NCAA: Creighton v Rhody - Fri 4:30pm 3/17/17

[billyjack]

Our Bluejays head out West to the capital of the Golden State, beautiful Sacramento.

Friday 3/17/2017
Creighton vs Rhode Island, 4:30pm.

Creighton advanced to the BET finals over the weekend, and are lookin good. Kind of running a PG-by-committee, though Davion Mintz and now Ronnie Harrell Jr have been the most effective I think.

Rhode Island in mid-February was in meltdown mode, having lost at home to Dayton after being up 5 with under a minute... and then 5 days later lost again... by 10... to Fordham... oof. Fans were ready to run Danny Hurley out of town. But the unlikely happened, as they rattled off 8 straight wins, including vs VCU yesterday.

To me, the Rams have a lot of talent, in particular 2 really good players... SG Jared Terrell and C Hassan Martin. EC Matthews has been favoring his knee all season, so hasn't been as effective as was expected.

Anyway, I think Creighton has too many scorers, too much strength, and much much better coaching. Won't be easy, but I think this is Creighton's first step to a Sweet Sixteen or Elite-8.

Note... beware of Danny Hurley standing 4 feet onto the court during game action.

[ArmyVet]

Note... beware of Danny Hurley standing 4 feet onto the court during game action.

He got t'd up for that yesterday.

[milksteak]

Dangerous opponent. Creighton needs to bring its A-Game.

[billyjack]

Note... beware of Danny Hurley standing 4 feet onto the court during game action.

He got t'd up for that yesterday.

Yeah, I saw that. Key point of the game, under 10 minutes left. VCU guy tipped a pass started charging at the ball, the ref backed up to give him room and bumped into Hurley.

And he continued to do it, like he was asking for another. At one point a URI player on the bench grabbed his forearm and tried to pull him back. It was a tough enough game for them without having to worry about their coach getting another T.

Under 5 minutes, I was surprised a VCU player didn't deliberately run over and collide with him during an inbound.

[ArmyVet]

[Under 5 minutes, I was surprised a VCU player didn't deliberately run over and collide with him during an inbound.

I recall that exact moment and thought he could have bumped Hurley without even trying to get him. I suppose he'd be ejected at that point.

[DudeAnon]

Rhode Island over Creighton becoming trendy upset pick

[cu blujs]

I don't know why our guys are even getting on the plane. Can we just stay home and still collect the share for the game

I agree it is going to be won or lost on how well we move and distribute the ball, and how well we block out on the defensive end. Limit their second chance points and take care of the ball, and I don't think they can outscore us (unless we have a game like Baylor a few years back where nothing goes in). Guys need to be working on their pump fakes this week.

[Jet915]

Rhode Island over Creighton becoming trendy upset pick

I haven't heard one expert pick us to win this game. Kind of understandable, URI has won 8 in a row but it was through a down A-10 while we have been about 500 since Mo went down. Most Jay fans hope we see more of Ronnie Harrell than Clement and Hegner as he can play PG but can rebound as well and he matches up with URI's athleticism better. For some reason, he is always in Coach Mac's doghouse, hopefully last game changed that, we'll see....expect a close game like it was against PC and X at the BET.

[EMT]

Note... beware of Danny Hurley standing 4 feet onto the court during game action.

He got t'd up for that yesterday.

In Danny's defense, his player was hammered on that play with no call.

[BEwannabe]

Rhody is very athletic and play really hard and if EC Matthews wouldn't have torn his ACL then they'd be really good. That's the good, Hurley is the bad as he can't seem to stay out of the way and I don't just mean his intrusive sideline antics. Creighton definitely gets the nod on the sideline X/O. Creighton will have to keep the Rams off the offensive glass, they're very aggressive offensive rebounders.

And while the A10 may have been down top to bottom team wise there are a lot of good players and Rhody has a few sneaky good players. In addition, they're playing with what they think is a full cup of destiny. And finally they're not very deep and foul prone because of their aggressive style. This should be a great ball game.