Moving to the NEC a Winning Call!!!

     I've been highly critical of URI's football program and have never kept that a secret in anyway! Saying over the years that money and scholarships could be much better spent on other successful programs that do more with less, the obvious one being the baseball program.

 I still will always want URI to have a great football program as long as they have one, rooting for it and supporting, but it is what it is....Rhody doesn't need a "Vision Team" to tell you that this is a program in peril and if it wasn't on the chopping block this year that it certainly would be next year or the year after, almost inevitably going the way of Northeastern and Hofstra, who after last season peaced out their football programs all together!

      Now there is news that Rhody football could be making the move to the smaller Northeast Conference (NEC). The best news I've heard from this program in a long time and all the reasons for that were pointed out in Mike Szostak's column on projo.com this morning {Linked Above, click on title of post}. The cost effectiveness alone, less travel, saving on scholarships, a more competitive conference for the kind of players the Rams can attract and still the ability to still make the FCS playoffs.Something else out of this move that I like is the new Rhode Island rivalry that can bud from this....Rhody can keep their yearly Governor's Cup game with Brown as a regular non-conference game each season but now they could gain another yearly Rhode Island match up with an up and coming Bryant program. It just seems like win/win for everybody!

     I will still be critical of this program due mainly to the past success' or lack their of, but with the potential of this move possibly coming as early as next month, I could certainly stand to applaud the decision made here, certainly not an easy one, leaving a bigger Conference in the CAA for a much less successful one in the NEC. In this case it seems that one step back could equal two steps forward, besides other than a football program....What does Rhody really have to lose???!!!

 GO RHODY!!!

Seriously???!!!

Why am I not surprised that the Projo prints a fluff story in the heat of July talking about the "Vision of the Future" for Providence College Basketball. Kevin McNamara should be embarrassed that he even put pen to paper in this story...Keno Davis says he wants PC to be a Power?.....NO SHIT SHERLOCK!!!
I also want to wake up one Saturday morning and take a drive to Kingston to watch the Rams football team take on Notre Dame that afternoon.......but that's just not going to happen! Its seems that those over at PC live in the land of make believe while the rest of us live in Reality! They want a program to essentially sprint before it can even walk! A Big East Power???? Seriously??? How about a winning record in conference play, how about making your own conference tournament?
     The Vision Team or creators of must be seeing things that we mere mortals certainly aren't seeing because right now the only thing Providence should be adding to their program is an on campus jail cell as another one of their Thugs first, players second, Ala red shirt freshman Kadeem Batts who was arrested over the weekend {Story linked above, click on title of post} and charged today with disorderly conduct!

 Is this the false promise selling points that Davis is using on recruits, "Well Son, if you come to Providence we have a Vision Team who sees a bright future for our program! Does that Crap work????

I'd much rather catch a dose of reality, winning reality down in Kingston any day!!!

GO RHODY!!!

UNC in NYC!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAOLkc1uDpI

What can you say about the last 2 games....In a word "Delroy!" 34 points against Nevada and 18 more verse Virginia Tech along with 6 rebounds and 4 big blocks.

  Next up is North Carolina, where we really don't need to rehash 1993 and the thrashing that Eric Montross and the Heels gave Rhody what is easily one of the bigger blowouts in NCAA Tournament History. Now the focus is the 2010 NIT Semifinals in front of a Madison Square Garden crowd and from all accounts should be well respresented by URI brethren!

 North Carolina this season certainly not performing up to normal standards and definately not the same team it was when it was winning the National Championship back in '93 or even when they won it all last season and for the first time in a long while didn't manage to keep up with the Jones' (Duke) in atleast finishing in or around the top of the ACC and atleast getting an invite to the Big Dance. This is a team that received a #4 seed to the NIT or as we have gotten to know to well over the years, the fall back tournament for the teams that the proverbial "bubble" busted on!

 With all that being said, this is a very beatable Tarheel club! This is not a team that dominated their way to NY. Its an abnormal North Carolina team that had to scratch and claw and win just barely over teams to get here, but give credit where its do, their here as are the Rams.

 For Rhody, it will be about letting Delroy James do his thing and the rest of the team freeing him up and allowing him the opportunities to due so as its a no brainer that the Tar Heels are going to do what ever it is they can to contain him.
 
 A good amount of time off untill Tuesday's 9pm tip off, if the Rams can focus on controlling the tempo of the game, limiting the number of turnovers and winning the battle of scoring on second chance opportunities like they have in their last 3 games so far, then I like thier chances.

 GO RHODY!!!

LONG TOUGH ROAD SO FAR!

     So things are tough when you have to get your season under way on the road and can't come home till your already 12 games into your season. Now multiply that times the fact that you decided to play a really, really tough out of conference schedule including facing the number one ranked team in the country, Virginia in a 3 game set. What do you get out of that? You get a ballclub thats seen and played a lot of good baseball! Maybe not with all the results they would have wanted, but again, as they have year after year under this staff, never shying from the best competition out there knowing that its only going to make them better! This year's schedule includes the likes of not only the nations #1 Virginia, but also Miami, Mississippi St. and UNC-Wilmington who the Rams just took the weekend series from.   

     Now they head down to William and Mary to take on former head coach Frank Leoni for a two game series Tues & Wed. Leoni the man who revived this URI program essentially from the ashes and played a huge part in where this program is today. Thankfully it was left in the hands of someone who cares about it as much as, if not more than Leoni and thats coach Foster.     

     This two game series, the last before they open conference play Friday down in Philly against Temple. Looking at their overall record (6-10) they have some work to do, but again they saw some of the best baseball college athletics has to offer and you'd have to think that by the time they come back home next Tuesday for a meeting with CCSU (non-conference), that they'll have made up some of the difference.  

     The quest is on for the A10's only automatic invite who Dayton has already been tabbed with being the recipient of. Its up to coach Foster and his Rams club to prove everybody wrong when all the dust settles in Camden, New Jersey at the A10 Championships later this season.

   Looks to be an interesting road, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel?

  GO RHODY!!!

                             

Wolfpack playing in the Wrong Den?

Well if you go to Nevada's athletic website, they inform you that they are playing in Newport, RI this evening which I thought was pretty funny!
Anyway, who is this Wolfpack team? They finished the year tied for 2nd in the WAC with New Mexico St. at 11-5 in Conference. Overall Nevada was 21-12 on the year. Their only really noteable win on the year outside of conference was over former URI head coach Tom Pender's Houston club back in November 112-99, Pender's Cougars made the field of 64. The Wolfpack would go on to lose to New Mexico St in the semi-finals of the WAC Tournament by a point 80-79 and just miss out on a NCAA Tournament bid.
 (The WAC sending two teams, UTAH St. who lost to Texas A&M in the first round and New Mexico St. who lost to Michigan St. in the opening round, both WAC schools received 12 seeds.)

Nevada got a 6 seed in the NIT and upset 3 seed Wichita 74-70 last Wednesday and now here they are.....headed to Newport, RI lol!

 Hopefully they'll eventually find their way to the Ryan Center in Kingston, RI tonight in time for a 6pm tip off!

I fully expect RHODY to win this one tonight, especially with the possibility of a looming URI-UCONN match up at the Ryan Center, assuming of course that UCONN can upset the ACC's Virginia Tech tonight on the road.

 GO RHODY!!!

Let's Go Dancing!

Today's game is big to say the least! Its an opportunity for Rhody to get off the bubble, giving the rest of the country and the selection committee the confidence to put Rhody in the Tournament. Also a win today could go a long way into having the right focus going into Tuesday night's playoff game at home (which should be a packed house by the way) and through the rest of the A10 Tournament.

 Its Bubble Saturday and an Opportunity for Rhody to separate itself from the pack!

  GO RHODY!!!

BIG ROAD WIN!!! NICE!!!

Marquis Jones for the second year in a row, dashes the hopes of Dayton fans everywhere! 10 games left in conference play, Temple went down last night to Charlotte, its time for Rhody to make their move!!!

GO RHODY!!!