Thoughts on URI Game

[moytoy12]

I'm guilty of overlooking this game. URI scares me because of their potential to bust out in any given game. Also, don't they have that Richmond kid? That kid is scary too.

Our team is playing some good ball. I'm proud of our team. Getting off to a good start after a week long layoff is crucial.

Thoughts?

[billikenbill]

Bills need to cash in on the buzz that's developing around them. Lose to URI and they're seen as a flash in the pan, win and the buzz increases. Huge game for SLU.

[Bizziken]

We CANNOT let Akeem Richmond go off again...that would be disastrous

They have a banger named Orion Outerbridge who hurt his shoulder dunking the ball in the first half of the game @ Chaifetz...if he had played the second half, it's a different ballgame

Lamonte Ulmer (arguably their 2nd best player) also played about 10 minutes under his average when we played last due to a feud with Baron

We also won't have the crowd support like we did @ Chaifetz

This is a very dangerous game! Majerus will have us ready, but it will be a dogfight!

[SLUDrew]

Bills need to cash in on the buzz that's developing around them. Lose to URI and they're seen as a flash in the pan, win and the buzz increases. Huge game for SLU.

I disagree. As long as they don't lay an egg on Friday (ie score 20 points) I think what the Bills have done this year with such a young team will make them one of the favorites in the conference next year. When was the last time a SLU team was considered an elite team in their conference? They can definitely increase the buzz surrounding the program by winning on Friday, but losing to a team that is itself on the brink of a tourney bid will not kill the buzz that now surrounds the program. I think everyone recognizes this program is on the verge of accomplishments not realized around here in a long time.

[GoBills]

This is a huge game for URI. They are consistently mentioned as one of the team's closest to breaking through the bubble. Dayton was in a similar situation on Saturday and that turned out well for the Bills, so maybe this one will too. URI will be very hungry, but maybe the added pressure will make them tight. The Billikids should take the approach that nobody was expecting much this year, so just go out and have fun.

[stmdragons]

Cothran is a very good player as well.

[Bizziken]

Directly from the Rhode Island board....

1. "I am confident of our ability to beat St Louis. They are brutally tough at home but this is in Atlantic City. Their Coach hates travel to the East Coast and he is really going to hate this trip - especially the return trip.

St Louis will have very few fans there for a 230pm game - URI should ahve a pretty good number but I think our guys will have plenty of friends and family at the game - Philly, NY, etc. and they are really going to want to win this one."

2. "Majerus may hate to travel, but he likes and knows how to win. Baron hates to travel too, even though it only a few hundred miles, and knows how to lose. URI is better than St Louis, but that really doesn't make a difference, or hasn't in the past."

3. "I like our matchup with SLU. They are a completely different team when they are not at home, and we should have beat them when we played them there anyway."

4. "SLU had the easiest schedule this year, playing only Charlotte on the road without a return home game. Next year Slu will have road games at Xavier, Temple and URI in addition to home and road with Richmond and Dayton. They will be lucky to go 9-7."

These people need to give their degrees back...we just beat a Dayton team @ UD Arena who was playing for an NCAA Tournament birth and had gone 62-6 in the last 4 YEARS at home!

Where do they get off thinking URI is a better team than SLU?!? It's fairly close at worst!

Easiest schedule this year?!?....coming from the team who played St. Joes and UMass each twice? Idiots!!!!

9-7 next year?!!? What the ####!!!

[doowop]

If we do not win I hope those who are expecting a win don't get down on the team. I hope for a win but if it does not happen, I hope we play a close game. No blowout! SLU has had an unexpectedly good year. And it may not end after the A10 tournament. In fact, it probably won't.

[stmdragons]

Directly from the Rhode Island board....

1. "I am confident of our ability to beat St Louis. They are brutally tough at home but this is in Atlantic City. Their Coach hates travel to the East Coast and he is really going to hate this trip - especially the return trip.

St Louis will have very few fans there for a 230pm game - URI should ahve a pretty good number but I think our guys will have plenty of friends and family at the game - Philly, NY, etc. and they are really going to want to win this one."

2. "Majerus may hate to travel, but he likes and knows how to win. Baron hates to travel too, even though it only a few hundred miles, and knows how to lose. URI is better than St Louis, but that really doesn't make a difference, or hasn't in the past."

3. "I like our matchup with SLU. They are a completely different team when they are not at home, and we should have beat them when we played them there anyway."

4. "SLU had the easiest schedule this year, playing only Charlotte on the road without a return home game. Next year Slu will have road games at Xavier, Temple and URI in addition to home and road with Richmond and Dayton. They will be lucky to go 9-7."

These people need to give their degrees back...we just beat a Dayton team @ UD Arena who was playing for an NCAA Tournament birth and had gone 62-6 in the last 4 YEARS at home!

Where do they get off thinking URI is a better team than SLU?!? It's fairly close at worst!

Easiest schedule this year?!?....coming from the team who played St. Joes and UMass each twice? Idiots!!!!

9-7 next year?!!? What the ####!!!

This coming from fans of a team that just lost to UMASS. Yeah, they are definetly the better team. Gimme a break.

[Bizziken]

It's absolutely delusional!....9-7 Next Year????!!!!! Really!?

[Bay Area Billiken]

It's absolutely delusional!....9-7 Next Year????!!!!! Really!?

Let them talk. They've got good players, but their team has not performed well under pressure down the stretch. Their Coach often spends the timeouts getting on the refs. He reminds me of an East Coast version of Billy Tubbs. Remember Norm Stewart's famous line: "Billy doesn't lose. He just gets cheated."

It is good if they keep underestimating the SLU team.

It should be a good game.

[dlarry]

It's absolutely delusional!....9-7 Next Year????!!!!! Really!?

9-7 ??????????????

If the Bills go 9-7 in conference next year the A-10 should get 6 or 7 NCAA bids.

[thetorch]

As long as we keep the pace of the game slow we will be in it. RI has the ability to blow by teams. We had an excellent gameplan last time shutting down their best players and making Richmond, normally their 4th option be their standout player. RI did have some personnel problems though, Ulmer and Outerbridge will be able to play much more effectively. Still with a Baron coached team the opposition always has a chance.

[slu72]

As long as we keep the pace of the game slow we will be in it. RI has the ability to blow by teams. We had an excellent gameplan last time shutting down their best players and making Richmond, normally their 4th option be their standout player. RI did have some personnel problems though, Ulmer and Outerbridge will be able to play much more effectively. Still with a Baron coached team the opposition always has a chance.

The keys are:

1.) We can't afford a slow start or 5-6 min periods w/o a score. RI can put up points in a hurry.

2.) We dictate the tempo primarily w/ our D taking away the type of game they want to play.

3.) Watch the Richmond kid.

4.) Inside guys have to play great D and get physical.

5.) We hit 3s like we did in Dayton

RI's a good team that hit a funky period near the end. Have they snapped out of it is the real question? No doubting they have some good players and athletes, and they still believe they're on the bubble or are capable of winning the whole da*n thing. We've got to be feeling pretty heady though after beating UD there. The rest of the games we play are all going to have us biting our fingernails. As for RI fans comments about our schedule and next year, who cares right now, let's just get through this game and on to the next... and the next... and you get the picture. Next year will take care of itself.

[Pistol]

We CANNOT let Akeem Richmond go off again...that would be disastrous

They have a banger named Orion Outerbridge who hurt his shoulder dunking the ball in the first half of the game @ Chaifetz...if he had played the second half, it's a different ballgame

Lamonte Ulmer (arguably their 2nd best player) also played about 10 minutes under his average when we played last due to a feud with Baron

We also won't have the crowd support like we did @ Chaifetz

This is a very dangerous game! Majerus will have us ready, but it will be a dogfight!

They have more size, but in the couple times I've seen them play, I don't see them as a particularly physical, strong team. We can hang with them. Willie needs to be assertive and not get pushed around, and the same goes for Remekun and Smith off the bench.

We're not going to be drilling threes like we did at Dayton; you just can't count on that. The offense needs to be more fluid.

They don't turn it over much, so we need to turn up the pressure on them and keep them from taking good shots.

Richmond is a 3-point specialist, and that's it. We guard the perimeter better than anyone else in the country. He's not going to go off twice on us.

Rhode Island has lost 5 of its last 8 games; let's strike early and make them play from a deficit. They talk about ou home-court advantage, but they had a home court record of 12-2, not much different than us. Anything can happen on a neutral court.

[Bizziken]

Yea, but Rhode Island has Jim Baron, the best coach east of the Mississippi!

[Taj79]

Rhode Island has just as a legit shot at winning this thing as we do. I am sure the Pirates, Royals, Orioles ansd Nationals all feel the same way in Florida this morning too. Hope springs eternal and if getting to the NCAAs defines a successful season, well why can't we all dream --- inlcuding Umass.

Rhode is 3 and 5 coming down the stretch with all wins coming at home against inferior opponents (Fordham and St. Joe's) and a team defining the "crash-n-burn" model best in this league (Charlotte). Frankly, I don't know how their non-con schedule is considered so "good." Brown, Holy Cross, Stony Brook, Davidson, Northeastern, Quinnipiac, Drexel and Fairfield fill the roster --- sure, they played Okie State in Connecticut, and two down BCS schools in Providence and Boston College. What makes that so good?

Cothran is a good player and so too is Richmond but I have faith in our exterior dee. What scares me is Outerbridge, Ulmer, and James on the front line. We have managed to allow tall stiffs too many games above average against us. O'Brien from St. Joe's. Huelsman from Dayton. Love (who's quite good) killed us with Xavier. Braswell and Spears with Charlotte. If Cothran and Richmond are hitting and drawing the defense out, their bigs will roam at will. I can see us needing quality minutes from Remekun and Smith on the inside.

Good news is that Rhode defends like crap. Again we need to impose out will and our style. I think the team that wins that battle wins the game. Rhode's defense is like 324th out of all college teams so we need to exploit that. Also, I've got to believe Rick had the team preparing dfor Rhode since Sunday night. St. Joe's was lucky to get one extra game the way they played and it was only because odf the depleted state of La Salle's team that they manged to get in anyway.

If you will recall, we got the four and a bye in our first year in the league, I think. Ian's junior year we got the four, got a bye, and then got waxed in Cincy by St. Joe's. Here'sa hoping the time off and rest ehlps instead of rusts us up. Again, we have very little margin for mistake and need to come in with a lunch pail attitude.

I see where Rhode is favored by one. I still don't get that but I'll take being the underdog once again.

Off to the AC!!!!

[Bay Area Billiken]

Yea, but Rhode Island has Jim Baron, the best coach east of the Mississippi!

And a member of the St. Bona Hall of Fame; a great leader of men.

The first time I saw Baron was when he was coaching St. Bona in a loss at the current Scottrade Center, when he led the Bonnies down to defeat to the Billikens. That was when SLU was still in C-USA. Baron spent much of the night working the refs. He hasn't changed much since then in that regard.

He has to be close to A-10 leadership in raising both hands in response to refs' decisions.

[Bizziken]

At 55 years of age, Jim Baron is only 565 wins away from Bob Knight's all-time Division 1 wins record....

Remember this post in December 2039- no one will be laughing then!

Also, I hear he gives free mustache rides!

[RF1]

These people need to give their degrees back...we just beat a Dayton team @ UD Arena who was playing for an NCAA Tournament birth and had gone 62-6 in the last 4 YEARS at home!

Where do they get off thinking URI is a better team than SLU?!? It's fairly close at worst!

Easiest schedule this year?!?....coming from the team who played St. Joes and UMass each twice? Idiots!!!!

URI was the team that actually broke Dayton's 30 game home winning streak back in January at UD Arena. URI and SLU are the only teams to beat Dayton at home in the last two seasons.

URI's strength of schedule is still rated slightly better with A-10 games factored in than SLU as it is #91 and SLU is #109. URI played a much tougher OOC schedule but got penalized in A-10 games having played Fordham, UMass, and St. Joe's (once in A-10 Tourney 1st round) twice. URI played more games away from home and did better. These factors are why URI is rated #41 in the RPI and SLU #83.

Overall Records

URI 21-8 SLU 19-10 (D1 only)

Home Records

URI 13-2 SLU 14-3

Road Records

URI 8-6 SLU 5-5

Neutral Records

URI 1-0 SLU 0-2

Overall RPI Rating

URI #41 SLU #83

RPI SOS

URI #91 SLU #109

Best Win

URI - Oklahoma State SLU - Richmond

URI RPI OPPONENT RECORD

#1-50 2-4

#51-100 4-2

#101-200 12-2

#201+ 4-0

SLU RPI OPPONENT RECORD

#1-50 4-3

#51-100 0-3

#101-200 10-4

#201+ 5-0

The teams are fairly even and the betting line will likely reflect this. SLU played better down the stretch while URI did better earlier in the season. SLU is exactly the type of team that gives URI fits. The Rams like to run and out athleticize their opponent. Well coached teams that slow down the pace frustrate URI.

[brianstl]

The only thing I know for sure about this game is that Barron will spend more time complaining to the refs than talking to his team during time outs.

[Bay Area Billiken]

URI was the team that actually broke Dayton's 30 game home winning streak back in January at UD Arena. URI and SLU are the only teams to beat Dayton at home in the last two seasons.

URI's strength of schedule is still rated slightly better with A-10 games factored in than SLU as it is #91 and SLU is #109. URI played a much tougher OOC schedule but got penalized in A-10 games having played Fordham, UMass, and St. Joe's (once in A-10 Tourney 1st round) twice. URI played more games away from home and did better. These factors are why URI is rated #41 in the RPI and SLU #83.

Overall Records

URI 21-8 SLU 19-10 (D1 only)

Home Records

URI 13-2 SLU 14-3

Road Records

URI 8-6 SLU 5-5

Neutral Records

URI 1-0 SLU 0-2

Overall RPI Rating

URI #41 SLU #83

RPI SOS

URI #91 SLU #109

Best Win

URI - Oklahoma State SLU - Richmond

URI RPI OPPONENT RECORD

#1-50 2-4

#51-100 4-2

#101-200 12-2

#201+ 4-0

SLU RPI OPPONENT RECORD

#1-50 4-3

#51-100 0-3

#101-200 10-4

#201+ 5-0

The teams are fairly even and the betting line will likely reflect this. SLU played better down the stretch while URI did better earlier in the season. SLU is exactly the type of team that gives URI fits. The Rams like to run and out athleticize their opponent. Well coached teams that slow down the pace frustrate URI.

You left out one statistic, the head to head one- SLU 62 URI 57.

I realize that head to head result doesn't matter in this modern computerized era, even if it is the one that determined SLU to be the #4 seed and URI to be the #5, but it is added here merely for the sake of completeness.

[RF1]

You left out one statistic, the head to head one- SLU 62 URI 57.

I realize that head to head result doesn't matter in this modern computerized era, even if it is the one that determined SLU to be the #4 seed and URI to be the #5, but it is added here merely for the sake of completeness.

Yes - SLU did beat URI on its home floor. The two teams did not play one another on URI's court. In the game at SLU, one of URI's starters (Ulmer) was benched for disciplinary reasons and a key reserve (Outerbridge) went out of the game in the first half due to an injury. Several key URI starters (Martel and James) also got into early foul trouble and sat out which was a main reason for a 12 point 1st half lead to evaporate. Even with these factors in mind, it was still a five point game.

[Bizziken]

URI was the team that actually broke Dayton's 30 game home winning streak back in January at UD Arena. URI and SLU are the only teams to beat Dayton at home in the last two seasons.

URI's strength of schedule is still rated slightly better with A-10 games factored in than SLU as it is #91 and SLU is #109. URI played a much tougher OOC schedule but got penalized in A-10 games having played Fordham, UMass, and St. Joe's (once in A-10 Tourney 1st round) twice. URI played more games away from home and did better. These factors are why URI is rated #41 in the RPI and SLU #83

This game is going to be close, there is no doubt about that...

I referenced the UD game in response to RI fans' arguments concerning SLU being "only good at home", and being "a completely different team on the road", not as a comparative argument...

I also referenced the A-10 schedule in response to contentions that SLU played an "easy A-10 schedule"...the teams SLU played twice are better overall than the teams RI played twice

How good would Rhode Island have been in their OOC schedule if Delroy James or Lamont Ulmer would have come mid-season?

[RF1]

This game is going to be close, there is no doubt about that...

I referenced the UD game in response to RI fans' arguments concerning SLU being "only good at home", and being "a completely different team on the road", not as a comparative argument...

I also referenced the A-10 schedule in response to contentions that SLU played an "easy A-10 schedule"...the teams SLU played twice are better overall than the teams RI played twice

How good would Rhode Island have been in their OOC schedule if Delroy James or Lamont Ulmer would have come mid-season?

URI would have had problems in the OOC schedule without James, Ulmer, or Cothran. Unfortunately in the A-10 schedule, all three of these players have seen dramatic drops in their numbers. Their inconsistent play is why URI faded down the stretch.