(04-18-2017 04:20 PM)cr11owl Wrote:  I'm not sure why getting 2 grad transfers who have no contributions at the college level is exciting. We lost 6 of our best 7 players from last year (Evans, Egor, Jackson, Douglas, Quez, Lott).

At this point, I am comparing things to what Rhoades inherited in 2014-15 and looking toward what those additions could mean toward 2017-18.

In 2014-15, Rhoades signed Van Green as a grad transfer and no other grad transfers. This left Rice with only 10 recruited scholarship players at the start of the season, instead of the 13 allowed (Gearhart, Jackson, Guercy, Mency, Drone, Green, Rivers, Pollard, Reed, Davis), plus Peera who was put on scholarship his senior year. But if I recall correctly, Rivers and Davis left the team during the season, meaning Rice essentially played with 8 recruited scholarship players.

With the 4 commits so far, Rice is up to 10 recruited scholarship players, and there is no reason to expect any of them to leave mid-season (they have all either played for Pera or were recruited by Pera, unlike Rivers and Davis, who were both Braun holdovers). So I'm excited that Rice has added depth.

I'm also excited to add the physical maturity that grad transfers bring, as compared to true freshmen.

I'm also excited because Lapray was very highly regarded coming out of high school, but injuries derailed his college career. If he is healthy, he could make a big impact. Similarly, Dylan Jones was a good recruit who also dealt with injury issues. Again, if he's healthy, he could be much better than his college numbers suggest.

Like I said, I'm not expecting Rice to be as good as last season. But I see a lot more talent and experience on the roster than 2014-15, which makes me feel like it will not be a total rebuild. I can see this team finishing in the top half of CUSA if guys are healthy, and that is more optimism than I had a few weeks ago.

My roster comparison(2014-15 compared to 2017-18) from another thread, updated with new players:

(03-30-2017 04:12 PM)mrbig Wrote:  My analysis comparing the rosters. Please note that with Gearheart and Jackson, I am considering what we knew about them going into Rhoades's 1st season. Obviously both played great that year. But heading into the year, neither of them had done much of note at Rice. Additionally, I am putting some consideration into how prominent the players were as recruits. The list is in order of minutes played by the guys during Rhoades's 1st year, and I tried to compare them to similar players with similar playing experience.
Cashaw > Gearhart
Lapray > M. Jackson
Adams = Guercy
Mency (Sr) > Mency (Fr)
Meyer > Drone (So)
Harrison > J. Jones
Martin Jr. > Peera
D. Jones = Green
Spence > guy who quit mid-season
Hunter > guy who quit mid-season