Atlantic Ten Basketball

Fordham didn't just beat La Salle Wednesday night. It did so in convincing fashion.

The Rams never trailed in their 63-48 win over the Explorers in front of 1,586 at the Rose Hill Gym. It was Fordham's fourth win in its last six games, and its third in a row at home. The Rams are now 9-17 overall and 4-11 in the Atlantic 10.

With three games remaining before the conference tournament, they're playing their best basketball of the season.

"I think we send a message when people see these scores and they see us winning not only at home but by double digits," Fordham head coach Tom Pecora said in his postgame remarks to the media. "We're obviously making great progress. Now we have to go find a way to go get one at UMass and really shake things up a little bit here."

It took Fordham a long time to get to where it is today. Forget about its first 19 years in the A-10—to understand the Rams' struggles, all one has to do is consider this season alone.

Fordham was 5-6 heading into conference play in early January. It lost its first nine A-10 games, but has since bounced back.

"It's never too late," Pecora said about winning basketball games. "I'm looking at this like we have seven, maybe eight games left if we get on a run in [the Atlantic 10] tournament.

"I don't think anyone in the league is looking forward to playing anyone [else] in the league. I just think it's going to be a really interesting Atlantic 10 tournament, especially if we can get a little momentum going in the beginning of it.

"Our goal is to jump into that eight, nine, 10 spot. The way we do that is by continuing to win [in] our last three regular season games."

Pecora is now 43-102 since taking over the program in 2010. Despite the record, the Rams have had their moments, especially at home. The win against St. John's in 2010 and back-to-back wins against Georgia Tech and Harvard in the 2011-12 season come to mind.

But the last three wins at the Rose Hill Gym against Saint Louis, Saint Joseph's and La Salle were different. After all, they were conference wins.

"Those [weren't] A-10 games," Pecora said about the wins early on in his tenure. "Those [were] great wins back then, wins we're very proud of. [But] when you can do it in this conference—in the seventh-ranked conference in the country—against these kind of opponents, it's very important and I think it's impressive.

"They haven't quit a bit. We've had two, maybe three dud practices all year. Today was practice No. 81. That goes to them, it goes to their competitive nature, it goes to their spirit, it goes to the grit and toughness they have and their willingness to believe in themselves and in each other. That's what this is all about."

Of course, nothing beats winning.

"Winning is fun," Pecora said. "It's fun for me. It's fun to walk into that locker room and see smiles on their faces, to see how excited they are. That's what lights me up. My assistants deserve this, too."

Fordham survived January. It made it to February when the schedule softened and the players gained experience. Now we're seeing the results.

"When we looked at the league schedule we thought it might be tough coming out of the gate," Pecora said. "There were a couple [games] we could have had early and we didn't get them just due to experience. I don't think that's going to be an issue as we move forward. I'm going to take these wins and we're going to keep rolling."

He added: "You can't control certain things. [The] conference schedule is one of them. You just play it out the way it is.

"They have confidence now; you can see that. I don't think whether we're home or on the road we're going to be intimidated by anyone. We're going to go after people in whatever environment we go into."

In an interview with Bleacher Report after the game Wednesday night, Pecora said it all comes down to effort. If the effort is there, the wins will follow.

"If we just continue to compete every day in practice like we have and the young guys continue to develop and we get good leadership from the vets, we'll compete every night," Pecora said. "If we end up on the right side of the ledger that would be great. Obviously we want to win every game we play. If the effort's where it's been and the execution's where it's been there's some more wins out there for us.

Pecora is thinking big. He's optimistic his team can pick up some wins the rest of the way, including in two weeks when the conference tournament takes place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

"Why not?" he asked. "Why can't we be the team that makes a run? It's happened before."

If it's going to happen again, Fordham will need to shoot like it did Wednesday night (45.9 percent from the field), it will have to outrebound its opponents like it did against the Explorers (46-34) and it will need to continue to bring it on the defensive end (La Salle shot 29.5 percent from the floor).

If you've ever questioned Pecora's resolve, or thought he might not be able to get it done at Rose Hill, you might want to reconsider. Four wins in six games. Three one-possession losses in conference play.

The Rams spent a long time stuck in traffic. Now they're beginning to make their turn. Pecora is proving the doubters wrong.

"I never lost faith in these guys," he told B/R. "I believed we'd get better as the year went on because of our youth and because of some of the adjustments, some of the injuries and some of the issues we've dealt with.

"I feel good about this. You have to live in the moment. Now it's about UMass."

Pecora said the two-point loss to Richmond and the two losses to Rhode Island, both one-possession games, "still stick in our crawl." But he's thrilled with the way his team has responded.

"I have no doubt that this young group learned from those," he said. "They learned how to close games and finish games and they've proven that. They bounced back."

Finally, the Rams have been able to enjoy some success.

"I'm excited about that for the kids," Pecora said. "This is my job. I've been through the wars. They're young guys. For them to keep their self-confidence up, for them to believe in themselves...They can walk around campus knowing they're playing at the level they thought they were capable of and then continuing to get better."

Quotations in this article were obtained firsthand.

Charles Costello covers the Fordham Rams for Bleacher Report. A full archive of his articles can be found here. Follow him on Twitter: @CFCostello

In an ESPN poll released last week, a majority of Division I men's college basketball coaches said they were in favor of shortening the shot clock.

According to Jeff Goodman's report on ESPN.com, of the 460 coaches polled, 59 percent favor changing the shot clock from 35 seconds to 30 seconds, 30 percent want it to remain at 35 seconds and 10 percent said it should go to 24 seconds.

Fordham head coach Tom Pecora has mentioned in the past how the NCAA could one day switch to a 30-second shot clock. On Sunday, moments after the Rams beat Saint Joseph's at the Rose Hill Gym, he talked with Bleacher Report about what the impact would be.

"It will affect certain programs more than others," Pecora said. "Teams that run offense where you're down and then try to score late in the clock—that's their philosophy. Now you're going to have about 22 seconds to score.

"I think you're going to see a lot more of people running hard entries into scoring. Shot selection is going to be an issue for some guys. The problem is they're not pros, they're college kids, so they don't make those difficult shots."

Jay Wright, the head coach at Villanova who is a close friend of Pecora's, told ESPN that he was in favor of taking it one step further.

"I think we should all have a 24-second shot," Wright said in the article. "Consistent. It's NBA and international. We should all learn to play the game the same way. The game is still the game. Everything you do to the game, everyone's adjusted."

While Pecora supports change, he said college basketball might not be ready for a 24-second shot clock just yet. He said moving it to 30 seconds would be a big enough change for now. 

"People who are involved with USA Basketball want to go to 24 because it will help us when we go out and we perform internationally," Pecora said. "They're trying to make it the same across the board. We could be there eventually, but I think this is good progress. If we just jump to 24 there might be mayhem."

Having said that, if the shot clock does indeed get shortened to 30 seconds, going to 24 seconds might be the next step.

"I think it might evolve into that in time," Pecora said.

"When you go to 24, you're not going to see upsets like you used to. The other thing, too, it's going to be much more difficult to hold the lead. You can't put the ball and the game on ice with a 24-second clock. It's going to change the game."

The lack of offense in college basketball is frequently cited as the primary reason for shortening the shot clock. Pecora, however, sees things differently. 

"I think lack of scoring is dictated by the defense and the way you're allowed to defend," he said. "It's just so physical defensively now. It's not the game that was played 20, 30 years ago where it was a beautiful, seamless, flowing offensive game. Now it's a bump and grind. You have to do it. Everybody does it. Everybody coaches it that way. It's become physical.

"The other thing is the court size hasn't changed and the bodies have, especially on the highest level. Try to put four guys in that lane. They can't be next to each other without banging into each other."

Asked what effects a shorter shot clock would have on his current team (Fordham is 8-16 overall and 3-10 in the Atlantic 10), Pecora said it comes down to experience.

"I think it would hurt a young team, it would help a veteran team," he said. "We're young. Like anything, especially if it became an immediate change, it would be good to have a veteran team that's accustomed to playing a little bit quicker."

Any change would need approval from both the Men's Basketball Rules Committee and the Playing Rules Oversight Panel, ESPN reported in the article.

Also of note, the NCAA announced earlier this month that it will experiment with a 30-second shot clock at this year's National Invitation Tournament.

"It will probably change a lot of things people do over summer workouts and what you do in the fall," Pecora said about any potential change. "I think it will be interesting to see how it plays out in year one."

Unless otherwise noted, quotations in this article were obtained firsthand.

Charles Costello covers the Fordham Rams for Bleacher Report. A full archive of his articles can be found here. Follow him on Twitter: @CFCostello

Both the beauty and bedlam of college basketball's annual Coach of the Year debate is that there is nothing close to defined criteria to take into consideration.

However, it typically comes down to this debate: Should the award go to the coach of the nation's best team, its most improved squad or its most overachieving team?

I've always felt that the coach of the most overachieving team is worthiest of these awards. The ability to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts is Great Coaching 101.

That's why Davidson's Bob McKillop should win coach of the year.

But if you prefer choosing a coach from one of the best teams in the country, there's no shortage of great options.

Kentucky's John Calipari has done an incredible job of coaching outstanding players to a still-undefeated record (26-0). Tony Bennett's defensive scheme at Virginia has been so impenetrable that it recently led ESPN's Myron Medcalf to wonder if it's so good that it's actually bad for college basketball. Mike Krzyzewski, Bo Ryan, Mark Few and Jay Wright each has his team in position for a potential No. 1 seed after opening the season ranked in the top 13 of the AP Top 25.

For coach of the most improved team, look no further than Utah's Larry Krystkowiak. Many expected the Utes to have a solid season that ultimately led to a spot in the NCAA tournament, but good luck finding anyone who thought they would be contending for a No. 2 seed with less than four weeks remaining until Selection Sunday.

To be sure, if any of those seven coaches were to be named either the AP or Naismith Coach of the Year, it would be well-deserved.

But how can you be anything less than enamored with what McKillop has accomplished in what was supposed to be a transitional year for Davidson?

McKillop for Coach of the Year is hardly the popular opinion. Seth Davis recently posted his top 10 candidates for Coach of the Year for Sports Illustrated, and McKillop's name didn't even make an appearance.

However, consider where he has the Wildcats compared to what many expected from them, because preseason prognostications for Davidson were...not good.

According to the A-10 media poll, the Wildcats were supposed to finish in 12th place in their inaugural season in the conference. Both Jerry Palm and Jon Rothstein predicted Davidson would finish in dead last in CBS Sports' A-10 preview. I infamously wrote that the Wildcats were so unlikely to win the A-10 regular-season title that they might go 0-18 in their new conference.

Yet, they're just one game back of first place after Wednesday night's road win over George Washington.

"If you were to read everything that goes on today, you can get distracted," Coach McKillop recently told Bleacher Report in a phone interview. "I certainly don't have control over what's written or what's said on TV or the radio. But I'm old enough and experienced enough to know that you don't want to waste energy there.

"The battle to be successful in Division I college basketball is difficult enough."

McKillop did have some control over what the local newspapers wrote, though.

In early July, David Scott of The Charlotte Observer spoke with McKillop about the difficult transition from the Southern Conference to the A-10.

"I don't know that our community of fans understands how big a jump this is," McKillop said. "This is a big-league leap. ... Our roster is a Southern Conference roster, so we have significant work to do and a significant distance to catch up."

Over the next few months, that evolved into the general sentiment about Davidson's chances this season.

KenPom.com rated the Southern Conference as the 30th-best league in the country in 2013-14—finishing slightly ahead of the MEAC and SWAC, which have combined to produce 21 No. 16 seeds over the past 13 years.

As such, it was an extremely big leap for Davidson to move to the eighth-highest rated league, the A-10, particularly after losing three starters from a team that failed to even earn the 2014 SoCon auto bid.

Though McKillop recognized and noted the seismic shift ahead, he wasn't afraid of it.

"The great poet [Robert] Browning said it best, 'Man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?' That's sort of the guiding light for why we don't put expectations on ourselves."

McKillop may not have had explicit expectations for this season, but the Wildcats have certainly exceeded the number of wins that most of us expected them to grasp.

The Wildcats began the season 9-1, averaging 87.7 points per game, but it was their final nonconference game that really got the Davidson discussion going. The Wildcats held a four-point halftime lead at undefeated Virginia and finished the game with 72 points.

Despite a "Southern Conference" roster that was already shorthanded—they lost frontcourt starter Jake Belford to foot surgery just six games into the season—the Wildcats are still the only team to score more than 70 points in regulation against the Cavaliers.

Though they ultimately lost the game, it was proof that they could score on and hang with one of the best teams in the country.

"It's the leadership of Tyler Kalinoski, Brian Sullivan and Jack Gibbs," said McKillop. "Even out of uniform [while recovering from a torn meniscus], Jack's been an exceptional leader. And it's been a coaching staff that is young and energetic. They're as intimately familiar with what we do here as any coaching staff I've had because three of them played for me."

Throw in Jordan Barham as the team's most efficient scorer and offensive rebounder as well as Peyton Aldridge and Oskar Michelsen, who have performed beyond admirably as freshmen, and McKillop's "26th class of sons," as he fondly calls his players, is 9-4 in A-10 play.

Not too shabby for a team that was supposedly in an unwinnable conference.

After a recent home loss to Davidson, La Salle head coach John Giannini had nothing but praise for the Wildcats, telling Dave Zeitlin of CSNPhilly.com: "I thought Davidson was stunningly good in mental toughness and execution. I thought they were the best offensive team we’d play when I saw them on tape—and they were even better than that in person."

"It was amazing," Giannini said. "It was one of the better games I've ever seen another team play against us."

It's worth noting that La Salle played games against Villanova and Virginia earlier this season, so that's a very strong statement about what McKillop has done with this Davidson team.

The remaining schedule is far from easy—home games against George Washington and VCU and a road game against Rhode Island could each provide significant challenges—but nothing about this season was supposed to be as simple as the Wildcats have made it seem.

That's a credit to arguably the best coach in the country.

All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Kerry Miller covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @kerrancejames.

Fordham lost a heartbreaker last Wednesday at Richmond. Ahead by eight points with six minutes, 11 seconds to go, the Rams squandered the lead and lost the game, 73-71.

On Sunday, in front of 2,885 on Alumni Day at the Rose Hill Gym, Fordham was determined not to let another second-half lead slip away.

The Rams led for the final 17:15 and beat Saint Joseph's, 69-55, to improve to 7-16 overall and 2-11 in the Atlantic 10.

"Obviously, I'm very pleased with the effort," Fordham head coach Tom Pecora said moments after his team evened its home record at 7-7. "It looks like we learned something about closing out games, which we talked about after Wednesday night's loss at Richmond—a game we could have won had we closed it out."

The fact that the Rams won is one thing—a story unto itself when you consider their difficulties this season. That they did it on the backs of their three upperclassmen makes the victory even more significant.

Senior Bryan Smith scored 12 points and added four assists. Junior Mandell Thomas scored 20 points to go along with six assists. And Ryan Rhoomes, also a junior, had six points and 12 rebounds.

For Rhoomes, it was the 13th time this year that he's had nine or more rebounds in a game.

Meanwhile, Thomas took over as the team's starting point guard on Jan. 22, a Pecora move that seems to be paying off. Thomas is averaging 12.6 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game, and he's helped settle down a turnover-prone offense.

Smith may be the biggest story to emerge from Sunday's game. The senior has had a rocky season, struggling with his shot for a good portion of the current campaign.

But Sunday, he was 4-of-6 from the field, and he knocked down a huge three-pointer with under seven minutes left in the game when Richmond had cut the Rams lead to six.

"Our lone senior did a wonderful job," Pecora said about Smith, "not only being a leader but making big-time plays, making big-time shots in a timely fashion.

"Bryan's had an up-and-down season, but I believe he's going to finish strong. He deserves it."

Pecora praised Smith's leadership "even on nights when he's not making shots." He talked about Thomas "embracing the move to the point position." And he mentioned the "workmanlike performance" turned in by Rhoomes.

The loyalty Pecora has shown to his three upperclassmen, through good times and bad, paid off Sunday afternoon.

"You can only be as good as your upperclassmen," Pecora said. "I've had teams where I had seniors who didn't play, but because they accepted that role in a positive fashion and they were great in practice and they were great in the locker room, we were able to have a great year.

"There's a lot of teams out there where there's a couple juniors and a senior that are upset they're not playing and they're ruining it for the season. These guys aren't letting that happen.

"The young guys really respect them. The development of the young guys has a lot to do with the way these guys treat them. When they were freshmen, there wasn't that veteran leader who was going to help them and take them under their wing, and that made their challenge even greater."

For once, it wasn't all about the freshmen, a group that includes Eric Paschall (10 points and eight rebounds against the Hawks) and Christian Sengfelder (15 points and nine rebounds), the team's top two rookies.

In so many ways, the season has been about Fordham's youth movement. But Sunday, we were reminded not to forget about the guys who have been through this before, who this time around would like nothing more than to win some basketball games.

"We're maturing, and we're getting better," Pecora said. "That's what this is all about.

"In the beginning of the year, we always say, 'Let's get 1 percent better every day in practice—don't get worse, always get a little bit better.'

"We're on our 76th practice. That's holding true. We continue to get better. We're making some strides in February, and that's when you want to be good."

Pecora is right: The Rams are getting better. Consider that three of their last four losses have been by a combined nine points. They now have an 18-point win over Saint Louis and Sunday's 14-point victory over Saint Joseph's on their record.

It appears Fordham may finally be headed in the right direction.

"This league is wide open," Pecora said. "We just have to keep our mojo going through the month of February, and we could be a dangerous team."

Quotations in this article were obtained firsthand.

Charles Costello covers the Fordham Rams for Bleacher Report. A full archive of his articles can be found here. Follow him on Twitter: @CFCostello

Fordham head coach Tom Pecora has delivered the message before—in games and in practices, to his team and to the media. As the Rams practiced Saturday inside the Rose Hill Gym, it was time to convey it again.

"You're not going to get what you want, you're going to get what you deserve," Pecora told his players at the conclusion of a drill he thought they ran through lackadaisically.

"You have to make your own breaks," he added.

The Rams haven't had many breaks this year, this season or this century for that matter. On Sunday, Fordham dropped its eighth straight game, a 101-77 loss at Dayton. But Pecora, who's been at the helm since 2010, remains optimistic that his program is headed in the right direction.

"I see a young group that's growing and getting better," Pecora told Bleacher Report a few hours before Fordham flew out to Ohio for Sunday's game. "Obviously, we have some flaws.

"I'm still inspired by these guys. They work hard every day, they practice their tails off, they're trying to get better. I keep telling them 'just keep your chin up, there's wins out there, just don't break, don't let your spirit be broken.'"

So far that hasn't happened, just like it didn't happen last year when the Rams lost their last eight regular-season games but nearly pulled off upsets in the final week against La Salle and George Washington. Last March, Fordham won the play-in game of the Atlantic 10 tournament, defeating George Mason, 70-67, before bowing out a day later with an 87-74 loss to Dayton.

New season. Same results. Only this time around, the Rams' slump is taking place earlier in the year. Timing aside, their resolve is once again being tested.

"I just think it's the timing of it," Pecora said when asked how this year's group was handling the losing compared to the 2013-14 team. "[Last year] was going through February. The fact that they never just laid down and said 'let's get this over with' I thought was impressive.

"[This year] we knew the early part of this schedule was going to be tough and February would soften. The question is...you still have to believe as you go into February. But I still believe as we go into this month there are some games that are out there that we're going to win. We go about every game preparing to win."

That can't be argued. Take Fordham's two recent games against Rhode Island as examples.

"We've played them to one possession twice," Pecora said. Rhode Island is 15-5 while Fordham is 5-14.

"If we can get the effort we gave against Rhode Island every game the rest of the year we're going to win some basketball games and then win some games in this tournament if we hit our stride."

Fordham is 0-8 in A-10 play and it's finished above .500 one time in its 19 years in the conference prior to this season. Pecora has a 39-99 record at the school after winning 155 games in nine seasons at Hofstra. He's still confident he can get it done at Fordham.

"I still think we're going to turn the corner here, and this is going to be the group that does it," Pecora said. 

He added: "I want to win basketball games more than anyone for a lot of reasons, but first and foremost for these young guys. They deserve it. They love being a Fordham basketball player. They want to win, and they want to be part of turning this around. That's why they came. They all had other options, and they decided to come to Fordham and be part of this challenge of turning this program around. I want it for them first and foremost. I want it for the alumni and the student body. They deserve it."

Not that any of this has been easy on the coach.

"I'm not going to lie to you, I don't sleep much," Pecora said. "But during the season most coaches don't sleep much.

"My concern is the pressure on these kids [thinking] 'when are we going to win one?' When we win one, the floodgate's going to open and all of a sudden we might win a few. But we've got to get that win that gets us moving in that direction.

"The pressure is more on them in that aspect," he continued. "They're college kids who have never won in college. I've had winning teams, I understand the process, so I don't feel incredible pressure. Like any coach, you're out there to compete, you're out there to win. I'm looking at the way we're performing. Part of being young is we're not consistent. We've got to get consistent and give consistent effort. That falls on me. It's my job to figure out ways to get them out there doing those things."

Pecora isn't the only one who thinks a turnaround is possible. He isn't the only one who thinks the Rams' young roster just needs time to develop.

"When I talk to basketball people who I respect and who have had great success in this business, that's their mantra," Pecora said. "They're like 'you're young and those young guys are good.' That comes from other coaches in this league and people throughout the basketball world.

"Young guys need to develop a little bit. And I think the three players we have coming in—Jesse Bunting, Joseph Chartouny and Matt Zignorski—are good ones that can come in and really make a difference early on as they develop and become part of the rotation...That's something in the spring we'll look at and figure out where the pieces in the puzzle will go as we move forward."

"It's not my job to make a case about next year," he added. "It's my job to win some games this year." 

Still, it can't be denied that this is the ultimate rebuilding project.

"I think the young talent that we have, when you see what their abilities are, I think they can be difference-makers in the A-10," Pecora said. "It's a challenge.

"This A-10 is like no other. The A-10 was the best it's been last year getting six bids. It continues to be a league where everybody's going after it, everybody's competing in every aspect of a basketball program.

"You get it done by having players," he added. "But I still believe that this group can do it, I believe that they can turn the corner. Once we do turn the corner then the next challenge is going to be, are we going to be committed enough to stay on that level and go find and get the next Eric Paschall and be able to do it on a consistent basis?"

That's to be determined. Fordham has a long way to go to get to that point. A win would be a good start. 

"Whether you're winning or losing its a grind," Pecora said. "It's just a nicer grind when you're winning."

Quotations in this article were obtained firsthand.

Charles Costello covers the Fordham Rams for Bleacher Report. A full archive of his articles can be found here. Follow him on Twitter: @CFCostello

Briante Weber's season reached a premature end on Saturday after he suffered an injury in Virginia Commonwealth's 64-55 loss to Richmond.

Sports Illustrated's Brian Hamilton first reported that Weber hurt his knee but couldn't expand upon the severity of the issue:

Official word on Briante Weber from #VCU is what others have said: Right knee injury, working on getting him an MRI.

— Brian Hamilton (@_Brian_Hamilton) January 31, 2015

The Rams followed up a few hours later, revealing how serious the knee injury is:

Official report: Senior Briante Weber has torn his ACL, MCL and meniscus. #LetsGoVCU

— VCU Athletics (@VCUAthletics) February 1, 2015

As ESPN's Andy Katz noted, the timing couldn't be much worse for Weber, who was well within arm's reach of an all-time NCAA record:

VCU official: Senior Briante Weber has torn his ACL, MCL and meniscus. His career is over. He was 12 steals away from the NCAA record.

— Andy Katz (@TheAndyKatz) February 1, 2015

Entering Saturday, the senior guard was averaging 7.9 points, 4.4 assists and 3.8 steals per game. Given his contributions at both ends of the floor, Weber was among VCU's most important players.

CBS Sports Network's Jon Rothstein analyzed what the Rams will do from here to compensate for Weber's injury:

VCU will now turn to JeQuan Lewis and freshman Jonathan Williams at point guard. Expect to see Jordan Burgess play there some too.

— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) February 1, 2015

It will be impossible for VCU to find a like-for-like replacement for Weber, and his absence will hang over the team for the rest of the season.

Any desire head coach Shaka Smart harbored of making a deep run in the NCAA tournament also looks to be a pipe dream now.

Fordham has to catch a break at some point. On Wednesday night, all it needed was a rebound.

Holding a 63-62 lead with nine seconds left in the game, Rhode Island grabbed two offensive rebounds, and Gilvydas Biruta scored at the buzzer to give URI a one-point victory in front of 1,622 stunned fans inside the Rose Hill Gym.

Moments after it ended, Fordham head coach Tom Pecora was still trying to make sense of it all.

"We've lost one just about every way this year," he said at the start of his postgame press conference. "I thought we had that basketball game. Obviously we had a couple great opportunities in the last minute or so of the game. The last play, all we have to do is deflect the ball, knock the ball out...or God forbid somebody grabs it and we walk away with a win."

Rhode Island ended up with the win, its 14th of the season, while Fordham dropped its seventh in a row to fall to 5-13 on the year. The Rams are winless (0-7) in Atlantic 10 play.

"I just told them, 'Nobody's giving you anything,'" Pecora said about the message he delivered to his team after the game. "But here's a team that's [14]-5 and we've played them to one possession twice."

On Jan. 7, Fordham lost at Rhode Island, 68-65. Compared to some of its other A-10 losses, that was an encouraging performance, just like it was when the two teams met again, this time in the Bronx. But ultimately, the final score is what matters.

For Fordham, the results haven't been good since conference play began in early January.

"We have to just find a way," Pecora said. "We have to take wins. No one's going to give us anything. It's that good a league."

The period in between last Thursday's loss to George Washington and the opening tip against Rhode Island was a crucial one for Fordham. Major changes took place, and there's reason to believe that some fixing was done.

For starters, Fordham put in a new flex offense, and the first-half results were encouraging, as the Rams shot 50 percent (13-for-26) from the floor. Facing increased pressure, that number dipped to 32 percent (8-for-25) in the second half.

There was also more production across the board. Jon Severe, who's missed nine games as a result of a suspension, a leave of absence and an injury, scored 17 points in 24 minutes. Ryan Rhoomes, who's had an up-and-down year, had 10 points and 16 rebounds in 39 minutes. Eric Paschall, who only played eight minutes in the first half after picking up his second foul, scored 19 points.

Rhoomes looked like a different player out there—far more assertive—and the results showed. This can't be a one-and-done deal for him. The Rams need his size and presence on both ends of the floor as well as on the glass. Against Rhode Island, Rhoomes showed what he can do.

"He's more than capable to get 10 rebounds a game in the Atlantic 10," Pecora said. "His numbers dropped drastically after we got into A-10 play. But this will bring him back up, and he's got to continue to do this, especially against Dayton on Sunday.

With a young team trying to find its way, there's always the other side to every story. Fordham is well aware of that part of the plot.

[Ryan Rhoomes] and Christian [Sengfelder] had 16 and nine rebounds [respectively]," Pecora said, "but we have to get the backcourt rebounding the ball a little bit more. All the things that we're going to continue to work on as a team."

As for Severe, who's had a rocky season to say the least, he finally got going against Rhode Island. If he plays like he did Wednesday night, the Rams have a chance to win some games. We still haven't seen Severe and Paschall at their best at the same time, which could change the direction of the Rams' season.

"Offensively I thought he did a decent job," Pecora said of Severe, who was on the court two hours prior to the game working on his jump shot and doing a little coaching as well. "He's a rhythm shooter, and if he gets it going he can make a couple big shots for you."

"We need him to score," he added. "When we have scoring coming out of him and coming out of Eric like that and then everybody else can fill in with six, seven, eight, nine, 10 points, we're going to put some numbers on the board."

That hasn't happened consistently enough, but one thing that also didn't happen was actually a positive: Fordham didn't fall behind right out of the gate. To alleviate the bad starts it's been so prone to having, Pecora and his staff changed up the Rams' game-day routine.

"We practiced instead of just having a walk-through, and that's what I'm going to continue to do," Pecora said. "We're practicing game days. We were doing rebounding drills and we were doing a bunch of things today, and we're going to continue to do it."

One thing is for sure: Pecora isn't giving up anytime soon.

"I only know one way," he said. "When things aren't going good, you work harder at it. We just have to continue to work hard. The harder I work the luckier I get, so I'm just going to continue to work really hard.

Quotations in this article were obtained firsthand.

Charles Costello covers the Fordham Rams for Bleacher Report. A full archive of his articles can be found here. Follow him on Twitter: @CFCostello

On Jan. 17, the NCAA's Power Five conferences (Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and Southeastern) voted in favor of providing cost-of-attendance scholarships that will give student-athletes money for certain costs not currently included in traditional scholarships.

Though not part of the Power Five, the Atlantic 10 Conference committed to cost-of-attendance scholarships last November. In an email sent to beat writers on Jan. 18, the A-10 announced its plan to implement the scholarships for men's and women's basketball following the NCAA ruling.

What does this mean for Fordham, a member of the conference since 1994?

"It's good," Fordham athletic director David Roach told Bleacher Report last Thursday. "You want to be competitive, and if people are doing it, we want to do it to be competitive.

"And in fairness to a lot of kids, it's probably what we should be doing."

Roach first discussed the issue with Bleacher Report last summer. He said then that he supported full cost of attendance for scholarships but added, "it's kind of a troubling road we're going down."

Now that we're further down that road—though far from home—Roach offered this assessment of where things stand.

"You almost have to back up a little bit and kind of say, 'How did we get to this point?'" he said.

"We got to this point because what they're calling the Big Five power conferences went after the TV dollar, and to go after the TV dollar, they realigned conferences and really have gone after more and more money. And they're all revenue driven.

"Because of that, they get heat and pressure from the media saying, 'You just hired [Jim] Harbaugh at $5 million a year, Nick Saban is making $7 million a year, Mike Krzyzewski is making $9 million...and Shabazz Napier is going to bed hungry, if you believe that...the coaches and the schools are getting all the money, and what are the kids getting?'

"You've gone from intercollegiate athletics being part of the educational process and great for everybody and a learning experience and all the things everybody always talks about...so now, we're at the point where they've got to do something."

Roach said that four years ago, when NCAA President Mark Emmert held a presidential summit, the idea of providing cost-of-attendance scholarships was brought up.

"Even some of the big schools didn't want to do it because they didn't want to do it for every sport," Roach said. "Now, they've been backed into a corner, and they feel like they have to do something because there are so many lawsuits, everybody's all over them."

Roach said athletes would be free to use the money at their discretion while adding cost of attendance "is a federally regulated number that your financial aid office determines depending [on] your student body.

"If we bring someone in here who comes from a tough background and you just give them tuition, room, board, books and no spending money or money to go back and forth, that's not fair. So they came up with cost of attendance to alleviate some of that."

He then went on to explain the A-10's thinking.

"The A-10 is saying, 'Because we're a basketball-centric league, we're committed, and everybody's going to do it in men's and women's basketball, and then after that, it's kind of up to the institution.'"

For now, Fordham will offer the scholarships only to men's and women's basketball players. Roach said that any future action to provide money in other sports will be an "institutional decision." (In November, the school announced it would offer four-year athletic scholarships as opposed to the one-year renewable scholarships it currently offers.)

He said the full cost of attendance at Fordham would be in the neighborhood of $2,700 to $2,800 per person, a figure that isn't "earth-shattering." 

"It's different for different schools," Roach said. "In the A-10, I know a couple are as low as $1,500. Some might be more than us; some are obviously less. It's never going to be the same."

It's becoming clearer by the day that neither will college athletics.

 

Quotations in this article were obtained firsthand.

Charles Costello covers the Fordham Rams for Bleacher Report. A full archive of his articles can be found here. Follow him on Twitter: @CFCostello

Fordham head coach Tom Pecora said this was coming. Right after the Rams lost to Dayton on Jan. 10, he said personnel changes could be on the way.

Pecora proved to be true to his word four days later, when the Rams visited Saint Joseph's. Junior forward Ryan Rhoomes didn't start for the first and only time this year. Manny Suarez, a redshirt freshman, started in his place. In the Rams' next game at La Salle, senior Bryan Smith got his first start since Nov. 20.

But no move may have been more significant than the one that occurred Wednesday night, when Mandell Thomas moved from shooting guard to point guard. He's the third different player to start at point guard for Fordham this season.

Thomas, a starter in 13 games prior to Wednesday, has been one of the Rams' most productive players this season. Going into last night's game, he was averaging 12.3 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists per contest.

Pecora compared the transition Thomas was making to the one made by Branden Frazier, who wrapped up his Fordham career in 2013-14 by averaging a team-high 18.2 points and 4.3 assists per game.

This time around, however, there might be a bit more desperation involved.

Nemanja Zarkovic, a freshman, began the season as Fordham's starting point guard. After five games, Antwoine Anderson, a redshirt freshman, took over.

Wednesday night might not be a permanent changing of the guard, but it was change nonetheless, and certainly worth a try after Fordham dropped its first five Atlantic 10 Conference games.

The odds still appeared to be stacked against the Rams, and they may be for the foreseeable future.

George Washington came in with a 14-4 record. Fordham started the night 5-11. The Rams found themselves down 8-0 two minutes and 22 seconds into the game and they trailed by as many as 22 later in the half.

In the second half they trailed by as many as 25 before closing the gap to 10 with just over four minutes left to play. But the Colonials would go on a 10-0 run to end the game, leaving the Rose Hill Gym with a 79-59 win and handing the Rams their sixth straight loss.

After the game, Pecora didn't hide his frustration.

"I'm not going to talk to you the way I just talked to them," he said at the start of his postgame press conference. "We have some growing up to do. We've lost the last three games in the first five minutes. We haven't come out and played with the passion and intensity that we need to."

"We just have to get better," he added.

Pecora talked about the need to change things beyond the lineup.

"Whatever they do when they're away from us with their pregame preparation has to change," he said.

"I don't know the answer," he added later. "If I did, I would change it immediately."

He did offer some ideas as to how he plans on approaching things going forward.

"I'm going to change the way we go about our pregame and I'm going to get their attention and make sure they understand it's game day and things are going to be a little bit different," he said, later adding, "You can't be afraid to change."

This is a young team—seven freshmen and only three upperclassmen—and right now things aren't clicking. Nobody knows that better than Pecora, who isn't trying to hide the fact that things aren't going well.

"I'm trying to allow them to learn a little bit on the go, and it's not working," Pecora said. "I have to change the way I'm approaching this as well."

Thomas played 38 minutes against George Washington and finished with 15 points, five assists and eight rebounds. Pecora said he made "a couple bad decisions," but he did offer a tepid endorsement of his play.

"I didn't think Mandell did a horrible job," Pecora said. "He filled up a box score for a guy playing with the ball in his hands. Overall I don't think it was horrible."

Pecora said the plan right now is to keep Thomas at the point.

"Antwoine (Anderson) will come off the bench and back him up for now, and we'll see how things progress," he said. "Hopefully we can get everybody back at their normal positions in time."

It won't get any easier for Fordham. Rhode Island is next, followed by Dayton and UMass. Welcome to the Atlantic 10.

"The schedule's been brutal, but what are you going to do?" Pecora said. "This is who we play.

"I said to them, 'If you don't change your ways and start competing for 40 minutes, it's not going to just happen.'"

He added: "I think there are guys that are taking possessions off and getting a little too comfortable in their spots. It doesn't matter what year you are, you're going to compete for minutes here."

Then it all came back to the biggest news of the night, which broke before the game even started: Thomas moving to the point.

"Right now Mandell's our starting point guard," Pecora said.

He then offered his assessment of Anderson and Zarkovic, not counting either out, but admitting that both needed to improve in certain areas.

"I think Antwoine (Anderson)'s performance over the two games prior to this was not very good," Pecora said. "I think he was overwhelmed by game-planning and all of the things that go into a game and running a team at this level. I think the best thing for his development and for ours as a team was to put Mandell into that spot.

"Nemanja (Zarkovic)'s been shooting the ball well," he continued. "He gets more shots when we play him off the ball. Obviously he was struggling with double-teams and things of that nature early on. Everyone sees film. When people see film they were jumping him. By moving him off the ball, we're getting him a couple more looks and allowing him some time to develop."

The team has proven it needs time to develop as well.

Quotations in this article were obtained firsthand.

Charles Costello covers the Fordham Rams for Bleacher Report. A full archive of his articles can be found here. Follow him on Twitter: @CFCostello