Entertainment & Sports Arena, Washington, DC
Sunday, December 19, 2021
2:00PM
Media
TV: N/A
Online: FloSports?? I think it might be. Can’t confirm.
Radio: 101.5 FM (B101) or Tune In Radio App
Previews:
Charleston Fan Forum
After a lopsided win in Milwaukee, the University of Rhode Island head to The District to take on the College of Charleston in the DC Holiday Hoops Fest. This game will be played at what has to be the most generic venue name ever, The Entertainment & Sports Arena. This will be a homecoming of sorts for David Cox as he is a native of the nation’s capital & started his coaching career as an assistant coach at Archbishop Carroll High School in DC. Along with Cox, Rhody has 4 players from Washington DC (The Mitchell Twins, Ish, & Walker) as well as Abdou Samb who is from Upper Marlboro, MD which is a short drive away. Although my guess is that this will be a sparse crowd, there could potentially be a lot of Rhody fans in attendance. College of Charleston is lead by first year head coach Pat Kelsey who is familiar with the Atlantic 10 as he was a guard for Xavier in the mid to late 90s. Speaking of the mid 90’s, the first time these two teams faced off was the 1996 NIT tournament where URI won in overtime my sophomore year at the Providence Civic Center. (It was a double header & Providence played Saint Joe’s in the second game & had PC won it would have been a PC vs URI postseason NIT match-up.) Back to present day, the Cougars are led by Bucknell transfer, senior forward John Meeks who is averaging 14 & 5. Meeks did miss their last game, so it will be interesting to see if he plays tonight (Thursday) against Stetson. Along with Meeks, the Cougars are overcoming a slew of injuries to other key players like Babacar Faye, Osinachi Smart & Dalton Bolton. Senior guard Dimitrius Underwood runs the point & puts up solid numbers overall, averaging 9.7/6.7/3.6. The good news for Rhody fans is he is prone to turn the ball over, averaging 3.8 per game. To give you a sense of how many that is, it is even more than Makhi averages per game. Ha ha. Charleston & URI are pretty much equal as a team from behind the arc. The Cougars best 3 shooters (those who have made 15+ three-pointers) are the aforementioned Smith & Meeks as well as Brenden Tucker are shooting a combined 46% from 3. Charleston isn’t quite known for their defense (79.5 PA) and they have given up 90+ in their 3 losses, although one of those losses was at #18 North Carolina. Charleston is going to want to run. URI will have to play it more at their pace. They start to try to run with them & then Makhi will start thinking he is a point guard & bad things happen. This could definitely be a game where we see Thomas running the point a bit more if the pace is faster than usual. I am guessing URI will be favored by about 6. I think it will be a bit of a high scoring game for Rhody standards. Rhody wins this one in front of the “home” crowd, 82-70. Go Rhody!!
Opponent
Record:
7-3, 0-0 in the CAA
Last season: 9-10, 6-4 in the CAA
Rankings (URI):
NCAA NET: 122 (87)
RPI: 71 (60)
KenPom: 185 (75)
BPI: 202 (66)
Sagarin: 154 (85)
Leaders:
Points – Reyne Smith 14.2 (Fr., G)
Rebounds – Dimitrius Underwood 6.7 (Sr., G)
Assists – Dimitrius Underwood 3.6 (Sr., G) (3.2 TO per game)
Historical
Series: 3-1
H: 2-0, A: 0-1, N: 1-0
Most Recent Matchup: 11/13/18 66-55 L at Charleston
Most Recent Win Streak: 1 – Charleston
Match-up Predictor: 78.9 Chance of URI Winning