KeaneyBlue - The URI Basketball Forum

I'm surprised nobody is commenting on Hurley's decision to foul when we're up by 3 with 2.8 seconds left on the clock and LaSalle had to go the entire length of the floor to tie the game. I'll take my chances with the half court heave, especially with that disastrous putback that we allowed to send the game to overtime.

I'll take the win, but ugly game all around. Where was the defense?? BJ Johnson is a nice player, but we made him look like Moses Malone out there. 23 rebounds?? Inexcusable. We better come out firing on all cylinders on Friday. Need to get back in a groove before tourney time.

rambone 78 wrote:I could not bring myself to post anything watching this game.....wtf....93 points given up, ot or not?

Wtf happened to our defense? Also, sorry but Dan needs to watch film of himself over coaching at the end of games. This has become a disturbing trend.

yeah it's a win....the alternative would REALLY suck.

Rambone,

A year ago you were beating the drum that Dan couldn't win the close ones. Now he wins close ones. I'm not sure how to define over-coaching or under-coaching.

Good that we can win these games now which we would have lost in years past

I agree it's concerning how we are closing games out when we have leads and sit on the ball

Also concerned about execution in the last minute of 1 possession games we lost the Bona game and almost gave away tonight's game that needs to be fixed

Yea I think the fouling vs give them the shot is a coin toss. Our problem today was lack of inside presence on offense. Helps move the ball arojnd tremendously.

KevanBoyles wrote:I agree with Truepoint. Both Saint Bonaventure and LaSalle spread us out in the defensive end and picked us apart in the lane. I think we can see expect to see more of this in the future.

The question is how will we respond. The good thing is, that weakness has been exposed and it hasn't cost us too dearly. If a better team than La Salle does it and we respond the same way, I don't think we will be so fortunate. The coaches need to get in the lab and figure that out.

I agree DH needs to rethink this strategy of up 3 and less than 7 secs left by fouling . Hope he changes things up next time

Okay, I'm ready to post after I took a much needed breather. A few things:

1. This game kind of scared me. I figured it would be close for the first 30 mins or so, and then we'd pull away. What I didn't expect was LaSalle leading by 12 early, but watching that lead evaporate real quick and Rhody taking the 32-30 lead was a thing of beauty. From there it was pretty nip and tuck until URI took the 77-70 lead with under 3 minutes left. I thought they'd end up winning by between 9 and 12 from there (foul shots). But no!

Stan Robinson fouled out on an illegal screen up 7 with 2:32 left. That's the start of the come back by LaSalle. They got a quick 4 points to make it 77-76 and really finished the half on a 14-4 run. Looking back at the time, perhaps stalling wasn't really that bad as in my had it had it closer to 4 minutes than under 3 and despite the stall they were running decent sets. One of them, JT get hammered with no call, then LaSalle went down the other end and they called something pretty ticky tack. Potential 4 point swing. However, honestly, you make just one of those 10 missed free throws, we win in regulation.

For the record, I hate the fouling. It nearly cost them the UMass game (or sent it into OT) and it nearly cost them here. But it is clearly part of their game plan in late game situations, so they need to do better to execute it!

2. Jeff Dowtin. I'm very proud of this kid. He had a miss of the front end of the 1 and 1 at a key spot in Friday's loss against SBU. Hitting the first (and the second) was one of the differences. How does he respond? He goes 11 for 12 from the FT line including 10 straight (many in OT). He also had some key assists and was 7-14 from the floor.

3. The refs. Granted, I hate bitching about the officiating when we should have handled our business on our own, but a couple of things that irritate me:

a. did the ball hit the rim before the game tying layup to send it to OT? Ultimately, after seeing the replay about a half dozen times, I didn't think it hit the rim, but if the ultimate call was "not enough evidence to over turn the call" then I'm fine with that. Especially since we need to box out and grab that rebound! But if that's how they are going to call that, then:

b. That replay of who the ball went off of (initially off someone on LaSalle, then changed to off Dowtin) absolutely should not have been overturned. In the half dozen or so replays shown on tv, it is never clear who it was off of. At best it is off both of them at the same time. In any case, there wasn't even close to enough evidence to over turn that. Be consistent.

Okay, I think I got everything off my chest. Now, on to Dayton, for what is probably my last game of the year (working on a baby sitter for Senior Night, but it isn't looking good).

It [hedging] also keeps Cyril from the basket....3 rebounds tonight....not what we need from our best rebounder.

And TP again, you hit the nail on the head about the slowdown....stop waiting until there is 5-6 seconds on the shot clock....bad things happen when we do it.

Ramster, just watching the last few games should tell you that the slowdown isn't working, and against better teams we could pay dearly going forward if it continues.

Dan is usually very good with making adjustments....he needs to do it now.

Wow. Just. Wow!

Let's hope we get some home cooking for Dayton and get a nice blowout win to get that swag back after these 2 close ones

steviep123 wrote:Wow. Just. Wow!

I was just going to post this too - beat me to it

One could say that if Jeff Doesn't do this and practice until 3:30am then we probably lose this game since my guess is he doesn't hit 11 of 12

With EC's 0-5 maybe next time he should take EC with him

adam914 wrote:I'm really confused why more people didn't have us going undefeated in the prediction contest. It sounds like most everybody thinks we should blow out every team by 30.

This.

Agree with that , gotta love the passion by JD to go straight to the gym and work on his free throws til 330am

Paid off tonight and hopefully the future when we are trying to close out games and he will have the ball in his hands most of the time

steviep123 wrote:Wow. Just. Wow!

He was bad ass for most of the night.

Especially at the end. He wanted that free throw line.
I think I grew to like him even more tonight.
He made sure we won that.
Stan as well.

Our home crowd Friday will get us rolling no Dowt'in it!

Blue Man wrote:

adam914 wrote:I'm really confused why more people didn't have us going undefeated in the prediction contest. It sounds like most everybody thinks we should blow out every team by 30.

This.

predictions change, but even at the start of the season, before we knew for sure it was going to be this wild ride, I didn't peg this game as a "L" @ dayton,davidson,VCU, SBU were the 4 I personally predicted. so some of the struggle today is the change in expectation based on in season performance of both teams, but this wasn't a game many thought of pre season as an "acceptable" loss. IF we lose at Davidson, I still wouldn't be upset, sad, but not upset. I would be upset if we lost tonight, because we saw piss poor free throw shooting in regulation.

Yea we’ve won 17 of our last 18 games, some by blowouts, others by scrappy close outs. I believe we have the most wins in our last 20 in the country, so be happy.

reef wrote:Whew we escaped with a win that probably took a couple years off our lives

Not a big fan of the fouling up 3 all the time. We play 4 guards mostly and aren't strong on the rebounding block outside of Cyril

Let them make a contested 3 in our face for the tie next time

Disagree. I like the foul up 3. Hate seeing teams shoot a potential tying 3 and hate seeing teams make 3's. Making a 3-pointer is very common these days. The foul up 3 is I believe a better percentage play for the D.

PlayMikeMotenMore wrote:

reef wrote:Whew we escaped with a win that probably took a couple years off our lives

Not a big fan of the fouling up 3 all the time. We play 4 guards mostly and aren't strong on the rebounding block outside of Cyril

Let them make a contested 3 in our face for the tie next time

Disagree. I like the foul up 3. Hate seeing teams shoot a potential tying 3 and hate seeing teams make 3's. Making a 3-pointer is very common these days. The foul up 3 is I believe a better percentage play for the D.

both strategies have their place. tonight I would prefer them take a contested three, but if we are going to foul, we are doing it too quickly. I don't think the foul has to take place at half court. I know you want to do it before they can get in position to heave one up, but we could have easily let another second or two come off the clock all three times. same thing in the UMASS game...the way Pipkin was on fire, I had no problem with fouling there...just thought Garrett gave it up too quickly.

I don't mind the foul at times also and would like more time to come off clock too

But one of our disadvantages is we play 4 small guys a lot and when they tied it 6 foot 3 JT is in on the low block besides Cyril keep that in mind

PlayMikeMotenMore wrote:

reef wrote:Whew we escaped with a win that probably took a couple years off our lives

Not a big fan of the fouling up 3 all the time. We play 4 guards mostly and aren't strong on the rebounding block outside of Cyril

Let them make a contested 3 in our face for the tie next time

Disagree. I like the foul up 3. Hate seeing teams shoot a potential tying 3 and hate seeing teams make 3's. Making a 3-pointer is very common these days. The foul up 3 is I believe a better percentage play for the D.

Making a 3-pointer is common...if it’s a reasonable shot. With 2.8 seconds on the clock and the opposing team inbounding from their own baseline, I’m sorry...I’m letting them chuck their hail mary from half court. That’s not high percentage by any means. Just glad the approach we took didn’t bite us.

i think this team is mentally and physically exhausted at this moment . I think it has a lot to do with how the schedule is playing out . They had a very
physical and emotionally draining game at Olean which is a travel day nightmare to begin with and then they are on the road again and it isn't across town like many teams like VCU, GW richmond and George Mason, St. Joes and Lasalle have . Did LASALLE look fresher tonight than URI ? Sure, I think so . Could that be because URI was playing its second straight road game and while LASALLE was playing its THIRD STRAIGHT HOME GAME . I think the shooting ,free throw shooting and the defensive effort suffered greatly from the travel . Three home games in a row is a respite for a good game by the home team. So as I struggled watching I had to remind myself that these players are not robots and these are the games teams usually lose even great teams. That's why there are no more undefeated teams in college basketball anymore . A great team toughed it out tonight despite probably having suffered a let down after their first league loss and battling the fatigue ( And maybe some officiating )that sets in during a very long season . For all we know EC was missing free throws because his knees and leg calves aren't bending as easily, but he still plays and tries as hard as he can. So even though I watched the game in frustration i just want to salute the team for giving it all they had tonight and dragging themselves away with a win instead of a loss .

True. Too bad they couldn't have gotten most of their away games under their belt earlier on so at this point in the season they'd just have home games and could use the time and energy they are having to spend traveling now, to instead rest; polish and hone their skills for the big dance playing mostly home games. Maybe in setting up scheduling for next years games, they should try to do that.

PeterRamTime wrote:Offensive rebounds are the death of us...

Cyril just didn't jump.

It's hard to jump when you're giving someone a piggyback ride. Forget whether the ball hit the rim or not (I think it did) how do you miss that over the back?

I felt the referees favored us the first 20-30 minutes and then favored La Salle the rest of the way

I absolutely think fouling before they have any chance of shooting the tying three is the right strategy.

A 3 point shot from 20-25 feet is one thing. A 3 point shot from 40-50 feet is totally different.

The listed attendance of just over 1,800 for this game is an embarrassment.

Now that we won, I think the LaSalle Rams of Providence have a nicer gym. Where’s the money over there.

School is hurting- slashing tuition cost to try to boost enrollment and selling pieces from their art collection.

Rhodymob05 wrote:Yea I think the fouling vs give them the shot is a coin toss. Our problem today was lack of inside presence on offense. Helps move the ball arojnd tremendously.

There was no frontcourt player out there for a very long time.

I'm a little surprised that no one commented on the behavior of the La Salle coach John Giannini. I thought he was off his rocker. At one point it looked like he was going to cry. And it looked to me like he wouldn't shake Hurley's hand at the end. He put his hands over his head during the postgame shake. Did anyone else notice that?

As far as the fouling up 3, I love it. It takes a fluke play for the team to make the first, miss the second and then get a rebound to tie it. The % of making a 3 is much higher.

I think this was a classic example of a game, as others have alluded to, of one team wanting it more than the other. This was the 2nd of back to back road games after a tough loss broke the long winning streak. It was a trap game. I expect a much better effort on Friday.

Rhodyram wrote:School is hurting- slashing tuition cost to try to boost enrollment and selling pieces from their art collection.

Who?

I love that we have a firm stance on fouling up 3. If we lose on a fluke so be it, but statistically it's more likely you win the game like that then allowing for a somewhat normal three point attempt. I say "somewhat normal" because where I disagree last night is the second time we fouled in OT when there was around 3 seconds on the clock. The way he caught it I would have just let him throw up a contested shot just inside half court instead of fouling and knocking .5 seconds off the clock. That's just me though and clearly Hurley didn't feel that way - I trust his strategy over mine.

We are 1 win away from being the undisputed A10 Champs. I would have signed up for that in a heartbeat the second the clock struck 0 in Sacramento.

Take care of business in the remaining 3 games. Stay healthy. Get re-energized. Celebrate our successes in front of an energized home crowd and set your sites on championship #2 in Washington DC.

When was the last time we won BOTH regular season and conference tournament championship?

Seawrightspostgame wrote:

Rhodyram wrote:School is hurting- slashing tuition cost to try to boost enrollment and selling pieces from their art collection.

Who?

La Salle

Game at UMass started the precedent of teams focusing on dribble penetration to the basket against us, which we have been having problems with.

For most Rhody fans, the last two games were disappointing. I've been trying to digest the reasons for my disappointment. I keep coming back to the lack of Senior leadership to play team basketball. When EC, Jared or Stan go one-on-one to the hoop they rarely pass off. They are gong to shoot and the defense knows it and converge on them. It is the primary reason we cannot run the clock in closing minutes and hold on to a lead. When Jeff goes one-on-one the seniors stand around while Fatts and Cyril move to open space. It is seniors who you expect to bounce back from a tough loss with a big effort. It just wasn't there. Allowing someone to get 20+ rebounds is an embarrassment caused by bad effort. The poor FT shooting in the LaSalle game also shows a lack of focus.

Dan knows he has a problem with the seniors. He praises them for playing together in the hope that positive re-enforcement will encourage it to happen. Hopefully, he gets in their faces privately.

PlayMikeMotenMore wrote:

reef wrote:Whew we escaped with a win that probably took a couple years off our lives

Not a big fan of the fouling up 3 all the time. We play 4 guards mostly and aren't strong on the rebounding block outside of Cyril

Let them make a contested 3 in our face for the tie next time

Disagree. I like the foul up 3. Hate seeing teams shoot a potential tying 3 and hate seeing teams make 3's. Making a 3-pointer is very common these days. The foul up 3 is I believe a better percentage play for the D.

We can all argue or talk about whether or not this is a good idea or not until we are (Keaney) blue in the face, but it is very clear that this strategy is part of their situational game plan this season. That being the case, they need to execute this better. We might not like it as fans, but if it is going to be part of their strategy going forward, then it needs to be executed better.

Rhody72 wrote:For most Rhody fans, the last two games were disappointing. I've been trying to digest the reasons for my disappointment. I keep coming back to the lack of Senior leadership to play team basketball. When EC, Jared or Stan go one-on-one to the hoop they rarely pass off. They are gong to shoot and the defense knows it and converge on them. It is the primary reason we cannot run the clock in closing minutes and hold on to a lead. When Jeff goes one-on-one the seniors stand around while Fatts and Cyril move to open space. It is seniors who you expect to bounce back from a tough loss with a big effort. It just wasn't there. Allowing someone to get 20+ rebounds is an embarrassment caused by bad effort. The poor FT shooting in the LaSalle game also shows a lack of focus.

Dan knows he has a problem with the seniors. He praises them for playing together in the hope that positive re-enforcement will encourage it to happen. Hopefully, he gets in their faces privately.

I have to agree with a lot of this. I must have been yelling "pass! someone is open!" a million times as one of them drove, LaSalle defenders were collapsing down, leaving at least two Rhody players wide open on the wings.

Rhody72 wrote:For most Rhody fans, the last two games were disappointing. I've been trying to digest the reasons for my disappointment. I keep coming back to the lack of Senior leadership to play team basketball. When EC, Jared or Stan go one-on-one to the hoop they rarely pass off. They are gong to shoot and the defense knows it and converge on them. It is the primary reason we cannot run the clock in closing minutes and hold on to a lead. When Jeff goes one-on-one the seniors stand around while Fatts and Cyril move to open space. It is seniors who you expect to bounce back from a tough loss with a big effort. It just wasn't there. Allowing someone to get 20+ rebounds is an embarrassment caused by bad effort. The poor FT shooting in the LaSalle game also shows a lack of focus.

Dan knows he has a problem with the seniors. He praises them for playing together in the hope that positive re-enforcement will encourage it to happen. Hopefully, he gets in their faces privately.

72 this is far too critical. Maybe a lack of focus? Perhaps so it’s a long season. But questioning effort is plain wrong.

Bad 3 point shooting and bad free throw shooting are caused by tired legs much more often than lack of focus. Occasionally, in pressure situations, it's nerves. I think our poor shooting right now is more physical than mental. We have to get our legs back in the next 2 weeks for tourney play.

scine20 wrote:I'm a little surprised that no one commented on the behavior of the La Salle coach John Giannini. I thought he was off his rocker. At one point it looked like he was going to cry. And it looked to me like he wouldn't shake Hurley's hand at the end. He put his hands over his head during the postgame shake. Did anyone else notice that?

As far as the fouling up 3, I love it. It takes a fluke play for the team to make the first, miss the second and then get a rebound to tie it. The % of making a 3 is much higher.

I think this was a classic example of a game, as others have alluded to, of one team wanting it more than the other. This was the 2nd of back to back road games after a tough loss broke the long winning streak. It was a trap game. I expect a much better effort on Friday.

I noticed that in the post game hand shake. When he approached Hurley he quickly put his hand over his face like he was blocking the sun. Little awkward interaction lol.

Billyboy maybe you’re right they can be mentally tired too ie focus. No reason to panic.

We are 3rd in the league at 15.3 assists per game, so the narrative that there is a lack of sharing the ball problem is not based on facts.
In fact the unselfishness of the entire team, and our ability to have any 1 of six or seven guys carry the scoring load, while others take a back seat, is one of our finest assets. Lasalle turned that into a street ball game, to their credit and advantage. A ton of iso and super high ball screens to create a tempo and style they felt gave them their best chance to win. Unfortunately we played into their hands for most of the night, it happens. This game was always a scary one for me because Lasalle has some high major athletes, and 1 potential pro player. They have Top 5 in the league talent IMO, they just haven't performed that way night in and night out.

2 things I would have done differently - if we are going to foul up 3, and i support that strategy, we have to get a better rebounding lineup in the game at the stoppage of play. We cannot be in that position and have a 6'4 guy on a low block. Playing with fire. Also, we are choosing to take the air out of the ball way too early in single digit advantage games, and by doing so we are not closing well.

Rhodyram wrote:School is hurting- slashing tuition cost to try to boost enrollment and selling pieces from their art collection.

LaSalle University is having a lot of issues. Its enrollment is dropping as much of its former recruitment base is shrinking (Philadelphia area Catholic high schools have been closing at a fast rate). It's location in a not so nice part of the city also does not help matters. Even tuition cuts to increase the number of students have not helped to the extent as had been desired. As a consequence of declining enrollment, it is facing budget issues. One short term solution to improve finances that the school is pursuing is to sell off much of its Art Museum collection with hopes it could possibly raise 7M. This proposal has caused a lot of bad PR and blow back from the local art community.

La Salle University hopes to raise millions from selling art
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/01/03/la ... s-art.html

The budget situation and struggles of its athletic programs has also led to an ongoing independent evaluation study. All possible options have been put on the table and are being given consideration, including dropping down to D3, dropping down to a lower level conference (such as going back to the MAAC), and dropping several sports. The Explorer sports teams have little support (for instance-men's basketball, its highest profile sport, averages attendance of less than 1,900/game) and little revenue potential. This makes running a large athletic program in a league such as the A-10 very difficult. The school is therefore currently in the process of examining their options.

Watching EC it looks like he's not 100% either.....but I do agree with 72 about the one on one stuff.....it's been that way for their careers here.

Dowtin just has that ability to see the floor and make the extra pass, which the others [other than Fatts] don't have. JG is the best at it among the seniors.

It does bode well for the future that the BB IQ is there with the underclassmen.

BAR...a BIG reason for our assist rate is Dowtin...to me he's our MVP.....without him, we revert to hero ball on offense more often than not, and bye bye goes our chances in the postseason.

Rhody83 wrote:

Section104 wrote:That wasn’t good for my health

Same here. I had to just start cleaning and listening to the TV in overtime.
So many issues popping up that we really haven’t seen in awhile.
Concerns going forward. Need to right the ship.
I agree road wins are tough but being 12-22 FT at one point, shooting 16% from three and getting out rebounded by 18 has nothing to do with a tough road game.

Dan needs to adjust his end of game strategy. It doesn’t work with this team. The slow down doesn’t work. He takes the momentum out of the offense by playing not to lose. Rhody is the better team. If he starts it with 1:00 left that would make more sense.
He has now done it at UMass (12 point lead shrunk to 2), at Bonnies (6 point lead with 4:30 to loss by 3) and tonight (7 point lead with the ball with 3:00 goes to OT).

Exactly.

steviep123 wrote:

Rhody72 wrote:For most Rhody fans, the last two games were disappointing. I've been trying to digest the reasons for my disappointment. I keep coming back to the lack of Senior leadership to play team basketball. When EC, Jared or Stan go one-on-one to the hoop they rarely pass off. They are gong to shoot and the defense knows it and converge on them. It is the primary reason we cannot run the clock in closing minutes and hold on to a lead. When Jeff goes one-on-one the seniors stand around while Fatts and Cyril move to open space. It is seniors who you expect to bounce back from a tough loss with a big effort. It just wasn't there. Allowing someone to get 20+ rebounds is an embarrassment caused by bad effort. The poor FT shooting in the LaSalle game also shows a lack of focus.

Dan knows he has a problem with the seniors. He praises them for playing together in the hope that positive re-enforcement will encourage it to happen. Hopefully, he gets in their faces privately.

I have to agree with a lot of this. I must have been yelling "pass! someone is open!" a million times as one of them drove, LaSalle defenders were collapsing down, leaving at least two Rhody players wide open on the wings.

I noticed the same thing. Too much standing around in the half court, mainly by the senior players that you mentioned. It was somewhat discouraging. Terrell almost appeared disinterested most of the night. And EC with the 5 missed FTs was frustrating to say the least. Need more from those guys, especially at this point in the season when it's crunch time.

Hurley calling for a foul up 3 multiple times was a bit of a “how many times we gonna pass before we shoot? 4” moment.

Makes me think Dan likes “Hoosiers” as much as I do!

Showed confidence in his team to execute his instructions and box out/ rebound.

I think he sent his team a strong message last night. Coupled with Dowtin example of dedication to correct his disastrous effort which directly lead to a loss in Olean I see this trip to Gola as a strong positive.

So I guess I strongly disagree with all the negativity in this thread.

Time will tell if I am reading this correctly.

Go Rhody!

This team has shown this season that they play better coming from behind later in games, than playing from ahead......

It's no coincidence that we started winning when Dowtin became a starter...and I'll bet that Jeff would like to start the offense earlier in the shot clock late in games with a lead...but he's doing what's he's told to do from the bench.

Yeah I really don't like this playing-not-to-lose strategy late in games. I shouldn't be complaining since we've been winning all season, but it's bound to bite us in the ass at some point. I feel like the ending of some of these games is much dicier than it needs to be. I'd rather keep the foot on the gas and not let the opposing team even see a glimmer of hope.

steviep123 wrote:

PlayMikeMotenMore wrote:

reef wrote:Whew we escaped with a win that probably took a couple years off our lives

Not a big fan of the fouling up 3 all the time. We play 4 guards mostly and aren't strong on the rebounding block outside of Cyril

Let them make a contested 3 in our face for the tie next time

Disagree. I like the foul up 3. Hate seeing teams shoot a potential tying 3 and hate seeing teams make 3's. Making a 3-pointer is very common these days. The foul up 3 is I believe a better percentage play for the D.

We can all argue or talk about whether or not this is a good idea or not until we are (Keaney) blue in the face, but it is very clear that this strategy is part of their situational game plan this season. That being the case, they need to execute this better. We might not like it as fans, but if it is going to be part of their strategy going forward, then it needs to be executed better.

I love the strategy. If I am URI and I am down 3 points with 5 seconds to go, do I want the opponent to foul me with 2 seconds to go and send me to the FT Line down 3 points? Absolutely not. I want to get a 3 pointer off to try to tie the game and try to avoid the defense that might be trying to foul me. Foul, send the guy to the line for 2 FTs when the team needs 3 to tie