Good win. UH is not a good team but they are talented and this was their super bowl.

The offense is good but the turnovers have to stop.

(12-10-2022 05:47 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  This could be an all-time game thread. Somebody is going to read through this thinking that we lost by 25 because there might be five positive posts on the entire thread.

That would be me...and this was a nail-biter of a thread. The frequent score updates kept me from thinking we'd lose by 25. Mostly I was wondering how we were managing to keep it close when we were playing so poorly.

(12-11-2022 12:03 AM)NYNightOwl Wrote:  Mostly I was wondering how we were managing to keep it close when we were playing so poorly.

Because Rice is a better team than UH.

We did shoot a season-high .552 from the field (and just 3 of 15 in 3-pointers, so 29 of 43 in 2-point field goals or almost 65 percent).

First win by Rice women over UH since 2012, and just the 11th win total in 57 overall games. I imagine it was also about the highest scoring total we've ever had against Houston.

Don’t think it was mentioned but both Clifton and Adams were dressed yesterday. Hopefully we they get some playing time soon. That leaves Maya and and Stover still on the injured list.

Bellamy was a stud. We need an enforcer like her.

By the way, as alluded to by FBO, we've fully gotten to the point where our perimeter shooting in concerning. Among players with 5 or more attempts, we have four players shooting over 30%. One of those is Ennis, but if you remove her 4-5 opening night against SFA, she's at 23%. One is Bokunewicz, who might be out for the year. One is Swayze, who doesn't play. And the other is Crosthwaite. Crosthwaite has shot it really well this year, but with Austin struggling a bit (just 27%), teams are going to key in on Crosthwaite even more and try to make us one-dimensional.

Jackson hasn't attempted a 3. Houston was giving her a solid 3-4 feet of space at the end of the game last night. Fisher's shot looks really bad and teams will give her room. Gooden's only taken 6 3s all year. Owens-Barnett is 0-8.

Do not be surprised come CUSA play if teams give us a ton of space on the perimeter and dare us to beat them by shooting.

No one commenting here has any idea how little sleep and how much stress our athletes are going through right now. The reality is that these are real students with real classes. They'll do much better in the upcoming games.

(12-11-2022 01:03 PM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  No one commenting here has any idea how little sleep and how much stress our athletes are going through right now. The reality is that these are real students with real classes. They'll do much better in the upcoming games.

I thought that was the gist of FBO's post:

(12-10-2022 06:13 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Someone needs to document how Rice does in basketball (men and women) in the game immediately after finals end. I bet you it would be an eye-opening result.

One thing hopefully Edmonds learns from this game is don't schedule a team like UH right after finals. I bet you it's a 25-point turnaround (in Rice's favor) if it's a week or two later.

It was - thank you for noticing.

The thing is it's tough to know year in and year out when looking through results when Rice's finals fall in the calendar year. So it's really hard to document it looking at past results. But here's probably a recent example for the women.

2019-20 (21-8 overall, 16-2 CUSA) - pretty good Rice team but didn't get to play a postseason due to Covid

November 5 - lost 62-61 to #5 Texas A&M at Tudor
November 23 - lost 69-38 at Oklahoma State (would have been Saturday before Thanksgiving - not finals related but an ugly effort)
December 7 - lost 63-56 at Texas Southern (guessing that was right after finals)
December 15 - defeated Prairie View 77-55 at home

TSU women were okay that season (14-4 in SWAC play) - PVAM was just a .500 team in the SWAC, but I still find it hard to believe we'd see a 30-point swing in 8 days.

I guess another recent good example would be the 2019-20 men's team. That was Trey Murphy/Drew Peterson sophomore year. We competed well with Houston at home (lost by 8 after Murphy got hurt) on Nov. 19. We then went 2-1 at a tournament in the Bahamas (beat Milwaukee and East Carolina, sandwiched around a loss to Liberty), and then we suffered a 13-point loss at Lamar after finals.

I hope folks realize the finals effect will be in place tomorrow night in Austin, although perhaps that is such an extreme mismatch to begin with that the finals effect won't matter much. And the difference between a Saturday game and a Monday game is also important as those extra two days matter.

(12-11-2022 03:45 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  I guess another recent good example would be the 2019-20 men's team. That was Trey Murphy/Drew Peterson sophomore year. We competed well with Houston at home (lost by 8 after Murphy got hurt) on Nov. 19. We then went 2-1 at a tournament in the Bahamas (beat Milwaukee and East Carolina, sandwiched around a loss to Liberty), and then we suffered a 13-point loss at Lamar after finals.

I hope folks realize the finals effect will be in place tomorrow night in Austin, although perhaps that is such an extreme mismatch to begin with that the finals effect won't matter much. And the difference between a Saturday game and a Monday game is also important as those extra two days matter.

Pretty sure finals run through Wednesday.

(12-11-2022 04:23 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  

(12-11-2022 03:45 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  I guess another recent good example would be the 2019-20 men's team. That was Trey Murphy/Drew Peterson sophomore year. We competed well with Houston at home (lost by 8 after Murphy got hurt) on Nov. 19. We then went 2-1 at a tournament in the Bahamas (beat Milwaukee and East Carolina, sandwiched around a loss to Liberty), and then we suffered a 13-point loss at Lamar after finals.

I hope folks realize the finals effect will be in place tomorrow night in Austin, although perhaps that is such an extreme mismatch to begin with that the finals effect won't matter much. And the difference between a Saturday game and a Monday game is also important as those extra two days matter.

Pretty sure finals run through Wednesday.

A little tighter than that. The last day for exams is Tuesday. https://registrar.rice.edu/calendars

I would guess our basketball players (men and women) were done with finals before the UH and UT games.

(12-11-2022 04:57 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  I would guess our basketball players (men and women) were done with finals before the UH and UT games.

I think you're right - and you pointed out the effect on exams before I did. But, one doesn't recover quickly from that kind of stress, especially if one is a D-1 athlete.

Rice will have a difficult time beating Middle Tenn. They have one player 6-6 and another 6-4.[/align]

(12-14-2022 10:39 PM)Texasowl Wrote:  Rice will have a difficult time beating Middle Tenn. They have one player 6-6 and another 6-4.[/align]

MTSU defeated Houston tonight, 68-61.

Their 6-6 girl averages 15 minutes a game. None of their other taller players play much. They're talented but it's mostly a guard (and 6-0 forward) dominated team. We match up well against them. At home, I'd think we'll be favored and when the game is at their place, they'll be favored.

But first things first, worry about Sam Houston State for Friday's game, and then start working on the MTSU game plan over the weekend.

You do have to give credit to the UH coach for scheduling a very competitive non-conference schedule. I'm not sure what his rationale for putting together such a difficult schedule. But at 2-9 and with enough decent teams in the AAC to make things tricky, you kind of wonder if they make a coaching move before the end of their season just to inject some energy into that program.

USF will be the best team in the AAC this year but they are at about Rice and MTSU level, bubbling under the top 25 receiving votes. They did win at Texas.

Houston to my eye has enough talent to finish at least mid pack in conference and has a realistic shot at the conference auto bid. Will be much easier for someone like UH this year than last, when there were two regularly ranked teams (USF and UCF).