KeaneyBlue - The URI Basketball Forum

rhodyruckus wrote:I agree there is a lot of complaining, but in my opinion this is a game thread where emotions are supposed to run high. Shouting down those who may be a little irrational on the side of Rhody is silly.

I hear ya...just think the emotion is misdirected. I've smacked the couch a dozen times tonight. every time dowtin misses a wide open three footer. every time berry misses a free throw. every missed layup. but not once at a ref's call.

As off they have been this half a couple stops and a few bucket could make things close.. but I don’t know if rhody has the energy for it

Cyril needs to get back soon... Frontcourt d is non existent.. Hassan covered for a lot of mistakes.. No one on this team capable. Use that last scholly on an athletic big..

Would have love to eat a “w” (jameis Winston haha)

But going 1-1 this weekend w/o EC and Cyril is solid

Free throws free throws free throws...
Learn from it rhody!!!

If you can get a quick turnover and 3. This may get interesting.

Sweep The Leg wrote:If you can get a quick turnover and 3. This may get interesting.

There goes that plan... ha ha..

Missing Cyril too big time. The 4G lineup for this many minutes is a major negative.
Akele and Preston are liabilities against good teams.

Rhody needs Terrell, Stan and Jarvis to deliver. That didn’t happen tonight.
4G lineup is going to get outrebounded 10+ and give up a high FG% because of points underneath.
They need to dominate on turnovers and shoot a good FT%.

Get it under ten and make it look more respectable.

Rhody went to Brooklyn and played two top 25 teams without two starters. Going .500 there is an accomplishment considering the opposition and missing players. Get Cyril and EC healthy and back in the lineup for a strong rest of the season. Getting a least one win versus PC or Alabama would be ideal.

meh, tough to get mad at this one. 2nd half shows the difference between getting to rest your starters yesterday vs playing in a dog fight down to the wire. tired legs were the cause of most of the mistakes today.

We go 2-2 between Seton Hall, Virginia, Bama and PC without EC, and we are in great shape entering conference play

Everything my dad (UVA Alum fan) said that would happen happened in this game.

This sucks...

We just didn't have the energy in the second half, but teams often play like we did against Virginia.

Hopefully Cyril will be a go for PC, we’ll def need him

Good point, tough to be mad with two starters out.

Still a good run for rhody..
I learned that Kelley,Preston, lassyard need a lot of work..
All 3 of them looked why overmatched. If our Gaurds are not on or in foul trouble we will lose.
Still like to know where the old JG is?

Just too much from Virginia, would love to see how they'd fare WITH EC and Cyril but very good 1-1 for this early in the season and these absences.

I think things started going south when berry missed those first two free throws. when you work so hard to come back that has to be deflating.

disappointed in the loss for sure. I think a win may have even helped bring a good crowd to the ryan center on Tuesday night. but all in all, a split here was huge. and doing it down 2 starters was impressive. the final score in this game is not indicative of how closely it was played. now 1 and 2 in big games with 2 more to come (providence and 'bama). I think we can cover for the loss of EC, but langevine really hurts (assuming he should be in the end of last season form). if we are missing both those guys in the next 2 tough games, I would sign up for a split right now.

2-3 against top 40 teams with none of those games at home and down starters would be pretty impressive.

Rhodysk wrote:Free throws free throws free throws...
Learn from it rhody!!!

We did ridiculously well from the line less than 24 hours ago. Things unfortunately regressed to the mean tonight

It's clear we need EC and Cyril back.....yes we were tired but still should make more of those FT's and layups...wouldn't have won this anyway but it would have been a lot closer.

Some guys didn't show up tonight also, unlike last night. Our depth was no factor.

Big men defense and free throws. Plus we stopped shooting.

rambone 78 wrote:It's clear we need EC and Cyril back.....yes we were tired but still should make more of those FT's and layups...wouldn't have won this anyway but it would have been a lot closer.

Some guys didn't show up tonight also, unlike last night. Our depth was no factor.

unfortunately rambone, I think free throws and jump shots is where those tired legs manifest themselves. we missed so missed so many jumpers short. can't explain the missed bunnies. most of them were dowtin. not sure what's going on with him. he looks like he has no confidence at all.

I've seen a few people ask where the old Jarvis is and I have to ask what game were you watching? 11 points, tied with Jared for second on the team , four boards and no killer plays I can think of off the top of my head. It's Dowtin that hurt us tonight with three missed easy buckets at the rim. We need him to get back to where he was

RhowdyRam02 wrote:I've seen a few people ask where the old Jarvis is and I have to ask what game were you watching? 11 points, tied with Jared for second on the team , four boards and no killer plays I can think of off the top of my head. It's Dowtin that hurt us tonight with three missed easy buckets at the rim. We need him to get back to where he was

Jarvis dominated going to bucket in the 2nd half when JT was being essentially shadowed by 2 players.

We missed jumpers short, bunnies, FTs and some wide open players down low even through we had a ton of great interior passing for easy buckets tonight.

Jarvis was also guarding Guy a lot. I thought Jarvis had a very good game.

Well back to back really tough games when we are shorthanded certainly doesn't help.

We won't see that again until the conference tourney...I mean back to back games....and hopefully we'll be back to full strength soon and stay that way.

I think as long as Cyril is back and close to 100% we'll be OK against Alabama and PC....like was said, if we can get one that would be great, but why not both?

3 top 50 OOC wins would go a LONG way in March.....

Dowtin will figure it out sometime.....

rambone 78 wrote:It's clear we need EC and Cyril back.....yes we were tired but still should make more of those FT's and layups...wouldn't have won this anyway but it would have been a lot closer.

Some guys didn't show up tonight also, unlike last night. Our depth was no factor.

ummm, thats exactly what tired legs looks like, missed FT and shots

Certainly a bit frustrating, as they didn’t seem as good as Seton Hall. That said, I would have rather left it all on the court last night for the W and fall short tonight, as opposed to the opposite.

rambone 78 wrote:Well back to back really tough games when we are shorthanded certainly doesn't help.

We won't see that again until the conference tourney...I mean back to back games....and hopefully we'll be back to full strength soon and stay that way.

I think as long as Cyril is back and close to 100% we'll be OK against Alabama and PC....like was said, if we can get one that would be great, but why not both?

3 top 50 OOC wins would go a LONG way in March.....

Dowtin will figure it out sometime.....

You don't want to rush a player back from a groin injury. You can't move laterally and can't get good explosivness running or jumping and you can do more damage to it or other parts of your body compensating for injury if you're not truly 100%.

I'm willing to hold him out the whole OCC if he's 100% for A-10 play. Our OCC SOS should be high, the A-10 games will kill our RPI, just dominate the A-10 like we should.

Overall just didn’t have it tonight, too many missed looks around the bucket and foul shots to put ourselves in position to win the game. This won’t be an RPI killer so now we move to the need to handle business part of the schedule. Need to beat Brown and at least split the PC and then at Bama back to back’s. After that need to clean house with the remaining schedule and move into conference play at 8-3.

Dan said that they would know more about his injury in a couple of days, and that was a few days ago.

Since then, no updates. Would be nice to hear some good news soon.

A 100% Cyril would be huge....

Sweep The Leg wrote:

rambone 78 wrote:Well back to back really tough games when we are shorthanded certainly doesn't help.

We won't see that again until the conference tourney...I mean back to back games....and hopefully we'll be back to full strength soon and stay that way.

I think as long as Cyril is back and close to 100% we'll be OK against Alabama and PC....like was said, if we can get one that would be great, but why not both?

3 top 50 OOC wins would go a LONG way in March.....

Dowtin will figure it out sometime.....

You don't want to rush a player back from a groin injury. You can't move laterally and can't get good explosivness running or jumping and you can do more damage to it or other parts of your body compensating for injury if you're not truly 100%.

I'm willing to hold him out the whole OCC if he's 100% for A-10 play. Our OCC SOS should be high, the A-10 games will kill our RPI, just dominate the A-10 like we should.

agree with you on not rushing langevine back. we need him sorely, but they've shown they can at the very leaset compete without him. we will play a difficult OOC SOS, but I think they need 1 more win to make it a success. there is a big difference between 1-4 and 2-3 in that OOC. there may not even be another top 75 team in conference so no chance at a good win once the new year starts. if they go 1-4 they better win the A10 tourney or else...

Oh boy, not even December and the or else talk is getting ready to start up. It's never too early to be wrong I guess

I know a few have stated on this board that the timing of the injuries is fortunate and that the conference schedule is more important. I think I may have to disagree with that in this year. looking at the way the team played the last 2 nights, we would do very well in conference even with the injuries.

if we went 3-2 or 4-1 in the non conference then lost a couple games in January due to injury, the committee could say the injuries led to the losses and get us in even if we don't win the conference tourney. Put another way, if we lost all 5 tough OOC games with injuries, then rolled the a-10 in the regular season, but did not win the championship, is the committee going to let us in because we had a tough OOC with injuries? 1-4 still not likely. 2-3 probably gets it done.

CT Rhody wrote:Overall just didn’t have it tonight, too many missed looks around the bucket and foul shots to put ourselves in position to win the game. This won’t be an RPI killer so now we move to the need to handle business part of the schedule. Need to beat Brown and at least split the PC and then at Bama back to back’s. After that need to clean house with the remaining schedule and move into conference play at 8-3.

YUP.

rambone 78 wrote:Dan said that they would know more about his injury in a couple of days, and that was a few days ago.

Since then, no updates. Would be nice to hear some good news soon.

A 100% Cyril would be huge....

Unfortunately a groin injury is one of those injuries that’s very easy to aggravate and could easily affect him for the rest of the year. Hope I’m wrong but I think it’ll be a similar situation to Hass when he played but was never 100%.

RhodyRam86 wrote:I know a few have stated on this board that the timing of the injuries is fortunate and that the conference schedule is more important. I think I may have to disagree with that in this year. looking at the way the team played the last 2 nights, we would do very well in conference even with the injuries.

if we went 3-2 or 4-1 in the non conference then lost a couple games in January due to injury, the committee could say the injuries led to the losses and get us in even if we don't win the conference tourney. Put another way, if we lost all 5 tough OOC games with injuries, then rolled the a-10 in the regular season, but did not win the championship, is the committee going to let us in because we had a tough OOC with injuries? 1-4 still not likely. 2-3 probably gets it done.

You've actually got it backwards. The committee would absolutely penalize us for losing A10 games, even with injuries, due to the weakness of the conference. They'll excuse losses in the first month of the season when you're dealing with injuries and one of the toughest non conference schedules in the country.

josephski wrote:

rambone 78 wrote:Dan said that they would know more about his injury in a couple of days, and that was a few days ago.

Since then, no updates. Would be nice to hear some good news soon.

A 100% Cyril would be huge....

Unfortunately a groin injury is one of those injuries that’s very easy to aggravate and could easily affect him for the rest of the year. Hope I’m wrong but I think it’ll be a similar situation to Hass when he played but was never 100%.

I agree. Cyril was limited in practice all the way back to before the Buffalo exhibition. His last game was Nov 13. PC game is Dec 2. That will be 18 days from his last game and almost two months since he got hurt. It pisses me off that he is hurt. Hass was injured for his last two seasons. I realize there is nothing you can do about ECs injuries but muscular injuries can be associated with training. Some of this falls on Marshall.

RhowdyRam02 wrote:

RhodyRam86 wrote:I know a few have stated on this board that the timing of the injuries is fortunate and that the conference schedule is more important. I think I may have to disagree with that in this year. looking at the way the team played the last 2 nights, we would do very well in conference even with the injuries.

if we went 3-2 or 4-1 in the non conference then lost a couple games in January due to injury, the committee could say the injuries led to the losses and get us in even if we don't win the conference tourney. Put another way, if we lost all 5 tough OOC games with injuries, then rolled the a-10 in the regular season, but did not win the championship, is the committee going to let us in because we had a tough OOC with injuries? 1-4 still not likely. 2-3 probably gets it done.

You've actually got it backwards. The committee would absolutely penalize us for losing A10 games, even with injuries, due to the weakness of the conference. They'll excuse losses in the first month of the season when you're dealing with injuries and one of the toughest non conference schedules in the country.

don't think so...

if we did great in a very weak conference with a healthy team, but went 0-5 against difficult OOC because of injuries, what information does the committee have to know we would have been competitive against those teams if we were healthy? it would just be a guess. beating 1 of those teams (Seton Hall) certainly helps, but I think we need one more.

I think I have it right. if we had gone 3-2 or 4-1 against the tough OOC teams while healthy, then lost a couple a10 games due to injury, the committee would look at it and say..."they've proven they can beat good teams when healthy. they've lost a few conference games due to injury, but now they are healthy again".

This tournament went pretty much exactly the same way the hall of fame tournament went for us last year.

Very tough to play this team without 2 starters

Missed FTs killed us tonight

Too many turnovers and missed a lot of easy baskets not a recipe to beat a top 30 team

Gee, nobody was crying last night about needing EC or Langevine.
Look, so many bunnies missed, as well as 50% FT shooting.
Great first half, but a ragged 2nd half.
You can use the "tired legs" excuse, but VA was playing their
second game in two nights, too.
Terrell didn't try to force anything, but made some
gorgeous passes all night.
Garrett was very good on both ends of the floor.
Akele and Preston looked lost.
Dowtin had a mediocre game with three point blank misses.
This was a game where having a guard on a power forward,
killed us. Wilkins had a career game by posting up Robinson
all night.
I think losing Langevine is worse than loosing Matthews,
if only because we're so weak up front.
Virginia and Nevada have killed us on the boards and
with inside offense.
My fear is, once EC comes back, Hurley
goes back to having the offense revolve around him,
at Terrell's expense.
That would be a huge mistake.

rodfromcranston wrote:Gee, nobody was crying last night about needing EC or Langevine.
Look, so many bunnies missed, as well as 50% FT shooting.
Great first half, but a ragged 2nd half.
You can use the "tired legs" excuse, but VA was playing their
second game in two nights, too.
Terrell didn't try to force anything, but made some
gorgeous passes all night.
Garrett was very good on both ends of the floor.
Akele and Preston looked lost.
Dowtin had a mediocre game with three point blank misses.
This was a game where having a guard on a power forward,
killed us. Wilkins had a career game by posting up Robinson
all night.
I think losing Langevine is worse than loosing Matthews,
if only because we're so weak up front.
Virginia and Nevada have killed us on the boards and
with inside offense.
My fear is, once EC comes back, Hurley
goes back to having the offense revolve around him,
at Terrell's expense.
That would be a huge mistake.

agree with everything rod except I think the tired legs excuse is legitimate. I didn't see the VA/Vandy game, but judging by the score and the fact it was a blowout from the start, I don't think VA even worked up a sweat to win that game. URI had to leave everything on the floor to beat SH and they did it shorthanded.

I agree. I also think playing 4 guards is like playing with 1 hand tied behind your back.

The top 4-guard playing type teams all had guards over 6’6. Like Missouri a few years back and nova recently.

Strange that the front court if healthy is probably fine if they play 2 of them at once. Then the guards are probably great too if they play them 3 at once and then sneak in the 4 guards at times.

IMHO playing whole games with 4 guards puts uri immediately at a disadvantage. Like without EC there’s only 5 of them. Play 4 and you only have the 1 sub. It kind of eliminates their depth to have them all out there all the time.

Uri lost against uva because they weren’t as disciplined or mentally tough. That 1on3 was the story of the night. 1 on 3 should absolutely end up with points.we have a turnover.

Good point, 86.

SWC. it's not like we have a SF who can come in and
get points.
We have either guards or center types.Zero forwards, SF or PF, really.
Teams who call 6'7" guys guards, are just playing psyche games.
Those 6'7" "guards" on Nevada, scored on many inside plays.
URI always had good to great forwards.
This year = zilch.
Hopefully, next year will begin to solve that for a few years.
With the way fouls are called, you can never have enough
frontcourt depth.
I hate the 4 guard concept.

I have to give Rhody a ton of credit for really competing well with a good team without E.C. or Langevine. Jarvis and Berry stepped up in a big way. I think Berry has quite the upside as this year goes on. He really seemed to gain some confidence as the game wore on. Jarvis was taking on guys much bigger than him when driving to the basket and made some big tough layups.
The foul shooting and officiating really did them in down the stretch in my opinion. That looked like a winnable game, which in my opinion, is incredible to see how they were really taking it to them for the majority of the game despite being without two injured big contributors. I like this year's team. They're all heart and no quit. Now they just need to get healthy....and practice more free throws (haha).

Hope everyone is having a great holiday weekend so far, I'm a little late to the party but here are my thoughts...

Pros:
- At some point in the 2nd half, when it was clear that JT couldn't put the team on his back again (and it's not fair or realistic to think he can do that every game until EC comes back) Jarvis started to assert himself and I thought he played well. Remember him in the PC game 2 years ago? Boy would we love to see that version of Jarvis a lot this season.
- Loved the screen and roll action to Berry. Nice looks from JT and Jeff. And credit the big man for finishing. Just gotta hit those free throws!
- For what it's worth, Rhody passed the "sniff test" in this game. An opponent that will likely spend much of the season in the Top-15 and the Rams looked like they belonged before missed free throws and turnovers caught up with them.

Neutral:
- Fatts is on another level with his speed, but needs to reel it in a bit at times. He's gonna be a great one for us.
- I love how Jeff passes the ball and runs the floor but he still seems to be mired in a sophomore slump.
- Stan is Stan. Makes a few nice plays followed by a few boneheaded plays. Love having him on the team though.

Negatives:
- Does Preston read this message board? We all got on him for shooting too much vs Hall and tonight he passed up a few wide open looks and forced a pass that led to a turnover. Relax big man! You're here because you're talented. I'm confident Preston will find his game, much like KI and be an impact player here.

Notes:
- The two Mike's will hopefully get some run against Brown if we can handle business. It's clear that the 4 guard look allows for way too much vulnerability inside. Guys are getting the ball on entry passes 5 feet from the basket which should never happen and is almost guaranteed points. I'd rather give up an open 3 look.

Look no further than the attempted 3's against Rhody so far this year. Way down from last year for obvious reasons.

This game really was the cranberry of the dinner. We had the turkey and can walk away full. I think the team played that way too>

I am happy for a split and not two losses which could have easily happened

I'd be willing to bet most of us had the team at 3-2 at this point. Split PC and Alabama (oh, hell - beat PC!) and finish OOC 8-3. There WILL be an unexpected loss or 2 in the A-10. Sh'appens. Breathe, and realize that this is an NCAA caliber team. At that point it's all about the draw and match ups.

I had 2-3, but it still sucks when they lose (every time)

We would have beaten Vandy if we had lost to SH.....but what happened was better for our resume.....we have a top 50 [maybe even top 25] win with the hope we can get at least another in the next 2 weeks.....

Just really hope we can get Cyril back for PC, as long as he's good enough to play without aggravating his injury....

Charlestown and FGCU will not be easy games either, but should be wins with us at full strength.