1/30 | Duquesne Dukes | 7:00PM (ESPN+)

[section(105)]

The ESPN announcers kept talking about the “Rhode Island program.” I’m afraid to say we are watching all the progress we’ve made over the last 6 years go right down the drain.

......as disappointed as I am, in a rebuilding year 20 games does for me not equal a program Draino moment, but the sink is starting to get clogged......

[RhodyRam86]

Cyril left 4 possessions on the floor with those 9 missed FT’s. We are 16-4 if we make 75% off our FT’s.

Christian is bad on DEF but Omar is worse.

Fatts needs a 3PT and shot limit until he shoots over 45% for 3 games or more in a row.

We are in positions to win games. Again, we could be 16-4. We are not and the blame is spread.

I’m sick about this loss but I see potential. Tons.

I don’t see Joe Dooley or another mid major coach being much better. We are what we are, right now.

DC...By your calculation, looks like we picked up quite a few wins if we make 75% of our free throws. I don't have time to run through these games myself, but would be curious to know what our record would be if the other team also made 75% of their free throws. I'm guessing that would change that 16-4 record a bit.

[rambone 78]

105, we have a talent deficit.....not enough returning talent plus talented but inexperienced freshmen plus a coach that is learning the job the hard way....and the staff?

We will most certainly be better next season...I think Walker will be a huge help inside....but guard play and depth will remain a question mark....NCAA tourney is no sure thing and that's a fact.

[RhowdyRam02]

Not to beat a dead horse (phrase usually said just before your take out the riding crop), but in the UMass game, Rhody let up a 17-0 run without Cox taking a time out to stop the bleeding. Last night, Rhody let up a 15-0 run in the second half, again without Cox taking a time out.

Can you imagine any of the big name coaches doing that? This is a young team with promise, but they need to be coached. Coaches have bad games, too. The last two games by Cox, unfortunately, reminded me of all the worst aspects of Coach Clueless, "roll the ball out and let them play", Jerry Duh. Not saying Cox = Jerry D., by no means, but man, c'mon.

And yet Cox will take random timeouts early in the second half after we make a basket

[steviep123]

I'm not going to blame tonight's loss on free throw shooting. That is last on a long list of things to blame. Sure, if they make 8 of the 10 free throws they missed, the game is probably too far out of reach for Duquesne to catch up. And making free throws would be big in keeping teams put away/not letting them back in. But that's not the real problem. The real problem last night was the inability to get defensive rebounds and giving the Dukes 2nd and 3rd chance 3s. This all started with 3 turn overs (2 travels and a foul) in the first 3 possessions of the 2nd half. Duquesne scored on all 3 possessions for 7 points. So instead of pushing the lead into the 20s, it was cut to 12 and allowed them back in it.

Bill Koch pretty much sums it up in this tweet:

[rjsuperfly66]

Off topic but does anyone have a link or know where to look for the list of oldest to youngest college basketball teams in the country by age or experience?

URI ranks 311 in total experience (straight forward) and 282 in minutes continuity. I don't fully grasp minutes continuity, but KenPom's explanation is "It’s determining what percentage of a team’s minutes are played by the same player from last season to this season." I think the point of it is to say there is more to the story than just young or old, but also how much time those players spend on the court. You could have a senior who hasn't touched the court in three years boost your experience to make you seem older, or a sophomore who averaged 30 minutes per game as a freshmen who will have a different role than a sophomore who played 5 minutes per game their freshmen year. If you have any specific questions, fire away and I can easily get the data for you.

[SmartyBarrett]

Their A10 schedule has been pretty weak so far. Wins over Fordham, St. Joes, GW, and Richmond. No idea how they beat St. Louis though. Clearly must have played much better than that first half!

I cringed when I read this at halftime. This team is a roller coaster.
Duquesne is now 6-2 and headed to Dayton for a big game on Saturday.
We go to 4-4 and play Saint Louis at home on Saturday - I'll be surprised if we win.

Literally nothing with this team would surprise me at this point. I could see them beating SLU by 20, I could see them losing by 20, and everything in between.

[steviep123]

We have zero shot at winning 4 games in 4 days...we can't even put 2 halves together, much less games.

And Jeff will be worn down to nothing by then...he's already fallen off...….

And why does anyone think we will be able to by then anyway?

We will still suck at FT's and 3's and disappear on defense at times......Tyrese Martin, as good as he already is, and will be, can't play all 5 positions at once lol.

I wasn't saying we would....someone pointed it that it never happened (I think), and I was saying it did happen in the past.

[hrstrat57]

Western PA is DQ central....

Nothing beats a DQ Blizzard! Always had a hard time driving by those DQ off I 80

Actually there’s one just east of Dubois we never drove by without stopping

....chill DQ talk def beats Rhody Ram Hot takes at the moment....

[ATPTourFan]

Off topic but does anyone have a link or know where to look for the list of oldest to youngest college basketball teams in the country by age or experience?

Rhody is 311st in experience per Kenpom: https://kenpom.com/height.php?s=ExpRank

[BlackDogRants]

The ESPN announcers kept talking about the “Rhode Island program.” I’m afraid to say we are watching all the progress we’ve made over the last 6 years go right down the drain.

Careful / I said this and got blasted even tho it’s a perfectly logical post

The issue I have with this line of thought is that I don’t think this team would be appreciably better with Hurley coaching, so it’s hard for me to then say this is because of the coaching. This team reminds me a little bit of the 2013-14 team that went 14-18 and the 2014-15 team that went to the NIT and knocked on the door of the tournament - the core talent here is relatively young. I think we are somewhere in between those two teams in terms of roster life cycle. Those teams eventually matured into some of the best teams we’ve ever had here.

There is nothing fun about watching your team piss away a 20 point lead in conference, believe me. But it isn’t hard for me to imagine a time 6 weeks from now or 10 months from now where we look back at these frustrating games and consider them learning experiences. Seeing glimpses of what this team is capable of if they get it together is not worthless. There is not a guarantee that they will eventually put it all together, but knowing that is in there somewhere is at least something to hold on to, and it wouldn’t be surprising at all when all is said and done with this core group if they do figure it out when they’re more experienced and struggled when they were relatively inexperienced.

I have been getting crucified for saying that Cox may have been a mistake and we would have been in a much better position if DH was still around. Ill go even further and say ANY head coach with experience would be better. Why? Development! Veteran coaches know how to develop talent. You talk about our past teams like 13-14...EC and Hassan were Freshman. Early games that season those 2 were coming off the bench for about 10-15 min a game. Fast forward to February that same season and both were starting with 30+ minutes each. Granted the season was pretty much shot and it made sense to start them, but what I am trying to show is improvement over the course of the season.

Now that being said, look at our team right now... with the exception of Martin... who is really getting better? Who is really improving? I don't see it - The last two games are a regression.

[ace]

Not sure I put much significance into the “if they hit 75% of free throws, they’d be 16-4” talk. Ok, but they haven’t, and I’m not sure it’s a reasonable mark for this group, anyway. It’s like saying “have different players.” Fatts and Harris are shooting 75%. Dowtin, Langevine, and Thompson are making free throws at a higher rate than their previous seasons. We know what they’re going to give us (or not give us) at the line, so value possessions and work to find/limit points elsewhere.

[steviep123]

Not sure I put much significance into the “if they hit 75% of free throws, they’d be 16-4” talk. Ok, but they haven’t, and I’m not sure it’s a reasonable mark for this group, anyway. It’s like saying “have different players.” Fatts and Harris are shooting 75%. Dowtin, Langevine, and Thompson are making free throws at a higher rate than their previous seasons. We know what they’re going to give us (or not give us) at the line, so value possessions and work to find/limit points elsewhere.

I agree...yes, they would have probably won last night if they hit a lot more free throws, but that is low on the list of why they lost the game. The game was lost in the first 3 possessions of the 2nd half. 2 turnovers and a foul led to 7 Duquesne points. So instead of pushing the lead into the 20s, it was cut to 12 and then it was a game. A little more effort and focus early in the 2nd half and they put this game away and we are having a much different conversation tomorrow. But beyond that, any team worth its salt is going to counter punch down big at halftime. A seasoned team will weather that storm. We are clearly not a seasoned team. While I'm still pissed off about this game, it is a learning experience and I hope they will learn from this and better weather these storms and come backs in the future. They were able to do it against VCU last week (although with VCU it was more desperation), so let's hope this becomes more of an aberration.

[Running Ram]

our team has talent, we're young with a young coach, good game/bad game is what young talented teams do. I'm an off-season optimist and an in-season realist, I didn't make predictions this year but optimistically, thought we might be at about 13 or 14 wins now, we're stuck at 11, ok, by no means are we "circling the drain." If we end up at 18 or 19 wins and move forward from there, we will keep our momentum and remain a valued mid-major name. These games are head coaching experience for a young head coach, we should be familiar with that bit. DH was still cutting his teeth when he got here, now we watch DC cutting his teeth, it takes time and patients. No need to feel such dire emotions, we will reload and regain.

[Seawrightspostgame]

Frustrating stuff.

[SmartyBarrett]

Not sure I put much significance into the “if they hit 75% of free throws, they’d be 16-4” talk. Ok, but they haven’t, and I’m not sure it’s a reasonable mark for this group, anyway. It’s like saying “have different players.” Fatts and Harris are shooting 75%. Dowtin, Langevine, and Thompson are making free throws at a higher rate than their previous seasons. We know what they’re going to give us (or not give us) at the line, so value possessions and work to find/limit points elsewhere.

It's always fun to look at the top FT shooting teams in the country. #1 is Incarnate Word, who hits an insane 81.3 percent of their free throws. It's led them to a monster 6-15 record. There are only two good teams in the top 10 -- Hofstra and Marquette.

[Billyboy78]

We all know Cyril isn't a good free throw shooter. But I would expect him to at least be in the 60-65% range. When he goes 4-13, it's in his head.

[ramsman75]

Cyril left 4 possessions on the floor with those 9 missed FT’s. We are 16-4 if we make 75% off our FT’s.

Christian is bad on DEF but Omar is worse.

Fatts needs a 3PT and shot limit until he shoots over 45% for 3 games or more in a row.

We are in positions to win games. Again, we could be 16-4. We are not and the blame is spread.

I’m sick about this loss but I see potential. Tons.

I don’t see Joe Dooley or another mid major coach being much better. We are what we are, right now.

DC...By your calculation, looks like we picked up quite a few wins if we make 75% of our free throws. I don't have time to run through these games myself, but would be curious to know what our record would be if the other team also made 75% of their free throws. I'm guessing that would change that 16-4 record a bit.

[ramsman75]

If we made 75% of our free throws it would have only changed the result of 2 games, Bucknell and Duquesne, hence a record of 13-7, 5-3 in conference. Not sure wher 16-4 comes from?

[Ram96]

The ESPN announcers kept talking about the “Rhode Island program.” I’m afraid to say we are watching all the progress we’ve made over the last 6 years go right down the drain.

Careful / I said this and got blasted even tho it’s a perfectly logical post

The issue I have with this line of thought is that I don’t think this team would be appreciably better with Hurley coaching, so it’s hard for me to then say this is because of the coaching. This team reminds me a little bit of the 2013-14 team that went 14-18 and the 2014-15 team that went to the NIT and knocked on the door of the tournament - the core talent here is relatively young. I think we are somewhere in between those two teams in terms of roster life cycle. Those teams eventually matured into some of the best teams we’ve ever had here.

There is nothing fun about watching your team piss away a 20 point lead in conference, believe me. But it isn’t hard for me to imagine a time 6 weeks from now or 10 months from now where we look back at these frustrating games and consider them learning experiences. Seeing glimpses of what this team is capable of if they get it together is not worthless. There is not a guarantee that they will eventually put it all together, but knowing that is in there somewhere is at least something to hold on to, and it wouldn’t be surprising at all when all is said and done with this core group if they do figure it out when they’re more experienced and struggled when they were relatively inexperienced.

I totally disagree. I think a lot of the blame this year is on Cox. Yes we have a young roster but we make so many basic fundamental mistakes. In my opinion we would have at least 2 or 3 more wins this year if Hurley was still coaching. my opinion. We got the ball back with 5 or 6 seconds left in the game and Cox didn't even call a timeout to set up a play.

[TruePoint]

I think fans, in general, give way too much of the blame and the credit to coaches. Coaching is very important, but blaming the coach for whatever goes wrong as a default position is a really big oversimplification.

[Taylor Swift]

our team has talent, we're young with a young coach, good game/bad game is what young talented teams do. I'm an off-season optimist and an in-season realist, I didn't make predictions this year but optimistically, thought we might be at about 13 or 14 wins now, we're stuck at 11, ok, by no means are we "circling the drain." If we end up at 18 or 19 wins and move forward from there, we will keep our momentum and remain a valued mid-major name. These games are head coaching experience for a young head coach, we should be familiar with that bit. DH was still cutting his teeth when he got here, now we watch DC cutting his teeth, it takes time and patients. No need to feel such dire emotions, we will reload and regain.

:::clapping:::

[Billyboy78]

Some have asked why we didn't call a timeout? We didn't have any left.

[KevanBoyles]

Test. My iPhone IP address has been blacklisted for some reason. Anyone know what's gong on???

[ace]

Some have asked why we didn't call a timeout? We didn't have any left.

Chris Webber does not see a problem here.

[Taylor Swift]

Test. My iPhone IP address has been blacklisted for some reason. Anyone know what's gong on???

On KB.com? ATP can probably help you with that. Might be a fluke.

[Rhodymob05]

What truly screwed us was the missed offensive basket interference on a putback dunk!

[KevanBoyles]

Test. My iPhone IP address has been blacklisted for some reason. Anyone know what's gong on???

On KB.com? ATP can probably help you with that. Might be a fluke.

I have sent an email to the administrator (ATP?) I hope that will solve the problem.

Has anyone else had a similar problem???

[steviep123]

What truly screwed us was the missed offensive basket interference on a putback dunk!

I agree, it was a horrible no call, but it shouldn't have even come to that.

[KevanBoyles]

Test. My iPhone IP address has been blacklisted for some reason. Anyone know what's gong on???

On KB.com? ATP can probably help you with that. Might be a fluke.

I have sent an email to the administrator (ATP?) I hope that will solve the problem.

Has anyone else had a similar problem???

iPhone ip address working again. Don't know what happened. Thanks to anyone who helped.

[RhowdyRam02]

We all know Cyril isn't a good free throw shooter. But I would expect him to at least be in the 60-65% range. When he goes 4-13, it's in his head.

He's at 59.3% after last night's game, so he was in your percentage range 24 hours ago

[RhowdyRam02]

Careful / I said this and got blasted even tho it’s a perfectly logical post

The issue I have with this line of thought is that I don’t think this team would be appreciably better with Hurley coaching, so it’s hard for me to then say this is because of the coaching. This team reminds me a little bit of the 2013-14 team that went 14-18 and the 2014-15 team that went to the NIT and knocked on the door of the tournament - the core talent here is relatively young. I think we are somewhere in between those two teams in terms of roster life cycle. Those teams eventually matured into some of the best teams we’ve ever had here.

There is nothing fun about watching your team piss away a 20 point lead in conference, believe me. But it isn’t hard for me to imagine a time 6 weeks from now or 10 months from now where we look back at these frustrating games and consider them learning experiences. Seeing glimpses of what this team is capable of if they get it together is not worthless. There is not a guarantee that they will eventually put it all together, but knowing that is in there somewhere is at least something to hold on to, and it wouldn’t be surprising at all when all is said and done with this core group if they do figure it out when they’re more experienced and struggled when they were relatively inexperienced.

I totally disagree. I think a lot of the blame this year is on Cox. Yes we have a young roster but we make so many basic fundamental mistakes. In my opinion we would have at least 2 or 3 more wins this year if Hurley was still coaching. my opinion. We got the ball back with 5 or 6 seconds left in the game and Cox didn't even call a timeout to set up a play.

That's at least the second time this year Cox hasn't taken a timeout at the end of the game, let the offense go, and we've lost. Then again, the one time he did call a timeout in that situation Fatts said he wasn't going to run the play Cox called, so...

[Blue Man]

The issue I have with this line of thought is that I don’t think this team would be appreciably better with Hurley coaching, so it’s hard for me to then say this is because of the coaching. This team reminds me a little bit of the 2013-14 team that went 14-18 and the 2014-15 team that went to the NIT and knocked on the door of the tournament - the core talent here is relatively young. I think we are somewhere in between those two teams in terms of roster life cycle. Those teams eventually matured into some of the best teams we’ve ever had here.

There is nothing fun about watching your team piss away a 20 point lead in conference, believe me. But it isn’t hard for me to imagine a time 6 weeks from now or 10 months from now where we look back at these frustrating games and consider them learning experiences. Seeing glimpses of what this team is capable of if they get it together is not worthless. There is not a guarantee that they will eventually put it all together, but knowing that is in there somewhere is at least something to hold on to, and it wouldn’t be surprising at all when all is said and done with this core group if they do figure it out when they’re more experienced and struggled when they were relatively inexperienced.

I totally disagree. I think a lot of the blame this year is on Cox. Yes we have a young roster but we make so many basic fundamental mistakes. In my opinion we would have at least 2 or 3 more wins this year if Hurley was still coaching. my opinion. We got the ball back with 5 or 6 seconds left in the game and Cox didn't even call a timeout to set up a play.

That's at least the second time this year Cox hasn't taken a timeout at the end of the game, let the offense go, and we've lost. Then again, the one time he did call a timeout in that situation Fatts said he wasn't going to run the play Cox called, so...

We didn't have a timeout I thought? I just thought it was a bad decision by Jeff to ignore the wide open Tyrese Martin/best 3 point shooter on our team, to take the shot himself.

No problem with Jeff trying to score, love when he does because he's our best player - I just prefer it be inside the 3 point line where he is so much more efficient and skilled. He's not a 3 point shooter either.

Really not sure where this disconnect is from our 3 point shooting attempts. We are the 3rd worst team in division 1 basketball. If you're the 3rd worst team in anything you should probably not do that thing you're terrible at.

I'd be willing to be we've taken 18 or more 3's in at least 50% of our games this year and lost all but Bryant and Harvard.

[steviep123]

I totally disagree. I think a lot of the blame this year is on Cox. Yes we have a young roster but we make so many basic fundamental mistakes. In my opinion we would have at least 2 or 3 more wins this year if Hurley was still coaching. my opinion. We got the ball back with 5 or 6 seconds left in the game and Cox didn't even call a timeout to set up a play.

That's at least the second time this year Cox hasn't taken a timeout at the end of the game, let the offense go, and we've lost. Then again, the one time he did call a timeout in that situation Fatts said he wasn't going to run the play Cox called, so...

We didn't have a timeout I thought? I just thought it was a bad decision by Jeff to ignore the wide open Tyrese Martin/best 3 point shooter on our team, to take the shot himself.

No problem with Jeff trying to score, love when he does because he's our best player - I just prefer it be inside the 3 point line where he is so much more efficient and skilled. He's not a 3 point shooter either.

Really not sure where this disconnect is from our 3 point shooting attempts. We are the 3rd worst team in division 1 basketball. If you're the 3rd worst team in anything you should probably not do that thing you're terrible at.

I'd be willing to be we've taken 18 or more 3's in at least 50% of our games this year and lost all but Bryant and Harvard.

We didn't have a time out left. Used the last one with a few mins left. I think Jeff got the ball back with 5 secs left and had to rush up the court. I'm not sure if he even saw Martin or had time to throw him the pass if he did (I'd have to watch a replay to be sure). Getting the errant pass at 3 quarter court with 5 seconds left is going to be a rush up and a prayer even if you have time to pass. It would have been a prayer if he made it. Btw, you noticed that Duquesne didn't try to foul up 3?

[theblueram]

That's at least the second time this year Cox hasn't taken a timeout at the end of the game, let the offense go, and we've lost. Then again, the one time he did call a timeout in that situation Fatts said he wasn't going to run the play Cox called, so...

We didn't have a timeout I thought? I just thought it was a bad decision by Jeff to ignore the wide open Tyrese Martin/best 3 point shooter on our team, to take the shot himself.

No problem with Jeff trying to score, love when he does because he's our best player - I just prefer it be inside the 3 point line where he is so much more efficient and skilled. He's not a 3 point shooter either.

Really not sure where this disconnect is from our 3 point shooting attempts. We are the 3rd worst team in division 1 basketball. If you're the 3rd worst team in anything you should probably not do that thing you're terrible at.

I'd be willing to be we've taken 18 or more 3's in at least 50% of our games this year and lost all but Bryant and Harvard.

We didn't have a time out left. Used the last one with a few mins left. I think Jeff got the ball back with 5 secs left and had to rush up the court. I'm not sure if he even saw Martin or had time to throw him the pass if he did (I'd have to watch a replay to be sure). Getting the errant pass at 3 quarter court with 5 seconds left is going to be a rush up and a prayer even if you have time to pass. It would have been a prayer if he made it. Btw, you noticed that Duquesne didn't try to foul up 3?

With our teams 3 pt%? I wouldn't foul us either. Although, our ft% ain't much better.

[reef]

I can't stand when we go 4 guard lineup with CT that should never happen

[DC_Rams]

If we made 75% of our free throws it would have only changed the result of 2 games, Bucknell and Duquesne, hence a record of 13-7, 5-3 in conference. Not sure wher 16-4 comes from?

Thanks for that, I went back, and you are right.

[KevanBoyles]

I predicted and 18 - 12 regular season so I’m not sure why I am so disappointed at 11 - 9 right now. I doubt if we will win seven of the next 10 but if we go for 5 and 5 it’s still a 16 - 14 season which isn’t that far off from my original prediction. I guess it’s just so frustrating in the way we are losing games not so much the fact that we are losing them.

[rambone 78]

Even though we are young blah blah blah we are still losing VERY winnable games....that is what's frustrating.

Our talent, while not great should still be resulting in a better record than what we have right now.