After starting 11-1 Rhode Island has begun 3-4 in the league slate, but the team’s last loss may be the most important moment of the season.
An 81-57 loss to VCU on home court is Rhody’s worst loss of the season and just its second on the Ryan Center floor. Rhode Island turned the ball over 27 times in the loss, the most for the program since Dec. 27, 2005 in a loss against Houston.
This season the Rams have not been dismantled and picked apart like their mascot counterpart from Virginia did. VCU outscored the Rams 41-23 in the final 20 minutes of play, and Rhody were only in the matchup due to a 19-3 run right before the break.
Now it’s time for Archie Miller to get his players to stay locked in, a loss like this can demoralize a locker room. A year ago it was a two day trip to Mohegan Sun that broke Rhody’s spirit. They faced off against Northwestern and Washington State, falling in the matchups 72-61 and 78-57. Those high major matchups proved to the fans that the rebuild was still just that, a rebuild. This year the Rams headed to the Jacksonville Classic for their yearly multi-team event, defeating Detroit Mercy and the University of Texas at Arlington.
The Rams left Jacksonville undefeated and wouldn’t fall until they faced Brown on Dec. 10. About five weeks later the Rams have five losses, four of them since New Year’s Eve. Rhode Island has La Salle, UMass and Fordham as its next three matchups on the docket, with a combined league record of 6-13. Rhode Island is higher than all of these teams in both the NET and KenPom and should come out with a victory in each of the three.
If Rhode Island falls in two of the three matchups fans will begin to question what changed from a non-conference explosion to a league play flop. The way Rhody can avoid this, limit turnovers, stop fouling and cut down on the lapses in scoring. Most of Rhode Island’s conference losses can be attributed to these factors. Slow starts with lapses in scoring saw them fall to Duquesne and George Washington, turnovers to VCU.
This is the tipping point of the season for Rhode Island men’s basketball, analyzing the past loss and finding a groove can propel them to a single or double bye in the Atlantic 10 championship with a chance for a run. A 2-1 stretch would be beneficial as well, as it would get the team back to .500 in conference play. Anything worse could see the support taper off in the Ryan Center, and players become checked out.
Rhody looks to get back on track on Saturday at 2 p.m. against La Salle in Philadelphia.
