We need fans to cheer on the teams! It does Rice no good to sell the seats but have the buyers stay at home. It's also not a good look when the visiting fans are louder than the home fans (I'm thinking Lamar brings some folks on Thursday).

Tonight the men host a 20-12 San Francisco team who is probably comparable to a top 5-6 CUSA squad. Tomorrow the women host a 22-7 Lamar team which was 15-3 in the Southland Conference. Both games are winnable with a solid effort but likely losses if we don't play well.

From what I hear, hosting games after this first round is also a possibility if we win. The women may be a more likely host for the 2nd round than the men, depending on the attendance. If the women do win, they'll probably host the 2nd round (either SFA or UT-RGV) Sunday at 2 pm. The men's winner faces the Georgia Southern-Utah Valley winner.

Going by RPI, USF would probably be the second best team in C-USA...

Their KenPom would be #3 in C-USA, just below LA Tech.

In fact, they very well might be the best team in the CBI.

The men are coming in as 2 point favorites

Probably should update the headline. Rice hosting Utah Valley Monday night so that will mean postseason games 3 nights out of 6, and if the women win tomorrow night, then it will mean 4 games at Tudor over a 6-day stretch.

Utah Valley is next up for the Owls after a surprising 25-point win at Georgia Southern. Even with the win, they're just .500 on the year, and they played in an easier conference than USF.

7 of the 8 quarterfinal teams are set. We host Utah Valley and then on our side of the bracket, Wyoming hosts UMKC. On the other side of the bracket, George Washington will face the winner of the UIC/Stony Brook game, and Loyola, Md will play at Coastal Carolina. I'm pretty sure we have the best record of anyone left in the tournament, although I'm not sure if we would host the semifinal game if we win Monday. I imagine Wyoming draws much better than we do.

And going back to the original post here, USF would be a top 5-6 CUSA team at best. No way were they a better team than Louisiana Tech, I don't care what the RPI said. They are a young team and could be decent in the future, but them being in the top 100 in RPI just shows you how poor of a system that is.

I'm pretty sure after the TSU-UNC game, Rice will be the last remaining men's basketball team in Houston playing basketball this season.

Actually I need to correct one thing. The tournament is re-seeded once it hits the semis. So the Rice/Utah Valley winner isn't necessarily going to play the Wyoming/UMKC winner.

Here's a look at the remaining 9 teams with current records and kenpom ratings

Rice 23-11, 151
Utah Valley 16-16, 160

Wyoming 19-14, 138
UMKC 18-16, 219

George Washington 20-14, 125
UIC 16-18

Coastal Carolina 17-17, 203
Loyola, MD 16-16, 226

(03-15-2017 10:34 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Actually I need to correct one thing. The tournament is re-seeded once it hits the semis. So the Rice/Utah Valley winner isn't necessarily going to play the Wyoming/UMKC winner.

Here's a look at the remaining 9 teams with current records and kenpom ratings

Rice 23-11, 151
Utah Valley 16-16, 160

Wyoming 19-14, 138
UMKC 18-16, 219

George Washington 20-14, 125
UIC 15-18/246 or Stony Brook 18-13, 211

Coastal Carolina 17-17, 203
Loyola, MD 16-16, 226

IF we beat Utah Valley is there an opportunity for yet another home game? If so, I'll likely be in for that one late next week.

I think if Rice wants to keep hosting, I could see Rice hosting a semifinal game (of course they have to win Monday to get to the semis). UIC won tonight and will host George Washington. My guess (merely a guess - no inside knowledge here) is that Wyoming and Rice are potential semifinal hosts (if both teams win their quarterfinal games), with perhaps UIC going to Wyoming if they win against GW. If GW wins, then maybe they would host the Coastal Carolina/Loyola winner and we could play at Wyoming.

The bottom line is we need to just worry about Monday and concentrate on playing well and getting the folks out for the game. The men's game last night was definitely better attended than tonight's women's game.

2nd round of the women's CBI are set as far as the teams go but I don't know where most of these games are being played. But Rice hosts UT-Rio Grande Valley (19-13) and on our side of the bracket you also have two Big Sky teams matched up with Idaho (18-14) and Eastern Washington (19-13). On the other side of the bracket, you have Brown (17-12) and UNC-Greensboro (18-14), and then St. Francis, PA (17-14) versus Milwaukee (21-11).

#BeatUT**Valley

(03-16-2017 10:01 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  2nd round of the women's CBI are set as far as the teams go but I don't know where most of these games are being played. But Rice hosts UT-Rio Grande Valley (19-13) and on our side of the bracket you also have two Big Sky teams matched up with Idaho (18-14) and Eastern Washington (19-13). On the other side of the bracket, you have Brown (17-12) and UNC-Greensboro (18-14), and then St. Francis, PA (17-14) versus Milwaukee (21-11).

Idaho is playing @Eastern Washington on Monday (8 p.m. Central time)

Brown is @UNC-Greensboro (1 p.m. Sunday/Central time)

Milwaukee is @ St. Francis (1 p.m. Sunday/Central time)

Looking at the two Valleys (and of course, Utah is often mistaken for the Rio Grande), I'd say that both teams appear to be decent teams playing their best basketball of the season, but at the same time neither team appears to be any stronger than Rice's 1st round opponent.

UTRGV might be down a few starters (at least they didn't play in their win vs SFA) but they had a girl score 30 in that win. They have starters who are 6-2 and 6-3, so they could present a problem for a Rice team which didn't rebound well against Lamar. They don't appear to be as athletic as Lamar and aren't particularly deep so getting some players in foul trouble might help Rice's cause. From what I understand, if Rice wins today's game, they have a chance to host the semifinal game on Thursday night but it depends on who wins Monday's Idaho-Eastern Washington game.

Utah Valley has a 6-11 transfer from BYU who could give us some problems inside, but I think in general we have more issues against athletic big guys and I'm guessing that's not the case here. Otherwise, they tend to be a guard-dominated team. They seem to be an up and down team with a few questionable losses (Chicago State for instance) but they did take the #1 seed Cal State Bakersfield team to 4 overtimes in the WAC semis before losing (and Bakersfield beat Cal in the 1st round of the NIT on the road) and they also beat NM State on the road late in the season (NM State ended up going to the NCAA's).

If the men win, the CBI semis are Wednesday. Rice, Wyoming and UIC are the only CBI teams to have hosted both of the 1st 2 rounds. My guess is Wyoming will continue to host if they keep winning. If they re-seed the semis like they could, it's possible we could host Wednesday. I also think George Washington is a potential host even though they're playing on the road at UIC on Monday. It of course will depend on how Monday's games go, and the attendance for the various 4 quarterfinals. The other CBI quarterfinal is Loyola, MD at Coastal Carolina. If the four home teams wins, I'll predict UIC at Wyoming and CC at Rice semis.

9 teams? One fantom team :)

(03-16-2017 03:30 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(03-15-2017 10:34 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Actually I need to correct one thing. The tournament is re-seeded once it hits the semis. So the Rice/Utah Valley winner isn't necessarily going to play the Wyoming/UMKC winner.

Here's a look at the remaining 9 teams with current records and kenpom ratings

Rice 23-11, 151
Utah Valley 16-16, 160

Wyoming 19-14, 138
UMKC 18-16, 219

George Washington 20-14, 125
UIC 15-18/246 or Stony Brook 18-13, 211

Coastal Carolina 17-17, 203
Loyola, MD 16-16, 226

IF we beat Utah Valley is there an opportunity for yet another home game? If so, I'll likely be in for that one late next week.

When I posted it, there were 9 because one round of 16 game hadn't been played.

That was fun! Now... #BeatUT**Valley again!!

(03-19-2017 09:09 PM)owl at the moon Wrote:  That was fun! Now... #BeatUT**Valley again!!

Well.
#****UT**Valley

Well the men's season is over but the women are still alive and kicking. We host Idaho Thursday. The two semifinals games in the WBI are Idaho at Rice, and Milwaukee at UNC Greensboro. Both games are Thursday night. The championship game is scheduled for either Saturday or Sunday (my guess would be Sunday due to travel considerations).