Projo College Hoops

Click the play button below to see and hear our latest edition of projo SportsTalk with Paul Kenyon. Paul talks about the Rams' disheartening loss at St. Joseph's, the necessity of winning tonight in order to remain a contender for an NCAA Tournament berth, and the biggest key to victory for URI.

Here's an excerpt of Paul's comments about tonight's matchup:

"It's a fun matchup between a great offensive team and a great defensive team. Rhode Island is in the top 20 in the country in points and field-goal percentage. Xavier ... in 12 of its 15 games has held opponents under 40 percent [shooting from the field]. Opponents are coming in shooting 36 percent [overall]. It's going to be a challenge for Rhode Island.

"Unquestionably the single biggest key of the game is going to be Jimmy Baron and whether he can get loose. Last year Xavier had the defensive player of the year in Stanley Burrell. He held Jimmy Baron without a field goal in the game at the Ryan Center -- that was the great, four-point game that Xavier won. Burrell has graduated, so as good as Xavier is, I can't imagine they have anybody who's as outstanding on defense as Burrell was. I think Dante Jackson is likely to get a lot of the assignment on Baron tonight, but I think it will be a fairly good gauge. ... If Jimmy Baron has three or four or five 3-pointers, URI has a great chance to win. If Xavier can shut him down, as it did last year, then it becomes Xavier more likely to do well."

 Tags  Paul Kenyon SportsTalk URI Xavier

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