2015-2016 Opponents

[VULB#62]

 
Love it.

[valpopal]

We can add a road game at Rhode Island on Nov. 17.

[VULB#62]

We can add a road game at Rhode Island on Nov. 17.

  dang, if I still lived in the Boston area I could have jumped in  my car and been at the game in under an hour.  Oh, well.

BTW  URI is the #7 of the small ball teams that WH posted about earlier.  Oregon is #8.  (Butler BTW is #6).  From BleacherReport:

University of Rhode Island
PG: Jarvis Garrett (6'0")
SG: Jared Terrell (6'3")
SF: E.C. Matthews (6'5")
PF: Kuran Iverson (6'9")
C: Hassan Martin (6'7")
6th Man: Four McGlynn (6'2")

Rhode Island got bigger when it added 6'9" Memphis transfer Kuran Iverson. However, he's much more of an oversized small forward than an undersized center, so don't expect the Rams to suddenly start mowing down the opposition in the paint.

In fact, they may play even smaller than last season, now that they no longer have Gilvydas Biruta. In his senior season, the 6'8" forward was their best offensive rebounder and one of their most efficient offensive weapons.

Now, it's pretty much Hassan Martin or bust in the paint, which is actually more promising than it sounds. The 6'7" center averaged 11.4 points, 7.7 rebounds and 3.1 blocks per game last year. He attempted 7.2 two-point field goals per game and converted on 61.1 percent of them. In a 59-47 win over La Salle in early January, he came one rebound away from recording a triple-double. He was kind of a big deal.

Rather than worrying about Martin's ability to handle himself down low, the bigger unknown for the Rams is whether they'll actually be able to shoot the ball this year. This has been a poor-shooting team for the past six years, but 2014-15 was particularly bad, as Rhode Island shot 30.3 percent from three-point range.

E.C. Matthews, Jared Terrell and Jarvis Garrett were responsible for more than 80 percent of the team's three-point attempts last season, but not one of them converted more than 32.5 percent of the attempts. If one of them gets hot this year, Rhode Island is a tournament team. If all three improve considerably, look out.

[justducky]

We can add a road game at Rhode Island on Nov. 17.

Looks like a difficult but winnable road game to help prepare us for our Oregon swing. Will we get a chance to welcome the Rams back to the ARC?

[a3uge]

Awesome. Rhode Island will have a great W/L record, will be great for our RPI, and will still be a winnable game. This is a great team to have on the schedule.

[SanityLost17]

http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/107690/looking-ahead-rhode-island-rams

Looks like they are one of the favorites to win the A10, and have arguably the best returning player in the A10. 

They may not have the name recognition of an Oregon or Oregon St., but they will probably be just as good.

[IndyValpo]

Any chance our old rivals Southern Utah will make a visit. They play at Butler on 12/22.

[a3uge]

http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/107690/looking-ahead-rhode-island-rams

Looks like they are one of the favorites to win the A10, and have arguably the best returning player in the A10. 

They may not have the name recognition of an Oregon or Oregon St., but they will probably be just as good.

Not a BCS school tho. Give us Tennessee instead.

[valpotx]

This game is kind of ironic.  We obviously lost to RI in the Sweet 16, giving them most likely their longest run into March (was our longest run as well).  RI apparently hasn't been to the tourney since that following year in 1999, and has high hopes of being a Cinderella once again.  Valpo has made the tourney in 2 of the last 3 seasons, but wants to have a longer run this year as well.  I enjoyed our game in the 1999-2000 season where we beat the Rams at home.  Both schools have realistic chances to tick off the Power 5 in March.  Seems like we were destined to meet again .

[justducky]

Any chance our old rivals Southern Utah will make a visit. They play at Butler on 12/22.

If last seasons 305 RPI is any indication of their ability then I hope they do not. Butler has a strong enough schedule to allow for them to come to Hinkle but we do not.

A quick comparison of the Rhode Island vs Butler scheduling mentality is the order of the day. One may be a fringe bubble team and looks at us as a big challenge and a great opportunity. The other views us only as a danger that can be avoided by bringing in someone like Southern Utah instead. Very interesting!

[valpo84]

There were lots of connections with the 98 URI and Valpo teams. Jim Harrick was coaching URI, Jim Harrick JR was a Valpo ass't coach. JHJr then went to coach with his dad. Valpo had Bryce, who was drafted in the 1st round by Houston. Houston also had another 1st rounder, Cuttino Mobley, who played on 98 URI. BTW, 99 URI team had Lamar Odom, which means it's all connected to the Kardashians.

[valporun]

There were lots of connections with the 98 URI and Valpo teams. Jim Harrick was coaching URI, Jim Harrick JR was a Valpo ass't coach. JHJr then went to coach with his dad. Valpo had Bryce, who was drafted in the 1st round by Houston. Houston also had another 1st rounder, Cuttino Mobley, who played on 98 URI. BTW, 99 URI team had Lamar Odom, which means it's all connected to the Kardashians.

At least someone was "Keeping Up"... 

[RhowdyRam]

There's a rumor going around our URI board that your game against us will be at 10 am ET as part of ESPN's 24 hours of college basketball. And as of now we are scheduled to play at Valpo next season.

[vufan7501]

Sounds good. Hope it is true. Good pub for both URI and Valpo.

[wh]

Love this matchup.  A great early season test against the best team in the A-10 at their place on national TV. OOC scheduling doesn't get much better than this.   

[justducky]

Virginia  /  Oregon
Michigan St.  /  Oregon St.
Georgia  /  Belmont
Washington  /  Belmont 
Colorado St.  /  Indiana State
Toledo  /  Missouri State   

On the Oakland vs VU schedule comparison front the addition of Rhode Island has certainly pushed us closer to parity but we are not there yet. My early take on Indiana St might put them in the 90 to 140 RPI range and Belmont could be what maybe 75 to 125?

Personally I would like to see minimum one additional recognized top 40 opponent (anywhere) plus get another known top 100 talked into coming to the ARC. With that kind of schedule and some key wins we could build a much better case for an at large inclusion. Seeding would also be helped.

This is the year and these are the players. All we need now is the schedule.

[StlVUFan]

Personally I would like to see minimum one additional recognized top 40 opponent (anywhere) plus get another known top 100 talked into coming to the ARC.

Good suggestions on strategies to compel such teams to agree to come to the ARC would, I'm sure, be quite welcome by the AD and the head coach.  Ya know, suggestions they may not have thought of yet.

[justducky]

Good suggestions on strategies to compel such teams to agree to come to the ARC would, I'm sure, be quite welcome by the AD and the head coach.  Ya know, suggestions they may not have thought of yet.

Not sure if they have thought of bribery but with what we pay them they would likely have to ask us for help. Forcing a signature at gunpoint is another strategy that might not have occurred to them and the rule of thumb for that tactic is "The larger the caliber the larger the compliance". 

I have to wonder if the Vashil cat now being out of the bag might actually help us in our last minute negotiations. Suddenly we have gone from being a top 40 wanna be to being a highly respected team before we ever take the floor.

[justducky]

With the addition of NKU will the HL return to starting conference play in December? If so is there a designated weekend set aside for those games?

[vu72]

I find it interesting that the Valpo athletic site is now advertising season ticket for sale even though the schedule hasn't been released and will be "in the coming weeks".  As a result the brochure tantalizes the fans with a schedule that will include Belmont!  Nice game, but hardly the thing that will get folks off their butts to run to buy tickets.  At least they are recognizing the buzz around this years team and getting the tickets out sooner rather then later.

[a3uge]

Putting together some data on our OOC opponents:



For comparison, Valpo returns 98.46% of their minutes, and   98.82% of their points. I'm presuming that's #1 in all of college basketball.

[justducky]

Putting together some data on our OOC opponents:



For comparison, Valpo returns 98.46% of their minutes, and   98.82% of their points. I'm presuming that's #1 in all of college basketball.

If these listed games are official we are now at 18 conference and 10 OOC for 28 total. It would appear that the multi team MTE event we will host at the ARC might be our only loose end? Help me out. Would we be limited to 2 more games if constructed as an exempt tournament or could it grow to 3?

[wh]

Putting together some data on our OOC opponents:



For comparison, Valpo returns 98.46% of their minutes, and   98.82% of their points. I'm presuming that's #1 in all of college basketball.

If these listed games are official we are now at 18 conference and 10 OOC for 28 total. It would appear that the multi team MTE event we will host at the ARC might be our only loose end? Help me out. Would we be limited to 2 more games if constructed as an exempt tournament or could it grow to 3?

Here's the way I see it.  The season ticket package is for 16 games. So, at this point we are waiting to hear about 3 more home opponents (presumably the tournament that has been talked about).  That would give us 16 home and 15 road games for a total of 31 - exactly the same as last year. 

If this is accurate, it also means no exhibition game(s) or non D-1 opponents.   

[a3uge]

And two are probably D2? So we're looking at one D1 home game vs someone like IUPUI?

[sliman]

IUPUI has a pretty decent schedule, although loaded with road games, but we're not on it.