Battle of the Rams II Recap - URI Goes Dancing Again!
In the first half of this game, URI played near-flawless basketball. When I say near-flawless basketball, I mean that the Rams from Kingston, RI played like a team that could last a half in the NBA. While I may have exaggerated a bit too far, the Rams rocking the midnight navy alternate jerseys, started 5 for 7 from beyond the arc on their way to a 29-12 lead at the 8:58 mark. The 17-point lead came off the back of crisp passing and deep shooting accuracy that the Rhode Island Rams displayed throughout all three days that they partook in the Atlantic 10 tournament. URI's 40-27 halftime lead went a long way because VCU outscoring URI, 36-30 in the second half, was not enough.
The second half certainly got cloudy when VCU went on their inevitable runs, much to the happiness of the Virginia Commonwealth crowd. There is no coincidence that the Rams in black-and-yellow made the majority of their runs when Kuran Iverson and Hassan Martin had to go to the bench due to foul trouble in the second half. Justin Tillman had a monster day, cleaning up the glass, on his way to 17 rebounds, including 8 offensive rebounds. Speaking of offensive rebounds, VCU totaled 23 offensive rebounds to URI's 9 offensive rebounds. However, VCU's offensive rebounds could not overcome URI's superior shooting statistics. URI's 44.4% shooting from the field and 40% shooting form beyond the arc combined with their strong defense to secure the win, 70-63.
With the clock hitting about 1.8 seconds left in the game and Kuran Iverson dribbling the ball up into the frontcourt, he dunked the ball right after game time expired. Based on reactions on social media, particularly by the VCU fans, the dunk was unnecessary and unsportsmanlike. However, I can state multiple reasons why the dunk was necessary. First, Iverson was taking his frustration out after back-to-back injury riddled seasons that plagued his team in both seasons he played for the Rhody Rams. Second, he capped off the Rams' victory with a sign of the dominance that Dan Hurley's team showed while in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Lastly, it is not preposterous to think that Kuran Iverson was sending a message to their future opponents in the NCAA tournament.
There are several positive takeaways that can be taken away from this championship game. Thus, I will try not to ruin the monumental occasion by bringing in negativity, as I am prone to doing. The biggest progression that I am happy about is that URI won this game in the face of 7,025 fans, with the vast majority being VCU fans. In any other season under Dan Hurley, with the majority of the same group of players, they would have been crushed or choked in the big moment. URI may not have had E.C. Matthews when they played at the Siegel Center last season but the VCU Rams absolutely decimated the Rams from Kingston, Rhode Island. An embarrassing showing like that from Rhode Island could potentially scar you for life, both as an athlete and as a competitor. In this game, URI showed zero lasting effects of that massacre.
Moreover, the simple fact that they closed out an important game in the final minutes with the win hanging in the balance is an accomplishment that they rarely achieved in the storied careers of E.C. Matthews and Hassan Martin. With 55.2 seconds remaining in the game and 8 seconds left on the shot clock, Matthews drove into the lane, took a huge body shot by Doug Brooks, and then threw his layup off the glass. On this occasion, with URI hanging onto a slim 3-point lead, the big, orange pumpkin did not roll in-and-out or magically miss. When the Rhode Island Rams needed the win the most, luck was on their side and their stars all came to play.
Despite their foul trouble, which included both frontcourt players picking up their third fouls at the beginning of the second half, Hassan Martin and Kuran Iverson both produced on what could have been their last collegiate basketball game. Though the selection committee chair said that URI would have been given an at-large bid and a trip to Dayton even if they had lost this game, no one in PPG Paints Arena had knowledge of that fact during the game. All eleven points that Martin scored were crucial, including a ferocious dunk to put URI up 29-12 and a spin layup on VCU's Ahmed Hamdy that would make any guard or wing player happy. Meanwhile, Iverson made an impact with the first three-point shot that he attempted. Early on in the game, Iverson's three quieted the VCU fans in attendance and set the tone for Rhode Island's offensive barrage.
When it came to putting the final seal on the win in PPG Paints Arena, the Rhode Island men's basketball team stepped up to the free throw line and produced. In the final 34 seconds and a VCU comeback still very possible, Jared Terrell and E.C. Matthews each knocked down their pair of respective free throws. I have rarely ever seen this happen as a URI basketball fan - cold-blooded, clutch free throw shooting in an important game.
Ultimately, the Rams in navy showed that they deserved to be a preseason top 25 team, they deserved to be a preseason pick to win the conference, and they deserved to be the 1.5-point favorite in this championship game.
Later this evening, in an interview with WPRI 12, Dan Hurley referenced "URI's 18 years of suffering, difficult late season collapses, and buzzer beaters". Shortly thereafter, he was exasperated and could barely speak on how monumental the championship victory was for this Rams squadron. In addition, when speaking to the media immediately after the game, URI's head coach spoke intently about how his Wagner team upset a top-15 Pittsburgh team in 2011 and the irony of his hotel room number, 1115 (the combination of his brother's college jersey number and his own). To sum the experience up, Dan Hurley said, "I don't want to leave Pittsburgh. I love it here." Pittsburgh was certainly friendly to Hurley and his team.
After a whirlwind of a season, the URI fan base can thank Hurley and his coaching staff on what they helped their players accomplish. In each of the press conferences that followed their 3 victories in Pittsburgh, the opposing head coach mentioned (in some manner) how the Rams from Kingston, RI knew exactly how to attack their weakness or limit their strength. Plus, I cannot fail to mention that Coach Hurley made his team watch "One Shining Moment", a coaching tactic that I enjoyed hearing about.
I like to think that I pay great attention to detail so I may have been one of the few spectators that was able to hear Jim Spanarkel and Verne Lundquist mention that E.C. Matthews asked Coach Hurley about taking his cast off before the Atlantic 10 tournament. Well, I am as ecstatic as anyone else that URI's head coach told him to wait until next season to take the cast off. By and large, Matthews' confidence this season was the central cause of his underwhelming play for the majority of the season. Thus, I even thought that he should remove the cast following the first couple months of the season. The cast on his right leg has been a constant reminder of his brutal ACL tear from last season but in Pittsburgh, PA, he acted like the cast was invisible. In several games throughout the 2016-2017 season, I have seen E.C. constantly pick at his cast and raise it up or mess with it to adjust it to his comfortability. During this past weekend, I saw none of that.
For the first time since NINETEEN NINETY-NINE, the Rhode Island Rams will be back in the NCAA tournament. As a Rams fan, I was glad to hear that I could stop listening to the thousands upon thousands of possibilities of how this team would or would not get an at-large bid into the field of 68. At this juncture, next to the Big 10 champions, the Michigan Wolverines, this Rhode Island basketball team is arguably the hottest team in the college basketball world. From opposing seeds 1 through 68, no one in the NCAA tournament wants to see Rhode Island in their region, never mind play them.
Anyone think that URI was happy that they guaranteed themselves an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament?
