If football keeps going to bowls and basketball gets to the dance a couple of times and baseball stays where it is, yes Rice WILL be changing conferences. And it will be an upgrade.

(06-30-2014 11:25 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  If football keeps going to bowls and basketball gets to the dance a couple of times and baseball stays where it is, yes Rice WILL be changing conferences. And it will be an upgrade.

Here's hoping

(06-30-2014 11:25 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  If football keeps going to bowls and basketball gets to the dance a couple of times and baseball stays where it is, yes Rice WILL be changing conferences. And it will be an upgrade.

agree, but one of these is not like the others. baseball is model of consistency and football looks good for 3rd straight bowl game.

basketball is 5 quantum levels away from at at large bid.

(07-01-2014 10:48 AM)MemOwl Wrote:  

(06-30-2014 11:25 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  If football keeps going to bowls and basketball gets to the dance a couple of times and baseball stays where it is, yes Rice WILL be changing conferences. And it will be an upgrade.

agree, but one of these is not like the others. baseball is model of consistency and football looks good for 3rd straight bowl game.

basketball is 5 quantum levels away from at at large bid.

So you are suggesting we might be counting our chickens a little early? Wait for Rice basketball to actually play a game before annointing Rhoades savior?!? Blasphemer!!!

Here's a miss:

Jeff Goodman ‏@GoodmanESPN

Austin Conway committed to Wyoming, source told ESPN. Indiana and Rice were both involved.


Guess it's good we're going after the same guy Indiana did...and he chose Wyoming over both

Weird! I guess you never know... Best of luck to him. Maybe he just wanted to be close to home. For those who aren't familiar, Conway is the #1 player in the state of Colorado for the class of 2015 according to 247Sports.

(07-01-2014 01:04 PM)mrbig Wrote:  So you are suggesting we might be counting our chickens a little early? Wait for Rice basketball to actually play a game before annointing Rhoades savior?!? Blasphemer!!!

???

I don't think anybody has anointed Rhoades "savior." But as far as I know, he hasn't raised any red flags yet, which is a pleasant change for our MBB program.

As for how long rebuilding will take or where it will end up, I don't know. But I have heard that when Wayne Graham was hired and he declared that Rice was going to win a national championship, Rice fans laughed. 12 years later, they were wrong. And I distinctly remember, in the immediate aftermath of Ken Hatfield's departure, some here asserting that we would never be invited to another bowl game. One year later, they too were wrong. So I'm not going to be the one to say what Rhoades can't do at Rice.

I was making fun of all of us (tongue-in-cheek), myself included, who have been very excited about Rhoades so far.

Pretty sure there needs to be a sub-section of the Autry Army that is particularly vocal and called themselves "Rhoades's Scholars."

(07-02-2014 09:29 AM)mrbig Wrote:  I was making fun of all of us (tongue-in-cheek), myself included, who have been very excited about Rhoades so far.

Pretty sure there needs to be a sub-section of the Autry Army that is particularly vocal and called themselves "Rhoades's Scholars."

Oh I think they need to be behind the basket and wear horned rim glasses and hold up open books and turning pages in unison when the other team shoots freethrows

I just hope he recruits some 7'4" guy we can call the Colossus of Rhoades.

(07-02-2014 03:43 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  

(07-02-2014 09:29 AM)mrbig Wrote:  I was making fun of all of us (tongue-in-cheek), myself included, who have been very excited about Rhoades so far.

Pretty sure there needs to be a sub-section of the Autry Army that is particularly vocal and called themselves "Rhoades's Scholars."

Oh I think they need to be behind the basket and wear horned rim glasses and hold up open books and turning pages in unison when the other team shoots freethrows

I love that visual.

(07-02-2014 12:34 AM)Gravy Owl Wrote:  But I have heard that when Wayne Graham was hired and he declared that Rice was going to win a national championship, Rice fans laughed. 12 years later, they were wrong.

This sounds apocryphal or a matter of pure ignorance about What Graham had already accomplished.

(07-05-2014 01:07 PM)I45owl Wrote:  

(07-02-2014 12:34 AM)Gravy Owl Wrote:  But I have heard that when Wayne Graham was hired and he declared that Rice was going to win a national championship, Rice fans laughed. 12 years later, they were wrong.

This sounds apocryphal or a matter of pure ignorance about What Graham had already accomplished.

I was there when he said it. I think Hambone and ricex may have been there as well, and others on here, although I think Tiki was in Minnesota at the time. I don't recall anyone laughing, but there were considerable expressions of doubt.

If a new coach in any sport - football, basketball, cross-country, whatever - said his goal was an NC at his introductory press conference, my first thought would be "Good attitude". My second would "Good luck". But I wouldn't put money on it happening. Graham made it happen. I wonder if anybody else that day truly expected an NC.

Now it is time to promise another.

(07-05-2014 02:36 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  I was there when he said it. I think Hambone and ricex may have been there as well, and others on here, although I think Tiki was in Minnesota at the time. I don't recall anyone laughing, but there were considerable expressions of doubt.

Thanks for clarifying. No idea why I chose the word "laughing." Of course, expression of doubt was the point.

(07-05-2014 03:54 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  If a new coach in any sport - football, basketball, cross-country, whatever - said his goal was an NC at his introductory press conference, my first thought would be "Good attitude". My second would "Good luck". But I wouldn't put money on it happening. Graham made it happen. I wonder if anybody else that day truly expected an NC.

Probably Graham himself.

There's a big difference between not putting money on it, and casting doubt on it in the recruiting thread in response to a recent commit who is apparently a believer.

(07-05-2014 04:19 PM)Gravy Owl Wrote:  

(07-05-2014 03:54 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  If a new coach in any sport - football, basketball, cross-country, whatever - said his goal was an NC at his introductory press conference, my first thought would be "Good attitude". My second would "Good luck". But I wouldn't put money on it happening. Graham made it happen. I wonder if anybody else that day truly expected an NC.

Probably Graham himself.

Thus the bolded part

(07-05-2014 05:46 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  Thus the bolded part

I skimmed over the "else." Sorry.

There's still a big difference between not putting money on it, and casting doubt on it in the recruiting thread in response to a recent commit who is apparently a believer.

(07-06-2014 12:05 AM)Gravy Owl Wrote:  

(07-05-2014 05:46 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  Thus the bolded part

I skimmed over the "else." Sorry.

There's still a big difference between not putting money on it, and casting doubt on it in the recruiting thread in response to a recent commit who is apparently a believer.

I definitely would keep any even slightly negative opinions to myself. There is no upside to gratuitous negativity.

Graham's comment at the initial presser was in response to a question about whether he expected to be able to elevate Rice to compete with UT and A&M for SWC baseball titles. Simply answering the question in the affirmative would have seemed ambitious at the time. Graham chose instead to state that his goal was not to win conference championships, but the national championship.

It is awesome that Coach Rhoades might have the same attitude and outlook. Coach Bailiff has brought us a conference championship, which is nice, but perhaps he, too, should declare that we aspire to be the biggest fish in the big pond ... as some on this board have noted, there is no reason for Rice to aspire to be anything other than the best in any of its endeavors.

I was there when he said it. I think Hambone and ricex may have been there as well, and others on here, although I think Tiki was in Minnesota at the time. I don't recall anyone laughing, but there were considerable expressions of doubt.
[/quote]

I don't know of any coach at Rice or elsewhere that has set a upper limit on their eventual aspirations. I think the normal response is to always aim higher than what has thus far been achieved.

I do hear some of the fans here setting intermediate achievements as ultimate goals. Things like competing for the conference championship 1 every three or four years. Being respectable. Well, I want respectable, and then I want more, and then more again, and I expect that attitude from every coach in every sport.

Coach Graham had the guts to jump to the end and say it out loud. Lots of credit for that. Maybe younger coaches are less likely to put it all on the line like that. But what if Gritman doesn't make "the catch"?

No NC, but we would still be trying. That's what a good coach does, tries every play, every game, every season to do the best. As it is, we are trying for a second NC, and he didn't promise two at the conference.