Attendee's Evaluation of the 2015-2016 Season
I can repeat the same cliche thing that all college basketball experts and commentators have been saying about the 2015-2016 Rhode Island Rams, they are a team that had loads of potential and were destined to make the NCAA tournament but could not do so without the services of their star, E.C. Matthews. Once Rhody's #0 went down with a torn ACL against American, it was rough sledding for the squad.
For me, Four McGlynn was extremely underwhelming and rarely ever lived up to his billing of being a sharpshooter. With that said, he is Filipino so he gets a pass.
On the other hand, Christion Thompson had a promising season, especially with his performance against PC but I wish he had brought some gumbo along with him. Meanwhile, Jarvis Garrett and Jared Terrell developed into the dominant backcourt that they were originally brought in to be. Also, Hassan Martin was solid all year and Kuran Iverson looked adept at the college game after being held back by Josh Pastner at Memphis. While Martin laid a devastating dunk on PC's Rodney Bullock, Iverson destroyed random kids from Nebraska and Holy Cross with his vicious dunks throughout the year. With all of these progressions made while Matthews was out, the future is bright for the Kingston-based basketball team.
With a 17-15 overall record and a 9-9 record in conference, Rhode Island had as average a season as one can have. Nevertheless, they picked up a good win at home over the Houston Cougars and a massive victory on the road at A10 juggernaut, Dayton. The bitter end to the Rams snake-bitten season was in the second round of the Atlantic 10 tournament where they lost a close contest 67-62 to #10 UMASS at the Barclays Center. Sharing a common theme throughout the whole season, the Rams hung around all game but had trouble pulling out the extremely tight contests (i.e. at home vs. PC).
