a heartbeat now too......

Got to the Sweet 16 and lost in OT to Nova in a game Craig Smith broke his hand. Won the Big East tournament and regular season title, too. Not a good but a great coach and, I've said before, should have been a call DH made to be part of the staff. As for BC, they went to Elite 8s and Sweet 16s in the 80s and 90s with Tom Davis, Gary Williams, and Jim O'Brien. It's basketball history is equal to or maybe better than URI. With the amount of talent in New England, it just takes the right coach. Easier said than done, though. They could be in the middle of their own 19 year stretch.

I think one of Al's strengths was being able to recognize and develop under the radar players and succeed with them. Many if not most of his better players were not from NE. Here you saw Reynolds Dean and Preston for instance. And at BC, Troy Bell was from Minnesota, Tyrese Rice was from mid atlantic area, Jared Dudley, Craig Smith, Sean Marshall all from the west coast. The big kid, shot blocker he had at BC, his name escapes was from Texas I believe.

Somewhere between Al's Roll out the ball and let them play attitude and Dan's they don't even bother to put out a chair for me approach is a happy medium....

IMHO of course.

Congrats to Al-one of basketball's true good guys.

Merry Christmas Ram Fans!

daily double

giovanni wrote:

Gonebarongone wrote:

rambone 78 wrote:Rod, Al had a limited ceiling.....I think he only made the sweet 16 once at BC... or was it the second round?....and Harrick did take that 1998 team farther than Al would have.....

but all in all, I'd take it in a heartbeat now too......

Got to the Sweet 16 and lost in OT to Nova in a game Craig Smith broke his hand. Won the Big East tournament and regular season title, too. Not a good but a great coach and, I've said before, should have been a call DH made to be part of the staff. As for BC, they went to Elite 8s and Sweet 16s in the 80s and 90s with Tom Davis, Gary Williams, and Jim O'Brien. It's basketball history is equal to or maybe better than URI. With the amount of talent in New England, it just takes the right coach. Easier said than done, though. They could be in the middle of their own 19 year stretch.

I think one of Al's strengths was being able to recognize and develop under the radar players and succeed with them. Many if not most of his better players were not from NE. Here you saw Reynolds Dean and Preston for instance. And at BC, Troy Bell was from Minnesota, Tyrese Rice was from mid atlantic area, Jared Dudley, Craig Smith, Sean Marshall all from the west coast. The big kid, shot blocker he had at BC, his name escapes was from Texas I believe.

True. Sean Williams was from TX. 1st round NBA pick. Reggie Jackson was from CO and is going to make over 100 million in the NBA. Rakim Sanders was local and a big recruit but never quite lived up to the hype. Ironically, I think one of the reasons he was fired was a general feeling that it was guys like Cooley and Billy Coen who really did the scouting and when they left the product suffered. I guess we'll never know. Always loved Al and his style. Would definitely want URI to give him a shout if DH ever lefto for a bigger job or got canned.

Al wasn't a big fan of the recruiting wars...he let his assistants do a lot of the work when it came to bringing players in....he had good ones which helped.......

Frank_Keaney_95 wrote:Thanks for posting, Ramtastico!

Congrats to Coach Skinner on reaching the 400 win milestone!

His tenure tends to be an after thought to some on this board but he was the backbone of URI hoops from '84-'97 having been the key recruiter of the '88 Sweet Sixteen team and of course the architect of the '98 Final Eight team and everything in between.

Some may disagree but I for one loved Al's low key approach. Instead of midnight madness, Al preferred a 7:00 am kick off to the season practice in Tootell gym. We had that chip on our shoulder mentality and his teams never quit. He ran a clean program and though he isn't a rah rah type of personality he was very approachable and friendly one on one. For a while there, he recruited kids to Kingston out of a trailer and a dilapidated Keaney Gym.

He never wanted to leave but BC gave him an offer he couldn't refuse. I think he was the second lowest paid coach in the A10 when he left (only in front of CFL at St. Bonnies) even though he was easily in the top four with Chaney, Jarvis and Calipari.

What happened to him at BC is a complete disgrace with Gene DeFilippo and that racist hatchet job by Bob Ryan. Of course, Al took the high road handling it with class and dignity.

Two more wins and Al will pass the great Frank Keaney!

Great post! Was at school when Al was coaching. He was so great for URI. A great eye for overlooked talent that loved being here. Too bad Corothers was president, he had no care for athletics. Loved the teams he put together, love that he hit 400 wins. Great job coach!!

I do remember he did not call timeouts during those runs by the opponent very frustrating

I loved his leather jackets though

reef wrote:I do remember he did not call timeouts during those runs by the opponent very frustrating

I loved his leather jackets though

Knee-length!

rambone 78 wrote:Al wasn't a big fan of the recruiting wars...he let his assistants do a lot of the work when it came to bringing players in....he had good ones which helped.......

In those days it wasn't unusual for the head coach to be the closer, and not go out on the road as much as coaches do today. I know of a couple of cases where he rejected recruits that O'Shea wanted to sign. He had the final word. His philosophy was simple: recruits had to be athletic enough to defend.

I was an Al fan, too. He was able to move on to BC because one of the worst ADs in the country hadn't extended his contract.
Sports is a bottom-line business. I don't care if the coach is low key or high strung; win games and get in the tournament and you're OK with me. People who didn't like Al judged him by his demeanor instead of his record. That's the mistake BC (and Ryan) made.