Sunday, February 18, 2024 11:00 a.m.
Ryan Center, Kingston, R.I.
Loyola makes the trip to the Ocean State Sunday for their first ever game at Rhode Island. Last year at Gentile Arena, the Ramblers came up short, 79-77, in a game that eventually decided which of the two teams finished in last place in the A10. This year, the Ramblers enter the weekend tied for first, and are seeking their sixth conference road win and sixth win in a row against the much-improved Rams of Rhode Island.
In year two at Rhody, Coach Archie Miller made a wholesale roster purge. This year’s team returns only 15.9% of minutes played and 12.9% of scoring from last year’s squad, mostly in the person of two of Miller’s freshman recruits from last year. Everybody else? Graduated or gone. Only 14 teams in college hoops brought back less playing time from last season. The new crew includes four experienced players from the portal, a juco, and four or five promising freshmen.
URI has been one of the streakiest and hard-to-figure teams in the league this season, and not only because of the roster turnover. They won five of their first seven games (including giving Northwestern a pretty good challenge), but then lost five in a row. They got a shot in the arm when multiple transfer David Green’s waiver denial was overturned in the big court decision against the NCAA’s transfer rules. With Green added to the rotation they won four in a row, including the first three in conference play. They followed the 3-0 conference start with a 0-4 streak. Last time out they came within two points of upsetting UMass in Amherst. They come into Sunday’s game at 11-13 overall, 5-6 in the league.
Coach Miller is likely to start 6’3” junior Luis Kortright, 6’5” sophomore Brandon Weston, 6’9” freshman forward David Fuchs, 6’4” junior guard Jaden House, and 6’7” junior forward David Green. However, Green left the last game early in the 2nd half with a knee tweak and has not appeared in practice this week—it will come down to a game time decision.
House, a transfer from High Point, is the team’s leading scorer at 15.3 per game. He finishes great at the basket, moves really well through traffic, and hits at 36.8% from distance. Green averages 15.2 ppg, and has had four 20-point or higher games in the 11 he’s played since becoming available. He can explode from the three-point line (he was 6 of 8 behind the arc at George Mason, and 4 of 7 on threes in a win over UMass), and is currently shooting 57.1% from distance.
The rest of the starters include Quinnipiac transfer Luis Kortright, who averages 10.5 points, 3.6 rebounds, and a team-leading 3.5 assists per game. Weston was a top 100 recruit in 2021, spent a redshirt year at Seton Hall, and transferred to Rhody last season; he averages 5.2 points and recently joined the starting lineup. David Fuchs is a freshman forward from London who is leads the team in rebounding at 6.8 per game and averages 7.2 points.
The bench is led by Bradley transfer Zek Montgomery, a 6’6” junior forward who averages 10.1 points and 4.2 rebounds (he scored 12 points in 11 minutes off the bench as a freshman to beat Loyola our last time at Carver Arena). Cam Estevez is a 6’3” freshman guard from NYC who averages 7.7 points, Jeremy Foumena is a 6’11” freshman center (5.7 points, 3.9 rebounds), and Tyson Brown is a 6’9” juco forward averaging 4.1 per game.
The several times I’ve watched Rhode Island play this year, I’ve thought: “They’re a fun team to watch!” They use a lot of movement on offense, they really like to shoot the ball, and they play at a quick pace with a great flow. And they are very good shooters (But that attractive-to-the-eye style of play disguises some big negatives: they don’t play much defense (they’re among the worst in the country at forcing opponent’s turnovers), they are among the worst free-throw shooting teams in the country (only 64%), and although they shoot a nice percentage as a team (36.4%) they don’t take very many three-pointers.
In conference play, URI has the fifth-best offensive efficiency but the 13th defensive efficiency. Don’t get into a shoot-out with them. Manage the game, put them on the line if you have to. Play good, strong defense. Don’t leave them wide open on threes, especially Green.
Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... Island.pdfRhode Island game notes: https://gorhody.com/documents/2024/2/17 ... hicago.pdfTV/Streaming video: CBS Sports Network
https://www.cbssports.com/cbssportsRadio/Streaming audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=176&type=Live Live stats: https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=488364Vegas odds: Loyola by 4