http://www.dentonrc.com/sports/mean-gree...ar-tuesday

The conference will announce tomorrow that next year's basketball tournament will be held in Frisco (sorry not Denton) at the Dallas Cowboys practice facility. Apparently it's big enough (12,000 seats) to hold both the men's and women's tournament at the same time, in the same venue (two different basketball courts separated by a curtain I guess).

I like that they're trying something different although as I posted a week ago in the conference board, there might end up being some logistic issues with having two basketball games being played at the same time fairly close together.

(05-15-2017 09:23 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  http://www.dentonrc.com/sports/mean-gree...ar-tuesday

The conference will announce tomorrow that next year's basketball tournament will be held in Denton at the Dallas Cowboys practice facility. Apparently it's big enough (12,000 seats) to hold both the men's and women's tournament at the same time, in the same venue (two different basketball courts separated by a curtain I guess).

I like that they're trying something different although as I posted a week ago in the conference board, there might end up being some logistic issues with having two basketball games being played at the same time fairly close together.

Watching soccer games played next to each other, whistles can definitely impact other games. I'm thinking some AAU tournaments are played with multiple games concurrently, so for anyone who's been to any of them, is it a big issue?

Intriguing. And hopefully, they'd stagger things so that halftime for one game covers a good active portion of the game on the other side.

Bittersweet news for me. For years I have hoped we would get a conference basketball tournament hosted close enough for us to bring a strong fan base. It finally happens - a few weeks after we lose all our players. I guess the positive news is that our women should have a legitimate shot at winning such a tournament, and we should bring a decent contingent of fans. I'm sure I'll be going.

I think Rice's men's team will be a lot better than we all feared it would be a month ago. I think we'll finish in the top half of the conference, and considering the number and quality of the defections, that would be a pretty good place to start for Coach Pera. And while Rhoades seemed to target more Texas recruits than Braun, Pera seems to be even more involved in Texas than Rhoades. I'm very intrigued to see what kind of class Pera can put together for 2018, considering his 2017 class was much better than what Rhoades was able to put together his first year (though admittedly, he had the advantage of being at Rice instead of coming into an entirely new situation like Rhoades).

(05-15-2017 09:36 PM)gsloth Wrote:  

(05-15-2017 09:23 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  http://www.dentonrc.com/sports/mean-gree...ar-tuesday

The conference will announce tomorrow that next year's basketball tournament will be held in Denton at the Dallas Cowboys practice facility. Apparently it's big enough (12,000 seats) to hold both the men's and women's tournament at the same time, in the same venue (two different basketball courts separated by a curtain I guess).

I like that they're trying something different although as I posted a week ago in the conference board, there might end up being some logistic issues with having two basketball games being played at the same time fairly close together.

Watching soccer games played next to each other, whistles can definitely impact other games. I'm thinking some AAU tournaments are played with multiple games concurrently, so for anyone who's been to any of them, is it a big issue?

Intriguing. And hopefully, they'd stagger things so that halftime for one game covers a good active portion of the game on the other side.

If this arrangement requires that games be played without blaring music during pre-game and during every time-out, it will be the greatest advance in the sport of basketball since peach baskets were replaced by nets. We can only hope!

(05-15-2017 09:36 PM)gsloth Wrote:  

(05-15-2017 09:23 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  http://www.dentonrc.com/sports/mean-gree...ar-tuesday

The conference will announce tomorrow that next year's basketball tournament will be held in Denton at the Dallas Cowboys practice facility. Apparently it's big enough (12,000 seats) to hold both the men's and women's tournament at the same time, in the same venue (two different basketball courts separated by a curtain I guess).

I like that they're trying something different although as I posted a week ago in the conference board, there might end up being some logistic issues with having two basketball games being played at the same time fairly close together.

Watching soccer games played next to each other, whistles can definitely impact other games. I'm thinking some AAU tournaments are played with multiple games concurrently, so for anyone who's been to any of them, is it a big issue?

Intriguing. And hopefully, they'd stagger things so that halftime for one game covers a good active portion of the game on the other side.

If this arrangement requires that games be played without blaring music during pre-game and during every time-out, it will be the greatest advance in the sport of basketball since peach baskets were replaced by nets. We can only hope!

(05-16-2017 01:08 AM)mrbig Wrote:  I think Rice's men's team will be a lot better than we all feared it would be a month ago. I think we'll finish in the top half of the conference, and considering the number and quality of the defections, that would be a pretty good place to start for Coach Pera. And while Rhoades seemed to target more Texas recruits than Braun, Pera seems to be even more involved in Texas than Rhoades. I'm very intrigued to see what kind of class Pera can put together for 2018, considering his 2017 class was much better than what Rhoades was able to put together his first year (though admittedly, he had the advantage of being at Rice instead of coming into an entirely new situation like Rhoades).

Definitely more optimistic than me (and hopefully I'm wrong); I think we're a bottom five/six team for sure, considering we had two now former players on the all-conference first team and still only finished fifth.

Well the good news is we'll know by the beginning of the conference tournament how good or bad we actually are (and whether we're even playing in it assuming it's the same format at this year's tournament). My early guess is there isn't any team as good as Middle Tennessee was this past season and that UTEP and Western Kentucky are the only two teams who are markedly better than the 2016-17 season. Other teams have lost players too (UTSA lost its best player). I'm with mrbig - we'll be in the mix for a middle of the pack finish as long as we don't get too many injuries and the graduate transfers can do anything at all.

(05-16-2017 09:42 AM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  

(05-16-2017 01:08 AM)mrbig Wrote:  I think Rice's men's team will be a lot better than we all feared it would be a month ago. I think we'll finish in the top half of the conference, and considering the number and quality of the defections, that would be a pretty good place to start for Coach Pera. And while Rhoades seemed to target more Texas recruits than Braun, Pera seems to be even more involved in Texas than Rhoades. I'm very intrigued to see what kind of class Pera can put together for 2018, considering his 2017 class was much better than what Rhoades was able to put together his first year (though admittedly, he had the advantage of being at Rice instead of coming into an entirely new situation like Rhoades).

Definitely more optimistic than me (and hopefully I'm wrong); I think we're a bottom five/six team for sure, considering we had two now former players on the all-conference first team and still only finished fifth.

Honestly, I think last year's team relied a little too heavily on Evans and Koulechov. They were great players, but I was often surprised that they were such a focus on offense. There were many times when the half-court offense seemed to stagnate. To my eyes (which know baseball a heck of a lot better than basketball), part of that was because it looked like the Evans & Koulechov Show. I'm not blaming the players, they didn't look like ball hogs. It just looked like the offense was designed to get those guys shots a little more than I would like to see.

Two other reasons for my optimism: (1) the bottom half of CUSA will probably continue to suck, making it somewhat easier to get into the top half. According to KenPom, the #7 team in CUSA (so top half) was UTEP, rated #200 (#8 was WKU at #232). It just isn't some huge feat. (2) I think Rice will be more balanced next year, with Meyer and Harrison more experienced, with 5th-year PF Dylan Jones another big guy who can contribute immediately.

PG depth and Ako Adams's development are obvious concerns.

(05-16-2017 02:36 PM)mrbig Wrote:  Honestly, I think last year's team relied a little too heavily on Evans and Koulechov. They were great players, but I was often surprised that they were such a focus on offense. There were many times when the half-court offense seemed to stagnate. To my eyes (which know baseball a heck of a lot better than basketball), part of that was because it looked like the Evans & Koulechov Show. I'm not blaming the players, they didn't look like ball hogs. It just looked like the offense was designed to get those guys shots a little more than I would like to see.

I'm not sure this was the design. I think that coach Rhodes commented on this during the season - a hard lesson in coaching is that when you have players that can make plays, as a coach, you have to get out of their way and let them do so. If there is a single negative I have to say about coach Rhodes it is that he seemed to joystick his players too much when he should probably relax more on the sidelines and let them play.

(05-15-2017 09:23 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  The conference will announce tomorrow that next year's basketball tournament will be held in Frisco (sorry not Denton) at the Dallas Cowboys practice facility.

UNT students will barely have to get on the highway to get there. It's about 30 miles, but they avoid most of the bad traffic when going into the Metroplex.

(05-16-2017 08:25 AM)georgewebb Wrote:  

(05-15-2017 09:36 PM)gsloth Wrote:  

(05-15-2017 09:23 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  http://www.dentonrc.com/sports/mean-gree...ar-tuesday

The conference will announce tomorrow that next year's basketball tournament will be held in Denton at the Dallas Cowboys practice facility. Apparently it's big enough (12,000 seats) to hold both the men's and women's tournament at the same time, in the same venue (two different basketball courts separated by a curtain I guess).

I like that they're trying something different although as I posted a week ago in the conference board, there might end up being some logistic issues with having two basketball games being played at the same time fairly close together.

Watching soccer games played next to each other, whistles can definitely impact other games. I'm thinking some AAU tournaments are played with multiple games concurrently, so for anyone who's been to any of them, is it a big issue?

Intriguing. And hopefully, they'd stagger things so that halftime for one game covers a good active portion of the game on the other side.

If this arrangement requires that games be played without blaring music during pre-game and during every time-out, it will be the greatest advance in the sport of basketball since peach baskets were replaced by nets. We can only hope!

+1000 to infinity and beyond.