1/13 | UMass | 7:00PM (NESN/ESPN+)

[RhodyRams916]

He’s been criticized more than any other player this season.

He also led the team in rebounds (at 5’8) and steals, convenient you left that out.

Lol you WOULD defend someone shooting 23% from the floor. You're pathetic Rhody15

People have defended Jermaine Harris when he goes 0- from the floor and gets lit up on D because he “tries hard.”

Fatts played terribly offensively tonight, but led the team in rebounds, steals, and made the right play to tie the game.

Imagine if he took the 3 and missed instead of passing to Harris?

Harris played 9 minutes today. Fatts played 41 minutes. Don't even fucking talk about Harris. thanks.

[steveystuds06]

I’m just lost on why Leggett can’t get on the floor 15-20 minutes a game. And I’m not saying he’s a star in waiting or anything special. But, the kid is an obvious winner and a dog out there!! It’s inexcusable that other guys get in the game over that kid. Even when he’s not shooting well, he plays so damn hard, that he still ends up making things happen. His activity defensively and his offensive aggression, may have been a huge help tonight. It’s just so obvious he belongs out there. It’s frustrating to watch it NOT happen.

Don't get me started... I can't imagine how he feels riding the bench watching this sloppy play.

[RI_Bred]

We all knew it was going to be this type of an up and down season. Very disappointed on this loss, but can't say I am totally surprised, figured it would come down to the wire with these guys.
Blue Man and others, I said pump the brakes early on with this team and slow down on the Kool-Aid, my expectations this season were tempered
I was hoping for the best this year like everyone else, but there were so many uncertainties.
Again, we were picked to finish 6th by the A10 coaches this year.
I still say hopefully we will have some good wins along with the bad losses.

I'm picking up what you're putting down, and I want to feel the same. But, the A-10 is down this year, no doubt. We need to compete in conference and with the talent we have - there isn't much of a reason why we shouldn't. Yet we seem to not be going in that direction.

Maybe we'll club it out middle of the pack and make a run in the A-10 tourney, and grab the second bid of what will be a one-bid conference with our upset. Likely not though.

Tired of middle of the pack expectations in a middle of the pack conference.

Hurley has UConn ranked, just like had had URI ranked. What does it come down to here?

Also, I agree Leggett should have many more minutes, wtf Cox?

[brady1]

Fatts and URI would have been fine if he took only 8 shots tonight.

GO RHODY!

[NYGFan_Section208]

Sheppard 5 TOs. Bertrand 4. Fatts 3. Carey 3 in 13 minutes. Walker 3 in 12 minutes. 18 of the 20 TOs. Still went to OT. 52% from the line (-9). Almost won. I need a Gansett.

? I get yer mad, but...not the time for self-torture....

[Rhody22]

There’s no way to sugarcoat it: a team with these players should play better than what this team does. If it’s not the players or their talent, then it must be the coaching. I know the staff isn’t committing these turnovers but the staff should’ve known this was a deficiency and addressed it. The coaching staff should’ve figured something out by now.

I love Fatts but his hero ball hurts us at crucial times of games, especially when we’re making a comeback. I can’t understand why Leggett doesn’t get more PT. He plays hard, hustles and seems to bring energy every play. Not sure what he needs to do to see the court more but he’s probably thinking the same...

[Rhody15]

Lol you WOULD defend someone shooting 23% from the floor. You're pathetic Rhody15

People have defended Jermaine Harris when he goes 0- from the floor and gets lit up on D because he “tries hard.”

Fatts played terribly offensively tonight, but led the team in rebounds, steals, and made the right play to tie the game.

Imagine if he took the 3 and missed instead of passing to Harris?

Harris played 9 minutes today. Fatts played 41 minutes. Don't even fucking talk about Harris. thanks.

I’m saying people Have defended Harris in the past playing a whole lot worse than Fatts played tonight.

[Blue Man]

Complain?? All this board does is complain. Haha. If we were 13-0 we’d still hear complaining.

We’re not playing bad basketball. But we NEED to find a way to take care of the ball. Wayyy too many turnovers. Not sure what the answer is but there are too many giveaways.

We are most definitely playing bad basketball. Wut?

The answer to turnovers is to not have an “anyone can handle the ball” offense like Dave Cox does when you don’t have competent ball handlers.

He “got away with it” the first 2 years because his 2 guard was a ball handler too. Problem was Dowtin was 10x the floor general Fatts was so those teams never reached their potential.

We have 1 ball handler/creator on this team: Fatts.

We have shooters around him. We have bigs that can score in the post.

Go back to a single PG running the offense and minimize the ball handling errors by shooters and scorers who can’t handle in traffic or the open floor.

But I’ve been told I don’t watch enough basketball so maybe idk what I’m talking about.

Everyone on this board is always whining about Fatts forcing the issue and calling to get the ball out of Fatts hands? Now you want him to be the sole ball handler?

Granted, I don’t think Sheppard should have had the ball in his hands at the end of OT, but he’s a good point guard. Forces things at times, but I would definitely consider him a playmaker. I would have gone to Betrand or Fatts at the end there. However, we had an open look to tie the game. Can’t blame that on Cox. We just need to convert.

That and learn to make free throws.

Keep in mind our two best scores were 6-21 and we had a chance to send it in 2x overtime. If we can get the two of them to play consistently, I think this could be a tough team to beat. Consistency is key.

If Fatts’ role is a traditional point guard - then yeah, I feel a lot better about that. When he’s sometimes a PG and sometimes an SG it’s more likely he winds up with the ball
In a position to force something rather than settle into a role of creating and letting the game come to him.

You 100% can put them blame on Cox because it’s clear the play was designed to get Shepp driving. Shepp should be shooting. Or DJ shooting. Or Betrand shooting.

You want to drive? Go to Fatts. But trying to open the lane for one of the biggest TO machines on the team makes no sense.

Would’ve loved Ish to get more time to run the point as well.

[RamStock]

Fatts went 3-13 from the floor today but obviously no one is gonna talk about it because he's automatically exempt from any criticism lol

I agree. I get it that Fatts has done some very good things at URI, but he isn’t in the same stratosphere as Mobley, Wheeler, Reynolds Dean, Dowtin and on and on and on. His stats are manufactured by a ton of shots and awful shooting percentage. By no means this awful season on his shoulders, but he is nowhere near an NBA prospect that he claimed to be. He has been a fun player to watch, but we will be better off next year with more of a team approach.

[RhodyRams916]

People have defended Jermaine Harris when he goes 0- from the floor and gets lit up on D because he “tries hard.”

Fatts played terribly offensively tonight, but led the team in rebounds, steals, and made the right play to tie the game.

Imagine if he took the 3 and missed instead of passing to Harris?

Harris played 9 minutes today. Fatts played 41 minutes. Don't even fucking talk about Harris. thanks.

I’m saying people Have defended Harris in the past playing a whole lot worse than Fatts played tonight.

Ok and that's not right either. All I'm saying is that Fatts needs to understand his current condition (whatever injury it is) and simply SHOOT LESS.

[RhodyRams916]

Fatts went 3-13 from the floor today but obviously no one is gonna talk about it because he's automatically exempt from any criticism lol

I agree. I get it that Fatts has done some very good things at URI, but he isn’t in the same stratosphere as Mobley, Wheeler, Reynolds Dean, Dowtin and on and on and on. His stats are manufactured by a ton of shots and awful shooting percentage. By no means this awful season on his shoulders, but he is nowhere near an NBA prospect that he claimed to be. He has been a fun player to watch, but we will be better off next year with more of a team approach.

Exactly. I feel like he is more worried about being the leading scorer instead of helping his team and passing to more efficient shooters.

[steviep123]

This says it all.

[JimSidd]

Fatts can have his share of turnovers, but they are usually on wild drives to the basket and are mostly dead ball turnovers.

However, he needs to be the primary ball handler the entire time he is in the game. I don’t trust the other guards. They overdribble and don’t protect the ball. Their turnovers lead to run outs many times. This doesn’t include Leggett yet. He hasn’t handled the ball enough to know if he is a primary ball handler.

[Sweep The Leg]

Again, this team has skills sets, but they aren't being utilized. Carey and Sheppard shouldn't bring the ball up or run the offense. Only Fatts and Leggett should run the point.

Carey is a slasher. Pass to him cutting to the basket when his defender is on his hip and not a risk to interfere with his dribble.

Sheppard needs some screens at the 3 point line. As does DJ. Create some open looks for them.

Harris needs to learn his role. Play down low, get some offensive boards and put backs. That's it. No outside shots, no driving to basket, play down low and do the dirty work. Walker, kind of the same thing.

Martin play defense and lock down their best offensive player at the 2 or 3. Ish keep doing Ish things.

Mitchell is playing decent, just continue to improve FTs.

This team has no direction and no leadership. It starts with the coach. I see no on floor leader either. When I was at Rhody, it was Mike Brown. Maybe not the best player, but had a high basketball IQ and had the respect of his teammates. More recent examples, TJ and JT. We need someone to step up and be that player.

[Rhody15]

Yea I won’t miss Fatts nearly as much as I’ve missed EC, Terrell, Hassan, Stan, Dowtin, Garrett.

[phipsiGD'11]

I wish I could quit this team.

At least wheh Baron was here I expected us to lose every game, so it was a nice surprise when we won.

Would hate to go back to that mindset...

[Sweep The Leg]

I wish I could quit this team.

At least wheh Baron was here I expected us to lose every game, so it was a nice surprise when we won.

Would hate to go back to that mindset...

[Blue Man]

Yea I won’t miss Fatts nearly as much as I’ve missed EC, Terrell, Hassan, Stan, Dowtin, Garrett.

Or Hurley

[rhodylaw]

Fatts went 3-13 from the floor today but obviously no one is gonna talk about it because he's automatically exempt from any criticism lol

I agree. I get it that Fatts has done some very good things at URI, but he isn’t in the same stratosphere as Mobley, Wheeler, Reynolds Dean, Dowtin and on and on and on. His stats are manufactured by a ton of shots and awful shooting percentage. By no means this awful season on his shoulders, but he is nowhere near an NBA prospect that he claimed to be. He has been a fun player to watch, but we will be better off next year with more of a team approach.

Exactly. I feel like he is more worried about being the leading scorer instead of helping his team and passing to more efficient shooters.

I don’t see that at all in this game. Should he pass to another player to dribble into the hands of the other team? He made a great feed to Antoine in OT. He needs to finish better, didn’t have a great game but the ball didn’t stick in his hand.

[Blue Man]

My biggest problem is this: when did we ever have 3 3 point shooters connecting over 40%?

It’s a point guard’s dream.

Any half decent coach with an average, basic system would have a field day and have 3-4 more wins than we do right now.

Instead we take those good shooters and try to utilize them as ball handlers. They are shit ball handlers, thus the turnovers.

We take our good ball handler, and turn him into a shooter. He is a shit shooter, thus the losses.

What a system we’ve got here.

[NYGFan_Section208]

Capture.JPG

[eli#10]

11-21 from the line. Unacceptable

Damned if you do damned if you don't. In a perfect world Mitchell would not be on the floor at the end of a close came. Fouling him turns into a turnover almost every time especially when he missed multiple front ends of a 1and 1.. but he was our best player tonight. He needs to figure it out or it's going to be a problem all year

It's going to be a problem all year? How about for the next 2 1/2 years if not 3 1/2 x two as his brother is about the same kind of free throw shooter.
We cannot watch this every game going forward. It will drive us all nuts. i just checked to see if Rick Barry is still alive. He is and we have to get him here to give the twins a few lessons on how to shoot them like he did which is underhanded with both hands on the ball for you youngsters out there. It cannot be any worse.

[Rhody15]

My biggest problem is this: when did we ever have 3 3 point shooters connecting over 40%?

It’s a point guard’s dream.

Any half decent coach with an average, basic system would have a field day and have 3-4 more wins than we do right now.

Instead we take those good shooters and try to utilize them as ball handlers. They are shit ball handlers, thus the turnovers.

We take our good ball handler, and turn him into a shooter. He is a shit shooter, thus the losses.

What a system we’ve got here.

Best shooting team in years, best back to the basket player (yes I think Makhel has more post skill than Hassan, Hassan obviously a much better overall player) since Seawright and we’re 6-7.

How?

[rhodylaw]

My biggest problem is this: when did we ever have 3 3 point shooters connecting over 40%?

It’s a point guard’s dream.

Any half decent coach with an average, basic system would have a field day and have 3-4 more wins than we do right now.

Instead we take those good shooters and try to utilize them as ball handlers. They are shit ball handlers, thus the turnovers.

We take our good ball handler, and turn him into a shooter. He is a shit shooter, thus the losses.

What a system we’ve got here.

This I agree with - but he will get hot sometime next month and go on a streak and wins games for us.

[Rhody15]

11-21 from the line. Unacceptable

Damned if you do damned if you don't. In a perfect world Mitchell would not be on the floor at the end of a close came. Fouling him turns into a turnover almost every time especially when he missed multiple front ends of a 1and 1.. but he was our best player tonight. He needs to figure it out or it's going to be a problem all year

It's going to be a problem all year? How about for the next 2 1/2 years if not 3 1/2 x two as his brother is about the same kind of free throw shooter.
We cannot watch this every game going forward. It will drive us all nuts. i just checked to see if Rick Barry is still alive. He is and we have to get him here to give the twins a few lessons on how to shoot them like he did which is underhanded with both hands on the ball for you youngsters out there. It cannot be any worse.

We really criticizing Makhel after he just DOMINATED the best player in the conference??

The way we pick and choose who and how we critique players is wild.

[JimSidd]

I’ve watched every game this season and I’ve seen enough to conclude that this will be a .500 conference finish.

[eli#10]

Losing games is frustrating enough but it is the way we are losing that goes up my arse 8 1/2 miles. it has been a blessing in disguise that I have not been allowed to attend the home games. That is probably true for virtually for all of us on this board.

[eli#10]

Just checked Walker's performance the last three games and in 39 minutes he has committed 9 turnovers. In my Coaching 101 book that means you no longer are a starter on my team. There has to be some accountability by Cox.

[ericf0120]

Interesting thread here on the loss...agree with most of it honestly. Excuses are out the window at this point, and the way we lost tonight could be said for likely 5 of our 7 losses this year. I just don’t see any improvement or progress

[Dino611]

Losing games is frustrating enough but it is the way we are losing that goes up my arse 8 1/2 miles. it has been a blessing in disguise that I have not been allowed to attend the home games. That is probably true for virtually for all of us on this board.

I’d probably have a heart attack if I was at the games this year.

[reef]

This team is a pretty much a disgrace to watch, i'm dumbfounded how we were able to beat teams like Seton Hall or VCU. This is easily the most undisciplined team i've ever seen at any level, Constant turnover after turnover, the team doesnt value the ball and even worse has no identity. At least with Hurley even when he took over we had an identity, with Cox there is nothing that this team can say they do well. When we were losing in Dan's first 2 years you can at least see what he was building, a team, a culture, something you just know was going to come together. I was willing to give Cox every benefit of the doubt for this year with everything going on with covid, roster turnover, but game after game there is no improvement or adjustment in any part of the game, it makes you wonder what the F this team does in practice. Our offense is horrible, we dont pass well, we dont handle the ball well, we dont shoot well, we dont know how to attack a zone, on defense we constantly foul, are out of position on shooters and just lackluster in effort. I'm not sure I've even see us take a charge this year? I guess losing Hurley is really going to hurt more than I can ever imagine and it pains me to see what he's doing at UCONN. We are back to being URI, a team who'll see occasional success but nothing sustainable. Rant over.

This sums up my thoughts exactly agree with everything

[Rhody72]

The deeper the line-up, the greater the inconsistency. This team is meeting my expectations for the way they are being coached. They'll improve in time but their ceiling is limited.

I'm really impressed with Makhel whom I expected to be the weaker of the twins.

When we have an average start we have a great chance of winning. We wear opponents down over 40 minutes and can count on a late run.

This is about what I expected. Cox expects most players to do everything rather than getting more players to accept a more limited role. All these players can do is work on improving everything.

Sheppard and Fatts shoot too many deep treys. Such a low percentage shot. End it.

Sheppard should not start or be a primary ball handler, he should work on his outside shooting and be a sub for Fatts and Ish.

Betrand and DJ are needed for offense and should share SF with Malik playing when we need defense.

Play Carey when you want to rev up the crowd with his awesome athleticism and you can afford to give up some of your lead.

The point I'm making is that players need to have primary roles for which they work on improving and on which their performance is measured. This will raise our ceiling.

What we've got is AAU ball, not team basketball.

[rambone 78]

Nothing changes.

Same mistakes game after game.

Leggett sits and sits.....and probably will leave if it continues.

Can't shoot FT's.

Turnover after turnover.

Cox has zero clue.

We're going to suffer with this for the rest of this season, and likely next season too.

I'm about ready to check out....let me know when we get a new staff.

[ramster]

The deeper the line-up, the greater the inconsistency. This team is meeting my expectations for the way they are being coached. They'll improve in time but their ceiling is limited.

I'm really impressed with Makhel whom I expected to be the weaker of the twins.

When we have an average start we have a great chance of winning. We wear opponents down over 40 minutes and can count on a late run.

This is about what I expected. Cox expects most players to do everything rather than getting more players to accept a more limited role. All these players can do is work on improving everything.

Sheppard and Fatts shoot too many deep treys. Such a low percentage shot. End it.

Sheppard should not start or be a primary ball handler, he should work on his outside shooting and be a sub for Fatts and Ish.

Betrand and DJ are needed for offense and should share SF with Malik playing when we need defense.

Play Carey when you want to rev up the crowd with his awesome athleticism and you can afford to give up some of your lead.

The point I'm making is that players need to have primary roles for which they work on improving and on which their performance is measured. This will raise our ceiling.

What we've got is AAU ball, not team basketball.

I’ve watched a lot of AAU Basketball and this is far worse than AAU. 16 steals by UMASS last night. URI had 6 steals. Game-Set-Match
You were wanting URI AD to lock in Cox for the long term about a month ago. Still thinking so?

[ramster]

Antwan Walker - Head Scratching Coaching move
Started 1st half and pulled at 15:36 - 4:24 playing time
Subbed in 6:16 and pulled 4:11 - 2:04 playing time
Started 2nd half and pulled at 14:55 - 5:05 playing time
Total 11 min 33 sec
Subbed for Martin with 20 seconds left in OT

Why sit your starter the last 15 minutes of a game, not start him in OT and put him in with 20 seconds left and the game in the line?

No sweat built up, likely wondering what he has done to deserve so much bench sitting - then get the call unexpectedly with 20 seconds to go? Why pull Martin then? Both players must be bewildered.

Walker hardly had time to work the kinks out and get a sweat going.

Just strange. I felt bad for Walker after the miss as he walked away quickly to the locker room. Nobody trying to console him from URI - not players or coaches.

Not how you build confidence in players or team.

[Blue Man]

Interesting thread here on the loss...agree with most of it honestly. Excuses are out the window at this point, and the way we lost tonight could be said for likely 5 of our 7 losses this year. I just don’t see any improvement or progress

Pretty spot on.

Until Cox changes his offense and goes to a 1 PG system we are doomed unless we play VCU every game. It’s the only system this Cox offense works against because you can’t press/man a team where anyone can be the PG at any time.

Unfortunately, there is only one VCU and our system creates 20 turnovers a game against even the shittiest of teams.

[Jersey77]

This says it all.

This is very discouraging that this team is digressing with ball security considering that we had a season low of 8 turnovers against Seton Hall compared to what we are witnessing now.
They better reverse this trend soon if they want to turn this season around.

[ace]

This team is like an object lesson for fans who go off about why isn’t that guy getting minutes? (not Ish related) why don’t they let that guy take more threes? why doesn’t that guy handle the point? For every question, they have a guy do it and then it’s like well that’s awful, don’t do that again. But then they do it again! Either they look better in practice and aren’t carrying it over to games, or it’s bad everywhere and there are no adjustments. Because there aren’t defined roles, it looks chaotic and no one trusts each other.

I think this team competes- they’ve come back from deficits and there are times they’ve fought back. That’s a start, but again, they are 13 games and months of practice in to a rare (this season) uninterrupted stretch.

Looking at the schedule, they could win 3 of the next 4, and the end of their schedule looks favorable with Fordham and fan-less game on Hawk Hill.

[section(105)]

.......for me, no pectin in the sauce, collection of talent, sure.......playing in a system that does not fit their individual skill sets, not placing them in position to be using those skill sets to be successful.......apparently the season will go as Fatts goes.......hoping he shoots his way out of slump while waiting to accompany that with another player or two to have a good game......shaky defense......at times critical free throws missed......to many playing to few minutes......enough talent to steal a game or two, not sustained so that we drop games that on paper we should win.....not a recipe for nothing better than a mid/lower mid conference team......out

[Rhodymob05]

To me , I saw great use of Mitchell in the paint, great use of our shooters DJ and Betrand. Other then that, it was a sh*t show of guys having no discipline. I’m not sure what’s wrong with Fatts but he’s got to get under control. I know these guys respect Cox, but I don’t think they listen.

[ramster]

We can blame the coach for the 16 steals by UMASS but Johnson, Leggett, Martin and Harris has zero turnovers total.
Carey had 3 all of which were outright steals off the dribble in the half court offense. He was not bringing the ball up the court, ie point guard.
Degray, Fernandes and Garcia each stripped Carey for breakaways. All 3 first year players for umass. Carey now with 25 turnovers for the year. A few games back the announcer said turnovers was why he was no longer at Syracuse. So no surprise here.

Betrand had 2 balls stolen off the dribble. Fatts had 2 stolen off the dribble.

UMASS seemed to know they could steal before the game. 16 steals is huge. URI in history has only exceeded 16 steals in a game a handful of times. 20 is the record for URI. Nothing in the record books about opponents stealing against us.

While it’s “on the Coach” and easy to blanket blame the Coach, some players like Leggett, Martin and Johnson are not losing the ball to steals.

[bigappleram]

The biggest concern for me goes back to the identity, culture building that seems to be lacking. We fail the body language test for me, just things I see that don’t signify a team first attitude. Where are the guys dancing in the bench and being a brotherhood we saw at Mohegan. That seems to have vanished.

[ramster]

3 Point shooting after 13 games shows some very strong percentages:
Betrand - 48%
Johnson - 46%
Leggett - 43%
Sheppard - 40%
Walker - 40%

Russell is 20% and leads the team in 3FG attempts

• Russell hit his 1st 3FG attempt last night but banked it in - clearly lucky

• 2nd 3FG attempt with 2:39 left in 2nd half after a solid comeback. 16 seconds into shot clock and our worst 3FG shooter let’s go an airball 3FG

• In OT with 2:52 left he missed a 3FG badly. The TV Announcer said “that was an ugly shot” and it was.

Russell can’t resist the pull of being the hero. He has 5 teammates hitting 40% or more on 3FGs but he insists on taking 3FGs himself late in a tight game while hitting a miserable 20% at the season halfway point.

Will things change the second half of the season?

[KingstonLane]

We can blame the coach for the 16 steals by UMASS but Johnson, Leggett, Martin and Harris has zero turnovers total.
Carey had 3 all of which were outright steals off the dribble in the half court offense. He was not bringing the ball up the court, ie point guard.
Degray, Fernandes and Garcia each stripped Carey for breakaways. All 3 first year players for umass. Carey now with 25 turnovers for the year. A few games back the announcer said turnovers was why he was no longer at Syracuse. So no surprise here.

Betrand had 2 balls stolen off the dribble. Fatts had 2 stolen off the dribble.

UMASS seemed to know they could steal before the game. 16 steals is huge. URI in history has only exceeded 16 steals in a game a handful of times. 20 is the record for URI. Nothing in the record books about opponents stealing against us.

While it’s “on the Coach” and easy to blanket blame the Coach, some players like Leggett, Martin and Johnson are not losing the ball to steals.

Context is important too. Leggett and Harris only played 9 minutes each. DJ is very much a spot up shooter and hardly has the ball in his hands. I’m not trying to take anything away from them, but obviously primary ball handlers will always have “more” turnovers. That being said the level of turnovers is obviously unacceptable.

Truthfully I don’t know what the fix is. Obviously comes down to coaching/schemes on some level, and then execution and player accountability.

Regardless of people’s opinions Cox will likely get this season and next to figure it out (or not figure it out). You think we’re frustrated? Can only imagine how he feels

[KingstonLane]

The biggest concern for me goes back to the identity, culture building that seems to be lacking. We fail the body language test for me, just things I see that don’t signify a team first attitude. Where are the guys dancing in the bench and being a brotherhood we saw at Mohegan. That seems to have vanished.

Yup. Walker was playing well then, his energy felt infectious and he’s struggled since. Mitchell twins were excited to be playing minutes again (now one is hurt and I’m sure that’s mentally tolling).

It also hurts that Fatts doesn’t seem to be much of a natural leader/motivator. That’s no knock on him as we’re all humans after all. But this team lacks on court leadership.

[ace]

The biggest concern for me goes back to the identity, culture building that seems to be lacking. We fail the body language test for me, just things I see that don’t signify a team first attitude. Where are the guys dancing in the bench and being a brotherhood we saw at Mohegan. That seems to have vanished.

I think that’s the kind of thing that can go bad pretty quickly if it’s going to in a season like this. The guys are fairly isolated, there’s no crowd to feed off of and to get reinforcement from, and it can get easy to point fingers. I don’t see that as being that far removed from the roles discussion, though. Don’t try to do it all and be happy for your guys when they get it done. The other team I follow- there’s a guy coming off the bench now who has started for a lot of his career, but he’s embracing the new specific role. It’s been communicated to him- this is your thing, it makes the team better and it’s also your ticket to an eventual pro contract. Shooters can make money, and the role can be mutually beneficial.

Teams have to be more resilient this season than maybe ever before and it has to come from within the program. If there’s confusion, disappointment, resentment- it can get ugly. This team has come back from deficits, though- that could be a starting point if it’s handled correctly.

[ramster]

The biggest concern for me goes back to the identity, culture building that seems to be lacking. We fail the body language test for me, just things I see that don’t signify a team first attitude. Where are the guys dancing in the bench and being a brotherhood we saw at Mohegan. That seems to have vanished.

Not a good sign at all.
Playing 10 guys is too many - need to narrow down to the right 7-8 players
Some players should be getting less minutes, some should be getting more
The players know who should be getting the minutes
Martin, Leggett, Johnson, Harris with zero turnovers. None of the 16 UMASS steals were attributed to them
Very sloppy play by Sheppard, Carey, Betrand, Russell and Walker.

[RhowdyRam02]

.......for me, no pectin in the sauce, collection of talent, sure.......playing in a system that does not fit their individual skill sets, not placing them in position to be using those skill sets to be successful.......apparently the season will go as Fatts goes.......hoping he shoots his way out of slump while waiting to accompany that with another player or two to have a good game......shaky defense......at times critical free throws missed......to many playing to few minutes......enough talent to steal a game or two, not sustained so that we drop games that on paper we should win.....not a recipe for nothing better than a mid/lower mid conference team......out

Even with Dowtin and Langevine, Cox' strategy was let Fatts do what he wants, we'll go as he goes. Why are we surprised that's his strategy this year? When this is the coaching strategy you take the other guys on the team see it and start playing the same way they see the star player playing. That's why this team looks like an AAU/playground pickup group as opposed to a college team. What will everything look like next year when we don't have Fatts for Cox to lean on?

[rhodyrudder]

Haven't read the whole thread...
Clearly there are lots of issues, but we lost this game because
WE TREAT THE BALL LIKE IT'S A HOT POTATO!!!

OH LOOK, ANOTHER WASTED POSSESSION!!!

(frequently leading to a layup...)

That being said, I do want to highlight two positives...
Betrand's shot at the end was clutch!!!
And I knew it was going down as soon as he pump-faked and let it go.

#2) Big balls coming back from being down 15.

It's too bad Walker's shot didn't go, but it was a nice play.
Great pass from Fatts.

I'm not done with this team yet.

Who knows how the next two months are going to play out,
but we're going to continue to be fun(?!?), if not exasperating at times, to watch.

[Obadiah]

Sheppard had another really bad game and when that happens the Rams invariably lose. He started the season in a promising way despite losses to ASU and BC, but given his experience, he has shown disappointing performance of late. And his poor performances contributed to the Ram's losses to WKU, Davidson,, Richmond and now UMass. His poor performance against St. Joes's contributed to that game being closer than it should have been. The only other win where he played poorly was San Francisco. So Sheppard has become somewhat a barometer - when he plays bad we lose.