Thomas M. Ryan Center - Kingston, RI
Saturday, October 28, 2017
1:00PM
Media
TV: none
Radio: 90.3 WRIU
Previews:
http://www.providencejournal.com/sports ... st-buffalo
Opponent
Record:
0-0, 0-0 in MAC
0-0 on the road
17-15, 11-7 in MAC last season
Rankings:
RPI: 148 (final 2017)
BPI: 124 (final 2017)
KenPom: 151
Leaders (returning from 2016-17):
Points - CJ Massinburg, 14.5
Rebounds - Nick Perkins, 6.6
Assists - CJ Massinburg, 2.8
Preview
When Buffalo visits URI for a charity exhibition game to benefit hurricane relief efforts on Saturday, it will be the first time most URI fans will have the chance to get a glimpse of the team on the floor with the scoreboard turned on since last March. The last time we saw them, Rhody came up just short against Oregon with a trip to the Sweet 16 on the line - a tough end to a great run to end the season.
Despite the relative lack of a historic connection between Buffalo and URI (the teams have met just twice in 100 years, each winning once), there are quite a few connections between the programs in the recent past. Buffalo's recent success was kicked off when they hired Bobby Hurley off of Dan's staff at URI prior to the 2013-14 season. When Bobby went to Buffalo, he hired as part of his staff current UB head coach Nate Oates. Oates, of course, coached EC Matthews in high school at Romulus outside Detroit. Recently, Oates has brought in former consensus top-100 recruit Wes Clark via transfer from Missouri - Clark played for Oates and with EC at Romulus. Clark arrived at Buffalo in the spring and intends to be eligible to play in the second semester.
As far as scouting the Bulls, I'm not going to go overboard for an exhibition game, but Buffalo has seen a lot of turnover from last year's team that went 17-15 and 11-7 in the MAC. They are replacing seven players, three of whom were starters, including Blake Hamilton who was a second-team all-MAC wing and led the team in scoring and assists and was second in rebounding. The best returning players for the Bulls are CJ Massinburg, who was an honorable mention all-conference player, Nick Perkins, who led the team in rebounding in 16-17, and Deontay Caruthers, who was an all-defensive MAC player. Clark, when he becomes eligible, will be a sure starter and contributor - he averaged about 10 ppg over the last two years for Mizzou in the SEC.
Overall, this will be a good opportunity for fans to see the team and a good chance for the team to get some of the jitters out playing in front of a crowd and against decent competition as it gears up for its season opener against UNC-Asheville on November 10. In between now and then, the team will have another (and perhaps better) opportunity to get up to speed when it scrimmages Harvard in a "secret scrimmage," as it has done the last several years. This should be a good opportunity for younger players looking to carve out a role to get some run - Layssard, Tertsea and Fatts Russell especially. The main goal for Rhody on Saturday should be to escape without any health setbacks - anything else is gravy.