St. Thomas on Saturday. Hopefully the team has improved to the point where we are no longer losing to NAIA schools. We don't have quite as many holes to plug with walk ons and guys who would otherwise have been very deep in the rotation as we did last year, but it's still nearly all underclassmen on the team. All this experience early on may pay dividends down the road, assuming they stay...which is not a safe assumption apparently.

This year we get them at Tudor, so would be nice if we had SOME fans going. No football game this weekend, so hopefully some of you in Houston can spend a couple hours with the new team.

Words can't describe how much I miss competitive basketball.

Hope that we get back there soon.

(11-06-2013 12:00 PM)07owl Wrote:  St. Thomas on Saturday. Hopefully the team has improved to the point where we are no longer losing to NAIA schools. We don't have quite as many holes to plug with walk ons and guys who would otherwise have been very deep in the rotation as we did last year, but it's still nearly all underclassmen on the team. All this experience early on may pay dividends down the road, assuming they stay...which is not a safe assumption apparently.

This year we get them at Tudor, so would be nice if we had SOME fans going. No football game this weekend, so hopefully some of you in Houston can spend a couple hours with the new team.

We lost to them at Tudor last year. They play UH in an exhibition tonight I believe. Speaking of UH their big recruit from last year Chicken Knowles still has not been cleared by the NCAA. He was academically ineligible last year and spent it at UH-Downtown.

(11-06-2013 04:58 PM)Tiki Owl Wrote:  They play UH in an exhibition tonight I believe. Speaking of UH their big recruit from last year Chicken Knowles still has not been cleared by the NCAA. He was academically ineligible last year and spent it at UH-Downtown.

I hope to watch the game via internet.

Have we had any scrimmages/exhibition games?

I can't make Saturday's game but I'll be there Tuesday and can pipe in with some thoughts after that. UST lost to UH last night by 17 but was only down 6 at the half. Last year, their little point guard killed us and he graduated. We're also much taller this year with some legitimate size underneath with the two freshmen so I expect our size advantage to help out quite a bit.

We don't have any exhibitions this year but we did have those three games in Canada in the summer (all wins) so that's quite a bit of experience our young guys have under their belts. We have 14 guys on the roster (not counting the freshman who is redshirting) but half of those 14 are freshmen. It may take us a few games to figure out the lineup and rotation.

We should put a banner on this site: it has been n days since a basketball player transferred.

I think we only had one leave after last spring. That should mean playing time for the young guys.

Losses from last years roster (non-graduating) were:

• DeBose, Julian
• Franshaw, Elliot
  

Graduating:

• Jackson, Tamir
  

So, 8 of this year's players are returning from last year, accounting for about 2/3 of the playing time. Jackson and DeBose alone account for almost all of the remaining time. Guercy-Ramljak-Washington-Wilson-Gearhart are the ones with the most minutes, in that order.

Gearhart got hurt and missed the final 1/3 of the season or so. In order of importance last year, I'd say it was Guercy, Ramljak and Gearhart. I wouldn't be surprised if Washington shows the most improvement from last year to this season and all four of them will be important contributors to this year's team.

(11-06-2013 09:40 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Gearhart got hurt and missed the final 1/3 of the season or so. In order of importance last year, I'd say it was Guercy, Ramljak and Gearhart. I wouldn't be surprised if Washington shows the most improvement from last year to this season and all four of them will be important contributors to this year's team.

Oops. I didn't even consider injuries, but I didn't recall that. I'd have figured about the same from those four... the minutes for Gearhart kind of surprised me, as I thought he'd have been 4th in minutes behind Jackson, DeBose, and Guercy.

(11-06-2013 08:38 PM)I45owl Wrote:  Losses from last years roster (non-graduating) were:

[*] DeBose, Julian


So, 8 of this year's players are returning from last year, accounting for about 2/3 of the playing time. Jackson and DeBose alone account for almost all of the remaining time. Guercy-Ramljak-Washington-Wilson-Gearhart are the ones with the most minutes, in that order.

I believe DeBose went and transferred to FLorida Gulf Coast Univ, where they made the sweet 16 last year. Guess his short term goals (winning, playing) were more important to him than long term goals (solid Rice degree).

Although Owls have been picked dead last in C-USA by every publication I've read so far, I have a hard time seeing this. Bottom tier most likely, but not dead last again. I guess this is where the Rice Reputation takes over in the media's collective knowledge.

Dr. Karlgaard, it is my wish Rice can find a way to change the default perception/assumption from "perennial loser" to "perennial winner and challenger for championships" kinda like Wayne Graham did in Rice Baseball.

Now this is very interesting. Definitely worth watching the impact on the college game. And I agree with him - it's really a change back to the way things were called back in the early to mid 80s. I've seen replays of those games, and arm bars, etc. were almost always whistled.

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triang...wing-pains