1/13 | UMass | 2:00PM (ESPN+)

[spookydog]

University of Rhode Island vs University of Massachusetts
Ryan Center, Kingston, RI
Saturday, January 13, 2024
2:00PM

Media
TV: N/A
Online: ESPN +
Radio: Tune In Radio
App: Varsity Network
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast


Previews
UMass’ Fan Forum



As the famed philosopher Ric Ocasek once said, “Let the good times roll.” The Rams open conference play with 2 wins. Boom! Rhody will look to make it three in a row on Saturday afternoon when rival UMass comes to town. URI’s last three game conference win streak was two years ago. The last time the Rams opened conference play with three straight wins was 2018 when they started 13-0. UMass is the Rams 2nd most common opponent throughout their history, having played 162 times.

The UMass Minutemen come to the Ryan Center with an 11-4 record & 2-1 in conference play. They rolled both Duquesne & La Salle at home while losing a tight one in Dayton. Offensively, UMass has a two-headed monster with forwards Matt Cross & Josh Cohen. The 6’10” Saint Francis transfer Josh Cohen is leading the team in scoring at just over 17 per game. In his last game against La Salle he went for 24 & 10. As for Matt Cross, the Massachusetts native is leading the team in rebounds at over 8 per game & is second on the team in scoring at just shy of 16. He is also second on the team in assists at just over 3 per game. He went for 18 & 14 against Daron Holmes & Dayton. The other double-digit scorer is guard Rashool Diggins. He has really upped his game over the previous season. Last year he averaged 4.7 points per game while this year he is at 11.8. What is most remarkable is his free throw shooting. He shot a putrid 36% last season and is somehow now at 83.3% this year. Diggins is also leading the team in three pointers made. The final player to keep an eye on is guard Keon Thompson. He is leading the team in assists & is averaging 9.5 points per game.

As for Rhody, they showed that they can win, even on the road, when David Green doesn’t play much. He was a difference maker since being healthy & eligible to play. Due to foul trouble, he only played 11 minutes & the Rams still got the road win. A very promising sign. What also helped was Kortright’s monster game, going for 26 & 5 assists. One of the biggest things was going 9 for 10 from the line. The Rams hope to get some revenge after last season’s loss to the Minutemen at the Ryan Center. Rhody was embarrassed on their home court, losing by 24 in one of the worst games in a few years, and that is saying something. If you take Ish out of the equation, the starting lineup shot 19% from the field & 1-12 from deep. Ram1980 summed up the last match-up perfectly “Booooooooo, putrid, pathetic, embarrassing. From the coach on down. Sitting in parking lot after leaving early which we never do.” Yup, that is how bad it was.

Will the Rams win their third straight conference game? As Blue Man asked, are we goin’ streaking? The Rams have lost the last 3 in a row & 5 out of the last 6 to the Minutemen. It has been 4 years since the last home win against UMass. I am assuming the Rams will be home underdogs for this game. Green will need to stay out of foul trouble given that UMass has very good bigs. Unfortunately the students aren’t back yet for this home game, cause the Rams could use their support. This is going to be a tough one. My prediction, URI 82 – UMass 79 in OT. Go Rhody!!





Opponent
Record:
11-4, 2-1 in the A10
15-16, 6-12 in the A10 (Last Season)

Rankings (URI):
NCAA NET: 80 (187)
RPI: 54 (165)
KenPom: 91 (186)
BPI: 94 (201)
Barttovik: 80 (170)

Leaders:
Points – Josh Cohen 17.1 (Sr., F)
Rebounds – Matt Cross 8.3 (Sr., F)
Assists – Keon Thompson 3.3 (Soph., G) (1.3 TO per game)

Historical
Series: 68-94
H: 41-34, A: 27-55, N: 0-5
Most Recent Matchup: 2/18/23 69-45 L at URI
Most Recent Win Streak: 3 – UMass
Match-up Predictor: 32.8% Chance of URI Winning

[jcru]

This is going to be a battle.

[Jersey77]

Thanks Spooky, another good job.

This is a game I think we win at the RC.
Although Cohen and Cross, along with Sanford will be a handful up front.
But we have a lot of bodies to throw at them.

We have depth, something they may be lacking.

I would like Archie to get back at them after for the 2 losses last season.

Starting conference play 3-0 would be great.
Go Rhody.

[Billyboy78]

I doubt he plays, but we could really use Bilau in this one.

[RI_Bred]

Saturday afternoon game could help attendance, sucks the students aren't back on campus yet, but nothing we can do about that. Maybe some of the ones that are back "down the line" will decide to show up...

Stay with them early and hit FTs because they are going to. We can compete!

[section(105)]

Team Rankings now has; #187, #13 A-10, URI, with 35% chance to beat #94 UMass

[ElmCityRhody]

i see that 35% and laugh

we aren't losing on our home court

the revival is happening..

RHODY HOOPS

[RF1]

I got a laugh reading a post on the UMass fan forum complaining about the lack of Ryan Center lower section seats available for Saturday's game. I think Minutemen supporters have grown accustomed to always having some 7,000 seats (with many close to the court) to choose from days before games in Amherst.

UMassFan99 » Thu Jan 11, 2024 12:08 am
Was thinking of going to the URI game but lower seats seem pretty sold out. Does the Ryan Center get sold out often?

[RF1]

This could be one of the last annual games in Kingston versus UMass given their school's foolhardy football ambitions.

[adam914]

Something to keep an eye on for Saturday...

[PeterRamTime]

Something to keep an eye on for Saturday...

It's already gonna be tough big boi

Now they're up shits creek

[rhodysurf]

The endzone tickets were $10 for this game FYI thats part of the reason its so sold out

[bigappleram]

IMO Umass is a top 5ish team in the league this year. They have young talent in the back court and 2 legitimate A10 front court players. IMO there are two keys to this one...

1.) Containing Cross & Cohen - this is a tall ask for Fuchs. Cohen is a 5th year player with a plethora of moves. He occasionally will step out to shoot a 3 but does most of his work in the paint. He's prob got 2 inches on David and a healthy arsenal of high footwork moves in the paint. However he's not particularly athletic nor strong. David is built like an ox but will need to use smart positioning and good decision making in defending Cohen effectively. Cross plays about as hard as anyone in the country. He throws his body around without a care in the world which occasionally causes injury issues. He can score from 3 or inside the paint and is going to go after every loose ball and rebound with reckless abandon. We have to match that intensity. Given how he plays he both commits and draws a lot of fouls. If we could get either of these guys in foul trouble it would be a big hit for them as they lack any real depth up front and will be forced to go small. Green and Fuchs vs them is a big time matchup that could tilt the game in either direction.

2.) Turnovers / Umass perimeter defense - they have a bunch of length and athleticism at the 1, 2 and 3 spot. Any Frank Martin team is going to defend at a high level and disrupt passing lanes and we have shown a propensity to have TO problems at times. Will need our guards to make good decisions and limit live ball turnovers that turn into transition points.

I like our back court over theirs mostly due to experience and hoping the Ryan is a hostile environment on Saturday. Feel like if we can limit their front court and protect the ball we can win this game but it will be a battle and if we do win it will likely be in a tight one.

[PeterRamTime]

Interested to see how healthy Cross is

Will Zek finally get out of his funk?

Can we continue to improve our sloppy turnover situation?

Aside from inserting Green into the line up, our cleaning up of our stupid transition turnovers has been just as important. The only reason we didn't pull away from Davidson is because we kept shooting ourselves in the foot. The more we can clean those up we can get significantly better, because they're often incredibly untimely. No such thing as a good turnover, but we seem to do it at the absolute worst times only.

[Jersey77]

IMO Umass is a top 5ish team in the league this year. They have young talent in the back court and 2 legitimate A10 front court players. IMO there are two keys to this one...

1.) Containing Cross & Cohen - this is a tall ask for Fuchs. Cohen is a 5th year player with a plethora of moves. He occasionally will step out to shoot a 3 but does most of his work in the paint. He's prob got 2 inches on David and a healthy arsenal of high footwork moves in the paint. However he's not particularly athletic nor strong. David is built like an ox but will need to use smart positioning and good decision making in defending Cohen effectively. Cross plays about as hard as anyone in the country. He throws his body around without a care in the world which occasionally causes injury issues. He can score from 3 or inside the paint and is going to go after every loose ball and rebound with reckless abandon. We have to match that intensity. Given how he plays he both commits and draws a lot of fouls. If we could get either of these guys in foul trouble it would be a big hit for them as they lack any real depth up front and will be forced to go small. Green and Fuchs vs them is a big time matchup that could tilt the game in either direction.

2.) Turnovers / Umass perimeter defense - they have a bunch of length and athleticism at the 1, 2 and 3 spot. Any Frank Martin team is going to defend at a high level and disrupt passing lanes and we have shown a propensity to have TO problems at times. Will need our guards to make good decisions and limit live ball turnovers that turn into transition points.

I like our back court over theirs mostly due to experience and hoping the Ryan is a hostile environment on Saturday. Feel like if we can limit their front court and protect the ball we can win this game but it will be a battle and if we do win it will likely be in a tight one.

Yes BAR the key is to try and stay out of foul trouble and contain their bigs, it won't be easy.
Like every other game we must secure the ball and limit our turnovers.

As I previously posted they do lack depth and have 7 true scholarship freshmen on the roster.
Four of them get double-digit minutes.

We may not be favored but I still like our chances at the RC.

[Rhode_Island_Red]

Beat the Massholes!

[Blue Man]

The endzone tickets were $10 for this game FYI thats part of the reason its so sold out

And for a board that loves to criticize everything around this program (very warranted), this is something they got right.

It was advertised early and often, let's just hope it was Rhody fans who got those tickets first.

[hrstrat57]

They don’t go to games in Amherst be pretty strange if they show up here….

[RF1]

It always bugs me to see that UMass leads the series by such a large margin (68-94). While UMass clearly had a great advantage during the Calipari years in Amherst, URI has generally had the better performing program for the other 90 plus years. While much of the margin in the series was run up in the Calipari era (I think Skinner's teams only beat UMass once or twice), URI should have dominated nearly all the other years. Rhody however did not do so basically playing UMass even over that time.


URI Basketball
NCAA - 10 appearances - 1961, 1966, 1978, 1988, 1993, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2017, 2018
NCAA Record of 8-10
NIT - 15 appearances - 1941, 1942, 1945, 1946, 1979, 1981, 1987, 1992, 1996, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2015
NIT Record of 14-16
Combined NCAA and NIT Record of 22-26


UMass Basketball
NCAA - 9 appearances - 1962, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995,1996, 1997, 1998, 2014
NCAA Record of 7-8
NIT - 13 appearances - 1970, 1971, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1990, 1991, 2000, 2007, 2008, 2012, 2013
NIT Record of 13-14
Combined NCAA and NIT Record of 20-22

[RhowdyRam02]

As for Rhody, they showed that they can win, even on the road, when David Green doesn’t play much. He was a difference maker since being healthy & eligible to play. Due to foul trouble, he only played 11 minutes & the Rams still got the road win. A very promising sign. What also helped was Kortright’s monster game, going for 26 & 5 assists. One of the biggest things was going 9 for 10 from the line. The Rams hope to get some revenge after last season’s loss to the Minutemen at the Ryan Center. Rhody was embarrassed on their home court, losing by 24 in one of the worst games in a few years, and that is saying something. If you take Ish out of the equation, the starting lineup shot 19% from the field & 1-12 from deep. Ram1980 summed up the last match-up perfectly “Booooooooo, putrid, pathetic, embarrassing. From the coach on down. Sitting in parking lot after leaving early which we never do.” Yup, that is how bad it was.

What is it with our team laying an egg when we're honoring past greats? Did it last year against UMass and this year against Brown. That pissed me off more than even how terrible the game itself was, that we got pantsed like that when honoring the 88 team

[Blue Man]

As for Rhody, they showed that they can win, even on the road, when David Green doesn’t play much. He was a difference maker since being healthy & eligible to play. Due to foul trouble, he only played 11 minutes & the Rams still got the road win. A very promising sign. What also helped was Kortright’s monster game, going for 26 & 5 assists. One of the biggest things was going 9 for 10 from the line. The Rams hope to get some revenge after last season’s loss to the Minutemen at the Ryan Center. Rhody was embarrassed on their home court, losing by 24 in one of the worst games in a few years, and that is saying something. If you take Ish out of the equation, the starting lineup shot 19% from the field & 1-12 from deep. Ram1980 summed up the last match-up perfectly “Booooooooo, putrid, pathetic, embarrassing. From the coach on down. Sitting in parking lot after leaving early which we never do.” Yup, that is how bad it was.

What is it with our team laying an egg when we're honoring past greats? Did it last year against UMass and this year against Brown. That pissed me off more than even how terrible the game itself was, that we got pantsed like that when honoring the 88 team

Maybe because we tend to think of these external things when the team isn't that good to try and drum up buzz around the program?

It was lonnnnng overdue to honor those guys. Would've been a much more fitting ceremony to have in 2018 to celebrate a 20 year anniversary when we were a championship program.

Sooner than we think we'll be honoring the 10 year of that great team and hopefully they'll be coming back to a sold-out RC for another championship season!

[steveystuds06]

I doubt he plays, but we could really use Bilau in this one.

Do we, though? Fuchs has been awesome. Green is fantastic at the 4. Brown was huge in moments last game. When Fou plays smart, he's very solid.I've accepted that Bilau will likely not play or will be on a minutes restriction if he does. I feel bad for the kid, but the guys playing right now are taking a turn together. I think we'll be just fine without Bilau..

[Jersey77]

I doubt he plays, but we could really use Bilau in this one.

Do we, though? Fuchs has been awesome. Green is fantastic at the 4. Brown was huge in moments last game. When Fou plays smart, he's very solid.I've accepted that Bilau will likely not play or will be on a minutes restriction if he does. I feel bad for the kid, but the guys playing right now are taking a turn together. I think we'll be just fine without Bilau..

Pretty much agree.
Starting to wonder if we can ever count on Bilau to be a regular contributor for our team.
I hope so, but definitely have some doubts.

[bigappleram]

From what I could tell Bilau wasn't on the bench at Davidson and didn't travel with the team. That would seem to indicate the injury is more prolonged. Also, even if'/when he does suit up, it's not like Arch is throwing him in there and he's a 20+ minute guy and immediate difference maker. If you ever see him this year it will be for spot minutes here and there. Our fate lies in the hands of those that are available - Fuchs, Fou and Brown.

[PeterRamTime]

It always bugs me to see that UMass leads the series by such a large margin (68-94). While UMass clearly had a great advantage during the Calipari years in Amherst, URI has generally had the better performing program for the other 90 plus years. While much of the margin in the series was run up in the Calipari era (I think Skinner's teams only beat UMass once or twice), URI should have dominated nearly all the other years. Rhody however did not do so basically playing UMass even over that time.


URI Basketball
NCAA - 10 appearances - 1961, 1966, 1978, 1988, 1993, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2017, 2018
NCAA Record of 8-10
NIT - 15 appearances - 1941, 1942, 1945, 1946, 1979, 1981, 1987, 1992, 1996, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2015
NIT Record of 14-16
Combined NCAA and NIT Record of 22-26


UMass Basketball
NCAA - 9 appearances - 1962, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995,1996, 1997, 1998, 2014
NCAA Record of 7-8
NIT - 13 appearances - 1970, 1971, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1990, 1991, 2000, 2007, 2008, 2012, 2013
NIT Record of 13-14
Combined NCAA and NIT Record of 20-22

I feel the same. Feels like they wield a curse over us lol

Just went through the record book and we lead the series for the first 70 years. Then it evened up and we last led the series after beating them in 1989. Then Calipari...our down years were worse than theirs and we love choking against them.

[PeterRamTime]

From what I could tell Bilau wasn't on the bench at Davidson and didn't travel with the team. That would seem to indicate the injury is more prolonged. Also, even if'/when he does suit up, it's not like Arch is throwing him in there and he's a 20+ minute guy and immediate difference maker. If you ever see him this year it will be for spot minutes here and there. Our fate lies in the hands of those that are available - Fuchs, Fou and Brown.

If he's healthy enough he's taking Fou and Browns minutes.

He was an immediate difference maker when he came in earlier this year.

[reef]

This is a huge game for us ! Can’t wait !

[RhodyBB91]

I want to start thinking this team has turned it up a notch and that this isn’t just fools gold. My one thought is if we are going to continue to get to the line this much we need to hit FTs at a better rate (61% on the year 344 in the NCAA).

I’m pumped for this game Saturday and I hope the crowd shows up and is ready to be loud.

[bigappleram]

From what I could tell Bilau wasn't on the bench at Davidson and didn't travel with the team. That would seem to indicate the injury is more prolonged. Also, even if'/when he does suit up, it's not like Arch is throwing him in there and he's a 20+ minute guy and immediate difference maker. If you ever see him this year it will be for spot minutes here and there. Our fate lies in the hands of those that are available - Fuchs, Fou and Brown.

If he's healthy enough he's taking Fou and Browns minutes.

He was an immediate difference maker when he came in earlier this year.

But he’s so rarely been healthy enough so it feels like a foolish thing to hope for. This isn’t a one off thing it’s been recurring for 4 years now.

[Billyboy78]

I doubt he plays, but we could really use Bilau in this one.

Do we, though? Fuchs has been awesome. Green is fantastic at the 4. Brown was huge in moments last game. When Fou plays smart, he's very solid.I've accepted that Bilau will likely not play or will be on a minutes restriction if he does. I feel bad for the kid, but the guys playing right now are taking a turn together. I think we'll be just fine without Bilau..

We could use him for depth at least in dealing with their bigs and possible foul problems with ours.

[RI_Bred]

I doubt he plays, but we could really use Bilau in this one.

Do we, though? Fuchs has been awesome. Green is fantastic at the 4. Brown was huge in moments last game. When Fou plays smart, he's very solid.I've accepted that Bilau will likely not play or will be on a minutes restriction if he does. I feel bad for the kid, but the guys playing right now are taking a turn together. I think we'll be just fine without Bilau..

We could use him for depth at least in dealing with their bigs and possible foul problems with ours.

The old adage - "rather have and not need than need and not have" certainly applies.

[Rhodymob05]

This game is building some buzz, haven’t felt that with UmASS in a few years.

[ElmCityRhody]

This game is building some buzz, haven’t felt that with UmASS in a few years.

The revival has begun - it is our time now

We have waited too long for a relevant game

Soak it all in fellas !

[bigappleram]

It’s good for the league if URI and Umass are both good. That hasn’t happened concurrently in a long long time.

[Rhodyg]

Engrained in my mind

[CamsRams]

[reef]

Arch’s presser he praised Tyson Brown for his hustle plays vs Davidson says it was by far his best game

[Blue Man]

Arch’s presser he praised Tyson Brown for his hustle plays vs Davidson says it was by far his best game

Tyson's athletic rebound on the wing immediately led to the Jaden dunk and probably saved the game.

The bigs are developing. Even without Green, Fuchs and Brown have evolved even in the last few months.

[ElmCityRhody]

i think FOU is going to have to give us a strong game - i think he will have an impact on us winning

[Billyboy78]

Looks like a decent sized crowd tomorrow. Still lots of tix left, but looking at maybe 5000-5500 + walk up.(Still no students yet). Keep winning. Keep building attendance.

[RF1]

URI needs to do what UMass has done for most of the history of this series - win on its home court even when the other team is better.

[PeterRamTime]

Tea leaves sayin no Cross

[gazakaza]

Before tomorrow's game, please take a listen to our new episode with Stone Freeman

Also in there is a little shoutout to Blue Man!

[RF1]

Tea leaves sayin no Cross

I hope our coach doesn't plan his entire game strategy on dealing with Cross when he most likely will not play. I seem to recall that his predecessor did such a thing (Tre Mitchell) with this same opponent just a few years ago.

[TruePoint]

Tea leaves sayin no Cross

I hope our coach doesn't plan his entire game strategy on dealing with Cross when he most likely will not play. I seem to recall that his predecessor did such a thing (Tre Mitchell) with this same opponent just a few years ago.

On the flip side, do you want to prepare as if one of their key guys won’t play then be unprepared to deal with him? If the guy’s status is unclear, most coaches would tell you to prepare as if he’s going to play and adjust accordingly if he doesn’t rather than the other way around. That’s different from just not realizing a player has been announced as out which is I think what happened to Cox.

[ramster]

Tea leaves sayin no Cross

I hope our coach doesn't plan his entire game strategy on dealing with Cross when he most likely will not play. I seem to recall that his predecessor did such a thing (Tre Mitchell) with this same opponent just a few years ago.

Something that Pitino would not have done

[Keaney203]

Engrained in my mind

I miss that court design so much. Those jerseys were great too.

[ElmCityRhody]

Before tomorrow's game, please take a listen to our new episode with Stone Freeman

Also in there is a little shoutout to Blue Man!

thanks for posting - good stuff there !

[bigappleram]

I don’t miss that game. Top 5 worst feeling walking out of RC.

[theblueram]

I don’t miss that game. Top 5 worst feeling walking out of RC.

BAR, was that the game where if they won they were in and if they lost they were out? I remember that game. People just sat in their chairs and didn't move when it was over. It was like a wake and a funeral all at one time.