Battle of New England, Part III

Well I definitely didn't see this one coming. For the last several weeks, it looked like Rhody was destined for that 12 vs. 13 play-in game in the Atlantic 10 Tournament, while UMass was almost a lock for not only a bye, but perhaps the top seed in the conference.

Not so fast. URI won three of their last four, while the Minutemen dropped two of their last three (the one win vs. Duquesne,) and now we're here: (11) Rhode Island vs. (6) Massachusetts in Round 1 of the Atlantic 10 Tournament, this Thursday at 9:00. It'll be the third meeting between the teams this year. UMass has won 'em both, 73-68 in Kingston on February 9, and 70-67 on February 26 in Amherst.

UMass is still safe in the grand scheme of things, as they should still make the NCAA Tournament no problem. But a loss to the Rams won't sure won't be good for their seeding in the Big Dance, nor their psyche.

If you're a Rams fan, you can look at the match-up in one of two ways: you wanted to see the Dayton Flyers or Richmond Spiders, two teams Rhody has topped this season already (particularly the latter after the demolishing URI put on them a week ago.) Or, you want revenge against the Minutemen, you're lone A10 New England brethren, and stop all of their momentum heading deeper into March. This also comes down to Rhode Island's bad home loss vs. Duquesne (minus Ifeanyi Onyekaba, but does that really matter?) on February 15. Not only did the Rams waste EC Matthews' 32 points that day, they cost themselves a shot at moving up to the 10 seed in the A10, as it turns out, which would have set up a matchup with the reeling Spiders.

We'll be previewing this matchup, and the rest of the conference tourney throughout the week, with help from our friends over at the UMass Basketball Report, as well as some of my WRIU co-hosts Chris Burnham and Tom Porter. Oh yeah and WRIU is broadcasting the game from the Barclays Center on Thursday. Good times here. Now go watch some more college hoops on this Sunday Funday.