Rams ready to go dancing
URI meets Creighton Friday in Sacramento
KINGSTON – The last time Rhode Island played in an NCAA tournament game, head coach Dan Hurley was a 26-year old assistant at Rutgers, and most of his current players were toddlers.
Lamar Odom sent the Rams dancing in 1999, hitting a contested 3-pointer at the buzzer to down Temple and win the Atlantic 10 tournament. 18 long years later, and the Rams have done it again, winning their conference, this time with a little less drama involved, but with the same, sweet reward of an NCAA tournament bid.
The team trailed for all of 43 seconds in their three A-10 tournament games this past weekend. First, it was a complete victory over St. Bonaventure that featured fantastic play from the duo of E.C. Matthews and Hassan Martin. In the semifinals, URI ran right past a gassed Davidson team, and to win it all, they held on after dominating VCU in the first half.
“It was nice to get back to normal today,” said head coach Dan Hurley, following his team's whirlwind weekend. “Get back to focusing on a game. Still excited, it was a great weekend. Great to win a championship. These guys feel really good and confident.
“We had two goals this year: win the Atlantic 10 championship and get to the NCAA tournament. We did those things. Now you get the amazing experience where our players now get to perform in front of the country. March Madness captures the imagination of the country.”
Standing in their way of continuing their resurgent campaign is Big East team Creighton. The Bluejays had a hot start to the year, but the career-ending injury to point guard Maurice Watson has brought hard times to the midwest program.
They are 7-8 since Watson tore his ACL, but still have a loaded roster for URI to contend with. At 6-foot-3, Marcus Foster will look to terrorize the vaunted Ram guards. Foster is averaging 18.3 points per game, and shoots 46.6 percent from the field.
The Ram big men will also have their hands full, as they look to stop or, at the very least, slow down 7-footer Justin Patton. The freshman shot an eye-pop- ping 70.1 percent on two-point field goal attempts in addition to leading his team in both blocks and rebounds.
“They're a little bit like the college version of Golden State in terms of the way they shoot it and how quickly the ball comes at you in transition,” said Hurley. “The combination of Foster and Patton, two potential NBA players. They're surrounded by shooters. Tremendous offensive team, they really put a lot of stress on your ball screen coverages. They're also a better defensive team than people give them credit for.
“He's a skilled player, all of about 7foot,” Hurley continued, focusing in on Patton. “Super active, athletic. Doesn't take a lot of threes, but has hit fifty percent or so. Guy is going to be playing in the NBA. They use him a little bit like a DeAndre Jordan, where they throw him a lot of lobs.”
The Bluejays had the 13th best shooting percentage on 3-pointers this season, but the Rams had the second-best 3-point defense, allowing opponents to connect from deep at a measly 29 percent clip.
Playing against such a talented team will be challenging, both on and off the court, for Hurley. Preston Murphy – former URI standout guard and assistant to Hurley for two seasons - is an assistant coach with the Bluejays. Murphy played on the 1998 Elite Eight team, and was teammates with Antonio Reynolds-Dean, who himself is now a URI assistant coach.
“I talked to Preston yesterday,” said Hurley. “One of us is going to be disappointed but we're both happy for the success that each other has had. He didn't sound too happy about having to face [us]. He loves URI, he has great friends here. He's responsible for helping us put this thing together here. He was here early, recruiting. Early building blocks of culture.
“Tony is as competitive a person as I've met,” he added, of Reynolds-Dean. “He's such a positive energy guy. Tony has done a great job, [coaching] Hassan in particular.”
URI will tip-off against Creighton in the first round Friday, in Sacramento, Calif. If URI was to advance past the Bluejays, they would play the winner of the Oregon-Iona game on Sunday.