KeaneyBlue - The URI Basketball Forum

Two things I have read about Jeff Dowtin since the game ended last night. He is a class act.

Haha you beat me to it! Just saw that on the Rhody Barstool account. Exemplary student athlete right there!

He will be the captain of this team next season in his junior year. Not only is he a very good player, he is a leader.

Just another reason to be a Rhody Rooter! First he wins the game, then he wins the admiration of a professor.

You could make a real good argument that he's the most important player on the team. Great point guard play is more important than any other position nowadays and URI certainly has that. IMO he's the best PG I've seen at URI. There's not even a close second. I've been following them since my freshman year of 2000.

good job..

like i said. last night was NCAA Jeff !

scine20 wrote:You could make a real good argument that he's the most important player on the team. Great point guard play is more important than any other position nowadays and URI certainly has that. IMO he's the best PG I've seen at URI. There's not even a close second. I've been following them since my freshman year of 2000.

You just missed Tyson.

Billyboy78 wrote:

scine20 wrote:You could make a real good argument that he's the most important player on the team. Great point guard play is more important than any other position nowadays and URI certainly has that. IMO he's the best PG I've seen at URI. There's not even a close second. I've been following them since my freshman year of 2000.

You just missed Tyson.

I remember him but certainly didn't follow him.

I think the best question is who is #2 this century at PG? Jones? Robinson? I'd probably go with Jones.

scine20 wrote:You could make a real good argument that he's the most important player on the team. Great point guard play is more important than any other position nowadays and URI certainly has that. IMO he's the best PG I've seen at URI. There's not even a close second. I've been following them since my freshman year of 2000.

I completely agree besides their not being a close second. Dawan Robinson is still the best point guard I've seen since 2000.

It's too early for me to label Jeff as the best since he will need to show me he can play at a high level while being the top dog on the team his junior and senior year.

I can't imagine the stats Dawan would have had if he was playing alongside EC, JT, Jarvis, Fatts, and Stan.

Both guys will go down as Rhody legends!

By the time this season us over, only Tyson will have more assists in a season than Jeff. Jeff even has an outside shot of breaking Tyson's record. His turnover to assist ratio is probably the best we've ever had. I'm not comparing him to Tyson. Tyson is an all time great. He was also a great shooter and scorer. But for doing what a point guard is supposed to do, getting teammates good shots and taking care of the ball, Jeff is right there

steveystuds06 wrote:

scine20 wrote:You could make a real good argument that he's the most important player on the team. Great point guard play is more important than any other position nowadays and URI certainly has that. IMO he's the best PG I've seen at URI. There's not even a close second. I've been following them since my freshman year of 2000.

I completely agree besides their not being a close second. Dawan Robinson is still the best point guard I've seen since 2000.

It's too early for me to label Jeff as the best since he will need to show me he can play at a high level while being the top dog on the team his junior and senior year.

I can't imagine the stats Dawan would have had if he was playing alongside EC, JT, Jarvis, Fatts, and Stan.

Both guys will go down as Rhody legends!

I too was a freshman in the 1999-2000 season aka the Jerry D years, so I never saw Tyson play in person.

But in the Baron years and beyond, I always thought Parfait Bitee was a great PG, especially his senior year. That team was talented but just couldn’t get out of its lien way.

I’m just picturing Will Daniels picking up his 2nd foul before the 16:00 timeout...haha

OK, back to the positives...

My buddy who is a Maryland grad and huge hoops fan texted me after last nights game “I can’t believe how good Dowtin is. He doesn’t make mistakes or get rattled.”

I expect him to score 15-18 points a game next season, as he won't have Jared and E.C. to defer to anymore.

Love having JD as our PG this kid is a complete player

Nice we get him for 2 more years too

scine20 wrote:

Billyboy78 wrote:

scine20 wrote:You could make a real good argument that he's the most important player on the team. Great point guard play is more important than any other position nowadays and URI certainly has that. IMO he's the best PG I've seen at URI. There's not even a close second. I've been following them since my freshman year of 2000.

You just missed Tyson.

I remember him but certainly didn't follow him.

I think the best question is who is #2 this century at PG? Jones? Robinson? I'd probably go with Jones.

Bitee

Billyboy78 wrote:

scine20 wrote:You could make a real good argument that he's the most important player on the team. Great point guard play is more important than any other position nowadays and URI certainly has that. IMO he's the best PG I've seen at URI. There's not even a close second. I've been following them since my freshman year of 2000.

You just missed Tyson.

And before that, Silk.

ramfan85 wrote:

Billyboy78 wrote:

scine20 wrote:You could make a real good argument that he's the most important player on the team. Great point guard play is more important than any other position nowadays and URI certainly has that. IMO he's the best PG I've seen at URI. There's not even a close second. I've been following them since my freshman year of 2000.

You just missed Tyson.

And before that, Silk.

And Jiggy before that. Not a coincidence some of our best teams were 78, 88, 98 and now. All had/have top PGs.

Bitee was good. I didn't feel like he did it long enough, though.

My personal Mount Rushmore of PG's I have seen starts with Jiggy, Silk, and Tyson......Jefe could fill the set by the time he is done.....

Bitee was actually more of a combo guard....but then Jeff was supposed to be one too.

Dowtin has turned himself into a legit NBA prospect potential for next year and beyond if he keeps getting better like he has.

His command of the game is incredible.

I put him as our 3rd best guard behind Terrill and Stan. With EC at 4. Which is insane.

He is our best passer.....by a LOT.....very high BB IQ.....and an excellent defender.

Fatts is our most imaginative passer. Dowtin takes better care of the ball at this point and is our most reliable passer.

Fatts reminds me of Tyson with his passes.......there is a flair to them.......Jefe is much more workman-like.....he reminds me a little of Jiggy...

We will still have an excellent backcourt next season....adding Martin and Adams to it....we're all good.

And add back Christion Thompson.....

While we are here, though, I'll add this about Jeff: it seemed to me that in the game thread last night and today he was mostly praised for being money from the line down the stretch. Which he definitely was. But I think overall and throughout the entire game last night he was excellent. He was as aggressive as a scorer as I've seen him in his two years here, and that didn't come at the expense of his facilitating (7 assists on a night where we went 3-19 from three, so he could have presumably had a few more) or his taking care of the basketball (just the one TO).

That is the guy we will need him to be next year. We will be more dependent on his scoring, so not only was it timely for this year's team, it was a great sign looking ahead to next year's team.

TP, not next year. That is the guy we need this year to make a deep run this year.

Dowtin knows that for us to win the big games ahead, he's going to have the ball and he's going to have to make key FT's like he did last night...so he goes and practices his butt off in the wee hours.....now that's the sign of a guy who wants to get better and win....hopefully some others will follow his lead going forward....and help make a difference in whether we win or lose the close ones which we know are coming down the road here.

blueram- can't hurt to get that guy every night. I'm just saying that for now we aren't as reliant on it as we will be next year. Lots of guys in the backcourt that can score that won't be here next season.

Jeff has continually gotten better since he got here......I am very proud of him....

He keeps practicing when others are in bed....he'll keep getting better.

I believe I read he's a Dean's list student. So, he's a smart kid too.

Just a thought. With the players Rhody has returning next year and the excellent recruits, Jeff could be the starting PG on 4 NCAA Tournament teams. That would be historic. I know we are a long way from that but the fact that it is a possibility speaks volumes about Jeff’s impact.

Yes that's definitely a possibility

He makes the game look easy at times able to finish with both hands. If he continues to knock down that pull up jumper look out

Rhody83 wrote:Just a thought. With the players Rhody has returning next year and the excellent recruits, Jeff could be the starting PG on 4 NCAA Tournament teams. That would be historic. I know we are a long way from that but the fact that it is a possibility speaks volumes about Jeff’s impact.

Next year may be his only gap in that run. It's gonna take a big effort in the OOC from him, Cyril and Fatts until the freshmen adjust.

But the year after, no doubt back in it.

I think they have a good chance to be a tournament team next year. When I look around the league, I don't see many rosters that are going to have a better top three players than Jefe, Fatts and Cyril. That gives you a fighting chance, although it will depend a lot on the development of the freshman as the year goes on and maybe having someone step up from this year's deep bench + CT. I doubt next year will look like this year - we won't storm thru OOC as a top-10 RPI team and then roll thru conference, but there are other ways to make the tournament. Get your SOS up in OOC, maybe pull off a resume-boosting win or two, get battle tested, then compete for the top of the league in conference. Maybe we are fighting to get on the bubble at this time next year rather than worrying about seeding, but that is fun too.

Having said all of that, landing a Xavier Munford caliber wing JUCO would probably put us right back into the driver's seat in the league. Keep an eye on that.

It feels like with the roster for next year they're on pace for a year a lot like 2014-5, where they're young but on the bubble all year.

I am sure DH will schedule to where it gives us the best shot we have to dance depending on the team we have

RhowdyRam02 wrote:It feels like with the roster for next year they're on pace for a year a lot like 2014-5, where they're young but on the bubble all year.

Agree, but think about how close that team actually was to breaking through and then consider that on next year's team your leaders won't be finding their way but will instead already have the experience of winning conference championships and NCAA tournament games. That is why I am more optimistic about next season than I think many other people are.

reef - I do think they try to do that, but for next year the schedule is more or less already set. And it is pretty brutal.

I think the biggest difference between “down” or rebuilding years and championship ones is the PG play.

If you ask a young PG, like a pipkins, to lead your team and quarterback your offense...you will have up and down nights.

We won’t have that problem as ball handlers 1 and 1a will have A10 and NCAA tournament experience.

The drop off we will experience will certainly exist due to who we lose - but we won’t hit a bottom some people fear.

Agreed with TP - I don’t know that we are a high at large seed - but I believe come March, we’ll be fully capable of running the table in Brooklyn for a bid.

As of right now we stand to lose 72% of our scoring...that's a lot. Fatts, Cyril and Dowtin are a great foundation but until we see the freshman play in some actual games I think it's going to be tough to know what next years team is capable of. I don't think there will be a huge drop off but I agree with RhowdyRam that the season could be similar to the 14-15 season. I'm thinking we may see similar numbers to the 14-15 season where our defense is much better than our offense.

Also Dowtin has shown he can have great scoring games in games that without his scoring we may have lost (Davidson and Creighton last year, La Salle this year). I'm wondering how well he'll do when he is one of the main guys we have to rely on to score night in and night out. I love Jeff's game but you can't ignore the players who have surrounded him this year and last.

That's true TP most games are already set because of the home and homes. If that's the case fill out the remaining games with winnable games RPI 100-200 ???

TruePoint wrote:I think they have a good chance to be a tournament team next year. When I look around the league, I don't see many rosters that are going to have a better top three players than Jefe, Fatts and Cyril. That gives you a fighting chance, although it will depend a lot on the development of the freshman as the year goes on and maybe having someone step up from this year's deep bench + CT. I doubt next year will look like this year - we won't storm thru OOC as a top-10 RPI team and then roll thru conference, but there are other ways to make the tournament. Get your SOS up in OOC, maybe pull off a resume-boosting win or two, get battle tested, then compete for the top of the league in conference. Maybe we are fighting to get on the bubble at this time next year rather than worrying about seeding, but that is fun too.

Having said all of that, landing a Xavier Munford caliber wing JUCO would probably put us right back into the driver's seat in the league. Keep an eye on that.

These are all facts. Almost my exact take on next year. Also, I think, generally speaking, the general sentiment is to write off the role I think CT will eventually end up playing his final two years. I truly believe he will fill the role of leader by example like Stan has; he's extremely fundamental on both sides of the ball and has great basketball IQ -- with such a stacked lineup of guards he never really had a chance to stand out, especially playing through injury. I don't think that Danny would have had any interest in a redshirt if he didn't intend for CT to be a significant contributor in some capacity.

I said this in another thread and I'll say it here too... I think next year we may end up being DEEPER than this year in the sense that more players will average a higher amount of minutes. At least early on until roles get clearly established.

One thing I realized tonight. I feel really good when the ball is in Jeff's hands.

I dont post much, but boy do I love Mr Jeff Dowtin. what a player not to mention person, 50 years of watching Rhody,never thougt anyone could hang with Sly,never did, Jefe is my new man incredible player

Jeff is becoming the player I always wanted him to be right before my eyes. He's always been excellent as a facilitator but I thought he could be a better scorer (even if he didn't need to). Now he's hunting buckets even as he continues to facilitate and take care of the ball. So impressed with him right now.

giovanni wrote:I dont post much, but boy do I love Mr Jeff Dowtin. what a player not to mention person, 50 years of watching Rhody,never thougt anyone could hang with Sly,never did, Jefe is my new man incredible player

Gio I love you man, but have to merge this with the thread already going if the same name.

If he can consistently knock down open shots he's going to be an absolute beast for us these next two seasons. He already possesses the elite PG intangibles that can't be taught. He's improved dramatically this year at beating his man off the dribble and either dishing it to the open man or taking the high percentage shot, and he almost always makes the correct decision when doing so. He's also a game changer on defense. The future is bright!!!

Possible A10 POY candidate next year? I think maybe.

Yeah this kid is extra special . So different than the other 2 great point guards I was old enough to watch in Silk and Tyson but this guy is the engine that makes us go