Fordham 66, Rhode Island 63: A second look

BRONX, N.Y. – A game decided by a possession invariably tells you one made the plays in the stretch while the other team did not. In Saturday’s 66-63 Fordham victory over Rhode Island, you can say that was the case. A much closer look, specifically under the glass, tells us where the game was decided: the offensive boards. In raw numbers Fordham held an 18-6 advantage. In the offensive rebounding percentage Fordham held a 44-19% edge. That basically told the tale.

The possessions:

Rhode Island 68
Fordham 68

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Defense carries Rhode Island until the offense wakes up

SOUTH KINGSTON, R.I. – One thing we knew about Rhode Island from early on this season was that defense is going to be this team’s calling card. That’s a change from past years, when the “Runnin’ Rams” could score with anyone and run teams off the floor but were not much to write home about defensively. On Friday night, their defense came in handy, as offense was hard to come by for much of their 59-47 win over Brown.

The first half was about as ugly as it gets. Both teams shot below 26 percent from the field, and if you need proof that it wasn’t just good defense on the part of both teams responsible for those numbers, Brown was 4-11 from the foul line and URI was 2-5. The teams combined for 19 turnovers, and Rhode Island led by just a touchdown, 21-14.

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Turnovers become a new issue for Rhode Island against Providence

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Last year, Rhode Island looked like they may have hit rock bottom when they played arch-rival Providence. In an 80-61 loss, the Rams were not very competitive and the game didn’t seem as close as the final score. This time around, the Rams looked better and were more competitive, but they lost to a Providence team that suited up six scholarship players, one of whom had a very gimpy knee. The Rams also looked like a team that has notable shortcomings and struggles.

Turnovers haven’t been a big problem all season, but they certainly were on Thursday night, especially in a key stretch. URI was staying close, but inside of ten minutes Providence scored ten unanswered points to open up a 52-39 lead. The Rams finished the night with a season-high 20 turnovers.

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2012 Hall of Fame Tip-Off Tournament Notes

UNCASVILLE, Conn. – The 2012 Hall of Fame Tip-Off concluded on Sunday with four games.  Two champions were crowned in the Springfield and National Brackets, with Loyola (Md.) beating Albany in the former and Ohio State taking home the latter with a win over Washington.

Here are some quick hitters from Sunday’s games.

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Harvard’s path to the elusive NCAA Tournament bid just got tougher

Harvard is the nation’s oldest and most prestigious institution of higher learning. Many of the brightest young people grow up dreaming of attending the school, unless you’re like me and dreamed of going to MIT (or Cal Tech) because of engineering. The university has produced a number of high achievers in just about every field imaginable.

On the hardwood, it’s been a different story. Harvard has had seasons of 20 or more wins, and they’ve been to the CollegeInsider.com Tournament and NIT the past two seasons. But they have yet to get to the holy grail of college basketball, the NCAA Tournament. That has eluded them, including last year when they went to a one-game playoff against Princeton and lost on a buzzer-beating jumper in New Haven. And after Saturday night, they might be on a path to such a game once more, as Penn came to Lavietes Pavilion and stunned Harvard 55-54 on Senior Night.

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Young Rhode Island may be starting to grow up

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – Rhode Island’s young players have no choice but to grow up. That was already true given that this team is dominated by youth. But with conference play in front of them, the young Rams look like they may be starting to do that, the latest evidence being their 78-72 victory at Boston College in double overtime on Monday.

It would have been easy to have inflated expectations for transfers Billy Baron and Andre Malone, with the idea that they would make an instant impact on this team’s fortunes as they became eligible. While that has happened with Baron, who had a big game on Monday, it’s not in his stats that it can be found. That’s not to say he hasn’t played well after having to shake some rust off early. But his value has come in what he does for the lineup and two other guards.

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New year, higher stakes with conference play intensifying

With the new year arriving in a few days, we’re about to bite into the meat of conference schedules.

Already, about half of Division I conferences have played at least one conference game. The Summit League’s South Dakota State sits at 3-0, giving the Jackrabbits the most conference wins of any team in the country. There’s a random fact for you.

In many ways, it feels like the season starts anew when conference play begins in earnest when the calendar turns to a new year. Yes, there are plenty of fantastic nonconference games throughout the season, and some of the best rivalries involve teams from different conferences, such as this weekend’s bout featuring Louisville and Kentucky. However, no matter how intense those rivalries might be, the stakes just aren’t as high when the winner doesn’t gain ground in the win-loss column of its conference standings.

I like to view the nonconference schedule as a time for growth. Teams get two months to adjust to new arrivals — on the roster or coaching staff — while playing only a few games conference games. That gives the coaching staff a chance to settle on an effective rotation and integrate any late additions because of transfer rules or early season suspensions.

In addition to growth as a team, the nonconference slate gives teams a chance to build their résumé for the NCAA Tournament. For the vast majority of D-1 programs, the only route to an NCAA Tournament is the automatic bid awarded with a conference tournament championship. However, for a bunch of teams, November and December help set expectations for conference play. Just look at Indiana, which entered the season unranked. The Hoosiers beat up some overwhelmed competition, which wouldn’t do Indiana any good in the eyes of the selection committee members come March. Then the Hoosiers went out and beat Kentucky. That’s a massive win that will help solidify Indiana’s NCAA Tournament status, even if the Hoosiers scuffle a bit in Big Ten play, finishing with only a .500 Big Ten record.

On the other hand, teams like Vanderbilt enter conference play knowing they have some work to do. The Commodores started the season as a top 10 team, but they have dropped games to Cleveland State, Xavier, Louisville and Indiana State. A couple of those losses are surprising while a couple are missed opportunities. Right now, the Commodores’ best wins are against Oregon, Oregon State and North Carolina State. None of those teams is a lock for the NCAA Tournament. So Vanderbilt must make hay in the SEC, especially against Florida, Kentucky, Alabama and Mississippi State. The Commodores get those teams six times, and Vanderbilt probably needs to win at least three — preferably one on the road — to feel secure about an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

And that just spices up already-compelling conference slugfests.

We go coast to coast with news from around the college basketball nation.

We’ll have at least two undefeated teams heading into 2012, as Baylor and Syracuse don’t play again in 2011 after winning last night. And that’s more than previously unbeaten Indiana and Louisville can say after dropping their first game of the season last night. Missouri plays Old Dominion Friday, and fellow unbeaten Murray State will also be in action Friday, against Eastern Illinois.

Connecticut might not be undefeated, but the Huskies are 1-0 without Jim Calhoun on the sidelines this season, CBS Sports.com reports. The Huskies beat South Florida last night, the first game of Calhoun’s three-game suspension, which is his punishment from a recruiting scandal in which he was cited for creating an atmosphere of compliance in Storrs.

Rhode Island is 1-11 this season, and that’s with senior guard Jamal Wilson in the lineup for 11 of those games. Life won’t be any easier for coach Jim Baron after he suspended the team’s leading scorer for breaking team rules, according to an Associated Press report. Wilson is averaging 17.5 ppg for the struggling Rams.

One of the complaints about conference expansion/realignment/destruction is the loss of rivalries that get the fans going. The Big Ten and Pac-12 are looking to avoid those situations via a strategic partnership that will allow the conferences to schedule multiple games between its members to encourage compelling match ups, which could include rivalry games, according to an ESPN.com report.

Maryland had to wait 10 games to get Ukrainian big man Alex Len on the court, writes Eamonn Brennan for ESPN.com’s “College Basketball Nation” blog. However, he could become a critical player quickly, as evidenced by his 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting in his first game Wednesday against Albany.

In case you missed the big news of yesterday, Louisville coach Rick Pitino announced that he intends to call it a career when his contract expires in 2017, according to the Associated Press. At 59, Pitino is already looking ahead to the end of his coaching run, which includes trips to the Final Four with three different teams (Providence, Kentucky and Louisville).

Has Rhode Island hit rock bottom?

SOUTH KINGSTON, R.I. – The Rhode Island Rams are not in a good place right now. That might be obvious if you see their record, but that doesn’t tell the entire story. Watching their 80-61 loss to Providence last Friday gives an illustration of how far this team has to go with three non-conference games left. And as if that’s not enough, things went from bad to worse right after Christmas.

“It’s not easy. It’s challenging right now,” said a subdued head coach Jim Baron after the loss.

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Reaching the Postseason Again Will be a Tall Order for URI

SOUTH KINGSTON, R.I. – Rhode Island has been a consistent postseason team in recent years and a fairly solid upper-half team in the Atlantic 10 during that stretch. If they are to continue that this season, a lot of unknowns need to become known, and in a positive manner.

You could tell listening to head coach Jim Baron that this team enters the season a little different from the last few. Whereas each of those teams had some significant contributors returning, and thus had some known quantities, this one really lacks that. Gradually, this team has lost some very good players little by little, and it’s debatable whether they’ve replaced them with comparable combinations of talent and experience. That leaves him with his current team, which he described after their first exhibition game on Friday night.

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CBI Opener a Memorable One for James, Rhode Island

SOUTH KINGSTON, R.I – On the surface, you wouldn’t think much would happen. There wasn’t much energy in the arena, especially at the outset, and the game was one of a few in a tournament dwarfed in prestige by the NCAA Tournament, which had two of its First Four games being played on the evening. But Delroy James made it memorable for those who came out, recording the first triple-double in program history to lead the Rams to a convincing 76-59 win over Miami (Ohio).

Did he know about it?

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