(12-03-2015 12:33 PM)mrbig Wrote:  

(12-03-2015 12:05 PM)Kayjay Wrote:  ...as well as the implementation of the .30 second clock that has increased the pace and scoring in college basketball.

This is an interesting comment. I would think that speeding up the pace of the game for everyone would hurt teams that already had a fast pace, like Rice under Coach Rhoades. If everyone is going faster, then it reduces the advantage that Rice previously had of going faster. Kind of like what happened in baseball when they switched the bats ~5 years ago. For years, Rice had a huge advantage over the average team in pitching. Now the gap between the better pitching teams and the average team has narrowed because the bats made everyone's hitting worse, and therefore, everyone's pitching better.

It is interesting. To Date, Rice has scored 94 more points (a bit over 11 points a game) in the 8 games in the season than they scored last year (I took out the points scored in overtime last year against Mercer for this calculation to be comparable). Last year the team was 2 and 6 after 8 games, this year they are 2 and 6 as well. The pace has clearly picked up for the Owls and I assume the same is true throughout the league.

I was never one of those people who expected us to have a decent team this year (NIT, challenging for conference champ, etc.). I expected growth, but with Gearhart gone and a lot of new faces, I expected us to have more or less the same record as last year, even before the injuries to Jackson and Lott. However, I never expected us to still be losing to the likes of HBU.

I'm not calling for Rhoades's head or inviting comparison to the football situation, but we can be honest and say this is unacceptably bad and we need to do better in the future. It is indeed a blemish.

Let's be clear though.

We want to be Gonzaga. I believe Gonzaga could beat HBU with all five starters suspended.

So the loss to HBU means that--for one night at least--we are about as far from the goal as we can be.

But it is one game. Michigan State lost at home last year to Texas Southern and ended up in the Final Four.

If we lose to St Eds and St Thomas, I will be very adamantly second guessing our holding empty scholarships.

Definitely a bad loss. When the point differential can be attributed entirely to missed free throws and layups, there's no excuse - just pick up the pieces and learn from it.

(12-03-2015 01:44 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  Definitely a bad loss. When the point differential can be attributed entirely to missed free throws and layups, there's no excuse - just pick up the pieces and learn from it.

Only if you expect a narrow win over hbu

(12-03-2015 01:46 PM)07owl Wrote:  

(12-03-2015 01:44 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  Definitely a bad loss. When the point differential can be attributed entirely to missed free throws and layups, there's no excuse - just pick up the pieces and learn from it.

Only if you expect a narrow win over hbu

I don't understand what you mean.

(12-03-2015 01:42 PM)MemOwl Wrote:  Let's be clear though.

We want to be Gonzaga. I believe Gonzaga could beat HBU with all five starters suspended.

So the loss to HBU means that--for one night at least--we are about as far from the goal as we can be.

But it is one game. Michigan State lost at home last year to Texas Southern and ended up in the Final Four.

If we lose to St Eds and St Thomas, I will be very adamantly second guessing our holding empty scholarships.

I'm not sure what we could've done with the empty scholarships though. All the graduate transfers we wanted said no, mostly inside help if I remember correctly. We can't use 7 scholarships on freshmen unless we expect to cut them later like IU did during its rebuilding after Greenspan and Sampson ruined their program.

(12-03-2015 12:05 PM)Kayjay Wrote:  I wish I could have seen the game last night to understand exactly what went wrong to have the game end up in the loss column. However, I have watched a number of college basketball games this year and have seen a remarkable increase in the number of called fouls overall in the game as well as the implementation of the .30 second clock that has increased the pace and scoring in college basketball. Coaches and teams are trying to adjust to the game changes and I think the rule changes work against teams that are thin on depth and lack the ability to defend in this new environment. Poor free throw shooting really will come back and bite at team if the foul whistle is becoming an increasing part of the game. Right now the Owls do not seem to be shooting the ball exceptionally well from the arc or from the charity stripe. It will be interesting to see how the team reacts to this level of adversity.

During the last two games somewhere around the 5 minute to go mark I have looked at the stats and have seen 40 or more fouls called. This is just ridiculous. As I mentioned in a post during the game the way last night's game was called was like a hockey game when it becomes a fight fest. Every little bump or touch gets called so why not "get your money's worth" and really hammer your opponent. Managing the physical game is a huge part of what hockey officials do. If each team gets its hits in equally then you allow a bit more physical play and back off calling penalties. That is what should happen in college basketball as well. Last night's game would have been much better served with less fouls called and it would have been less chippy. The desire to eliminate hand checking (and the really stupid change to the under the basket rule...hands up it's a charge...hands down it's a block...good grief) has ruined defensive play.

Evans is a real talent - I would be worried that major basketball schools will be recruiting him (to transfer).

The way the games have been called is a killer to depleted rosters. You can handle 40 fouls if you go 10-12 deep, but not if you go 8 deep. If people come to the games and don't give up on the team, Evans will stay. Otherwise, we could be looking at Dylan Ennis all over again. I'm also hopeful grades don't cost us any other players at the mid-semester like they did last year. I'd be worried about Egor too, who is also a nice player. But hopefully Jackson provided the example for our good players that there is nothing wrong with staying 4 years, getting nearly straight A's and a Rice degree.

(12-03-2015 09:12 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  The way the games have been called is a killer to depleted rosters. You can handle 40 fouls if you go 10-12 deep, but not if you go 8 deep. If people come to the games and don't give up on the team, Evans will stay. Otherwise, we could be looking at Dylan Ennis all over again. I'm also hopeful grades don't cost us any other players at the mid-semester like they did last year. I'd be worried about Egor too, who is also a nice player. But hopefully Jackson provided the example for our good players that there is nothing wrong with staying 4 years, getting nearly straight A's and a Rice degree.

I wouldn't worry about Egor. He had to sit out one year aleady. I can't see him choosing to do it yet again.

(12-03-2015 01:36 PM)Kayjay Wrote:  

(12-03-2015 12:33 PM)mrbig Wrote:  

(12-03-2015 12:05 PM)Kayjay Wrote:  ...as well as the implementation of the .30 second clock that has increased the pace and scoring in college basketball.

This is an interesting comment. I would think that speeding up the pace of the game for everyone would hurt teams that already had a fast pace, like Rice under Coach Rhoades. If everyone is going faster, then it reduces the advantage that Rice previously had of going faster. Kind of like what happened in baseball when they switched the bats ~5 years ago. For years, Rice had a huge advantage over the average team in pitching. Now the gap between the better pitching teams and the average team has narrowed because the bats made everyone's hitting worse, and therefore, everyone's pitching better.

It is interesting. To Date, Rice has scored 94 more points (a bit over 11 points a game) in the 8 games in the season than they scored last year (I took out the points scored in overtime last year against Mercer for this calculation to be comparable). Last year the team was 2 and 6 after 8 games, this year they are 2 and 6 as well. The pace has clearly picked up for the Owls and I assume the same is true throughout the league.

I'm pretty certain (MrBig) I would not put Rice in the fast pace column last year. There appeared to be a lot of emphasis on using the full shot clock, if necessary, to reduce the number of opponent possessions. And not much on offensive rebounding - lots of focus on getting enough guys back to eliminate most chances for a fast break for the other team. At times they would push it, but the full-court press was used judiciously, and half-court was definitely more a probe for an excellent shot early (if you can find it), but then milk the clock until you can get your best shot within the shot clock.

To whit, the number of possessions in Rice games was definitely below average last year - #236 of 351.
source: https://www.teamrankings.com/ncaa-basket...2015-04-06

Rhoades wants to be a faster team, but last year wasn't it. (As a comparison, VCU was #61 in number of possessions last year. That's probably closer to the goal.)

This year, Rice is up over 5 possessions per game so far. Much of that is probably due to the NCAA rules, but they are up to #199 in Division 1. (As a point of comparison to try to get some sense of that affect, Coppin State was a top 5 in number of possessions last year and so far this year (indicating probably a similar style), and their rate this year is up over 7 possessions per game.)

I sure hope most of the posters in this thread have come out to a game to base their observations on an actual performance as opposed to reacting to the score or analysis of the box score. Having been to several of the games this year, I am impressed with the play difference of the team versus last year. We are much more athletic, driving to the hole as opposed to passing around the perimeter, playing above the rim as opposed to relying on three pointers. We have played a buzz saw of a schedule to date. Yes, the HBU game was an abberation, but on the whole, this is a much improved team and damn fun to watch!!! Anyone in town that passes on the free tickets offered through Tiki needs to post on another thread!!!!!!!

(12-03-2015 09:43 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(12-03-2015 09:12 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  The way the games have been called is a killer to depleted rosters. You can handle 40 fouls if you go 10-12 deep, but not if you go 8 deep. If people come to the games and don't give up on the team, Evans will stay. Otherwise, we could be looking at Dylan Ennis all over again. I'm also hopeful grades don't cost us any other players at the mid-semester like they did last year. I'd be worried about Egor too, who is also a nice player. But hopefully Jackson provided the example for our good players that there is nothing wrong with staying 4 years, getting nearly straight A's and a Rice degree.

I wouldn't worry about Egor. He had to sit out one year aleady. I can't see him choosing to do it yet again.

He could choose to turn pro, like Ibrahim did a few years back, and go play overseas somewhere. But Ibrahim was a selfish player who didn't seem coachable at all, so I do think there is a big difference between the two (I hope).

I'm not sure if I'd put this current freshmen class ahead of the 2011-12 class either. That was Ennis, Ibrahim, Reishel and Dubose. Of course all four of those guys transferred or went pro, and some of them have transferred twice. But perhaps if you add Lott, this current freshmen class is better (it also depends if you count Egor as part of the current freshmen group or if you include him with last year's newcomers instead).

(12-04-2015 07:34 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  

(12-03-2015 09:43 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(12-03-2015 09:12 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  The way the games have been called is a killer to depleted rosters. You can handle 40 fouls if you go 10-12 deep, but not if you go 8 deep. If people come to the games and don't give up on the team, Evans will stay. Otherwise, we could be looking at Dylan Ennis all over again. I'm also hopeful grades don't cost us any other players at the mid-semester like they did last year. I'd be worried about Egor too, who is also a nice player. But hopefully Jackson provided the example for our good players that there is nothing wrong with staying 4 years, getting nearly straight A's and a Rice degree.

I wouldn't worry about Egor. He had to sit out one year aleady. I can't see him choosing to do it yet again.

He could choose to turn pro, like Ibrahim did a few years back, and go play overseas somewhere. But Ibrahim was a selfish player who didn't seem coachable at all, so I do think there is a big difference between the two (I hope).

I'm not sure if I'd put this current freshmen class ahead of the 2011-12 class either. That was Ennis, Ibrahim, Reishel and Dubose. Of course all four of those guys transferred or went pro, and some of them have transferred twice. But perhaps if you add Lott, this current freshmen class is better (it also depends if you count Egor as part of the current freshmen group or if you include him with last year's newcomers instead).

Out of that group only Ennis produced anything close to above average results no matter where they wound up.

Re:Ibrahim wasn't just selfish he had zero interest in obtaining an education. He missed the ABCD(can't remember which letters in the alphabet)tourney game agains LaLa because of his coursework.

I just don't see this staff (and I could be proven wrong) letting players get away with anything less than their best efforts on the court, in the classroom, and around school. Rivers found that out.

I see Egor becoming an extension to Rhoades much in the same manner Seth was as the season progresses. I know Rhoades likes how much Andrew knows the playbook for everyone but because he isn't on the court for the number of minutes Egor is (like Seth before him) I see him becoming the team leader this year and forward. I do think when Marcus returns he will share that responsibility.

Reischel is now averaging almost 20 points a game for Eastern Kentucky (after two mostly unimpressive years at Rhode Island). Dubose was named to the USA team that Kansas coach Bill Self coached this summer and he's been a productive player at Florida Gulf Coast.