Projo College Hoops

The Stupidity of Some People

Usually, I just ignore nonsense such as the following, but it's so stupid it begs to be addressed,,,

Here's a quote from a reader, commenting on a recent blog of mine headlined: Kudos to Keno, and Jim Baron, too:

"URI under Baron plays nothing but cupcakes in pre-conference..."

Really?

The Rams opened at Brown, which Friday night on the road against St. John's of the powerful Big East Conference trailed by just a single point in the final minute before losing by three after missing a desperation trey just before the final horn sounded.

Next up for URI is Holy Cross, the preseason favorite to win the Patriot League. After the Crusaders, the Rams play at Davidson -- which has won the Southern Conference tournament three of the last four years, and reached the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament in 2008 -- and also at Virginia Commonwealth, which has won the Colonial Athletic Association tournament two of the last three years, and in 2007 knocked off Duke in the opening round of the NCAA tournament.

Then long-time rival Providence College, of the Big East, and Northeastern, which returns four starters from the team that beat the Friars last season at the Dunk, come to the Ryan Center, after which URI travels to Chestnut Hill to take on Boston College of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

As if that weren't enough, the Rams also play Oklahoma State, of the Big 12, on a neutral court at Mohegan Sun -- the Cowboys won a game in the NCAA tourney last season -- and then travel to Akron to take on the Zips, who are the overwhelming choice to win the Mid-American Conference title this season.

"Cupcakes?"

Which is why I have to chuckle at this incredibly-clueless poster.

And, while we're at it, another poster in the same blog asked: "How is Northeastern a 'lesser' team than PC?"

That wasn't the correct context. The phrase was "perceived lesser foes." Most people around the country perceive the Big East to be a better league than the Colonial Athletic Association.

BTW, it's interesting that none of the rabid Rhody rooters enlightened the misguided soul who claimed the Rams played a "cupcake" preseason schedule.

PC falls to Alabama in final minute, 84-75

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - A late-game meltdown has caught the Providence Friars in their trip to Alabama.

The Friars led by a point with 70 seconds left but Alabama closed the game on a 10-0 run to beat PC, 84-75

Jamine Peterson scored a career-high 27 points for the Friars and added 14 rebounds. Marshon Brooks chipped in with 22 points. Sharaud Curry did not score a point until he made two free throws with 12 minutes left in the game and finished missing all nine of his field goal tries.

Mikhail Torrance led Alabama (2-1) with 26 points.

Alabama scored the game's opening five points but the Friar offense kicked into gear mainly do to an early flurry by Peterson.

Duke Mondy hit PC's first field goal and first 3-pointer of the game to get PC rolling but then Peterson took over. He put back his own miss for a hoop, hit a nice floater in the lane and then banged home a 3-point shot. A Alabama turnover led to a fastbreak that ended with Peterson gliding to the rim with a nice finger-roll finish.

That score gave PC a 17-13 lead and then it was Brooks' turn. His swished a deep 3-pointer for a 22-16 lead, a nice stop-and-pop 12 foot jumper and then a driving runner off the glass that kept PC in charge, 26-21. Alabama responded with its best run of the half as it ripped off nine straight points to grab a 30-26 lead.

The Friars switched defenses into a zone at that point and the Tide went cold. Over the final 4:25 of the half, Providence outscored the home team, 11-3. Brian McKenzie hit a nice 3-pointer at the start of the run but Brooks ended it with a behind-the-back, Paul Pierce-like fallaway jumper that gave the Friars a 37-33 lead at the half. The hoop gave him 14 first half points.

Alabama shot 29 percent in the opening half and made just one of 8 threes. The Tide changed its tune at the start of the second, however. The home team made four of its first five shots to regain the lead, 46-43. The lead grew to five points but a steady diet of Peterson's board game and low-post scoring kept the Friars close. Curry finally scored his first points with 12 minutes left when he hit two free throws that tied the game, 53-53.

The two teams then played back and forth for most of the rest of the half. Alabama held leads of no more than three points and then PC went ahead, 73-72, on two Peterson free throws. A tough spin move in the lane by Brooks made it 75-74 but 'Bama's Andrew Steele scored with 1:10 left to put the Tide back in front. PC's Brooks then had the ball stolen by Torrance with 47 seconds left and he breezed in for a layup and a foul on Curry. His free throw pushed the lead out to 79-75 and the home team was out of the woods..

All football, all the time

Providence and Purdue are the only major conference opponents on Alabama's home non-league schedule but Tide fans weren't exactly excited about the game. The reason? Football, of course. Tuscaloosa is one of college football's ultimate destinations and fans here care about the pigskin year round. With the team unbeaten and dreaming of another national title, the entire town is in heaven.

There was limited parking near Coleman Coliseum for the basketball fans. The parking lots are taken over by RV's of rabid football fans who are camping out in advance of Saturday's game against Tennessee-Chattanooga. The announced attendance of 10,032 was clearly tickets sold. There were about 7,000 people in the stands.

PC up at the half, 37-33

The Friars are leading Alabama at the half, 37-33. Marshon Brooks is not only healthy, he's playing superbly. He leads the Friars with 14 points.

Alabama scored the game's opening five points but the Friar offense kicked into gear mainly do to an early flurry by Greedy Peterson.

Brooks is playing in front of his mother, Darlyn, young sister Naya and five friends from his home in Georgia. Peterson has 11 points and 5 rebounds.

Dixon's big game

Starting center Bilal Dixon enjoyed one of the best first games of any Friar in PC's season-opening win over Bryant last week.

Dixon scored 16 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to become the fifth Friar ever to record a double-double in his first collegiate game. The others were Ben Perkins, Bruce Campbell, Marvin Barnes and John Thompson. Barnes went for 23 points and 18 rebounds against Brown, while Thompson scored 23 points and grabbed 16 boards versus Mount St. Mary's.

Greedy's Peterson's 22 rebound game against Mercer was one of the best board games by a Friar. Peterson grabbed 11 offensive rebounds, the third-most in PC history.

Alabama coming to PC next season

The Friars' schedule for 2010-11 is not complete but most of the major games are accounted for. Alabama will be coming back to Providence for a game next season. PC will also host Rhode Island and Northeastern and travel to Boston College. PC and BC are beginning a 10-year contract.
PC is also headed to Cancun for two games in a tournament just before Thanksgiving. The other teams in the event are not set yet.

Batts will sit and watch this season

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Barring any unforeseen injury, Kadeem Batts will sit and watch his teammates this season.

Batts, a 6-8, 230-pound freshman from Powder Springs, Ga., has been targeted to redshirt this season. The reasons are twofold. First, the PC coaching staff feels he can benefit from maturing and working on his game. Second, and perhaps more important, is his age. Batts is PC's youngest player at 18 years old.

"Kadeem is going to be a good player for us," said PC coach Keno Davis. "He's behind some upperclassmen right now and isn't in our rotation right now so this is best for his future."

Davis chose to redshirt Jamine Peterson and Bilal Dixon last season. Both are now in the Friars' starting lineup. Batts doesn't turn 19 until July. In college basketball these days, the normal 18 year old freshman and 21 year old seniors are an oddity. Thanks to prep schools and redshirting, the players' ages can be all over the map. PC's Sharaud Curry is the oldest player on the team at 22. Peterson is a 21-year old sophomore. Marshon Brooks will turn 21 in January.

As for the freshmen, Batts is the only 18 year old in the bunch. Vincent Council and Johnny Lacy are both 19, while both Duke Mondy and James Still will turn 19 next month.

PC looking to Roll Tide

We're here in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and getting ready for Providence-Alabama at 8 p.m. A quick news nugget on PC's Marshon Brooks. He is warming up and moving well as his recovery from a twisted ankle in last Sunday's win over Mercer progresses.

Brooks is swishing 3-pointers as we speak and seems to be coming down on his ankle with no noticeable pain. He did miss four days of practice, however, so we'll see how much energy he has against the Crimson Tide.

Will PC be first Big East team to lose a game?

After a week of games, the 16 Big East teams are a collective 35-0. So who goes down first?

A few Big East teams are underdogs in games Friday. Providence (-6) is at Alabama. Seton Hall (-3) is at Cornell. DePaul (-9) takes on Northern Iowa.

The Friars face a stiff test against a `Bama team that wants to play like Providence. That means a running, gunning, pressing track meet could be possible. The problem is PC's best run-and-gunner, Marshon Brooks, will be limited by a sore ankle. We'll see just how much Brooks has in the tank.

Alabama may have lost to Cornell in its opener but that's far from a bad loss. The Big Red may have the best Ivy team in a decade. They also won at UMass and tonight they host a good Seton Hall team. If they win, watch for Cornell to be in the Top 25 next week. Cornell owns a 21-game home win streak.

Also, in a true sign of the Apocolypse, one of the top prep players in New York picked Tennessee over the likes of St. John's, Syracuse, West Virginia and Kentucky. But the school selection isn't why we wonder about Tobias Harris, a 6-8 scoring forward from Long Island. No, it's that the kid picked the Vols (which does look VERY sketchy, by the way) on national TV (ESPNU) and pulled up to the ESPN Zone in Manhattan in a black stretch limo.

Kudos to Keno, and Jim Baron, too

For those of us old enough to remember when Brown, URI, and Friars all played each other twice a year, home-and-home, it was great to see the Rams come "all the way up" to Providence to take on the Bears.

Not enough teams are willing to play what are perceived to be "lesser" foes on the road.

Which is why, along with Jim Baron, Friars coach Keno Davis also deserves a tip of the ccompetitor's cap for agreeing to play at Northeastern.

The trip to Boston promises to be a challenging one for the young Friars, who lost last year to the Huskies at the Dunk in Davis' debut.

Friars Are Underdogs

Even though the Ivy Leaguers from Cornell beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa, it's not surprising that the undefeated (3-0), but inexperienced, Friars are 5-1/2-point underdogs tonight.

Like PC, a preseason pick to finish 13th in the Big East, Alabama isn't expected to do much in the SEC in new coach Anthony Grant's first season since moving to 'Bama from VCU.

Still, it's a blow to SEC prestige for the Tide to lose at home to an Ivy League team -- even one favored to win its third straight league title. And, obviously, a loss by a Big East team, coming on the heels of an Ivy League win at Alabama, wouldn't be a plus for the conference.

People perennially overrate the "power conferences."

Had Temple played Georgetown in Philadelphia, the Owls very well might have won, instead of losing by a point in the final seconds, and the same could be said of unranked Gonzaga, which gave #2 Michigan State all it could handle in East Lansing.

Sophs help URI pull away from Brown

Sophomores Jamal Wilson and Orion Outerbridge came off the bench Wednesday to lead a second-half surge that carried the University of Rhode Island to a 78-57 victory over Brown at The Pizzitola Center.

Rhode Island led by only 31-30 at the half. Eight early second-half points by Keith Cothran helped build the Rhody lead to 49-40.

The Rams then ran off 14 straight, beginning with a thunderous putback dunk by Outerbridge. Wilson had six points in the run, including a dunk of his own off his steal and go. When the blitz was over, URI was on top 63-40.

Wilson, who had 13 points all last season, finished with 14. Outerbridge, who got into only eight games last winter, added 10.

Peter Sulivan led Brown, now 1-2, with 15.

Rams lead Bears by one at the half

Brown and URI have played a one-point game in the first half here at The Pizzitola Center.

URI leads, 31-30, at the break after both teams have had turns on the lead. Peter Sullivan has 11 points for Brown while Jamal Wilson has scored eight off the bench for the Rams.

Brown has killed URI on the boards, to the tune of a 26-14 advantage. URI, on the other hand, has forced 11 turnovers, several of which have turned into easy baskets. The Rams have had trouble when they had have to set up the halfcourt offense.

Former Rams doing well overseas

Jimmy Baron is off to an excellent start in his pro basketball career.

The URI grad is the leading scorer in the Turkish Basketball League (TBL), at 20.3 points per game. For the season, Baron is connecting on 49.1% of his field goal attempts, including 17-of-38 on 3-pointers. He had a season-high 24 points for his Mersin club on Nov. 8.

Kahiem Seawright is also enjoying a solid start to his professional career in Spain. Playing for C.B. Tarragona in the Spanish LEB Gold league, the former Rhody forward is averaging 11.5 points and 6.6 rebounds per game, while shooting 52.4% (33-63) from the floor. On Nov. 6, he was a perfect 7-for-7 from the floor, scoring a season-high 17 points versus La Laguna.

Former Rhody forward Darrell Harris is in Poland, playing for SKK Kotwica. Harris, who played two seasons for the Rams from 2005-07, ranks eighth in the PLK in scoring at 16.9 points per game. The 6-10 forward leads the league in rebounding (11.9) and is fourth in blocked shots (1.3).

Flu gone, Halpern returns for Brown

Swine flu concerns have impacted the Brown team for Wednesday night's game against URI.

Tucker Halpern, a 6-foot-8 freshman forward from Sudbury, Mass., has rejoined the Bears after being away for a week because of the flu. There is no indication that he has had the swine flu, according to Brown coach Jesse Agel, but he was sent home last week home because of school policy.

The policy dictates that anyone who comes down with flu-like symptoms is sent home, provided home is within reasonable distance. Halpern left campus just before Brown first game last Friday against St. Francis of New York.

``We expect he's going to be fine,'' Agel said. ``It is something we had to deal with. We had to follow school policy.''

Halpern has looked good in practice and was expected to be a member of the team's regular rotation.