(01-26-2017 08:04 PM)cr11owl Wrote:  Student section is embarrassing. Like most of the Braun days when I was in school.

Maybe the two bus loads of students and faculty who went to Austin protests were resting or catching up on schoolwork.
Or maybe attending to student who was in election despair who was speaking in quad.

Rice was out played and out coached but OD could not miss. I bet they shot >50%. They cannot shoot like this every game.

(01-27-2017 08:21 AM)ETx Owl Wrote:  

(01-26-2017 08:04 PM)cr11owl Wrote:  Student section is embarrassing. Like most of the Braun days when I was in school.

Maybe the two bus loads of students and faculty who went to Austin protests were resting or catching up on schoolwork.
Or maybe attending to student who was in election despair who was speaking in quad.

(01-27-2017 12:03 AM)Da.Owl Wrote:  

(01-26-2017 11:41 PM)mrbig Wrote:  

(01-26-2017 11:29 PM)MemOwl Wrote:  Rhoades is clearly ahead of Braun's pace, but we are not close to where we want to be, and with a lot of uncertainty in his bulge freshman class, it is difficult to forecast arrival at the promised land.

This is a pretty big concern for me. Evans, Cashaw, and MLE all made an immediate impact as freshman and that class was more highly regarded. Not sure what to make of the freshman so far in terms of how they will develop. Not saying I'm down on them (I haven't watched enough games, one way or another), but none of them have really made much of an impact. Perhaps that is just a factor of having guys with more experience (Evans, Koulechov, Jackson) taking the spotlight.

(01-26-2017 10:58 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  Don't recommend going to look at the ODU board. Amazing that after their best offensive performance of the year they'd rather just bash our coaches and players.

To be fair, it really seems like just 1 or 2 posters being negative toward Rice. And can we blame them ... Rice mostly played like crud and the game was poorly attended.

ODU has 25K students. I've not been to Norfolk, so don't know whether an ODU home game is the only game in town. That being said, not sure what's wrong with the Owls but my expectations were pretty high coming into this year.

It is essentially the only game in town. There are other universities in the region, but ODU is the biggest (and growing - though so is CNU, but they are Div 3 currently). There are no significant pro teams nearby (though there is AAA baseball and AHL hockey).

When I went 2 years ago, school was in session, and the arena was pretty full. This year, school wasn't in session, so the student section didn't have many in it, but the main sections had a decent crowd of what I'm guessing are season ticket holders. And that's on New Years Eve afternoon.

I will say this - they have a bigger history of success (particularly on the women's basketball side), so some probably remember that. And I have been very impressed with their arena and in-game experience. The arena is bigger, and it's largely full. It feels like a college basketball arena.

Well, they shot 51% against Rice the last time. That starts to be a trend. Especially considering William and Mary held ODU to 31% shooting in the game before Rice played ODU the first time, and Charlotte held ODU to 42% in the game before last night.

ODU is #29 in FG% defense in the nation right now, at 40%. Rice is #210 (out of 351) at 44.2%. Playing Citadel would be good - they allow 52.2%.

The TO trend is not good - Rice has 329 TOs to date in the season, which is #22 in the nation (in a bad way). Only 3 teams turning the ball over more have a winning percentage over 50%. It's hard to keep winning if you're turning the ball over so much. On a per game basis (on NCAA.org), they are #14.

(01-27-2017 08:50 AM)OldOwl Wrote:  Rice was out played and out coached but OD could not miss. I bet they shot >50%. They cannot shoot like this every game.

(01-27-2017 08:21 AM)ETx Owl Wrote:  

(01-26-2017 08:04 PM)cr11owl Wrote:  Student section is embarrassing. Like most of the Braun days when I was in school.

Maybe the two bus loads of students and faculty who went to Austin protests were resting or catching up on schoolwork.
Or maybe attending to student who was in election despair who was speaking in quad.

(01-20-2017 11:11 AM)mrbig Wrote:  Ako Adams was 2/2 on 3-pt shots yesterday. He started his career 1/10 in his first 8 games, but has been 9/18 in the 11 games since. Kudos to him for finding his shot. Cashaw had a similar experience last season.

I mentioned this after the LaTech game last week. Adams then went 0/1 against SoMiss and 3/4 against ODU, bringing him up to 39.4% on the season, ahead of Jackson (38.1%), Evans (36.5%), and Cashaw (34.3%). Keep shooting Ako, a team can never have too many shooters and it just spreads the opposing defense out more if they have another shooter to worry about!

When I got home last night I was telling my wife about the game - and shared how depressed I was at another home lost, combined with another small, lethargic home crowd. Even my usually loyal group of buddies in Section 103 are dwindling. Last year we had 10 to 12 of us regularly attending games. This year we're down to 4 or 5 of us still showing up. I was thinking of blowing off Saturday night's game, then regrouped and decided I would stay loyal. Despite the frustrating results, the players are still out there playing hard. It's not their fault that the crowds are so small, and that they play at a school whose student body just doesn't get into sports. I'll keep coming and at least show them I still care and appreciate their efforts.

Is attendance down (student and/or non-student) as compared with attendance before Christmas break? Good thing all fans aren't fair-weather fans, but the team has so far failed to capture any momentum it had coming out of the OOC schedule. Of course, it didn't help having the CUSA schedule front-loaded with some of the better teams. I bet if Rice had started its CUSA schedule with the next 7 games (KenPom rankings from a few weeks ago),
#222 v. Charlotte
#298 @ North Texas
#285 @ FIU
#278 @ FAU
#276 v. UTSA
#319 v. UTEP
#329 v. SoMiss
Rice would have been able to keep that OOC momentum, possibly behind a 7-0 start to conference play (albeit against the dregs of CUSA basketball and without beating anyone with a pulse). Instead, fans are losing interest and we are 3-5 in CUSA play, looking up at most of the conference.

Still, no time like the present to rattle off 7 straight wins! But it is time to figure out the ball-security issues and for MLE to cut down on his fouls...

(01-27-2017 01:36 PM)Minnewaska Owl Wrote:  When I got home last night I was telling my wife about the game - and shared how depressed I was at another home lost, combined with another small, lethargic home crowd. Even my usually loyal group of buddies in Section 103 are dwindling. Last year we had 10 to 12 of us regularly attending games. This year we're down to 4 or 5 of us still showing up. I was thinking of blowing off Saturday night's game, then regrouped and decided I would stay loyal. Despite the frustrating results, the players are still out there playing hard. It's not their fault that the crowds are so small, and that they play at a school whose student body just doesn't get into sports. I'll keep coming and at least show them I still care and appreciate their efforts.

Some of us are still here, just migrated to alternative seats. Nothing personal, of course ?

(01-27-2017 03:47 PM)Da.Owl Wrote:  

(01-27-2017 01:36 PM)Minnewaska Owl Wrote:  When I got home last night I was telling my wife about the game - and shared how depressed I was at another home lost, combined with another small, lethargic home crowd. Even my usually loyal group of buddies in Section 103 are dwindling. Last year we had 10 to 12 of us regularly attending games. This year we're down to 4 or 5 of us still showing up. I was thinking of blowing off Saturday night's game, then regrouped and decided I would stay loyal. Despite the frustrating results, the players are still out there playing hard. It's not their fault that the crowds are so small, and that they play at a school whose student body just doesn't get into sports. I'll keep coming and at least show them I still care and appreciate their efforts.

Some of us are still here, just migrated to alternative seats. Nothing personal, of course ?

My first game of the season last night. Pretty depressing! May try again!

(01-27-2017 12:06 AM)dragon2owl Wrote:  In other conference news...a fight broke out in the LA Tech vs UAB game. LA Tech finished the game with only 4 players.

http://www.si.com/college-basketball/201...acebook_si

UAB won the game, but the interesting thing to note is that during the remainder of the game when the Bulldogs were playing 4-on-5 they outscored the Blazers 20-16.