(01-02-2017 09:07 PM)gsloth Wrote:  

(01-02-2017 06:49 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  I was commenting more on the ODU thread - sorry.

Didn't Lott have a concussion? If so, that would have been his second of the year already (I think - he certainly hit his head hard this year in a home game in December).

I'm not sure if anything was formally announced, though I did speculate on it at the time. I was at the game on Saturday, and here's what happened at the end of the half.

1. On Drone's putback dunk, it wasn't obvious, but once all of the other players headed toward ODU's basket, Lott was still on the ground. He got up, but never got in the play before the foul at the other end.

2. While the teams were setting up for the free throw, Lott came to a table (with one of those commercial signs) on the end line and laid his head on top of his arms, like someone who might be trying to sleep at his desk in school. He eventually stood up, but was eventually subbed before the first free throw.

After halftime, he was not in the warm up lines, but instead was wearing a shirt over his uniform. He was clearly not happy about it (one of the coaches or maybe trainer basically walked with him over to the bench), and several coaches talked to him as he sat on the bench, as well as Egor, before starting the half. But he was clearly not going to play.

You can see why I think it may have been a concussion. I didn't see him working any part of his body, so let's call it observed speculation at best. If that's his second one this year, that's not good for him.

He came back to Houston early (he tweeted this) and wasn't at the game tonight. Hopefully he will be back in the lineup soon.

(01-02-2017 09:11 PM)mrbig Wrote:  

(01-02-2017 08:52 PM)ranfin Wrote:  Yes, I believe it does.

(01-02-2017 08:51 PM)Sunny_BHY Wrote:  Does this win silence the criticism this team got over the last 48 hours....recognizing that we mostly acknowledged it was premature?

Not from me. My point was that while Rice has clearly improved and is beating teams ranked 200+ (like Charlotte currently is), we have not yet demonstrated an ability to consistently best teams in the top-150 (acknowledging that Texas Tech and Pitt are in the top half of that range). Still a good win, Rice Rising!

Realtime RPI had Charlotte's RPI at 113 before today.

(01-02-2017 09:37 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  

(01-02-2017 09:11 PM)mrbig Wrote:  

(01-02-2017 08:52 PM)ranfin Wrote:  Yes, I believe it does.

(01-02-2017 08:51 PM)Sunny_BHY Wrote:  Does this win silence the criticism this team got over the last 48 hours....recognizing that we mostly acknowledged it was premature?

Not from me. My point was that while Rice has clearly improved and is beating teams ranked 200+ (like Charlotte currently is), we have not yet demonstrated an ability to consistently best teams in the top-150 (acknowledging that Texas Tech and Pitt are in the top half of that range). Still a good win, Rice Rising!

Realtime RPI had Charlotte's RPI at 113 before today.

This morning's update had Charlotte at 162 and Rice at 184.

http://realtimerpi.com/rpi_cusa_Men.html

Sorry I was looking at their power rankings, not their RPI.

http://realtimerpi.com/ncaab/college_Men...ings3.html

Solid win overall. I like the balanced scoring and not relying on Evans to force it too often.
One thing I don't get is why we don't pass to the screener more often (ever?) off of our ball screens. In other words, pick and roll. Defenses are hedging us up high and making it harder and harder to get around. We need to pass it to the rolling player sometimes to keep them honest.
That said, we are fun to watch and improving. Thursday will be a REAL TEST. I hope at least some students are there to spice up the game atmosphere even though classes haven't resumed yet!

(01-02-2017 09:55 PM)Owl1912 Wrote:  Solid win overall. I like the balanced scoring and not relying on Evans to force it too often.
One thing I don't get is why we don't pass to the screener more often (ever?) off of our ball screens. In other words, pick and roll. Defenses are hedging us up high and making it harder and harder to get around. We need to pass it to the rolling player sometimes to keep them honest.
That said, we are fun to watch and improving. Thursday will be a REAL TEST. I hope at least some students are there to spice up the game atmosphere even though classes haven't resumed yet!

Great win. I was depressed about the WBB loss again but the Boys made my day. We have to improve our free throw shooting against Middle Tennessee, one of the biggest home games in a long while.

(01-02-2017 09:47 PM)dragon2owl Wrote:  

(01-02-2017 09:37 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  

(01-02-2017 09:11 PM)mrbig Wrote:  

(01-02-2017 08:52 PM)ranfin Wrote:  Yes, I believe it does.

(01-02-2017 08:51 PM)Sunny_BHY Wrote:  Does this win silence the criticism this team got over the last 48 hours....recognizing that we mostly acknowledged it was premature?

Not from me. My point was that while Rice has clearly improved and is beating teams ranked 200+ (like Charlotte currently is), we have not yet demonstrated an ability to consistently best teams in the top-150 (acknowledging that Texas Tech and Pitt are in the top half of that range). Still a good win, Rice Rising!

Realtime RPI had Charlotte's RPI at 113 before today.

This morning's update had Charlotte at 162 and Rice at 184.

http://realtimerpi.com/rpi_cusa_Men.html

Is RPI considered a better measure than Pomeroy or Sagarin? Just curious, I have no idea. KenPom and Sagarin are more impressed by Rice and less so by Charlotte than RPI. Is one of them more dependent on prior season results?

(01-02-2017 09:55 PM)Owl1912 Wrote:  Solid win overall. I like the balanced scoring and not relying on Evans to force it too often.
One thing I don't get is why we don't pass to the screener more often (ever?) off of our ball screens. In other words, pick and roll. Defenses are hedging us up high and making it harder and harder to get around. We need to pass it to the rolling player sometimes to keep them honest.
That said, we are fun to watch and improving. Thursday will be a REAL TEST. I hope at least some students are there to spice up the game atmosphere even though classes haven't resumed yet!

Given our 4 quality 3-point shooters (including Cashaw), I'm surprised we're not kicking the ball out more on drives. We did this just once tonight that I remember, with Evans driving, and Jackson hit a wide-open 3 with several seconds remaining on the shot clock. Given that in our current half-court offense, we almost always look to drive as the shot clock falls below 10 seconds (and teams reading the scouting report are predictably collapsing in the lane in such situations), I just don't understand why Rhoades isn't instructing our guys to do the kick-back more often.

I would have guessed that RPI is more driven by SOS and the quality teams in your vicinity (say within driving distance). The distance I'm using as a proxy for opponents' opponents record. ODU and Charlotte have those in spades, but the Houston area has very few.

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(01-02-2017 10:37 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(01-02-2017 09:55 PM)Owl1912 Wrote:  Solid win overall. I like the balanced scoring and not relying on Evans to force it too often.
One thing I don't get is why we don't pass to the screener more often (ever?) off of our ball screens. In other words, pick and roll. Defenses are hedging us up high and making it harder and harder to get around. We need to pass it to the rolling player sometimes to keep them honest.
That said, we are fun to watch and improving. Thursday will be a REAL TEST. I hope at least some students are there to spice up the game atmosphere even though classes haven't resumed yet!

Given our 4 quality 3-point shooters (including Cashaw), I'm surprised we're not kicking the ball out more on drives. We did this just once tonight that I remember, with Evans driving, and Jackson hit a wide-open 3 with several seconds remaining on the shot clock. Given that in our current half-court offense, we almost always look to drive as the shot clock falls below 10 seconds (and teams reading the scouting report are predictably collapsing in the lane in such situations), I just don't understand why Rhoades isn't instructing our guys to do the kick-back more often.

We do drive and kick it out. And we also pass the the screener on a pick and roll but much more so when it was douglas.

(01-02-2017 10:41 PM)YOwl Ming Wrote:  I would have guessed that RPI is more driven by SOS and the quality teams in your vicinity (say within driving distance). The distance I'm using as a proxy for opponents' opponents record. ODU and Charlotte have those in spades, but the Houston area has very few.

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RPI is a feeble attempt at a power ranking that overweights strength of schedule and ignores margin of victory.

KenPom is my power ranking of choice. Tonight's win moved us back into their top 100 (98) and vaulted us back into 3rd highest in CUSA.
Charlotte had been in the top 200 all season but tonight dropped them 10 spots to 203. They remain the 7th ranked team in conference and beating them soundly on the road is a pretty big deal!

(01-02-2017 08:54 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  I think most of us would have taken a split on this trip if asked a week ago.

I certainly would have taken it.

This was a nice win for the Owls. Without Chad Lott being available, Rice had to rely on a ton of minutes from Evans, Jackson and Cashaw who along with Koulechov averaged 33 minutes each between the 4 players. The biggest increase being Cashaw, who increased his average minutes from the low 20's to 32 minutes during the game against Charlotte. Some of the turnovers are still a bit problematic, as well as the inconsistent Free-Throw shooting, but Rice beat a well-coached team that defeated them 3 times last season. This was a very good bounce-back (half game?) for Marcus Evans, I hope momentum carries over to the next contests. The next 2 games against Middle Tennessee and UAB are critical for the team. They are home games and it would be nice to see large crowds to watch this team.

Nice to get the old Marcus Evans back.

I just saw the note that was our largest margin of victory in a conference game since we joined CUSA. I realize we've had some lean years since we switched conferences but that's still an impressive stat.

It seems like Thursday's game against Middle Tennessee is pretty darn important at this point. I would think that everyone on this board who are in town should attend if possible and invite others to fill Autry/Tudor. Spouses birthdays and anniversaries are not legitimate excuses to miss this game!

(01-04-2017 03:23 PM)Kayjay Wrote:  It seems like Thursday's game against Middle Tennessee is pretty darn important at this point. I would think that everyone on this board who are in town should attend if possible and invite others to fill Autry/Tudor. Spouses birthdays and anniversaries are not legitimate excuses to miss this game!

+1. Saturday too. I'm glad the athletic department sent a reminder email to all season ticket holders. I gave my tickets to someone while I was out of town for the holidays and they are planning to come back for these games.

(01-04-2017 03:23 PM)Kayjay Wrote:  It seems like Thursday's game against Middle Tennessee is pretty darn important at this point. I would think that everyone on this board who are in town should attend if possible and invite others to fill Autry/Tudor. Spouses birthdays and anniversaries are not legitimate excuses to miss this game!

I'm coming down from Chicago for the pair of games. I'd love to beat MTSU tomorrow, but I'd be satisfied with us playing them tight to the finish. I'd be disappointed if we don't beat UAB on Saturday.