KeaneyBlue - The URI Basketball Forum

A blurb in a piece by Harry Minium of the Virginian Pilot states that Hampton University recently negotiated with the A-10 about membership for several months. If so this is very disturbing. A Virginia school with a resume such as Hampton is the last thing the league needs.

Link:
https://pilotonline.com/sports/college/ ... 1b166.html

Jeez I can think of a bunch of schools I would rather add before them

Zero chance that could happen. I mean cmon.

.....good filler stuff for game withdrawals......how long it be before the calls for Fordham to go to the Patriot League.....and a line up of the worthy and unworthy potentials......?

Yikes !.................there are a dozen programs more worthy.

The conference is as weak as ever this year. After years of being the 6th thru 8th best RPI, we will be lucky to be 10th. Only four schools in the RPI top 100, compared to 7-9 most years...........We will at the best be a two team NCAA bid league this year.

The A10 definitely needs St. Bonaventure to step up this year and be a tourney team along with URI and another surprise out of the weeds.

Ultimately, it looks like a moot point. After the A10 negotiations didn't progress, Hampton is joining the Big South.

It could have been as simple as:
Hampton: May we join the A10?
A10: No!

Rhody74 wrote:It could have been as simple as:
Hampton: May we join the A10?
A10: No!

Exactly my thought. Then someone from Hampton tells a reporter that they spoke to the A10 about membership. Technically true, I guess!

According to the article the negotiations lasted for months. Hopefully that's just how long the A10 rep was laughing uncontrollably before they were able to hang up.

Located in the middle of where arguably the best junior ballers on the planet live please explain to me again why Fordham can’t get it done?

I still don’t quite get it....

hrstrat57 wrote:Located in the middle of where arguably the best junior ballers on the planet live please explain to me again why Fordham can’t get it done?

I still don’t quite get it....

Because they play in a gym that was built prior to URI being called URI, that has minimal upgrades to attract the talent that looks for the investment in the program from the school.

TruePoint wrote:

Rhody74 wrote:It could have been as simple as:
Hampton: May we join the A10?
A10: No!

Exactly my thought. Then someone from Hampton tells a reporter that they spoke to the A10 about membership. Technically true, I guess!

Honestly this has to be it. While it would be cool to have an HBCU in the A10, there's just no way there was serious discussion about adding basketball at that level to the league. There's not just a dozen better suited programs, there have got to be dozens. Literally the only reason the MEAC is not the worst league in the country is that the SWAC exists.

Possibly the writer is mistaken and the school was talking to the ASun? They are short on teams atm I believe.

hrstrat57 wrote:Located in the middle of where arguably the best junior ballers on the planet live please explain to me again why Fordham can’t get it done?

I still don’t quite get it....

because once you take away the whole "history" aspect of Rose Hill you see that Fordham essentially plays in an older, worse version of the Pizzitola Center

RhowdyRam02 wrote:According to the article the negotiations lasted for months. Hopefully that's just how long the A10 rep was laughing uncontrollably before they were able to hang up.

I think that was the amount of time between the initial call from Hampton to A10 HQ and when the call was finally returned by A10 HQ.

I'd accept that as well.

What schools are we thinking of adding that will improve the conf for hoop ??

.....adding a team w/o an exit of any of the current ones would be going toward too many teams.....maybe the next time a team exits, the league governing body of these things would take a breath and not jump to the flavor of the month......and look at the various markets where we have no team and a market that would grow hoop strength......not Albany......no?

reef wrote:What schools are we thinking of adding that will improve the conf for hoop ??

FGCU. I for one would be very comfortable with setting up a best-of-three series with them and Duquesne where the winner gets A10 membership and the loser gets to ride the bus back to Pittsburgh.

.....any MAAC teams worth considering?......the northern NJ region.....same “market” as Fordham.....not Siena though.....got my anything but Albany pants on.....

Albany or Iona would probably be the best choice, both for the league and URI. Another school I would look at is Quinnipiac. They just invested big money in their coach, and are in the process of upgrading their facilities. The president of the school believes that the Hockey program has increase their visibility, and wants to do the same with basketball. They're struggling this year due to a number of transfers after their coach left, but Dunleavy will do a good job there.

I've also heard Holy Cross wants to upgrade their program.

Puck Frovidence wrote:

reef wrote:What schools are we thinking of adding that will improve the conf for hoop ??

FGCU. I for one would be very comfortable with setting up a best-of-three series with them and Duquesne where the winner gets A10 membership and the loser gets to ride the bus back to Pittsburgh.

FGCU would be perfect! Road trip anyone?!?!?

Holy Cross should have joined the Big East back in the 70s when they were offered.

Or we could politely ask to join the American

Siena would be our best bet for adding a team if the a-10 was inclined to do so. Reasonably big city, solid arena, only sports team in town. It's much like the situation in Dayton.


Fordham Bureaucracy just Do not care about Basketball. We can talk about the Fordham gym or facilities but all those things are symptoms of the main problem.

These are the top two programs I would kick the tires on if the opportunity presented itself...Stony Brook and Siena.
Stony Brook has proven to be committed to being good in athletics. Siena has a great arena, in a major market, and if they upgraded to A10 could see an uptick to the talent they can attract. Upstate NY is talent rich. I would rate them both a notch above Albany or Iona for various reasons.

I would kick out a couple teams (cough cough Fordham and Duquesne) before adding anyone though, as someone mentioned.

The goal should be to get a school with recent tourney history, and consistency.

What about Iona ??

.....I would trade Iona for Fordham.....

Just get rid of Fordham and Duquesne. Then go from there.

theblueram wrote:Just get rid of Fordham and Duquesne. Then go from there.

......Pittsburgh market given up?.....

If we're going to consistently be at or near the top of the A10 for the next few years, is there any chance we get invited to a better conference? I mean, Dave Gavitt can't stop us anymore...

There is no better conference we are eligible for. Our football team doesn't exist and supposedly carries pic nic baskets.

The AAC did add Wichita State.

But is the AAC a better basketball conference? I think the A10 is about similar.

It was similar....but the addition of Wichita St. tipped the balance to the AAC....plus the A10 sucks balls this year....

Kicking out Fordham and taking Iona would make sense given you'd be keeping a team in the NYC market and schools would not even have to change logistics as iona is 10 miles away from Fordham.

Unfortunately it genuinely seems the a10 is just content for Fordham to stink it up year and year without making the slightest effort to be respectable. I would really love to know why this is...

Billyboy78 wrote:If we're going to consistently be at or near the top of the A10 for the next few years, is there any chance we get invited to a better conference? I mean, Dave Gavitt can't stop us anymore...

.....but his legacy might.....

My dream would be the ACC, but it can’t happen with football and we’re not a private school so no Big east. It’s bascially, make the A10 the public Big East.

EGram wrote:Kicking out Fordham and taking Iona would make sense given you'd be keeping a team in the NYC market and schools would not even have to change logistics as iona is 10 miles away from Fordham.

Unfortunately it genuinely seems the a10 is just content for Fordham to stink it up year and year without making the slightest effort to be respectable. I would really love to know why this is...

Iona plays in a high school gym, too.

Iona has 7 years of wining 20 + games in a row and making the post season. Even in a down year they are favored to win the MAAC,

Fordham does not have 7 season of 20+ wins over the past century. They only managed one in the MAAC years and one in the Patriots years. Never done it once in the a-10. They have a single NCAA tourny appearance in the past 45 years.

If there's another school out there that meets the criteria of successful, large fanbase, and a nice modern arena in the NYC area i'd love to hear it. But let's not be picky because in the scenario of theoretically replacing Fordham virtually any school would be an upgrade.

I think BAR nailed it. Siena and Stony Brook have advantages over the other schools mentioned. Unfortunately, I think momentum is pulling the A10 south.

We have been talking about booting Fordham for years and nothing ever happens

......Vermont, Hofstra, Northeastern, BU, Buffalo,.....thoughts?

section(105) wrote:......Vermont, Hofstra, Northeastern, BU, Buffalo,.....thoughts?

ehhh, no.

Why do we need to add? If there's anything we should have learned from the new Big East it's that you're better off with a smaller league with fewer bad programs at the bottom

RhowdyRam02 wrote:Why do we need to add? If there's anything we should have learned from the new Big East it's that you're better off with a smaller league with fewer bad programs at the bottom

this.

big no to adding unless the AAC blows up.

really should dump 2 of the anchors (Fordham, Duquesne or LaSalle). Im tempted to say Fordham and LaSalle because at least Duquesne has facilities better than the local high school.

Since A-10 attendance was brought up, I researched the averages ytd thus far for members and listed below. URI actually is not doing all that bad when compared to many of the others. Rhody has typically ranked around number five for attendance in most recent years.

A-10 HOME ATTENDANCE 2017-18 YTD
TEAM | TOTAL | GMS | AVG
DAYT | 65,675 | 5 | 13,135
VCU | 45,822 | 6 | 7,637
RICH | 32,346 | 5 | 6,469
URI | 23,120 | 4 | 5,780
SLU | 39,980 | 7 | 5,711
DAV | 22,195 | 4 | 5,549
SJU | 12,104 | 3 | 4,035
SBU | 15,765 | 4 | 3,941
GMU | 22,126 | 6 | 3,688
UMASS | 14,421 | 5 | 2,884
GW | 12,607 | 5 | 2,521
LAS | 8,616 | 4 | 2,154
FOR | 10,022 | 7 | 1,432
DUQ | 10,605 | 8 | 1,326


ATLANTIC-10 2016-17 HOME ATTENDANCE
ATTENDANCE | Games | Total | Avg
Dayton | 16 | 208,291 | 13,018
VCU | 16 | 122,192 | 7,637
Richmond | 17 | 107,389 | 6,317
Saint Louis | 18 | 100,675 | 5,593
Rhode Island | 16 | 82,761 | 5,173
St. Bonaventure | 15 | 64,114 | 4,274
George Mason | 17 | 71,990 | 4,235
Davidson | 13 | 55,007 | 4,231
Saint Joseph's | 14 | 58,501 | 4,179
Massachusetts | 18 | 59,338 | 3,297
George Washington | 18 | 56,706 | 3,150
La Salle | 16 | 36,532 | 2,283
Fordham | 17 | 28,161 | 1,657
Duquesne | 18 | 21,915 | 1,218

Addition by subtraction likely best.

Agree on Duquesne

I wouldnt mind a move to the AAC if Umass came too. that would fix the main problem with the AAC which is a lack of good rivalries. It has the potential to be a good basketball conference each year with some good programs but no rivalry games that make for good TV. UConn, URI, Umass have a historic hatred of each other that would make that conference better.