CSNbbs

D1Baseball updates their listing of the Top 100 college programs every two years. Amazingly, despite the past two years of sub-.500 play, we still crack the Top 40, coming in at #35 (down from #23 in 2017)....

https://d1baseball.com/analysis/2019-top...own-31-40/

Quote:35. Rice
2017 Rank: 23. When will the Owls get their mojo back? That’s what everyone around West University wants to know as the 2020 campaign nears. It wasn’t long ago that Rice was a consistent and big-time national power. But the program has been on a gradual decline over the past few seasons, making the NCAA tournament in 2016 with a 38-24 record before having to win the C-USA tournament in 2017 in order to make the tourney with a 33-31 overall record. The last two seasons have been rough for the Owls. Legendary coach Wayne Graham’s final season ended with no tourney appearance and a 26-31 record, and Matt Bragga’s first season ended with a lackluster 26-33 record. But as they often say, Rome wasn’t built in a day. There’s no doubt that Bragga knows hitting and brings a passion to the Rice program. But now Rice fans want to see results starting with the ’20 campaign. This program still has a terrific profile. Rice is an elite academic institution, it has a smaller but committed and passionate fan base and the facilities are certainly up to par. And oh yeah, the recruiting base might be the best in the country. All the pieces are there for the Owls to return to normal sooner rather than later. — Kendall Rogers

Man I sure hope this is the year that things get back to “normal!”

(09-25-2019 10:30 PM)TFW Wrote: [ -> ]Man I sure hope this is the year that things get back to “normal!”

I like our offense, but the pitching is one HUGE question mark-- from top to bottom. I hope I'm wrong, but I think 2021 will be the turnaround year (assuming we can get our recruiting class on campus).

(09-25-2019 10:50 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote: [ -> ]

(09-25-2019 10:30 PM)TFW Wrote: [ -> ]Man I sure hope this is the year that things get back to “normal!”

I like our offense, but the pitching is one HUGE question mark-- from top to bottom. I hope I'm wrong, but I think 2021 will be the turnaround year (assuming we can get our recruiting class on campus).

I agree... We should be able to knock the crap out of the ball this coming year but not sure if we’ll be able to prevent the other team from doing the same thing...

I’m really hoping that we can get some more grad transfer help on the mound come January as we did at 1B a few years ago with Sheppard from Baylor... But that might be wishful thinking!

(09-25-2019 11:06 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote: [ -> ]

(09-25-2019 10:50 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote: [ -> ]

(09-25-2019 10:30 PM)TFW Wrote: [ -> ]Man I sure hope this is the year that things get back to “normal!”

I like our offense, but the pitching is one HUGE question mark-- from top to bottom. I hope I'm wrong, but I think 2021 will be the turnaround year (assuming we can get our recruiting class on campus).

I agree... We should be able to knock the crap out of the ball this coming year but not sure if we’ll be able to prevent the other team from doing the same thing...

I’m really hoping that we can get some more grad transfer help on the mound come January as we did at 1B a few years ago with Sheppard from Baylor... But that might be wishful thinking!

I think that's highly unlikely and, besides, I don't think we have additional space on our roster (which currently totals 36 players). We need our three JUCO and upperclass pitching transfers (DeLeon, Conlon and Kane) to step up. And we need Roel Garcia to be fully healthy by January. The pitchers who impressed me the most in their one-inning, first outing stints these past two days of intrasquads were DeLeon, Brogden, Content, Wood, Santos (Fr) and Zaskoda (Fr).

I saw the 1st day of practice had 36 players listed as having practiced. But I think the riceowls.com roster still shows 38, so two of the returning players listed there aren't on the team anymore (or possibly they're not including injured players)?