Evaluating the Legitimacy of 2017-2018 Rhody MBB's Games Away From Home
There is no home cooking in the NCAA tournament. Therefore, I wanted to evaluate the profile of the 2017-2018 Rhody MBB team in games that they played on the road or on a neutral court.
88-81 loss at Nevada - Jordan Caroline and the Martin twins refused to let the Rhody Rams come into Nevada's home arena and escape with a win. The Wolf Pack continuously got to the free throw line and the charity stripe ended up being Rhody's downfall.
75-74 win vs. Seton Hall - The win over the Seton Hall Pirates has stood up as the best win on Rhody MBB's NCAA tournament resume for the entire season.
70-55 loss vs. Virginia - URI played a competitive first half against the #1 team in the nation but then they were slowly taken out of the game in the second half because of their deficiencies in the size that they use.
68-64 loss at Alabama - After an enormous rivalry win vs. Providence over the weekend, URI had a letdown at Alabama due to poor shooting from the field. Also, they were severely outnumbered when it came to free throw attempts.
81-60 win at George Washington - Their first road win in conference play was a clinic.
72-65 win at Saint Louis - A road win against an undermanned Saint Louis team proved to give more scares to the Rhody fan base than anticipated before the game began.
88-74 win at Dayton - A double-digit win at UD Arena truly showed the depth of this team after Nicola Akele played great off of the bench. Akele was forced into action because of foul trouble in the frontcourt and Josh Cunningham scored 32 points and had 12 rebounds but URI still weathered the storm.
78-58 win at Fordham - It was utter domination by Rhody and New York's own Andre Berry against one of the worst teams in the Atlantic 10.
85-83 win at Massachusetts - Playing against a team that is using six scholarship players and winning the game on the final possession is not ideal.
81-68 win at VCU - The Rams secured a big win in a big game at the sold-out Siegel Center. The senior class of Rhody MBB finally leaped over the hurdle of winning at VCU.
77-74 loss at Saint Bonaventure - URI had a heartbreaking road loss in Olean, NY that cost them the opportunity to go undefeated in conference play. While they played okay in a thrilling Friday night game on ESPN2, the Rams could not make enough plays late in the game to pull out the win.
95-93 win (in OT) at La Salle - Personally, I had my concerns after this narrow win at Tom Gola Arena. URI withstood a 29-point, 23 rebound performance by B.J. Johnson to pull out a win in overtime.
63-61 loss at Davidson - URI manage to throw a game at Belk Arena in which they possessed a six-point lead and the basketball with under a minute of game time remaining.
Overall, URI's away game profile is pretty weak. Besides their neutral court win over Seton Hall, their road wins lack quality and they have not won a game away from home over a 2018 NCAA tournament team besides their win over the Pirates. Their lack of success on the road is the central reason why some key figures in the college basketball world do not trust the Rams when they travel to their given site in the 2018 NCAA tournament. Dan Hurley's team needs to find a way to adjust to hostile environments and become road warriors during the biggest postseason tournament in college basketball.
