One team that has lived up to many preseason expectations thus far is Rhode Island. Picked by many as favorites in the Atlantic 10, the Rams are in first place and with a commanding lead as February gets going.
And on Friday night, they scored a convincing road win at a tough place to win – a 81-68 decision at VCU.
URI entered the season with four senior guards and a sophomore who was one of the better freshmen in the Atlantic 10 a year ago in Jeff Dowtin. Anytime a team has that kind of talent and experience on the perimeter in college basketball, expectations are naturally high. The only question was what they would get up front, and they have received enough from the combination of Andre Berry, Cyril Langevine and Nicola Akele. Langevine had the big game on Friday with 12 points and 18 rebounds.
Jared Terrell and E.C. Matthews have been a dynamic duo, with Terrell doing more damage from deep while Matthews has done most of his off the bounce. Terrell is closing out his career with easily the best overall shooting numbers of his four years, including 42.2 percent from long range. Dowtin has blossomed as a sophomore and moved Jarvis Garrett into a reduced role, but that’s a pleasant problem to have because Garrett can play.
URI is not only leading the Atlantic 10 in commanding fashion, but also looking like a team that could secure an at-large bid should someone knock them off in the conference tournament. It’s a down year in the conference from that standpoint, so they are the only team that we can say that about, but their only losses have come away from home to very good teams: Mountain West leader Nevada (road), Virginia (neutral) and Alabama (road), and none were embarrassing ones by a long shot. Meanwhile, they have wins over the likes of Big South leader Seton Hall, Providence, Big South leader UNC Asheville, CAA co-leader College of Charleston and Atlantic Sun leader Florida Gulf Coast.
On Friday night, they won the possession battle, and that went a long way towards winning this one. They didn’t win big in any category other than rebounding – 47-31 – and forcing five more turnovers than VCU. URI doesn’t normally dominate on the backboards or force a lot of turnovers, but this just shows that when they need to, they can win in other ways.
Rhode Island is now three games up in the loss column on everyone else in the Atlantic 10. Their next two games will come against the two teams chasing them, Davidson and Richmond, and both at home. Wins in those two may all but wrap up the regular season title, not to mention cement their dominance in the conference this year. It would be what was expected before the season, but as any team that was favored and won knows, doing that is never as easy as it might seem.
Side Dishes
Ivy League play has begun in earnest, and there’s now only one team that is undefeated in league play. Harvard was handed their first loss, an 83-76 setback at Columbia. That leaves Penn, 95-90 winners in overtime over Brown at the Palestra, as the lone unbeaten at 4-0. Princeton is staying right behind them as they likewise needed overtime and came out on top of Yale 76-73. Yale is now 2-3, and it sounds like Makai Mason is still not ready to fully return, which doesn’t help.
The MAAC had quite a night of action, as all five games were decided by single digits. Most notably, Iona needed overtime to take out visiting Quinnipiac 87-82, while Canisius remained a half game up on the Gaels and a half game back of Rider (idle) as they went to Marist and beat the Red Foxes 73-67. The thriller was Fairfield edging Monmouth 79-78 on a floater with 2.1 seconds left.
The only high-major conference game on the night was Colorado‘s 67-55 win over Utah in Boulder, which knots both teams at 5-6 in the conference for seventh place.
Tonight’s Menu
As usual, a busy day of hoops is ahead of us.
- A non-conference game gets us going as St. John’s hosts Duke (noon)
- ACC play gets going with Notre Dame at NC State (noon), then Clemson travels to Wake Forest and Miami goes to Virginia Tech in a battle of 5-4 teams (2 p.m.) Later, Virginia puts their undefeated ACC mark on the line at Syracuse (4 p.m.), Florida State travels to Louisville (4 p.m.)
- American Athletic Conference play starts with old Big East rivals meeting as UConn hosts Cincinnati, while at the same time Houston goes to UCF (noon)
- The Atlantic Sun has a big game as Florida Gulf Coast puts their undefeated mark on the line at Jacksonville, who is two games back in the standings (6 p.m.)
- In the Big 12, Oklahoma State goes to Kansas (noon), then Texas Tech goes to TCU (2 p.m.), West Virginia tries to get back on track as they host Kansas State (4 p.m.), Texas tries again for a breakthrough win as they host Oklahoma (6:15 p.m.), and Baylor hosts Iowa State (8 p.m.)
- Big East games of note include Providence going to Marquette (2:30 p.m.)
- An important game in the Big South is on tap as Radford travels to Winthrop (2 p.m.)
- Big Ten action on the day includes Minnesota at Michigan (2:30 p.m.), Purdue trying to stay on a roll at Rutgers (4 p.m.), and Michigan State continues to chase the Boilermakers as they go to Indiana (8:15 p.m.)
- The two Mountain West leaders are in action at the same time, with Nevada going to Colorado State and Boise State hosting UNLV (8 p.m.)
- In the Pac-12, cross-town rivals meet as UCLA hosts USC (6 p.m.), while Washington hosts Arizona (10:30 p.m.)
- SEC play starts with Kentucky visiting Missouri and South Carolina visiting Texas A&M (2 p.m.), while LSU hosts Arkansas (3:30 p.m.), Florida hosts Alabama (4 p.m.), Tennessee hosts Ole Miss and Mississippi State hosts Georgia in what should be good games (6 p.m.), and after letting one get away at Kentucky on Tuesday, Vanderbilt will try again at Auburn (8:30 p.m.)
- In the West Coast Conference, Saint Mary’s goes to San Diego (9 p.m.), and BYU, who has made a habit of winning at Gonzaga lately, visits the Bulldogs (10 p.m.)
