KeaneyBlue - The URI Basketball Forum

Media

TV: ESPNU

Radio: 101.5 AM

Previews:
Projo: Win Over Pirates Would Boost Rams Tournament Resume
gorhody: Rams Set To Face Seton Hall on ESPNU Thursday Night



Vegas: URI +4

Opponent

Record:
4-0, 0-0 in the Patriot League
Neutral: 0-0
Last season: 21-12, 10-8 in the Big East

Rankings:
RPI: 41
BPI: 24
KenPom: 28

Leaders:
Points - Desi Rodriguez, 17.0
Rebounds - Angel Delgado, 8.5
Assists - Khadeen Carrington, 5.3




Preview

The last time URI saw a Big East team, it was sending Creighton home for the summer while advancing to the round of 32 in the NCAA tournament. The next time it sees a Big East team, it will be hated cross-state rival Providence. In between, we get Seton Hall. Hardly an afterthought, Dan Hurley's alma mater has its sights set on its second Final Four appearance. Led by three terrific seniors in guard Carrington, wing Rodriguez and big man Delgado (who passed on a chance to enter the NBA draft with the stated intention of getting the Pirates to the final weekend), Seton Hall enters the Thanksgiving Day nationally televised contest undefeated and in the top-25 in both polls.

This team is experienced, coming off of two straight NCAA tournament appearances (both first round exits), but it is has not been tested much to this point in the season. Through four games, the Pirates have not played outside of the Prudential Center in Newark, and while Indiana is a name brand program the Hoosiers appear to be deep in a rebuild under former Dayton coach Archie Miller. The rest of their opponents have been in-state cupcakes Monmouth, Farleigh Dickinson and NJIT, and The Hall has dispatched all of them easily. URI will present the Pirates with their first real test of the season.

How stiff of a test that will be may be known in part even before tip, whenever we get final word on Cyril Langevine's status. Even with Langevine, URI will be somewhat shorthanded without senior leader EC Matthews. With the three seniors plus versatile sophomore Myles Powell, Seton Hall can score at all three levels and will seemingly have a big advantage on the glass, whether Rhody is with or without Langevine. One key to the game will be to minimize the rebounding deficit, minimize second chance points and play honest defense against Delgado while recognizing he will probably get his share of boards and points.

Another key for me will be the turnover battle, where URI comes in with a slight edge (1.5:1 A/TO vs. 1.33 A/TO for SHU) despite having played more capable competition. I don't see any way URI can win this game without winning the turnover battle and converting some of those turnovers into easy points. This is one area where the loss of Matthews isn't as significant as you'd imagine - although a small sample, EC's 1:7 ratio was problematic; as usual, URI is led in this area by sophomore Jeff Dowtin (19:3), although Jeff has not yet found his perimeter game this season and needs to be at least a threat from outside.

The key guy for URI will be Jared Terrell, who has been URI's clear best player through three games and will likely draw the tough matchup with Desi Rodriguez, where he will be giving up some size. I don't know that Rodriguez will be the guy that they game plan to shut down (as we frequently do), but I think this is another area where we have to win the game within the game to have a chance - if Rodriguez dramatically outplays Terrell it is hard for me to see a way that URI wins.

#20 Seton Hall 4-0
90-68 vs Fairleigh Dickinson
75-65 vs Monmouth
84-68 vs Indiana
82-53 vs NJIT

Probable Starters:
#20 Desi Rodriguez 6'6" Senior Bronx, NY 17.0PPG, 4.3RPG, 1.3 APG
#13 Myles Powell 6'2" Sophomore Trenton, NJ 13.0PPF, 3.0RPG, 3.0 APG
#31 Angel Delgado 6'10" Senior Bajos De Hain, DR 12.8PPG,8.5 RPG, 2.8 APG
#0 Khadeen Carrington 6'4" Senior Bronx, NY 12.0PPG,2.5 RPG, 5.3 APG
#1 Michael Nezi 6'8" Junior Makurdi, Nigeria 4.5PPG, 4.0 RPG, 0.3APG

Reserves:
#22 Myles Cale 6'5" Freshmen Middletown,DE 8.5PPG, 2.5RPG, 1.5 APG
#14 Ismael Sanogo 6'8" Senior Newark,NJ 2.8PPG, 4.8RPG, 0.8APG
#4 Eron Gordon 6'3" Sophomore Indianapolis,IN 3.5PPG, 1.3RPG, 1.8 APG
#23 Sandro Mamulekashvili 6'10" Freshmen Tbilisi,Georgia 6.0PPG, 4.3RPG, 0.5 APG

Big experienced team, that should be a very tough matchup for Rhody especially if Cyril is unable to play. I think we will need to shoot the ball well from 3 to win the game

Even with EC and Cyril, I thought we would have a very hard time winning.

Without both of them, I honestly don't think we have much of a shot to win.

kenpom has us losing 75-71 and gives us a 36% chance of winning. That feels optimistic to me, but then they had our score differential pretty much pegged against Holy Cross and we were without EC and Cyril. If we keep this one close and win on Friday we'll get credit come tournament selection time.

So what are the time slots for the second game on Friday? 7:30 or ?

We will have a shot if we don't foul ourselves to death and have poised offensive poessessions.
Shoot threes well.

Rhodymob05 wrote:So what are the time slots for the second game on Friday? 7:30 or ?

The championship game is 7:30 and the third place game is 9:45, which I imagine will be pushed back.

RhowdyRam02 wrote:kenpom has us losing 75-71 and gives us a 36% chance of winning. That feels optimistic to me, but then they had our score differential pretty much pegged against Holy Cross and we were without EC and Cyril. If we keep this one close and win on Friday we'll get credit come tournament selection time.

Kenpom had Rhody losing by 1 to Nevada so they were off there. That would project to a 10 point margin for SH game. That seems more realistic.

When you have a veteran backcourt of Jared Terrell, Stan Robinson, Jarvis Garrett, Jeff Dowtin, and Fatts you will always have a shot to win.

I have plenty of faith that we can pull this out.

SHU is formidable, legit NBA prospect in Delgado, savvy and skilled guards in Rodriguez and Carrington. IMO our only shot is if we shoot A10 tourney style lights out. We will need not 1, not 2, but 3 of our guards to be on from the outside to stay in it.

I believe we can win. So long as our offense steps up, our defense plays 40 min and we don't have refs out to murder us.

Berry needs to re-introduce himself.

He beat Dayton. We need him to beat Seton Hall.

Hes not the hero Hurley wanted. Hes the hero he got.

Seton Hall fan forum link:
https://setonhall.forums.rivals.com/for ... s-chat.14/

I have a feeling we pull out a very narrow victory something like 81-79.... I think our guys play their hearts out on Thursday.

Mongo wrote:I have a feeling we pull out a very narrow victory something like 81-79.... I think our guys play their hearts out on Thursday.

I have that same odd feeling. Maybe playing UP to their competition.

bigappleram wrote:SHU is formidable, legit NBA prospect in Delgado, savvy and skilled guards in Rodriguez and Carrington. IMO our only shot is if we shoot A10 tourney style lights out. We will need not 1, not 2, but 3 of our guards to be on from the outside to stay in it.

VERY formidable and experienced. Seton Hall has three 1000 point scorers on their roster (Carrington, Delgado, Rodriguez)- the only D1 roster to have that. They basically have the equivalent of Terrell and Matthews plus Delgado and oh yeah, no Matthews or Langevine (probably) for the Rams.

Check out the Hall’s stats.

http://www.shupirates.com/documents/201 ... mbined.pdf

Both Powell and Rodriguez are very good free-throw shooters. Both well over 80%. Powell shoes 38.5% from three. Rodriguez 42% from three and 53% overall. Rodriguez however tends to turn the ball over and foul a lot. Delgado Is a poor free-throw shooter. Just better than 50% for his career. The entire team shoots very well. They are currently averaging almost 50% from the field. Their opponents are shooting a little over 42%.

I think I would try to shut down Rodriguez, make him foul, and turn the ball over. Make Delgado beat us from the line.

They also haven't played anybody as good as we are.
I'd only be disappointed if we arent competitive.

Dont wanna see Kansas, Smu, Arizona 2.0

I'm not sure you game plan to "make someone foul" - i do think the key is our 3 guards greatly outplaying their 3 guards, on both sides of the floor, for us to have a chance. Delgado is going to get his and also make dribble drives to the rack a bit tough, we are gonna have to be hitting from the perimeter.

This game is pretty important. I know RPI is not as big a factor this year, but right now there are 5 A10 teams with an RPI sub 100. If that keeps up into conference play, it's gonna be a tough year for the conference. Fordham is at 150, and there are 6 teams worse than that.

......Rhode Block Defense on the perimeter, w/o fouling.....make them adjust to our pressure on the ball and fast hands in passing lanes, play our calling card game.....and see where that goes....

Is this game on espn 3 for streaming ??

The pep band isn't going to be there this year, gonna have to find another source for the fight song.

said it in the Cyril injury thread, but for me the key is not wasting attention on Delgado.

let him get his and focus on locking everyone else down. he wont win the game on his own scoring. win the perimeter battle

reef wrote:Is this game on espn 3 for streaming ??

I think they stream all of the broadcasting channels in addition to the broadcast.

Seawrightspostgame wrote:

reef wrote:Is this game on espn 3 for streaming ??

I think they stream all of the broadcasting channels in addition to the broadcast.

yup, anything carried on any network is streamed on watchespn.com

The game is on ESPNU. TV and radio coverage is listed for all games on the schedule at gorhody.com.

Da_Process_Survivor wrote:said it in the Cyril injury thread, but for me the key is not wasting attention on Delgado.

let him get his and focus on locking everyone else down. he wont win the game on his own scoring. win the perimeter battle

I completely agree with this take. It's like the Celtics from years ago under Doc Rivers when they'd play a Lebron team (especially before he left for Miami). He would have his team try and take everyone else out of the game and make Lebron have to go off for 70 to beat the Celtics.

As many have stated, I feel its going to be a case of Delgado forces multiple players into foul trouble. So I'm sure Danny is basing his lineups off of that. Berry, Langivine, Tertsea, Layssard, are the players large enough to defend him. I can see us going two bigs at times as well. We actually have the roster for it, just need the offense from the guards.

.......I don’t see either Mike moving up the bench with warmups off in the ready bench spots to go into the game......if they did not get more meaningful minutes in any previous games (disappointing to me) I don’t see it in Brooklyn......

Rhodymob05 wrote:As many have stated, I feel its going to be a case of Delgado forces multiple players into foul trouble. So I'm sure Danny is basing his lineups off of that. Berry, Langivine, Tertsea, Layssard, are the players large enough to defend him. I can see us going two bigs at times as well. We actually have the roster for it, just need the offense from the guards.

Tertsea and Layssard cant get off the bench for Asheville or HC and they're going to contribute vs a top 15 team with an All American candidate?

Shinze88 wrote:

Rhodymob05 wrote:As many have stated, I feel its going to be a case of Delgado forces multiple players into foul trouble. So I'm sure Danny is basing his lineups off of that. Berry, Langivine, Tertsea, Layssard, are the players large enough to defend him. I can see us going two bigs at times as well. We actually have the roster for it, just need the offense from the guards.

Tertsea and Layssard cant get off the bench for Asheville or HC and they're going to contribute vs a top 15 team with an All American candidate?

I push Tertsea because of his size and streght, which no Ram has had like his in years. Have you seen him in person? Plus I'm saying those guys are back ups in case Berry and Langivine are in foul trouble.

Most likely the only way we see Tertsea and Laysard is in garbage time

The staff knows our frontcourt is weak. Anyone that watches us for 5 minutes can see that. If the Mike's were ready to contribute they would play. They aren't. Especially Tertsea.

RealTimeRPI.com has us winning 71 - 69.

Our front court is inexperienced and young. Remember what last season Game 1 Cyril looked like compared to Game 30 Cyril...you are going to see that type of improvement out of 1 or more of the guys we have now. Who that is I'm not sure, but we are 3 games into the season, there is a lot of basketball left to play. People making way too many blanket statements on personnel at this point in the season.

KevanBoyles wrote:RealTimeRPI.com has us winning 71 - 69.

Even if EC and Cyril were available I wouldn't believe that. I'll be happy if we keep it under 10.

bigappleram wrote:Our front court is inexperienced and young. Remember what last season Game 1 Cyril looked like compared to Game 30 Cyril...you are going to see that type of improvement out of 1 or more of the guys we have now. Who that is I'm not sure, but we are 3 games into the season, there is a lot of basketball left to play. People making way too many blanket statements on personnel at this point in the season.

You are definitely not new here, so surely you cannot be surprised about this. I'm just hoping we see our posts improve over the course of the season on the same arc as whatever player makes the biggest jump! (My money is on Ryan Preston.)

Berry is a Senior.

Yes Berry is a senior. And that’s why I used the words young AND inexperienced. He would fall in the latter category. He has logged a very small amount of meaningful minutes in his 2 years. Whatever class he is in is meaningless, he hasn’t had to carry the load like he is being asked to do now.

bigappleram wrote:Yes Berry is a senior. And that’s why I used the words young AND inexperienced. He would fall in the latter category. He has logged a very small amount of meaningful minutes in his 2 years. Whatever class he is in is meaningless, he hasn’t had to carry the load like he is being asked to do now.

well thank god we don't have to carry a big on the bench for three years until he play next year.

Heh?

Please don't tell me you think Dan should have been sitting Hassan and Kuran last year in favor of more time for Andre.

I think we will be right in this game . Think it will come down to the wire. Interesting to see the line on this

......Team Rankings has URI +5.....another one URI +3.5.....

bigappleram wrote:Heh?

Please don't tell me you think Dan should have been sitting Hassan and Kuran last year in favor of more time for Andre.

No BAR, I was referring to Jermaine Harris who will start day one next year.

Got ya blue and yes that is something to look forward to for sure.

Let me tell ya that I don't know how any "known" site can have us as a favorite in this game or even able to keep the final score less than 10 points without EC and Cyril. I believe the sites are unaware of our injury situation. FWIW I don't feel good about this game at all!

Some Seton Hall fans on their message board have more faith in our team than some posters here... We can win tomorrow. I believe!!

Stan and JT are senior 4* guards. Dowtin if he can get his shot like he had in the NCAAT last year would be hard to guard. JG can light it up. This is how we can win. We have a senior guard team and they need to play like it.

For all those sites projecting scores, I can't believe they are aware of URI's injury situation. That goes for any Seton Hall fans posting on their boards as well. They likely saw us beat Creighton last year and are basing their fears on that.

I'm seeing an early Vegas line of Seton Hall -5. I think that more likely considers injuries. I would bet the mortgage on the Pirates. The good news is I couldn't win a bet on a game being played on ESPN"s Classic Sports Network.