KeaneyBlue - The URI Basketball Forum

One could argue that Friday night is the most important game ever played in the Ryan Center. If you believe the KB mantra “NCAA or Bust”.
I believe a win Friday night along with finishing in 2nd place in the A10 punches the Rams’ ticket.
In the last two NCAA Tournament years there really wasn’t one game that had this level of importance for an NCAA birth particularly this deep into the season (game 21). In 2017 Rhody’s only chance was winning the A10 Tournament. In 2018 Rhody started league play 13-0 (and a 16 game win streak), had beaten #20 Seton Hall and was ranked in the Top 25. On Jan 31st that year they were 18-3.

I am not including the Dayton game this year in March. It could surpass this game depending on how Rhody and Dayton play over the next month.

What do you think is/was the most important game in the Ryan Center?

I would have to go back to that 2009 Umass game where most brackets had us in the NCAAT if we won and out if we lost. Unfortunately we lost.

theblueram wrote: ↑4 years ago I would have to go back to that 2009 Umass game where most brackets had us in the NCAAT if we won and out if we lost. Unfortunately we lost.

That was big and that one hurt. I have tried to blackout all the failed runs under Baron.

Rhody83 wrote: ↑4 years ago

theblueram wrote: ↑4 years ago I would have to go back to that 2009 Umass game where most brackets had us in the NCAAT if we won and out if we lost. Unfortunately we lost.

That was big and that one hurt. I have tried to blackout all the failed runs under Baron.

But in regards to most important, that one is probably it. Yeah it sucked. The crowd just stood there in disbelief.

theblueram wrote: ↑4 years ago I would have to go back to that 2009 Umass game where most brackets had us in the NCAAT if we won and out if we lost. Unfortunately we lost.

Matt Glass.

The moving screen that wasn't.

We’ve definitely had bigger games here - we just always ended up losing them until Hurley.

This is most definitely the biggest game of the Cox era (depending on the rest of the season and Dayton’s March 4 matchup).

Jimmy Senior Day loss to UMass still pains me. We all know the story there. Some other ones that I think of similarly:

The next year, 19-3 Rhody loses to Richmond in a blizzard as Cothran’s three to win it at the buzzer bounced out - kicked off a stretch where URI lost 4 of 5 and went from looking like it was cruising to a tourney bid to a devastating free fall. Richmond went on to a 13-3 season in the A10 and made the tournament (playing in Providence as a 7 seed). Ironically that was the last time Richmond won here until earlier this month.

In 2014-15, Rhody was making a late season charge to a tournament bid and Davidson came in on a streak that would eventually reach 10 games. Gibbs’ late corner three put Davidson ahead by one and Jared’s buzzer beater missed. Davidson went on to finish A10 at 14-4 and make the tournament. URI finished one game behind at 13-5 and went to the NIT.

I believe winning any of those three games - all of which came down to the last play - would have resulted in NCAA tournament berths. Life as a Rhody fan for the almost 20 years between the Lamar/Harrick team and the 2016-17 team. It’s a new day now, so hopefully we can flip the script tomorrow.

If I had to pick a happy memory huge game just for karma’s sake, I’d go with Nebraska earlier in the 2014-15 season. In part because of the aforementioned Davidson game that didn’t end up being a part of a great tournament run, but in the larger arc of the program there aren’t too many that were bigger.

The Davidson game, March 4, 2017. Senior Day for Hassan... Rhody needed a win to give themselves a shot at an at-large. Stan Robinson blocked the game-winning shot to send it to OT, Rams won 73-70. They probably don't win it all in Pittsburgh if they don't win that game.

The first home game against PC

Blue Man wrote: ↑4 years ago We’ve definitely had bigger games here - we just always ended up losing them until Hurley.

This is most definitely the biggest game of the Cox era (depending on the rest of the season and Dayton’s March 4 matchup).

I would say tomorrow is more important than any game at the RC when Hurley was coach. That Davidson game was great but it wasn’t getting Rhody an at-large bid.

Rhody83 wrote: ↑4 years ago

Blue Man wrote: ↑4 years ago We’ve definitely had bigger games here - we just always ended up losing them until Hurley.

This is most definitely the biggest game of the Cox era (depending on the rest of the season and Dayton’s March 4 matchup).

I would say tomorrow is more important than any game at the RC when Hurley was coach. That Davidson game was great but it wasn’t getting Rhody an at-large bid.

Tomorrow’s game isn’t getting us an at large either, UNLESS, we win 7-8 of our next 10.

St. Joes. They came in ranked #2 I think.
Jameer Nelson player of the year
Delonte west.

Dickie V in the house!

Rhody had the upset but west hit a 3 at the end.

Rhodysk wrote: ↑4 years ago St. Joes. They came in ranked #2 I think.
Jameer Nelson player of the year
Delonte west.

Dickie V in the house!

Rhody had the upset but west hit a 3 at the end.

Steve Mello rimmed out a game winning 3 at the buzzer

gorhody89 wrote: ↑4 years ago The first home game against PC

Bingo.

If there was ever a "being led to slaughter" game that was it. Finally got the glorified high school to leave the dump

The Xavier game Feb 18, 2008. That year URI started off 14-1 with win at Syracuse. Xavier came in ranked 10th with 21-4 record and URI was 20-5. The game was tied 60-60 with 6:30 minutes left after big rams comeback. Xavier pulled away down the stretch and URI ended up 21-13 having lost 9
of their last 10. I can still remember that game and how loud it was when they tied it. Last good memory of that season. That was a Baron coaches team for you.

Agree on the Richmond snow game, the UMass Glass pick game, that Xavier game, all losses that kept those Baron teams from dancing. The UMass game was the worst. I told my son before the play that they needed to get the ball out of that kid (Lowe?)'s hands no matter what. Double team; triple team, whatever it took. Nope. He went all the way down the court and made the shot.

I can’t see tomorrow being close to the most important.

We win that’s great, but we’re nowhere near to locking up a bid if we even win tomorrow.

Still too many games left to play.

UCH21377 wrote: ↑4 years ago Agree on the Richmond snow game, the UMass Glass pick game, that Xavier game, all losses that kept those Baron teams from dancing. The UMass game was the worst. I told my son before the play that they needed to get the ball out of that kid (Lowe?)'s hands no matter what. Double team; triple team, whatever it took. Nope. He went all the way down the court and made the shot.

Yup. It felt like everything was in slow motion as he came up the sideline past the pick/foul and scored the winning basket. You just stood there waiting for some type of call or something. I remember thinking no way is the game ending like this. No chance we are all leaving the Ryan Center with the game ending like this.

You know what is the most important game? The next game.

The game that had the biggest impact on URI post season was the umass loss. That was an NCAA team that was coached out of a bid.
Nebraska was a game that made the rest of the country look at URI for the first time in 15 years.
St. Joes was big, not for URI, but for St. Joe’s and their undefeated season.
Having PC come for the first time was big as it put a claim on not being a small time program.
Clinching the regular season championship for the first time in the A10 was a big home game as well.

Friday’s VCU game will be rocking and a benchmark memory for this season, but I think Dayton in March will be a bigger game regardless of a win or loss tomorrow.

Tomorrow .

Rhody83 wrote: ↑4 years ago

Blue Man wrote: ↑4 years ago We’ve definitely had bigger games here - we just always ended up losing them until Hurley.

This is most definitely the biggest game of the Cox era (depending on the rest of the season and Dayton’s March 4 matchup).

I would say tomorrow is more important than any game at the RC when Hurley was coach. That Davidson game was great but it wasn’t getting Rhody an at-large bid.

This is the second time in this thread you've said we weren't getting an at large that year and you're wrong. The tournament committee said we were in once we made the championship game. If we lost to VCU we were headed to Dayton for a first four game. Our win bumped PC to Dayton. We were getting an at large bid that year

Yeah, this is objective fact. The ‘16-17 team was an at-large team. They played themselves in. Winning the A10 tournament was awesome and one of the best moments here in a long time - and it also got us out of the First Four play-in situation - but in the end it wasn’t entirely necessary.

RhowdyRam02 wrote: ↑4 years ago

Rhody83 wrote: ↑4 years ago

Blue Man wrote: ↑4 years ago We’ve definitely had bigger games here - we just always ended up losing them until Hurley.

This is most definitely the biggest game of the Cox era (depending on the rest of the season and Dayton’s March 4 matchup).

I would say tomorrow is more important than any game at the RC when Hurley was coach. That Davidson game was great but it wasn’t getting Rhody an at-large bid.

This is the second time in this thread you've said we weren't getting an at large that year and you're wrong. The tournament committee said we were in once we made the championship game. If we lost to VCU we were headed to Dayton for a first four game. Our win bumped PC to Dayton. We were getting an at large bid that year

Correct RR2. The Davidson win was a huge win.

ramster wrote: ↑4 years ago

RhowdyRam02 wrote: ↑4 years ago

Rhody83 wrote: ↑4 years ago

I would say tomorrow is more important than any game at the RC when Hurley was coach. That Davidson game was great but it wasn’t getting Rhody an at-large bid.

This is the second time in this thread you've said we weren't getting an at large that year and you're wrong. The tournament committee said we were in once we made the championship game. If we lost to VCU we were headed to Dayton for a first four game. Our win bumped PC to Dayton. We were getting an at large bid that year

Correct RR2. The Davidson win was a huge win.

You could be right. We will never know. I watched the Championship game replay on CBS last night. During the telecast they had Rhody on the bubble.

They did but the selection committee confirmed afterwards that URI was in the field win or lose, but had they lost they’d have been in the play-in game.

TruePoint wrote: ↑4 years ago They did but the selection committee confirmed afterwards that URI was in the field win or lose, but had they lost they’d have been in the play-in game.

That’s exactly right. They confirmed URI was in win or lose. Only the seeding would be impacted.

Yup, I remember we were in either way per the selection committee

Rhody83 wrote: ↑4 years ago

ramster wrote: ↑4 years ago Correct RR2. The Davidson win was a huge win.

You could be right. We will never know. I watched the Championship game replay on CBS last night. During the telecast they had Rhody on the bubble.

Jesus dude. The committee straight up confirmed we were going to be in either way. We know.

URI_05 wrote: ↑4 years ago

Rhody83 wrote: ↑4 years ago

ramster wrote: ↑4 years ago Correct RR2. The Davidson win was a huge win.

You could be right. We will never know. I watched the Championship game replay on CBS last night. During the telecast they had Rhody on the bubble.

Jesus dude. The committee straight up confirmed we were going to be in either way. We know.

It did save us from having to play in the play-in game, which was pretty big.

It sent Friars to first four.

Rhody_JAM wrote: ↑4 years ago

URI_05 wrote: ↑4 years ago

Rhody83 wrote: ↑4 years ago

You could be right. We will never know. I watched the Championship game replay on CBS last night. During the telecast they had Rhody on the bubble.

Jesus dude. The committee straight up confirmed we were going to be in either way. We know.

It did save us from having to play in the play-in game, which was pretty big.

Totally agree that it was a big game. Just responding to the annoying "guess we'll never know" if we would have gotten a bid, when we definitely do know.

RamStock wrote: ↑4 years ago The Xavier game Feb 18, 2008. That year URI started off 14-1 with win at Syracuse. Xavier came in ranked 10th with 21-4 record and URI was 20-5. The game was tied 60-60 with 6:30 minutes left after big rams comeback. Xavier pulled away down the stretch and URI ended up 21-13 having lost 9
of their last 10. I can still remember that game and how loud it was when they tied it. Last good memory of that season. That was a Baron coaches team for you.

That was the start of a week from hell for URI. I believe Xavier was Monday, UMASS was Thursday, and St. Joes was Sunday. All three were at home and if we won 2 out of 3 we were in the tourney and 1 out of 3 would have kept us in the conversation. Instead we lost all three.

Losing 9 out of the last 10 was beyond ridiculous.

That was the MONTH from hell.

I remember listening to Steve and Don when we lost at St. Louis which really started the downward spiral.

Then we barely beat Fordham.


After that it was look out below.

ATPTourFan wrote: ↑4 years ago It sent Friars to first four.

SmartyBarrett wrote: ↑4 years ago

ATPTourFan wrote: ↑4 years ago It sent Friars to first four.

Print these out and laminate them. Then read them to your kids and grandkids for bedtime stories, read them to any Friar fans you encounter, hell read them to any random person you meet

Taylor Swift wrote: ↑4 years ago You know what is the most important game? The next game.

Only until it is over......then the next one.....then the next one....then

While it is funny and ironic that our winning the A10 championship that year knocked the friars to the first four in reality Marquette was the team that the committee should have swapped.

St. Joseph’s 2004. When you have a chance to beat an undefeated team at home in late February on national TV in front of Dick Vitale and put yourself into the national conversation for a tournament berth and you lose on a last second miss, that’s a big deal. Particularly after how far they’d come since 1999-2000. And the program didn’t recover for a while after that loss.