KeaneyBlue - The URI Basketball Forum

I can't wait for the day where the local reporters give us as much respect in the polls as the national guys do.

Not surprised we juuuust missed out.
Kind of annoying to be ranked behind Creighton after they got beat by 22.

Hopefully we would get in after winning our next two.

while we may be just two spots out, we are 103 points back of #25

PeterRamTime wrote:

Seawrightspostgame wrote:In addition to the national ranking I am hoping for some serious A10 hardware this year.

First team for EC and Jared. 2nd team for Dowtin. A10POY for one of our top guys. All freshman team for Fatts.

Jared has to be first team. EC hasn't earned it yet, but Jared has dominated all year and has a chance to be player of the year.

Our entire starting five should be recognized in these rewards.

Remember these awards are based on Atlantic 10 Regular Season ONLY (will be announced before the A10 Tourney).

Looking at Terrell and Mathews (with ranking in A10 in brackets) through 5 games:
PPG: Mathews 16.8 (11th), Terrell 17.0 (10th)
FG%: Mathews 53.3% (13th), Terrell 48.3% (26th)
3FG%: Mathews 38.9% (30th), Terrell 46.2% (9th)
FT%: Mathews 68.4% (29th), Terrell 83.3% (9th)
RPG: Mathews 6.0 (20th), Terrell 4.2 (44th)
Steals: Mathews 1.0 (21st), Terrell 1.6 (5th)
Assists: Mathews (not in Top 45), Terrell 2.2 (28th)
Blocks: Mathews .8 (14th), Terrell .2 (44th)

Take care of business against UMASS and Dayton. Dayton may be down, but winning on their court is still a quality win.

With the A10 down this year, I think we are doing ok in the polls. Rothstein has kept us floating for weeks which should be appreciated. The performance on the court is starting to open some eyes. Let's see how we do this week with Umass and Dayton. Win those and we'll be right back here next week.

twisted3829 wrote:while we may be just two spots out, we are 103 points back of #25

Yes, but Creighton @ #26 is 87 pts out, so looking at it that way, really i think if we TCB vs Umass and Dayton next week could be the week we crack it

KMAC one of those picking Creighton over us. Let the bashing begin.
http://www.providencejournal.com/sports ... -in-top-25

Kmac, Creighton just lost by 22. One way street with him.

Rhody74 wrote:Take care of business against UMASS and Dayton. Dayton may be down, but winning on their court is still a quality win.

The upside of not being ranked this week is there is not as big a target on us. UMass and especially Dayton at home would have had a lot of incentive to beat a ranked team.

Most people on this board have forgotten more about basketball since the season started than KMac has ever known, and even still, he knows enough that if URI played Creighton on a neutral court tomorrow and his life depended on his picking the winner, he would pick URI. Combined, these things make him both an idiot and an asshole.

Rhody74 wrote:KMAC one of those picking Creighton over us. Let the bashing begin.
http://www.providencejournal.com/sports ... -in-top-25

I don't agree with him putting Creighton over URI in his top 25 and I think his logic is flawed. Ultimately, his vote wasn't the deciding factor between us being ranked or unranked, but it is certainly frustrating seeing this come from a local reporter.

He listed these two Creighton wins - Neutral vs UCLA (RPI - 48) and Home vs Butler (RPI - 27) as the deciding factor, saying they were better than these two Rhody wins - Neutral vs Seton Hall (RPI - 12) and Home vs St. Bonaventure (RPI - 42).

At this time, the two Rhody wins are better than the two Creighton wins, so I don't see how he could put this in Creighton's favor.

It's certainly a close call between URI and Creighton (and I'm not trying to take anything away from them), but I'd like to think that in a situation this close, the local team might actually get the benefit of the doubt - especially considering they have the better RPI, better SOS, better wins (that the writer mentioned as a deciding factor), they aren't coming off of a 20 point loss and actually beat the team they are being compared to head-to-head in last year's NCAA tournament.

It’s the opposite. On a blind resume he would never pick Creighton. He is only picking them as a way not to pick URI. You can forgive other writers from other parts of the country for maybe being slow to come around or pushing their local agenda, but KMac doesn’t have any excuse.

Yea beat them less than 12 months ago. . .

RF1 wrote:

Rhody74 wrote:Take care of business against UMASS and Dayton. Dayton may be down, but winning on their court is still a quality win.

The upside of not being ranked this week is there is not as big a target on us. UMass and especially Dayton at home would have had a lot of incentive to beat a ranked team.

Hate to tell you but we are going to have a target on our back all season

Shaolin Swat wrote:

Rhody74 wrote:KMAC one of those picking Creighton over us. Let the bashing begin.
http://www.providencejournal.com/sports ... -in-top-25

I don't agree with him putting Creighton over URI in his top 25 and I think his logic is flawed. Ultimately, his vote wasn't the deciding factor between us being ranked or unranked, but it is certainly frustrating seeing this come from a local reporter.

He listed these two Creighton wins - Neutral vs UCLA (RPI - 48) and Home vs Butler (RPI - 27) as the deciding factor, saying they were better than these two Rhody wins - Neutral vs Seton Hall (RPI - 12) and Home vs St. Bonaventure (RPI - 42).

At this time, the two Rhody wins are better than the two Creighton wins, so I don't see how he could put this in Creighton's favor.

It's certainly a close call between URI and Creighton (and I'm not trying to take anything away from them), but I'd like to think that in a situation this close, the local team might actually get the benefit of the doubt - especially considering they have the better RPI, better SOS, better wins (that the writer mentioned as a deciding factor), they aren't coming off of a 20 point loss and actually beat the team they are being compared to head-to-head in last year's NCAA tournament.

To be fair, kenpom has Seton Hall and Bonnies as 31 and 63 while Butler and UCLA are 39 and 53. Creighton also is ranked 24th overall by kenpom while we're 34th. Obviously I'd have liked him to put URI in over Creighton but I don't think you can argue we should have been in based only on one metric especially when RPI is considered the worst metric by most people.

twisted3829 wrote:

RF1 wrote:

Rhody74 wrote:Take care of business against UMASS and Dayton. Dayton may be down, but winning on their court is still a quality win.

The upside of not being ranked this week is there is not as big a target on us. UMass and especially Dayton at home would have had a lot of incentive to beat a ranked team.

Hate to tell you but we are going to have a target on our back all season

Agreed. It however would be an even bigger target if ranked.

If we beat UMass on Wednesday we will be playing for a national ranking at Dayton on Saturday!!

josephski wrote:

Shaolin Swat wrote:

Rhody74 wrote:KMAC one of those picking Creighton over us. Let the bashing begin.
http://www.providencejournal.com/sports ... -in-top-25

I don't agree with him putting Creighton over URI in his top 25 and I think his logic is flawed. Ultimately, his vote wasn't the deciding factor between us being ranked or unranked, but it is certainly frustrating seeing this come from a local reporter.

He listed these two Creighton wins - Neutral vs UCLA (RPI - 48) and Home vs Butler (RPI - 27) as the deciding factor, saying they were better than these two Rhody wins - Neutral vs Seton Hall (RPI - 12) and Home vs St. Bonaventure (RPI - 42).

At this time, the two Rhody wins are better than the two Creighton wins, so I don't see how he could put this in Creighton's favor.

It's certainly a close call between URI and Creighton (and I'm not trying to take anything away from them), but I'd like to think that in a situation this close, the local team might actually get the benefit of the doubt - especially considering they have the better RPI, better SOS, better wins (that the writer mentioned as a deciding factor), they aren't coming off of a 20 point loss and actually beat the team they are being compared to head-to-head in last year's NCAA tournament.

To be fair, kenpom has Seton Hall and Bonnies as 31 and 63 while Butler and UCLA are 39 and 53. Creighton also is ranked 24th overall by kenpom while we're 34th. Obviously I'd have liked him to put URI in over Creighton but I don't think you can argue we should have been in based only on one metric especially when RPI is considered the worst metric by most people.

That's certainly fair and, like I mentioned, it is a very close ranking between the two teams.

I used RPI as the metric, because that was the metric that was referenced in the article. KMac mentioned that he uses KenPom, but his explanation doesn't indicate that he used it at all.

According to KenPom, we are 1-2 vs the top 50 and Creighton is 1-4 vs the top 50. KMac talked about each team's three top 50 wins and the only metric with three top 50 wins for both teams is the RPI.

Not to mention that he had Creighton at #22 going into the week, certainly a tenuous hold on a top 25 spot - I'd think that when at team ranked #22 or lower on someone's bracket loses by 20+ points, then they probably drop of that person's bracket a large majority of the time.

If KMac wants to use KenPom as a deciding factor in his voting, that's perfectly reasonable - just don't use the RPI metrics as your justification then.

Kmac is a big east shill. He probably drooled on his ballot as he wrote in Nova, X and the Hall.

TruePoint wrote:Most people on this board have forgotten more about basketball since the season started than KMac has ever known, and even still, he knows enough that if URI played Creighton on a neutral court tomorrow and his life depended on his picking the winner, he would pick URI. Combined, these things make him both an idiot and an asshole.

I love how he basically contradicts himself in why he picked Creighton over us.


"That ultimately was the deciding factor. Jays have an RPI 31 and Kenpom 24."

Umm URI RPi is nearly 20 spots higher... and Kenpon is not really something that should ever be used to evaluate how good teams have been, simply how dangerous they could be. I never even read Kenpom until near March.. (sorry my KB is water dmged, so many typos!)

#23 Michigan struggled in the first half against Maryland, trailing by as much as 14 and going to the break down 10. Interestingly, speaking of Creighton, they have Seton Hall and Providence on tap this week.

TruePoint wrote:#23 Michigan struggled in the first half against Maryland, trailing by as much as 14 and going to the break down 10. Interestingly, speaking of Creighton, they have Seton Hall and Providence on tap this week.

Hmmmm...is it possible KMAc wanted Creighton to be in the top 25 so that PC could beat a “top 25” teams this week?

A spot may have just opened up on KMac's ballot. BC (yes, BC) led wire-to-wire in a win over Florida State.

BC basketball is... actually kind of good? This is weird.

I have gone back and forth on twitter with KMac about this same topic...while it's a razor thin difference, there is no justification for putting Creighton ahead of URI. And you bet your ass if it was as close as it is the writer from the Omaha Journal would be voting for Creighton. It's the BE bias.
Now watch the pump up of Butler, who also isn't as good as BE pundits would like you to think they are.

From my KMac post:
He writes an article about URI missing out on Top 25 but ends the article with comments about his Friars - “Interestingly, both of the brackets have the Providence Friars in the field as well, as an 11 seed. The Friars host Butler at the Dunk today at 4:30 while URI hosts Massachusetts Wednesday night.”

He does a podcast with Bill Koch and states that his comments on URI are based on his review of the box score because he didn’t watch the game.

Rhody83 wrote:From my KMac post:
He writes an article about URI missing out on Top 25 but ends the article with comments about his Friars - “Interestingly, both of the brackets have the Providence Friars in the field as well, as an 11 seed. The Friars host Butler at the Dunk today at 4:30 while URI hosts Massachusetts Wednesday night.”

He does a podcast with Bill Koch and states that his comments on URI are based on his review of the box score because he didn’t watch the game.

his comments on URI are based on his review of the box score because he didn’t watch the game - what game is he referring to?

Just win and we are in and it will be well deserved

ramster wrote:

Rhody83 wrote:From my KMac post:
He writes an article about URI missing out on Top 25 but ends the article with comments about his Friars - “Interestingly, both of the brackets have the Providence Friars in the field as well, as an 11 seed. The Friars host Butler at the Dunk today at 4:30 while URI hosts Massachusetts Wednesday night.”

He does a podcast with Bill Koch and states that his comments on URI are based on his review of the box score because he didn’t watch the game.

his comments on URI are based on his review of the box score because he didn’t watch the game - what game is he referring to?

If you listen to last week’s podcast with Koch and the week before that, KMac states that he didn’t get a chance to watch the game and then goes on with his comments (which you can tell come from the box score). Last week it was the SLU game I believe.

Bottom line KMac is a loser!!!! Always has been, always will.

Rhody74 wrote:KMAC one of those picking Creighton over us. Let the bashing begin.
http://www.providencejournal.com/sports ... -in-top-25

Short answer: His masters on Smith Hill told him what to do, and he did it.

Good boy, Li'l Kevie! Here's a Milk-Bone for you!

Can URI stopping giving him press passes to the games he decides to show up to? Ban him and Frank Carpano.
At least Bill Koch will be there to cover the game so we are not really losing coverage.

We are up to #11 in RPI:
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/rpi

I am starting to worry that the A10's suck is going to prevent us from the top 25 for a bit. If not at all.

Special thanks to the Bonnies for sucking, as they were supposed to be our "marquee" win in the A10. That's not happening.

VCU could've come out of the woodwork to get some separation and MAYBE be a team who could have a chance to compete for a title. Very obviously not happening.

The A10 is at best the 10th best conference in the country, and very well could find itself even lower than that if the whole damn conference winds up finishing between 10-8 and 8-10.

Unfortunately for us, there are no "wow" type wins in our conference this season, the kind that get voters to pay attention. There are only landmines.

Our RPI will begin to look less and less impressive by comparison to Big East or P5 teams as they will get boosts by just playing conference games.

Thank God for our OOC, because otherwise we would be a Murray State or Valpo that beats up on a shitty conference schedule and tries to complain if they're left out of the at large discussion.

As for KMac - I agree his arguments are a bit hypocritical, but the reality is that 3/4 of the voters aren't voting for us either. Beating Creighton last year is as valid as Fordham beating us. Need to move on from that.

You can thank the A10 and the slop they've turned out this year for us not being ranked.

If the Bonnies didn't have 2 AWFUL losses outside of the top 175, we'd be in right now. If we had maybe 3 or 4 top 50 games left in conference we'd be able to sustain it, but the reality is that we'll keep getting jumped by teams with more deserving wins over legitimate opponents.

People know who we are, and as long as we take care of business we'll have a favorable seed in the NCAA tournament.

Tough to worry about the view by national pollsters on a week to week basis when week to week we're not playing anyone worth their weight for the rest of the year.

Blueman is right, just not enough juice in this league. The only option is to win and win again.

Can't really disagree Blue Man, but one thing I will add is that I think our tourney "run" last year is at least a slight reminder to those that vote and select that we are an up and coming program. Could make a difference.

Blue Man wrote:I am starting to worry that the A10's suck is going to prevent us from the top 25 for a bit. If not at all.

Special thanks to the Bonnies for sucking, as they were supposed to be our "marquee" win in the A10. That's not happening.

VCU could've come out of the woodwork to get some separation and MAYBE be a team who could have a chance to compete for a title. Very obviously not happening.

The A10 is at best the 10th best conference in the country, and very well could find itself even lower than that if the whole damn conference winds up finishing between 10-8 and 8-10.

Unfortunately for us, there are no "wow" type wins in our conference this season, the kind that get voters to pay attention. There are only landmines.

Our RPI will begin to look less and less impressive by comparison to Big East or P5 teams as they will get boosts by just playing conference games.

Thank God for our OOC, because otherwise we would be a Murray State or Valpo that beats up on a shitty conference schedule and tries to complain if they're left out of the at large discussion.

As for KMac - I agree his arguments are a bit hypocritical, but the reality is that 3/4 of the voters aren't voting for us either. Beating Creighton last year is as valid as Fordham beating us. Need to move on from that.

You can thank the A10 and the slop they've turned out this year for us not being ranked.

If the Bonnies didn't have 2 AWFUL losses outside of the top 175, we'd be in right now. If we had maybe 3 or 4 top 50 games left in conference we'd be able to sustain it, but the reality is that we'll keep getting jumped by teams with more deserving wins over legitimate opponents.

People know who we are, and as long as we take care of business we'll have a favorable seed in the NCAA tournament.

Tough to worry about the view by national pollsters on a week to week basis when week to week we're not playing anyone worth their weight for the rest of the year.

It is what it is. But if the conference is as weak as you and others think it is then we should roll through it and post a strong record

I never thought possible before but wondering now more and more could we actually go 18-0? If so our RPI would be 6.5
If we go 16-2 then our RPI is still a gawdy 12!!!

Teams like Gonzaga, St Mary's, Wichita State (before AAC) etc have always faced this type of conference weakness thing. Still lot's to be excited about. I would not discredit our Team's performance at all due to the A10 Conference strength this year - We showed our strength in the OOC Strong Schedule.
Would not surprise me to see Davidson be our toughest opponent before it's all said and done. They are now in 2nd place at (4-1) and shooting very well. Bob McKillop teams are always well coached and tend to peak at Tournament time.
We play Davidson:
February 9 at Ryan Center
March 2 Away

26-3 (18-0) 6.5 RPI (2.35% probability to achieve)
25-4 (17-1) 9.0 RPI (11.96% probability to achieve)
24-5 (16-2) 12.2 RPI (22.71% probability to achieve)
23-6 (15-3) 16.8 RPI (27.51% probability to achieve)

This thread is ironically named rhody AND ATLANTIC 10 in the top 25 polls.... Too bad they all suck

Sad!

ramster wrote:

Blue Man wrote:I am starting to worry that the A10's suck is going to prevent us from the top 25 for a bit. If not at all.

Special thanks to the Bonnies for sucking, as they were supposed to be our "marquee" win in the A10. That's not happening.

VCU could've come out of the woodwork to get some separation and MAYBE be a team who could have a chance to compete for a title. Very obviously not happening.

The A10 is at best the 10th best conference in the country, and very well could find itself even lower than that if the whole damn conference winds up finishing between 10-8 and 8-10.

Unfortunately for us, there are no "wow" type wins in our conference this season, the kind that get voters to pay attention. There are only landmines.

Our RPI will begin to look less and less impressive by comparison to Big East or P5 teams as they will get boosts by just playing conference games.

Thank God for our OOC, because otherwise we would be a Murray State or Valpo that beats up on a shitty conference schedule and tries to complain if they're left out of the at large discussion.

As for KMac - I agree his arguments are a bit hypocritical, but the reality is that 3/4 of the voters aren't voting for us either. Beating Creighton last year is as valid as Fordham beating us. Need to move on from that.

You can thank the A10 and the slop they've turned out this year for us not being ranked.

If the Bonnies didn't have 2 AWFUL losses outside of the top 175, we'd be in right now. If we had maybe 3 or 4 top 50 games left in conference we'd be able to sustain it, but the reality is that we'll keep getting jumped by teams with more deserving wins over legitimate opponents.

People know who we are, and as long as we take care of business we'll have a favorable seed in the NCAA tournament.

Tough to worry about the view by national pollsters on a week to week basis when week to week we're not playing anyone worth their weight for the rest of the year.

It is what it is. But if the conference is as weak as you and others think it is then we should roll through it and post a strong record

I never thought possible before but wondering now more and more could we actually go 18-0? If so our RPI would be 6.5
If we go 16-2 then our RPI is still a gawdy 12!!!

Teams like Gonzaga, St Mary's, Wichita State (before AAC) etc have always faced this type of conference weakness thing. Still lot's to be excited about. I would not discredit our Team's performance at all due to the A10 Conference strength this year - We showed our strength in the OOC Strong Schedule.
Would not surprise me to see Davidson be our toughest opponent before it's all said and done. They are now in 2nd place at (4-1) and shooting very well. Bob McKillop teams are always well coached and tend to peak at Tournament time.
We play Davidson:
February 9 at Ryan Center
March 2 Away

26-3 (18-0) 6.5 RPI (2.35% probability to achieve)
25-4 (17-1) 9.0 RPI (11.96% probability to achieve)
24-5 (16-2) 12.2 RPI (22.71% probability to achieve)
23-6 (15-3) 16.8 RPI (27.51% probability to achieve)

Davidson might be tough in their building. Otherwise I don't see them matching up well with us. Aldridge is the only guy that could be a match up problem. They are 4-1 because they execute well and the league is bad. If you are physical with them they fold and they have no Jack Gibbs. Our guards are way too strong defensively for them to handle it.

Our schedule in February is much more difficult than it is now. Bonnies, Davidson, UMass and VCU on the road.
I know VCU will come to play that game, and I'll probably be there

If we do get in the top 25 it will likely only take one loss to kick us out, unless we go deep into February undefeated and then lose with a ranking in the top 15 or something like that.

I like what McCall said about how his players were intimidated by us, I think we haven't put that into account very often when playing some of these teams. Some will play their best game, but a good number will go in thinking they don't have a chance and in that case its probably going to be another blowout win for us.

If the A10 continues to suck, it's going to hurt recruiting too, even if we are really good. Top level players want to play against top competition and will not want to play in a shitty league. Let's hope some of the other teams get better very, very soon.

Billyboy78 wrote:If the A10 continues to suck, it's going to hurt recruiting too, even if we are really good. Top level players want to play against top competition and will not want to play in a shitty league. Let's hope some of the other teams get better very, very soon.

I think the league will be okay. This is a transition year. New coaches, lots of good players have graduated. St. Joes should have been good but their entire roster has gotten injured. Lots of young teams.

I think SLU, UMass, VCU, Dayton and St. Joes are all going to be better. Duquesne has a good coach now. I could see the league getting back to a 3+ bid league as early as next year.

i know this is a pipe dream but why not us ?

https://www.anonymouseagle.com/2017/10/ ... -expansion

Love ya ECR but come on.

hahaha

i know.. i know....

ElmCityRhody wrote:i know this is a pipe dream but why not us ?

https://www.anonymouseagle.com/2017/10/ ... -expansion

That would be the dream, no shot though

PeterRamTime wrote:

Billyboy78 wrote:If the A10 continues to suck, it's going to hurt recruiting too, even if we are really good. Top level players want to play against top competition and will not want to play in a shitty league. Let's hope some of the other teams get better very, very soon.

I think the league will be okay. This is a transition year. New coaches, lots of good players have graduated. St. Joes should have been good but their entire roster has gotten injured. Lots of young teams.

I think SLU, UMass, VCU, Dayton and St. Joes are all going to be better. Duquesne has a good coach now. I could see the league getting back to a 3+ bid league as early as next year.

I agree PRT,

- A10 played the 3rd toughest OOC Schedule in Basketball. We will go anywhere, play anyone
- We simply have a lot of change this year.
- New HC's at two of the premier A10 Members in Dayton and VCU - they will for sure be back - VCU over 100 straight sell outs and Dayton commonly putting 12,000 plus in the stands will for sure be back fast
- Dambrot new at Duquesne and making positive things happen very fast
- McCall at UMASS is a solid addition
- Travis Ford in only his 2nd year at St Louis already has commitments from 3 ESPN Top 100 Players
- Some wonderful new Freshmen in the A10 this year to name a few:
---- Jordan Goodwin - St Louis - 4th in Rebounding
---- Hasahn French - St Louis - 34th in Rebounding
---- Fatts Russell - URI
---- Kellan Grady - Davidson - 9th in Scoring
---- Grant Golden - Richmond - 17th in Scoring, 33rd in Rebounding
---- Eric Williams Jr - Duquesne - 22nd in Scoring, 2nd in Rebounding
---- Jalen Crutcher - Dayton - 26th in Scoring

Not worried at all. Enjoy our time in the Spotlight. We have never won the A10 Conference - I am not about to taint our long awaited achievement by talking bad about our Conference.
Gonzaga doesn't do that - they just win and then kick butt in the NCAA Tournament - It works for them, It'll work for us

Sounds like what he is saying is that since we have the better team we should have better attendance than that other institution.
I like being the best team in New England - for the 2nd year in a row!!!

URI is back in the CBS Top 25 and 1