William D. Mullins Memorial Center
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
6:30PM - CBSSN
Media
TV: CBSSN
Replay:
Radio: 101.5 FM (B101) or iHeart Radio App
Previews:
http://www.providencejournal.com/sports ... m-his-rams
Vegas:
Opponent
Record:
10-12, 3-6 in the Atlantic 10
Home: 9-3
Last season: 15-18, 4-14 in Atlantic 10
Rankings:
RPI: 201 (213.6 expected)
BPI: 186
KenPom: 199
Leaders:
Points - Luwane Pipkins, 19.9
Rebounds - Malik Hines, 6.2
Assists - CJ Anderson, 5.0
Last Five (1-4)
1/27/18 @FOR L 82-69 1/25/18 @LAS L 87-72 1/20/18 SLU L 66-47 1/17/18 @URI L 73-51 1/14/18 JOES W 72-69Roster and Statistics (not updated from prior game)
Coaching Staff
Matt McCall, Head Coach (1st Year) - Florida '04
Cliff Warren, Assoc. Head Coach - Mount St. Mary's '90
Rasheen Davis, Asst. Coach - St. Thomas Aquinas '02
Peter Gash, Asst. Coach - Lynn University '07
Preview
See in-depth team preview here. For purposes of the second game, we will keep it short and sweet.
UMass came to the Ryan a couple of weeks ago as a team that was up-and-down to that point in the season, with some decent wins and some tough losses. In many ways, their season had gone better than expected - with the coaching change and the roster turnover (detailed in preview of prior game), expectations among UMass fans were low for this season.
Since coming to the Ryan and getting blown out by URI, the wheels have fallen off a little bit. They have not won a game since, dropping A-10 contests to Saint Louis, La Salle and Fordham. Counting the URI game, their average margin of defeat in their 4 game losing streak has been 17.25 points. Their RPI, BPI and Kenpom are in free-fall: their rankings in the three metrics have fallen by an average of 35 in two weeks.
URI should come into this game exceptionally focused - in their last time on the floor, where they were favored to win by 18 points at home, they trailed most of the game and by as many as 15 in the second half, only to pull it out on a buzzer-beating three pointer from Stan Robinson. As exhilarating as the comeback and the final play of the game were, URI drastically underperformed and saw their A-10, home and overall winning streaks (all at or near all-time program marks) flash before their eyes - along with their hard-earned national ranking.
URI is a much better team than UMass in 2017-18, as their respective records and rankings, not to mention the prior head-to-head contest, attest. Still, The Mullins Center has been a house of horrors for URI in the past (7-18 in the building since it opened, by my count), and UMass's 9-3 home record this season stands in stark contrast to its 1-9 record away from the Mullins. URI needs to approach this game like it has something to prove - to itself and also anyone else out there in the college basketball world wondering how they were taken to the wire by a spunky but ultimately overmatched Duquesne team. They already have a plan that they know should work from the previous matchup, so this one is all about execution and effort.
I'd guess that URI will be favored by about a dozen points, and with a representative effort they should cover that number easily. With anything less, they could be fighting for their lives again like they were forced to do on Saturday.