Rhode Island MBB Schedules Charleston - My Likes and Dislikes
As reported by Jon Rothstein, Rhode Island MBB will be playing host to the Charleston Cougars during the non-conference portion of their 2017-2018 season.
Just like I did for the previous announcements of Rhode Island MBB scheduling Alabama, Iona, and Florida Gulf Coast, these are my likes and dislikes about the matchup.
Likes:
1. The Cougars are on an incline - they went from winning 14 games in 2013-2014 and 9 games in 2014-2015 to going 25-10 (14-4), finishing second in the CAA, and making it into the NIT.
2. Charleston lost on the road to the likes of Towson, Northeastern, and William and Mary (who the Rams handled at home last season).
3. Beyond Joe Chealey and Jarrell Brantley, Charleston's third-highest scorer, Grant Riller will be a sophomore in the upcoming season. URI has a veteran-laden team that should exploit underclassmen on the basketball court.
4. I watched the CAA title game last season and saw UNCW beat Charleston (even after having 14 turnovers as a team) because the Seahawks shot 40% from beyond the arc.
Dislikes:
1. Charleston is not a lock (like FGCU) to win their conference and they could potentially revert back to their aforementioned poor showings from a few seasons ago.
The bottom line at this point is that Rhode Island is killing it with their 2017-2018 non-conference schedule. They added another team to their non-conference schedule that I previously wanted them to. By a large amount, the Rams are being more aggressive in their scheduling than the majority of the other 350 teams in college basketball currently.
