Ryan Center, Kingston, RI
Monday, November 6, 2023
7:00PM
Media
TV: N/A
Online: ESPN +
Radio: Tune In Radio
App: Varsity Network
Previews
Central Connecticut Fan Forum
The 2023-24 season finally tips off on Monday night as the Central Connecticut Blue Devils travel 90 minutes east to Kingston, RI to take on the University of Rhode Island Rams. On the sidelines, coach Patrick Sellers, who played for the Blue Devils in the late 80s/early 90s, enters his third season & has struggled so far with winning only 28% of their team's games. There has been some turnover on the CCSU roster as their leading rebounder (8.4) Andre Snoddy transferred to Stony Brook. They will need someone to step up on the glass because of all their returning players, they have no one had over 3.5 rebounds per game. They also lost their leading assist leader (3.3) to graduation, Nigel Scantlebury. They did pickup grad transfer Allan Jeanne-Rose from Fairfield who went for 10 & 4 last season. They also picked up senior Jordan Jones from DII Coker University. Providence native Jayden Brown closed the season strong last season by scoring in double digits in 4 of their final 5 games. Look for him to step-up & have a solid season. They are an experienced team with 9 of their players being upperclassmen.
For the Rams, they look to put last season’s debacle in the distant past with basically a whole new roster. As I touched upon in the Assumption preview, they have only 4 returning players (Bilau {who is still hurt}, Weston, Stewart, & walk on Jimmy Ball) from last season, which accounted for less than 13% of the team's scoring. They reloaded with High Point transfer Jaden House, Bradley transfer Zek Montgomery, Quinnipiac transfer Luis Kortright, a few other transfers & an incoming freshmen class. Both Freshmen Jeremy Foumena & David Fuchs have a chance for a solid coming out party against an undersized Central Connecticut team. The Rams scored 66 of their 96 points in the paint against Assumption the other night. I think the Rams have a chance to score more than half of their points downlow again.
Last year the Rams opened the season by playing a small Connecticut school (Quinnipiac) at home & lost. Hopefully this outcome doesn’t happen again. The only repeat from last year’s opener is I would like to see Luis Kortright be the game’s leading scorer. Unfortunately, last year he did it for Quinnipiac. The Rams struggled from deep in last year’s opener shooting just 2-17 & the last time CCSU came to Kington in 2008, URI shot 2-15 from deep including Baron’s 2-12. Let’s hope they snapped out of that rut this year.
The Rams have never lost to these Blue Devils & I think we keep that streak alive again Monday night. I believe we will have a few double-digit scorers with evenly distributed scoring. Oh yeah, don’t forget to bet URI first to ten. Ha. My prediction, URI 73 – Central Connecticut 62. Go Rhody!!
Opponent
Record:
0-0, 0-0 in the NEC
10-22, 7-9 in the NEC (Last Season)
Rankings (URI):
NCAA NET: 341 (263)*
RPI: 343 (281)
KenPom: 316 (193)
BPI: 330 (248)*
Sagarin: 342 (229)*
Barttovik: 311 (183)*
*Denotes Last Season Rankings
Leaders:
Points – Kellen Amos 14.1 (Sr., G)*
Rebounds – Abdul Momoh 3.5 (Jr., F)*
Assists – Jay Rodgers 2.3 (Sr., G) (1.4 TO per game)*
*Denotes Last Season Rankings
Historical
Series: 2-0
H: 2-0, A: 0-0, N: 0-0
Most Recent Matchup: 12/13/08 78-69 W at URI
Most Recent Win Streak: 2 - URI
Match-up Predictor: 75.7% Chance of URI Winning