Dayton at URI Preview - Time to Lock Up the Regular Season Title
The date is February 23, 2018 and the Rhode Island MBB team has an opportunity to win the Atlantic 10 regular season championship outright. The time (7pm on ESPN2) is now for the Rams to capitalize on securing at least one banner for the 2017-2018 season.
During the last time that Dayton and URI played one another this season, Josh Cunningham dominated the interior. His 32 points were good for the highest individual total in the last meeting between these two teams. This time around, if Cyril Langevine and Andre Berry can stay out of foul trouble, URI should fare much better against Dayton's #0. The expectation for Rhody fans should be that the home team will often double Cunningham in the paint off of his initial catches on the blocks.
After URI's 14-point road win at UD Arena, Anthony Grant's team will likely try to feed Cunningham inside before kicking the ball out to the likes of Darrell Davis, Jalen Crutcher, and Trey Landers. Davis is a guard that the Rams know all too well, considering the fact that he hit the game-winning three-pointer for Dayton in the Ryan Center, just two seasons ago. Also, Dan Hurley previously tried to recruit Darrell Davis when he was in high school. I would expect to see a heavy dose of Jared Terrell on Dayton's second leading scorer.
As they witnessed firsthand in their first matchup with the Dayton Flyers this season, Rhode Island should be wary of Kostas Antetokounmpo. The freshman and younger brother of Giannis Antetokounmpo can be an X-factor off of the bench. In his first game against the Rams, Kostas had four points, two rebounds, two assists, one steal, and one block in 24 minutes. Antetokounmpo does a little bit of everything for his team and his past block versus Rhode Island was heard all around Dayton's home arena.
In theory, I would like to see both #0's in this game go toe-to-toe on the offensive side of the ball. However, with the extra focus on each player in tonight's contest, there is a considerable probability that neither Josh Cunningham or E.C. Matthews will have tremendous games offensively. URI has the sextet of guards to overwhelm Dayton's guards on both ends of the basketball court.
All in all, it looks to be a near certainty that Dan Hurley's team will win their first championship of the season tonight - the Atlantic 10 regular season championship.
