What a URI Attendee Wants to See in the Final (Lucky) 7 URI Games
After much deliberation and evaluation of the current scope of the NCAA's bubble picture and projected bracket, I have my outlook for what I want and need to see from the Rhode Island Rams in the final 7 games of their regular season schedule. Although Rhody's RPI, KenPom rating, and other "computer numbers" look impressive, the selection committee will not just be making their judgment on statistics. A crucial factor that will be reviewed is each team's resume.
For the Rhode Island Rams, their one signature win is the neutral court victory they picked up over the 22-2 Cincinnati Bearcats, ranked #11 in the nation. A few other good wins include home victories over likely Ohio Valley conference representative, Belmont and likely NIT-bound Saint Bonaventure Bonnies. Besides these victories, there is not much to rave about and no other wins that college basketball experts (like myself) are mentioning.
On the flip side, URI has had 5 justifiable losses out of the 7 that they have suffered and 2 that are questionable. The blowout loss to La Salle looks like a fluke at this point and given that the La Salle Explorers are a top 100 team currently (#91), the defeat could be accepted by the committee without too much ridicule. With that said, if the Explorers suddenly go on a losing streak to end the season, URI's loss to the team from Philadelphia would definitely be a bad loss. Next, Rhode Island's loss at the Robins Center to the Richmond Spiders is alarming as a fan and I know the committee will not be happy with the loss. Besides the fact that the Rams were favorites at the time of the contest, the Richmond Spiders ended non-conference play with a 6-6 record, including a loss to woeful Oral Roberts. Despite a surprising 8-2 record thus far in conference play, the Spiders are still outside of the top 100 (#103) and a potential deviation in production from Richmond would critically damage Rhode Island's resume.
With URI's final 7 conference games about to get underway, any URI basketball fan obviously hopes that the Rams go undefeated the rest of the way and (surely) guarantee a bid into the NCAA tournament. While I share this mutual feeling, I must make a realistic judgment. At this juncture, home games against Dayton and VCU are not just "big" games for Rhode Island's conference title hopes and for their resume, but I am hereby declaring them as MUST-WIN games. Moreover, with games remaining against the likes of Fordham, Saint Joseph's, George Mason, and Davidson, URI cannot afford to take a single bad loss from this group of failing teams or their resume holds little to no weight. Overall, a 6-1 record in the final 7 games with potentially a loss at Gola Arena at La Salle would put URI in prime position to secure the NCAA berth. However, I must also mention the caveat that this year's NCAA tournament chair, Mark Hollis, will be attending the URI-La Salle game on February 21, 2017. If URI wants to impress the committee, I advise them to have a good showing and win at La Salle. Even though it will be arduous, a 7-0 record in the final stretch for Rhode Island is ideal for a multitude of reasons.
Rhode Island faithful, we do not have much thinking to do collectively. Just look at this visual depiction of how hard I thought about this: