William D. Mullins Memorial Center, Amherst, MA
Saturday, January 14, 2023
4:30PM
Media
TV: NESN+
Online: ESPN +
Radio: Tune In Radio
App: Varsity Network
Previews
UMass Fan Forum
The state school of Rhode Island heads to Amherst to take on the state school of neighboring Massachusetts. Rhody hung on by the skin of their teeth in their last game by overcoming an 11-0 run in the final minutes of Wednesday’s game against The Bonnies. Thankfully Ish come up with some huge free throws to give the Rams a 1-point victory. The Minutemen (insert sexual inadequacy joke here) cum in with a 10-6 record on the season and are just 1-3 in the conference. They have a couple nice wins against Colorado at a neutral site and home against Saint Louis. Like Rhody, UMass played UMass Lowell, but they lost to them.
Following the firing of Matt McCall, the Minutemen hired former South Carolina coach Frank Martin. Martin is familiar with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as he started his collegiate coaching career as an assistant coach at Northeastern. Speaking of a familiarity with Massachusetts, on Martin’s staff is Derek Kellogg who is both a former player (1991-95) as well as former coach at UMass (2000-08). On the court, the Minutemen are lead Noah Fernandes. Fernandes missed most of December with an ankle injury. He is leading the team in both scoring and assists (13.4/4.1). He is a solid three-point shooter but somehow atrocious from the line (64%). The only other double-digit scorer is forward Matt Cross, who is playing for his 3rd school in 3 years (Miami & Louisville). UMass has some height downlow with Isaac Kante and center Wildens Leveque. Leveque, who followed Coach Martin from South Carolina to Massachusetts, is coming off an injury to his knees where he missed a few games. UMass also sports 2 players from RI in TJ Weeks Jr & Dyondre Dominguez.
Like I mentioned in the last write-up, Rhody always seem to have one player with an off-shooting night & last game was Bray. After “calling out” (in the weakest terms possible) Ish, he had a monster game going for 23 & 14. After never having double-digit rebounds in a game before this season, he picked up his 3rd while doing it in back-to-back games. With ice in his veins, he also nailed the game winning free throws. If Rhody hopes to pick up their first true road win of the season, they are going to need more of that.
Rhody did pull out the victory the last time they played out in the sticks of Amherst. Over the last 8 games at UMass, Rhody has won 5 of them. I am going to say it again, if you want free money, might I suggest looking at the race to 10 points in the first half. Rhody has won the race to 10 in 8 of the last 10 games. I am guessing UMass will be favored by about 5 or 6 points. Can Rhody pull off the upset? If it comes down to free-throws Rhody has a clear advantage. I certainly hope URI can pull out the victory, but I think they fall up short. My prediction is UMass 71 – URI 68. Go Rhody!!
Opponent
Record:
10-6, 1-3 in the A10
15-17, 7-11 in the A10 (Last Season)
Rankings (URI):
NCAA NET: 153 (235)
RPI: 109 (209)
KenPom: 151 (205)
BPI: 148 (231)
Sagarin: 147 (193)
Barttovik: 167 (202)
Leaders:
Points – Noah Fernandes 13.4 (Sr., G)
Rebounds – Matt Cross 6.3 (Jr., F)
Assists – Noah Fernandes 4.1 (Sr., G) (2.2 TO per game)
Historical
Series: 68-92
H: 41-33, A: 27-54, N: 0-5
Most Recent Matchup: 2/5/22 78-67 L at URI
Most Recent Win Streak: 1 – UMass
Match-up Predictor: 20.9% Chance of URI Winning