1/24 | Fordham | 7:00PM (ESPN+)

[spookydog]

University of Rhode Island vs Fordham University
Ryan Center, Kingston, RI
Wednesday, January 24, 2024
7:00PM

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


Previews
Fordham’s Fan Forum



Hope everyone is sitting because I’m about to ruffle some feathers with this next statement, but I feel like it must be said. These last 2 games were less than ideal. There, I said this hot take. It is out there & now we all must deal with it. As we all painfully know, the Rams lost back-to-back games by 30+ points. By my count, the last time we lost back-to-back games by 30+ points was the last year of Jerry D in 2000-2001. For those of you who don’t recall how horrific that 7-win season was, I will give you some context. Losing any game by 30 points is difficult, but not only did they lose consecutive games by that margin, but they also lost 3 out of 5 games by 30+, & an astounding 4 out of 8 games. For good measure we can throw in an additional 3 games they lost between 20-29 points. To say it was a tough time in Kingston is putting it mildly. The good news about today’s team is that we have a real coach & not that fraud Jerry D. In a couple years when we are celebrating an A10 championship, these 2 games will just be a little blip in the process.

To start this new chapter, the Rams welcome their fellow Rams from the Bronx to town Wednesday night. After a promising start to the Keith Urgo era at Fordham last season, the Bronx Rams have struggled so far this year. Picked in the middle of the pack in the preseason A10 poll, they are under .500 on the season & just 2-3 in the A10 although one of those wins was at St. Bonaventure. They have some horrible losses at home to the likes of NJIT & Central Connecticut. Part of Fordham’s struggles could be linked to poor 3-point shooting as they are in the mid-200s amongst all D1 schools shooting it at just 32.5% for the year.

The Rams of Fordham have a balanced offensive attack. UTSA transfer Japhet Medor is leading team in scoring at 12.7 per game & is also the team leader in 3 pointers made. He did get hurt last week & did not play in their last game against Loyola, so I am unsure if he will be playing Wednesday night. If he doesn’t play, Will Richardson will have to step up. He is second on the team in scoring at 10.5 per game but not a terribly efficient shooter, shooting it at 32% on the season. He has scored in double figured 6 of his last 7 games. Playing better as the season has progressed is forward Elijah Gray. Although playing less than 20 minutes per game, he is still averaging just over 10 & 4.6 rebounds per game. He has scored in double digits in every conference game this season. Conversely, he only did that in one third of his nonconference games. The final piece to keep an eye on offensively is Lafayette transfer Joshua Rivera. He missed some time over the holiday break but is averaging just a tick under 10 per game. Defensively they do have 2 players on the preseason all-defensive team in Abdou Tsimbila & Kyle Rose. Tsimbila is leading the team in rebounding at 7.4 per game & has almost half of the teams blocks with 44. Rose, a 5th year senior, is leading the team in steals with over 2 per game. They force turnovers unlike Rhody but do turn the ball over at a higher rate.

My biggest concern isn’t the drinking problem I developed after these last 2 games; my main concern is these last 2 games may have messed them up mentally. They looked lackadaisical & lost out there. Dayton sat Holmes for most of the second half & the Flyers still expanded their lead. Besides House, no one looked good out there. There was no defensive intensity & somehow only forced 2 turnovers all game. Since the start of conference play, teams are shooting 48% against the Rams.

Will being back in the Ryan Center help Rhody get the victory? This is the first conference game that students are back, so hopefully that will be a big lift. A nice loud, hydrated crowd could be just what the doctor ordered. Speaking of hydration, anyone that comes to me at the corner of the bar at Shaidzon between 4-6:40 Wednesday before the game gets a free Buffalo Czech on me. Just come by & say Race to 10. Rhody should be slightly favored at home Wednesday night. They will need a complete 180 to get the win Wednesday even with a struggling Fordham team coming to town. Unfortunately, I think they are still in their own head. Please prove me wrong. My prediction, Fordham 75 – URI 74. Go Rhody!!



Opponent
Record:
8-10, 2-3 in the A10
25-8, 12-6 in the A10 (Last Season)

Rankings (URI):
NCAA NET: 193 (199)
RPI: 242 (129)
KenPom: 199 (195)
BPI: 198 (209)
Barttovik: 193 (184)

Leaders:
Points – Japhet Medor 12.7 (Sr., G)
Rebounds – Abdou Tsimbila 7.4 (Sr., F)
Assists – Antrell Charlton 3.2 (Sr., G) (1.7 TO per game)

Historical
Series: 41-31
H: 21-11, A: 19-19, N: 1-1
Most Recent Matchup: 2/25/23 74-71 L at Fordham
Most Recent Win Streak: 1 – Fordham
Match-up Predictor: 60.9% Chance of URI Winning

[RF1]

Who would have thought that a three game stretch that ended with a loss Wednesday to Fordham by 33 points could be considered incremental improvement?

[steviep123]

Thanks Spooky...one question - it appears the math isn't working out in the Historical:

Historical
Series: 19-25
H: 21-11, A: 19-19, N: 1-1

The H/A/N would add up to a Series being 41-31.

It was my understanding that there would be no math....

[Rhody15]

In addition to their road win @ the Bonnies, they also won @ a very talented GW team in 3 OTs.

[RF1]

Both sets of Rams are coming off back to back losses. Fordham lost their last two games to Davidson and Loyola at Rose Hill.

[Jersey77]

Interesting that Fordham has lost all their conference games at home in Rose Hill but won their 2 away games against the Bonnies in Olean and at GW.
Still, they were without their top scorer Japhet Medor the last 2 games except for 8 minutes against Davidson.
Not sure if he will be available against us,

I expect Fordham to be very aggressive on defense with lots of pressure on the ball, let's see how we respond.

This is a critical game for us at home and expecting a bounce-back win.

[spookydog]

Thanks Spooky...one question - it appears the math isn't working out in the Historical:

Historical
Series: 19-25
H: 21-11, A: 19-19, N: 1-1

The H/A/N would add up to a Series being 41-31.

It was my understanding that there would be no math....

Whoops. Thanks for catching that. I forgot to change it from the Dayton game.

[section(105)]

Team Rankings has; #202: #14A-10 Kingston Rams with 58% chance to beat the Bronx Rams.

[Rhodymob05]

A should win game but definitely a lot of pressure to get back on track.

[Billyboy78]

Free sailor hats to the first 1000 students if they show up.

[Rhody15]

Free sailor hats to the first 1000 students if they show up.

How bout instead of $2 shitty hot dogs they do $2 beers. Or even half off beers.

Also, hilarious it’s only an hour before the game and not during the game.

[NYGFan_Section208]

Free sailor hats to the first 1000 students if they show up.

How bout instead of $2 shitty hot dogs they do $2 beers. Or even half off beers.

Also, hilarious it’s only an hour before the game and not during the game.

You want that shitty hot dog for $2, you get your a out of work ten minutes earlier, oh yeah...securrity.... 45 minutes earlier and get it!
ETA..I'm just going to get there half hour early, buy a bunch of 'em and sell them off to the side starting at tip off, for $4. Whaddya think? Want me to get you a couple?

[Rhody15]

Free sailor hats to the first 1000 students if they show up.

How bout instead of $2 shitty hot dogs they do $2 beers. Or even half off beers.

Also, hilarious it’s only an hour before the game and not during the game.

You want that shitty hot dog for $2, you get your a out of work ten minutes earlier, oh yeah...securrity.... 45 minutes earlier and get it!
ETA..I'm just going to get there half hour early, buy a bunch of 'em and sell them off to the side starting at tip off, for $4. Whaddya think? Want me to get you a couple?

Nice little social experiment to see if security kicks you out for doing that lol would be entertaining to say the least

[McRam]

Rose is a really good defensive guard; he will probably cover House and it will not be easy for Jaden. Especially true when Tsimbala is in the game with his shot blocking ability.

We must guard the three against Fordham, they will throw up a lot of them. That includes the 6’8” Gray who might be their best three point shooter.

[Jdrums#3]

Rose is a really good defensive guard; he will probably cover House and it will not be easy for Jaden. Especially true when Tsimbala is in the game with his shot blocking ability.

We must guard the three against Fordham, they will throw up a lot of them. That includes the 6’8” Gray who might be their best three point shooter.

Good scout intel, McRam. Thanks!

[section(105)]

Gotta defend the home court tonite. Time to begin a separation from the bottom pack and keep us in sight of the top. Go Rhody,
Rhody, Rhody Rhody….

[ramster]

Rose is a really good defensive guard; he will probably cover House and it will not be easy for Jaden. Especially true when Tsimbala is in the game with his shot blocking ability.

We must guard the three against Fordham, they will throw up a lot of them. That includes the 6’8” Gray who might be their best three point shooter.

Agree on Rose and Tsimbila.

Rose was all conference Defensive Team last year along with Camara and Holmes from Dayton, Collins from St Louis, Ace Baldwin VCU and Jimmy Clark III Duquesne.
This year's preseason All Defensive Team includes holdovers Holmes - Dayton, Clark III - Duquesne and Rose - Fordham plus Grant Huffman - Davidson and Abdou Tsimbila - Fordham.

Defensive Stats for A10 Games to Date:
Blocked Shots - Fordham has 4 players in Top 25:
6th - Tsimbila
10th - Gray
20th - Richardson
21st - Charlton

Steals - Fordham has 3 players in Top 25:
3rd - Rose
8th - Charlton
18th - Richardson

Will Richardson is a Sophomore, just missed making the All Freshman Team last year.



For the Full Year:
Tsimbila os ranked 11th Nationally in Blocks with 43 Total and Ranked 7th Nationally with 2.69 bpg

Fordham ranks 19th Nationally with 24.3 FT Attempts per game and 18th Nationally with 13.9 Offensive Rebounds per game

[Jersey77]

Still no mention of whether Fordham's top player and leading scorer Japhet Medor will be available tonight.

Several of the pre-game write-ups do mention Medor and scoring 16.2 pts his last 6 games prior to injury.
He is also shooting 38% 3Pt for the season.

[Rhodymob05]

Rhody is 8-3 at home and we got the students back, so we got that going for us.

[RI_Bred]

Rose is a really good defensive guard; he will probably cover House and it will not be easy for Jaden. Especially true when Tsimbala is in the game with his shot blocking ability.

We must guard the three against Fordham, they will throw up a lot of them. That includes the 6’8” Gray who might be their best three point shooter.

I could see this being a problem.

[RhowdyRam02]

KenPom gives #193 (#200 NET) Rhode Island a 63% chance of beating #201 (#193 NET) Fordham, with a predicted final of 77-74.

Massey Ratings gives #168 Rhode Island a 59% chance of beating #215 Fordham, with a predicted final of 73-70

[Obadiah]

This is a pretty good analysis of the Rams' defense woes.

https://www.golocalprov.com/sports/uri- ... alachowski

[Billyboy78]

Free sailor hats to the first 1000 students if they show up.

How bout instead of $2 shitty hot dogs they do $2 beers. Or even half off beers.

Also, hilarious it’s only an hour before the game and not during the game.

You want that shitty hot dog for $2, you get your a out of work ten minutes earlier, oh yeah...securrity.... 45 minutes earlier and get it!
ETA..I'm just going to get there half hour early, buy a bunch of 'em and sell them off to the side starting at tip off, for $4. Whaddya think? Want me to get you a couple?

I've got a warmer if you want to borrow it. It'll keep them nice and warm when you're ready to sell them. Might get a little soggy, but who will notice?

[RI_Bred]

This is a pretty good analysis of the Rams' defense woes.

https://www.golocalprov.com/sports/uri- ... alachowski

Thanks for the link. No mention of the pack-line D strategy at all. Putrid rebounding and shot-blocking, wow.

[KeaneyBluBallz]

How bout instead of $2 shitty hot dogs they do $2 beers. Or even half off beers.

Also, hilarious it’s only an hour before the game and not during the game.

You want that shitty hot dog for $2, you get your a out of work ten minutes earlier, oh yeah...securrity.... 45 minutes earlier and get it!
ETA..I'm just going to get there half hour early, buy a bunch of 'em and sell them off to the side starting at tip off, for $4. Whaddya think? Want me to get you a couple?

I've got a warmer if you want to borrow it. It'll keep them nice and warm when you're ready to sell them. Might get a little soggy, but who will notice?

can you sneak past the metal detector?

[PeterRamTime]

Still no mention of whether Fordham's top player and leading scorer Japhet Medor will be available tonight.

Several of the pre-game write-ups do mention Medor and scoring 16.2 pts his last 6 games prior to injury.
He is also shooting 38% 3Pt for the season.

I like our chances if he's not playing. Outside of him they don't have much scoring ability.

They do play hard and are liable to force a lot of turnover, but I think that we can also exploit their aggressiveness with our guys ability to drive. Luis, Jaden and Green should be able to blow by, get to the hope or draw fouls. Hopefully we show today! Play f'n hard guys.

[adam914]

I'd be fine with us continuing to get lucky and having our opponents best players out against us.

[PeterRamTime]

I'd be fine with us continuing to get lucky and having our opponents best players out against us.

That and a men and black memory wipe of last week lol

[adam914]

I'd be fine with us continuing to get lucky and having our opponents best players out against us.

That and a men and black memory wipe of last week lol

Yeah seriously! I'm really hoping having 3 of the next 4 at home helps them get back on track mentally/confidence wise.

[PeterRamTime]

I'd be fine with us continuing to get lucky and having our opponents best players out against us.

That and a men and black memory wipe of last week lol

Yeah seriously! I'm really hoping having 3 of the next 4 at home helps them get back on track mentally/confidence wise.

Really seems like it all comes down to confidence with this group. Get off to a good start, hit some shots, believe in yourselves and play your ass off on defense.

[RJRam]

I think confidence is very important to the offense. But I don't think they ever "play their ass off on defense". And there lies the problem!

[rhodyram22]

I think confidence is very important to the offense. But I don't think they ever "play their ass off on defense". And there lies the problem!

I don't think we can completely blame the players though. It's the coaches who are partially responsible for getting them to play hard on defense.

[SGreenwell]

I think confidence is very important to the offense. But I don't think they ever "play their ass off on defense". And there lies the problem!

Yeah, this is true. URI is 272 in AdjD by Kenpom, 333rd out of 362 teams in DRtg on Sports Reference. If we shoot decent in a particular game, we keep it close or win. If we shot poorly, we have no shot. We've given up 70+ points in our previous six games, and the only teams we've kept under 60 points this year are Wagner and JWU. Kenpom has us at 169 in tempo, so its not a matter of playing at a quick pace. It is the inverse of last year's team, which had an average defense and awful offense.

[section(105)]

Pressure the ball no matter where it is, take the opponent to out of what they want to do, make them uncomfortable……..doesn’t know if those are principles of packline?

[reef]

Getting out to a quick lead is imperative get that confidence back and play from ahead

We didn’t hold a lead against Dsyton and only led by 2 against the Bonnie’s

[section(105)]

Question, is this big game? Must win game? Any other phrases you wanna put on this game?

[RJRam]

Pressure the ball no matter where it is, take the opponent to out of what they want to do, make them uncomfortable……..doesn’t know if those are principles of packline?

Also a little anticipation to deflect or steal a pass or two? I've seen Estevez show some signs of anticipating the competition's passes, but not much from the other players. Hard to get steals when you don't anticipate. Our opponents make a living stealing passes on us. I admit that some of our passes are lousy, however, anticipating our passes gets us a lot of turnovers.

[section(105)]

Pressure the ball no matter where it is, take the opponent to out of what they want to do, make them uncomfortable……..doesn’t know if those are principles of packline?

Also a little anticipation to deflect or steal a pass or two? I've seen Estevez show some signs of anticipating the competition's passes, but not much from the other players. Hard to get steals when you don't anticipate. Our opponents make a living stealing passes on us. I admit that some of our passes are lousy, however, anticipating our passes gets us a lot of turnovers.

Hands, arms, body in the passing lanes, also not sure if those are principles of packline? Or once ball is passed away, does packline say sluff into lane lower than the foul line? Anyone know?

[Rhodymob05]

The color guy for the Dayton game had the quote of the night. Paraphrasing but “I noticed the rams players had bad body language during warmups” and essentially could tell that the team wasn’t mentally there. He was right. Something to pay attention too.

[rhodyblue12]

I’m certainly not a pack line expert, but jumping passing lanes is not a core principle. It is built to stop drive penetration.
Force everything to the middle and don’t give up the baseline drive.
If you are off the ball, sag to the middle to fill the drive gap and recover to your man.
Works best when you have 5 guys with length.
Dayton is built to beat this defense because they space well and can shoot. Most teams are not.

[ramster]

So how many teams in D1 play the Pack-Line defense as we do? Which teams are they?

[section(105)]

So how many teams in D1 play the Pack-Line defense as we do? Which teams are they?

I often hear UVA, beyond that clueless. Xavier? Ya know a family thing?

[KeaneyBluBallz]

Question, is this big game? Must win game? Any other phrases you wanna put on this game?

i just popped on to ask the same thing.

It's not a big game in the traditional sense but it's a must win for our own purposes.

[ramster]

Question, is this big game? Must win game? Any other phrases you wanna put on this game?

i just popped on to ask the same thing.

It's not a big game in the traditional sense but it's a must win for our own purposes.

Only must win is the 1st game of the A10 Tournament in Brooklyn NY. That is the big game.

[Rhodymob05]

Tony Bennet at Virginia is famous for the pack-line, but you need guys that can move.

[RI_Bred]

Question, is this big game? Must win game? Any other phrases you wanna put on this game?

Difference between .500 in conference play or not. I'd say it's...important!

[ramster]

Tony Bennet at Virginia is famous for the pack-line, but you need guys that can move.

Are there any others? Just URI and Virginia?

[section(105)]

Huge game , gotta stop the bleeding….

[ElmCityRhody]

Huge game , gotta stop the bleeding….

yes and get me off the ledge...

hate losing and its time to right the ship

enough already

[ramster]

Huge game , gotta stop the bleeding….

If we lose tonight to Fordham, on our home court, Fordham being the team that many URI fans want removed from the A10…………Does losing then make the bleeding even more severe and our next game even more Huge?

Thus is pretty much a pick-em game
Home team gets 3 points from oddsmakers in general, URI favored by 2.5 points so game would be about even on a neutral court.

Rainy night. Student attendance has not been significant this season so I’d be surprised if students show tonight. Maybe???

Miller and team need to improve and get their best 5-7 players identified to make noise in Brooklyn. That’s the goal. Win or lose get this group playing to the best of their ability.