12/30 | St. Bonaventure | 4:00PM (YurView/ESPN+)

[spookydog]

University of Rhode Island vs St. Bonaventure University
Ryan Center, Kingston, RI
Wednesday, December 30, 2020
4:00PM

Media
TV: YurView
Online: ESPN+
Radio: 101.5 FM (B101) or Tune In Radio App

Previews:
St Bonaventure’s Fan Forum
Another St Bonaventure Fan Forum

After a needed break for the players, coaches & honestly the fans as well, the Rams return from exams to take on St. Bonaventure Wednesday afternoon at the Ryan Center. The Bonnies have only played 2 games so far this season after a couple of cancellations. They are led by 2 juniors, Osun Osunniyi & Kyle Lofton. Osunniyi is going to be a tough task guarding downlow & will need as many bodies as possible to throw at him, so hopefully Jermaine Harris will be available. If Rhody collapses down on Osunniyi, then Kyle Lofton & Dominick Welch can hurt you. I will be interested to see how Rhody attacks them defensively. As for when Rhody has the ball, they desperately need to shoot the ball more efficiently. Big surprise isn’t it? There has been talk of a tighter rotation, but I am not sure who the odd man out will be. After this long stretch of not playing as well as poor play from their previous couple games, controlling the flow of this game is crucial. To quote Al Davis, Just Win Baby. Rhody wins this one 79-75. Happy Holidays. Wear a Mask & Go Rhody!

Opponent
Record:
2-0, 0-0 in the Atlantic 10
Last season: 19-12, 11-7 in the Atlantic 10

Rankings (URI):
RPI: 1 (124)
KenPom: 73 (79)
NCAA NET: 75 (57)*
BPI: 89 (80)
Sagarin: 75 (84)
* = Last Year’s Rankings

Leaders:
Points – Osun Osunniyi 19.0 (Jr., F)
Rebounds – Osun Osunniyi 10.0 (Jr., F)
Assists – Kyle Lofton 7.0 (Jr., G) (4.0 TO per game)

Historical
Series: 41-30
H: 24-8, A: 15-19, N: 2-3
Most Recent Matchup: 1/25/20 81-75 W at St. Bonaventure
Most Recent Win Streak: 1 – URI
Match-up Predictor: 63.2% Chance of URI Winning

[section(105)]

.......need to ratchet up the defensive pressure, take control early, often......in our house......and let me add, finally some hoops, can’t go 0-2 in conference.......

[Jersey77]

Last January against them, Fatts had one of his best games 29 points (5-9 3pt) and 5 assists, also Osun didn't play. Hopefully Fatts can have another strong game and we can contain Osun. Should be an interesting guard matchup with Lofton and Welch leading the way for them and we will probably see more minutes for AB and Ish, especially if Carey and Sheppard continue to struggle.

[Running Ram]

YurView is only on cable correct? as in I can't get it with an antenna?

[PeterRamTime]

Let's just see a win please.

[SandorClegane]

Shut down Osun and we win this game. If he dominates us inside, we’ll have a tough time staying with them.

[reef]

Gonna be a war 70-66 Bona

[Rhodymob05]

Gonna be a war 70-66 Bona

Love the confidence.

[Rhode_Island_Red]

The Brown Indians are a well-coached team with a variety of weapons -- our Kryptonite.

[CamsRams]

[Jersey77]

Great analysis by Chris DiSano
Another tough game by a well coached team, excellent guard play and one of the best bigs in the conference.

[PeteRI]

The Brown Indians are a well-coached team with a variety of weapons -- our Kryptonite.

That is one crazy-ass team name.

[Puck Frovidence]

YurView is only on cable correct? as in I can't get it with an antenna?

Yeah, specifically only on Cox cable (it's just the rebranded Cox Sports/OSN/etc). I would just sign up for ESPN+, it's only five bucks a month, has a bunch of our games and you can cancel it whenever the last game is finished.

[PeteRI]

YurView is only on cable correct? as in I can't get it with an antenna?

Yeah, specifically only on Cox cable (it's just the rebranded Cox Sports/OSN/etc). I would just sign up for ESPN+, it's only five bucks a month, has a bunch of our games and you can cancel it whenever the last game is finished.

That's a helluva lot cheaper than that stupid Flomax channel which ended up showing a grand total of one of our games.

[Obadiah]

You cannot talk about St. Bonaventure without noting what a great job Mark Schmidt has done at the school. Now in his 13th season Schmidt brought the SBU program from the depths of the van Breda Kolff scandal and the ensuing malaise of the sanction hampered Anthony Solomon who notched only a total of 26 wins in four years. Schmidt took over in 2007 and made a quick impact in taking a two star recruit, Andrew Nicholson, and turning him into a star - Rookie of the year, A-10 tourney MVP and other honors. Other similar accomplishments followed, so it comes as no surprise that In four of the last five years, Schmidt has won 20+ games. His accomplishments are even more noteworthy since Olean is not a place easy to recruit and SBU is a small school with the smallest endowment in the A-10 and is in no great shakes financially.

In the last game, 31 year coach McKillop bested Cox, now Cox is facing another top coach in Schmidt. Let's see what happens.

[PeteRI]

You cannot talk about St. Bonaventure without noting what a great job Mark Schmidt has done at the school. Now in his 13th season Schmidt brought the SBU program from the depths of the van Breda Kolff scandal and the ensuing malaise of the sanction hampered Anthony Solomon who notched only a total of 26 wins in four years. Schmidt took over in 2007 and made a quick impact in taking a two star recruit, Andrew Nicholson, and turning him into a star - Rookie of the year, A-10 tourney MVP and other honors. Other similar accomplishments followed, so it comes as no surprise that In four of the last five years, Schmidt has won 20+ games. His accomplishments are even more noteworthy since Olean is not a place easy to recruit and SBU is a small school with the smallest endowment in the A-10 and is in no great shakes financially.

In the last game, 31 year coach McKillop bested Cox, now Cox is facing another top coach in Schmidt. Let's see what happens.

Coaching a tiny school in the middle of a snow belt and posting 20+ win seasons is pretty amazing. Dude can coach And recruit.

[luke]

The Bonnies have only played two games . They beat Hofstra and Akron . Hofstra did beat Richmond at Richmond , but I don't know if Hofstra is legit or not yet. URI should be more ready for this game and it is at home. St. Bonaventure has yet to play a road game , so that too favors the Rams.

[Obadiah]

Hofstra was the CAA coaches pick to win the CAA.

[theblueram]

Fatts is averaging 14 points a game. No one else is in double digits. Sheesh.

[section(105)]

.......to many people playing to few minutes......

[McRam]

To me, the key match up is not Osunniyi who will probably score about 15,but,are we going to find a way to leave Domink Welsh open for his three point shooting. If Malik is quick enough to guard him, let him do it for 34 minutes; he is the only one that I currently have confidence will stay with him no matter what. Kinda of what I said about Lee from Davidson. (Hope AB has the Malik defensive mind set)

[PeterRamTime]

Gonna be a war 70-66 Bona

Reefstradamous can you start picking us to win?

[RamStock]

The Bonnies have only played two games . They beat Hofstra and Akron . Hofstra did beat Richmond at Richmond , but I don't know if Hofstra is legit or not yet. URI should be more ready for this game and it is at home. St. Bonaventure has yet to play a road game , so that too favors the Rams.

I'm not sure the empty stadium at the Ryan Center is going to be very intimidating to the Bonnies. The layoff is no guarantee that we are going to come out firing on all cylinders. I hope Cox gets Leggett in the lineup and don't care whose minutes he cuts into, although Carey is the guy that looks like a bench player who should get 12-15 minutes a game.

[reef]

Gonna be a war 70-66 Bona

Reefstradamous can you start picking us to win?

I can’t until we win baby !!

[Rhode_Island_Red]

The Brown Indians are a well-coached team with a variety of weapons -- our Kryptonite.

That is one crazy-ass team name.

Just showing my age again. They were called the Brown Indians before they were called Bonnies.

[PeterRamTime]

The Brown Indians are a well-coached team with a variety of weapons -- our Kryptonite.

That is one crazy-ass team name.

Just showing my age again. They were called the Brown Indians before they were called Bonnies.

Funny I just learned that on Wikipedia two days ago.

[section(105)]

.......ditching the Brown Indians......way a head of time......

[Blue Man]

Is it just me or has the air been totally let out of the balloon until March?

[ramster]

A month into the season:

Top 20 A10 Top Players:
St Bonaventure 2
URI 0

Top 10 A10 All Defensive Players
St Bonaventure 2
URI 0

Top 10 A10 All Rookie:
St Bonaventure 0
URI 1

[Obadiah]

While St. Bonaventure with its up tempo style is different than Davidson with its deliberate motion offense, they both have cohesive five starters that have played together for some time, show strong teamwork, and account for the bulk of playing time and scoring power.

Against URI, McKillop sensing the Rams' bench depth, played his starters less than in any of their other games - 65% versus the usual 75%-80%, but interestingly, the starters still contributed 90% of the scoring. Now the outcome of a game twists on more complex factors than only bench depth and that was the reason the Rams lost. One example, understanding Fatts' poor perimeter shooting (he was 0-4 in game), Davidson gave him much leeway on the perimeter and collapsed the defense around the basket hindering Fatts' attempts to dribble drive. Fatts had a season high of 4 turnovers and one assist as a result. But nonetheless when a team having bench depth met an experienced cohesive team, the cohesive team won.

With St. Bonaventure, you have even more of a starting five "ironmen" approach with the starters accounting for 80+% of PT and 90% of the scoring. Schmidt's coaching style puts lots of emphasis on teamwork and sharing the ball. The last thing Schmidt's likes to see is a player taking shots with three defenders draped around him. When a player takes a bad shot, he warns him about it, if the bad shots persist, the player is benched. One of Schmidt's great lines is that "the bench is a great motivator".

Schmidt likes to play an attacking up tempo style and an offense that moves the ball quickly with crisp passing and does not allow the defense to get established. In the two SBU games to date, assists have been 19 and 15 with 10 turnovers in each game. The Bonnies team assist to TO ratio is well above one, URI's is well below one.

The Bonnies have scored less in second half of the two games played which may indicate tired legs. So the question is will Cox be able to capitalize on his bench depth? More importantly will Fatts emerge from the doldrums? Will the Rams show more teamwork and cohesion? So many questions. By 6 PM we will have some answers.

[Jersey77]

A month into the season:

Top 20 A10 Top Players:
St Bonaventure 2
URI 0

Top 10 A10 All Defensive Players
St Bonaventure 2
URI 0

Top 10 A10 All Rookie:
St Bonaventure 0
URI 1

Interesting, STL leading the way with 3 players in top 10 followed by Davidson and Bonnies with 2 each. So far, nobody from URI standing out, either our players are underperforming or the 10 man rotation balancing out the stats, probably a combination of both.

[rhodysurf]

Is it just me or has the air been totally let out of the balloon until March?

Agree, but consensus seems to think Bona is the better team this year so if they win this it’ll pull me back in a little

[section(105)]

........obviously a win here is huge to gain confidence we are back on track to compete in the top tier A-10........a loss here would bring on all sorts of questions/concerns.......not a must win situation, in my opine, but digging ourselves a 0-2 hole conference start is the thing we gots to avoid.......”air out of the balloon”........early on a game day, feels like that.......maybe it is just the holiday week?.......Go Rhody........

[Jersey77]

........obviously a win here is huge to gain confidence we are back on track to compete in the top tier A-10........a loss here would bring on all sorts of questions/concerns.......not a must win situation, in my opine, but digging ourselves a 0-2 hole conference start is the thing we gots to avoid.......”air out of the balloon”........early on a game day, feels like that.......maybe it is just the holiday week?.......Go Rhody........

I agree not a must win, because it is still early, but would be a statement win. This long lay off should of given the players time to heal up and also build some type of chemistry during all this practice time.
I would be extremely disappointed if we have a slow start and lack intensity. We have had plenty of time to get properly prepared and if not that would be totally on the staff.

[steveystuds06]

This is a game we should win...We actually need to win the next two. After that, we go on the road @Richmond and then @Vcu. Many on here said we should finish in the top four. Well, to do that, you can't lose to Davidson and Bonnies in your first two home conference games. Didn't we play a grueling nonconference to prepare the team for the A10?

[spookydog]

I for one can't believe we have 5 more losses than Fordham right now. On the bright side, we do have 3 more wins.

[eli#10]

Need a win................BADLY. Gotta play defense with great intensity for 40 minutes which we have not seen in a while from this team. It is up to Cox to make this happen. The best way is no intensity = the bench.

[Blue Man]

I don’t think this is a must win. I don’t think any games are must win until the A10 tournament anymore.

Any hope of an at large birth is dead and buried. You could go 15-2 the rest of the way and 18-7 with maybe 1 or 2 Q1 wins that will soften thanks to the conference bottom feeders, won’t get it done.

At this point I’m looking for improvement and future development.

The only chance to save this season is in Brooklyn. Might as well find the guys that work best together. Play Ish a shit load more and sit Fatts when he decides to play iso ball while shooting 20%.

Unfortunately a win against the #71, 2 games played Bonnies won’t get me juiced up, and a loss won’t surprise me.

Just get better. Please.

[RF1]

URI players were not allowed to go home for the holidays per Koch's tweet. The Bonnies board seems to indicate that their players were allowed to leave campus.

[RamStock]

I don’t think this is a must win. I don’t think any games are must win until the A10 tournament anymore.

Any hope of an at large birth is dead and buried. You could go 15-2 the rest of the way and 18-7 with maybe 1 or 2 Q1 wins that will soften thanks to the conference bottom feeders, won’t get it done.

At this point I’m looking for improvement and future development.

The only chance to save this season is in Brooklyn. Might as well find the guys that work best together. Play Ish a shit load more and sit Fatts when he decides to play iso ball while shooting 20%.

Unfortunately a win against the #71, 2 games played Bonnies won’t get me juiced up, and a loss won’t surprise me.

Just get better. Please.

Agree completely. Let’s just see the young/new guys like Leggett and Bertrand play and get better. This team doesn’t have any must win games because the only way they are going to the tourney is to win the A-10 in Brooklyn. I think we just need to see improvement and not worry about how the teams we played are doing or anything else. URI needs to build momentum going into the offseason and next year. Tough to predict what they are going to do at this point.

[Jersey77]

I don’t think this is a must win. I don’t think any games are must win until the A10 tournament anymore.

Any hope of an at large birth is dead and buried. You could go 15-2 the rest of the way and 18-7 with maybe 1 or 2 Q1 wins that will soften thanks to the conference bottom feeders, won’t get it done.

At this point I’m looking for improvement and future development.

The only chance to save this season is in Brooklyn. Might as well find the guys that work best together. Play Ish a shit load more and sit Fatts when he decides to play iso ball while shooting 20%.

Unfortunately a win against the #71, 2 games played Bonnies won’t get me juiced up, and a loss won’t surprise me.

Just get better. Please.

Agree completely. Let’s just see the young/new guys like Leggett and Bertrand play and get better. This team doesn’t have any must win games because the only way they are going to the tourney is to win the A-10 in Brooklyn. I think we just need to see improvement and not worry about how the teams we played are doing or anything else. URI needs to build momentum going into the offseason and next year. Tough to predict what they are going to do at this point.

Not necessarily, I think that if we finish 2nd or possibly 3rd in the A10 we have an excellent shot at making the "DANCE". I would love to see us go on a hot streak and raise eyebrows. The A10 is strong and the conference should get multi bids in the NCAAT. this season. I also feel that this year being what it is, many of the top teams will have some bad loses and will beat up on each other in conference play, creating more outside opportunities.

As I stated several times before, this may be an extreme longshot, but I won't give up hope at this time. I am much more optimistic about our chances next season, after this new group has a full year together under their belt.

[Shinze88]

Must win games for this years team ended after the WKU loss. The next must win game is the game we need to win or our season is over. In a way, it makes the season easier to watch as there is no need to agonize after each loss, the hope is the team will consistently get better each game and we'll be the team nobody wants to play in Feb/March. Really hope to see more Ish and what Bertrand can do going forward. I expect another slow start to this game, Rhody trailing by 5-7 at the half and making a run in the 2nd half to either win or lose by 3. Go Rhody !

[Blue Man]

I don’t think this is a must win. I don’t think any games are must win until the A10 tournament anymore.

Any hope of an at large birth is dead and buried. You could go 15-2 the rest of the way and 18-7 with maybe 1 or 2 Q1 wins that will soften thanks to the conference bottom feeders, won’t get it done.

At this point I’m looking for improvement and future development.

The only chance to save this season is in Brooklyn. Might as well find the guys that work best together. Play Ish a shit load more and sit Fatts when he decides to play iso ball while shooting 20%.

Unfortunately a win against the #71, 2 games played Bonnies won’t get me juiced up, and a loss won’t surprise me.

Just get better. Please.

Agree completely. Let’s just see the young/new guys like Leggett and Bertrand play and get better. This team doesn’t have any must win games because the only way they are going to the tourney is to win the A-10 in Brooklyn. I think we just need to see improvement and not worry about how the teams we played are doing or anything else. URI needs to build momentum going into the offseason and next year. Tough to predict what they are going to do at this point.

Not necessarily, I think that if we finish 2nd or possibly 3rd in the A10 we have an excellent shot at making the "DANCE". I would love to see us go on a hot streak and raise eyebrows. The A10 is strong and the conference should get multi bids in the NCAAT. this season. I also feel that this year being what it is, many of the top teams will have some bad loses and will beat up on each other in conference play, creating more outside opportunities.

As I stated several times before, this may be an extreme longshot, but I won't give up hope at this time. I am much more optimistic about our chances next season, after this new group has a full year together under their belt.

No shot. The A-10 isn't going to be a powerhouse this year. Not enough big OOC wins, potentially no ranked teams, and maybe a 3 bid year. Any wins against the 5-6 teams that will be outside of the top 150 who appear on our schedule 8 times - will not be offset by the 4 Q1 chances we may have @StL, @Dayton, @VCU, @Richmond.

Just relax. The dream of an at large is dead. We can all relax and just hope we see improvement. Or just laugh if things continue to go the way they have been. It's Brooklyn or bust, and it has been since WKU.

Maybe I'm just incredibly lethargic and dead on the inside, but next season worries me regardless. Our track record of retaining recruits isn't exactly hot.

Class of '18, 1/5 remain (Harris)
Class of '19, 1/5 remain (Walker)

That's an 80% attrition rate. Not exactly inspiring hope.

Cox had 3 of this programs top 10 highest rated recruits in the past 2 decades - 1 has underperformed (to put it mildly) and two are gone.

Really all I want to see now is Ish, Carey, and Mitchell get a ton of minutes so they don't become like the majority of our recruiting classes and leave. Build for the future and a last gasp at a tourney appearance in Cox's go big or go home season in 2 years.

[McRam]

I for one can't believe we have 5 more losses than Fordham right now. On the bright side, we do have 3 more wins.

Fordham is having its best season in a long, long time!!!!!!

[section(105)]

.......where is DCRams?.....long time, no read.......

[Jersey77]

Agree completely. Let’s just see the young/new guys like Leggett and Bertrand play and get better. This team doesn’t have any must win games because the only way they are going to the tourney is to win the A-10 in Brooklyn. I think we just need to see improvement and not worry about how the teams we played are doing or anything else. URI needs to build momentum going into the offseason and next year. Tough to predict what they are going to do at this point.

Not necessarily, I think that if we finish 2nd or possibly 3rd in the A10 we have an excellent shot at making the "DANCE". I would love to see us go on a hot streak and raise eyebrows. The A10 is strong and the conference should get multi bids in the NCAAT. this season. I also feel that this year being what it is, many of the top teams will have some bad loses and will beat up on each other in conference play, creating more outside opportunities.

As I stated several times before, this may be an extreme longshot, but I won't give up hope at this time. I am much more optimistic about our chances next season, after this new group has a full year together under their belt.

No shot. The A-10 isn't going to be a powerhouse this year. Not enough big OOC wins, potentially no ranked teams, and maybe a 3 bid year. Any wins against the 5-6 teams that will be outside of the top 150 who appear on our schedule 8 times - will not be offset by the 4 Q1 chances we may have @StL, @Dayton, @VCU, @Richmond.

Just relax. The dream of an at large is dead. We can all relax and just hope we see improvement. Or just laugh if things continue to go the way they have been. It's Brooklyn or bust, and it has been since WKU.

Maybe I'm just incredibly lethargic and dead on the inside, but next season worries me regardless. Our track record of retaining recruits isn't exactly hot.

Class of '18, 1/5 remain (Harris)
Class of '19, 1/5 remain (Walker)

That's an 80% attrition rate. Not exactly inspiring hope.

Cox had 3 of this programs top 10 highest rated recruits in the past 2 decades - 1 has underperformed (to put it mildly) and two are gone.

Really all I want to see now is Ish, Carey, and Mitchell get a ton of minutes so they don't become like the majority of our recruiting classes and leave. Build for the future and a last gasp at a tourney appearance in Cox's go big or go home season in 2 years.

Blue Man don't be a Debbie-Downer, your depressing me.
I was never overly confident about this year anyway, but still refuse to give up hope, YET.

Next year is a different story, let's hope the freshman stay and our core should remain intact, aside from the seniors leaving.
We should have a lot of talent coming back and on the flip side the player loses will be great for many of our competitors
A year together with this group will be a huge benefit for us going into next season.
So we should be optimistic that this program will be in good shape for the immediate future.

Cheer up Blue Man and enjoy the New Year

[hrstrat57]

Might be getting tremendous input in this thread not only from Debbie Downer but also Negative Nancy and Bummer Bob.

Bookmarked for post game reading!

On a sad note it’s a real bummer losing Dawn Wells to covid19 (Mary Ann)

A big Rhody win will help

Let’s Go Rhody

[reef]

Let’s go Rhody I am watching baby

[Billyboy78]

Game isn't on B101. It's on 920 AM.

[PeteRI]

Sloppy play so far.