CSNbbs

It'll definitely look weird to outsiders (record, player turnover, etc.) but I think it's probably the right call. My frustrations with Pera are well-documented and neither he nor his teams have fully put it together yet, but his best quality is that I can see him staying loyal to Rice for the long haul. I can't wait to be wrong about that in a couple of years, but I've never gotten the sense that Pera is like Rhoades in that he's looking for a better spot to immediately jump ship. Does he still need to win games? Yes. If the team fails to make noise this upcoming season, will I be calling for a coaching change? Probably yes. But is there a massive downside to this extension? No. Worse comes to worst Pera doesn't get the job done and in a couple years we're shopping for coaches again.

We know Pera can identify talent. We know he can create a pretty potent offensive system. The questions he needs to answer in these next couple of years is whether he can coach up a defense and whether he can adjust his offensive system to beat better defensive teams.

Pretty sad the results he's produced would merit an extension. Only at Rice.

He had improved his record every year. I think this will be his best year yet and I think he might be building something sustainable. He definitely deserves to continue so we can see if he can continue to improve.

(07-08-2021 10:36 AM)owl95 Wrote: [ -> ]He had improved his record every year. I think this will be his best year yet and I think he might be building something sustainable. He definitely deserves to continue so we can see if he can continue to improve.

There is a difference between "being allowed to continue" and being rewarded with an extension. He has a 50-73 career record. Being allowed to continue should have been generous enough. If we have a great team in the winter, then we can talk extension.

(07-08-2021 10:43 AM)RiceFootball2K5 Wrote: [ -> ]

(07-08-2021 10:36 AM)owl95 Wrote: [ -> ]He had improved his record every year. I think this will be his best year yet and I think he might be building something sustainable. He definitely deserves to continue so we can see if he can continue to improve.

There is a difference between "being allowed to continue" and being rewarded with an extension. He has a 50-73 career record. Being allowed to continue should have been generous enough. If we have a great team in the winter, then we can talk extension.

Can’t really recruit if your contract expires before the kids would arrive on campus.

(07-08-2021 10:45 AM)cr11owl Wrote: [ -> ]

(07-08-2021 10:43 AM)RiceFootball2K5 Wrote: [ -> ]

(07-08-2021 10:36 AM)owl95 Wrote: [ -> ]He had improved his record every year. I think this will be his best year yet and I think he might be building something sustainable. He definitely deserves to continue so we can see if he can continue to improve.

There is a difference between "being allowed to continue" and being rewarded with an extension. He has a 50-73 career record. Being allowed to continue should have been generous enough. If we have a great team in the winter, then we can talk extension.

Can’t really recruit if your contract expires before the kids would arrive on campus.

Give him a one year extension then. Maybe if he actually beats some Division 1 teams with winning records this fall, he can get more.

(07-08-2021 10:56 AM)RiceFootball2K5 Wrote: [ -> ]

(07-08-2021 10:45 AM)cr11owl Wrote: [ -> ]

(07-08-2021 10:43 AM)RiceFootball2K5 Wrote: [ -> ]

(07-08-2021 10:36 AM)owl95 Wrote: [ -> ]He had improved his record every year. I think this will be his best year yet and I think he might be building something sustainable. He definitely deserves to continue so we can see if he can continue to improve.

There is a difference between "being allowed to continue" and being rewarded with an extension. He has a 50-73 career record. Being allowed to continue should have been generous enough. If we have a great team in the winter, then we can talk extension.

Can’t really recruit if your contract expires before the kids would arrive on campus.

Give him a one year extension then. Maybe if he actually beats some Division 1 teams with winning records this fall, he can get more.

His original contract went through the 2021-2022 season, so this is two additional years on top of that. I could argue with maybe only giving him an extension through 2022-2023 season though.

I’m fine with extending Pera.

I think he’s a decent coach who has stabilized the program. Not sure if he’ll make Rice the next Gonzaga but I think he can get us a consistent 15-20 wins a year starting in 2021-22. Maybe make the tournament one year if we get lucky. That’s about the best we can hope for.

(07-08-2021 06:30 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote: [ -> ]I’m fine with extending Pera.

I think he’s a decent coach who has stabilized the program. Not sure if he’ll make Rice the next Gonzaga but i think he can get us a consistent 15-20 wins a year starting in 2021-22. Maybe make the tournament one year if we get lucky. That’s about the best we can hope for.

I completely agree with this, given the pretty extreme handicaps we've faced and will continue to face.

(07-08-2021 07:16 PM)Barney Wrote: [ -> ]

(07-08-2021 06:30 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote: [ -> ]I’m fine with extending Pera.

I think he’s a decent coach who has stabilized the program. Not sure if he’ll make Rice the next Gonzaga but i think he can get us a consistent 15-20 wins a year starting in 2021-22. Maybe make the tournament one year if we get lucky. That’s about the best we can hope for.

I completely agree with this, given the pretty extreme handicaps we've faced and will continue to face.

Agree as well. Worth giving him all the opportunities to continue to build the program.

I obviously agree too. We've improved every year since he's been here, graduate the kids, retained our most players in a long time, and are potentially looking at our best record since the 2016-17 season.

Contract extensions don't mean much anyway - Tina Langley signed a 5 year deal in May of 2019. She was gone less than two years later.

Coaching changes have proven to be very difficult in terms of building up rosters. It's a slow process. One of the things Rice can do to maintain stability within a sport is to retain a coach when things are obviously going in the right direction. This was the right thing to do.

You all have some very very low expectations.

(07-08-2021 10:35 PM)RiceOwls2019 Wrote: [ -> ]You all have some very very low expectations.

Bob McKillop's record at Davidson over his first four years was 39-74. In his first five years at the helm of Belmont as a D1 team, Rick Byrd was 58-78. It took Byrd 7 years to win 20 games with Belmont at the D1 level.

Firing a guy is easy (I'm pretty sure I've advocated for it multiple times). Building a program from the ground up is not easy. Pera might fail. But our best shot right now, in my opinion, is putting our full faith in him and hoping he succeeds and sticks around for 20 years.

(07-08-2021 10:35 PM)RiceOwls2019 Wrote: [ -> ]You all have some very very low expectations.

Given how many players transferred when Rhoades left, what did you realistically expect Pera to accomplish over the past few years? He has turned things around quicker than I expected considering how many players transferred out as he was starting, his short recruiting period, and the defections after that stunted recruiting period.

I will go on the record as being excited about this extension. Agree that his teams need to be better defensively, but if he can keep holding on to a higher percentage of players than hopefully that will help with defensive cohesiveness.

I would not say I am excited about this extension. But I am OK with it. Further improvement in team and record is needed, but isn't that true in every sport?

(07-09-2021 09:39 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote: [ -> ]I would not say I am excited about this extension. But I am OK with it. Further improvement in team and record is needed, but isn't that true in every sport?

I am Optimistic™ about this season, with the retention and new players, we should actually have some depth to this team as well as some experience. I would like to see 20 wins. There is no reason this team couldn't have a similar year to Rhoades' last team.

(07-09-2021 09:44 AM)owl95 Wrote: [ -> ]

(07-09-2021 09:39 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote: [ -> ]I would not say I am excited about this extension. But I am OK with it. Further improvement in team and record is needed, but isn't that true in every sport?

I am Optimistic™ about this season, with the retention and new players, we should actually have some depth to this team as well as some experience. I would like to see 20 wins. There is no reason this team couldn't have a similar year to Rhoades' last team.

Expectations are sky high. I think most of us would be very disappointed if we don't win 20+ games this year. The personnel is there as is the experience. And we have the depth to play really aggressive defense (assuming we can coach up in that area).

We went 15-13 last year.

Included in the 15 are 7 wins over:

Incarnate Word
Our Lady of the Lake (2)
LeTourneau
Houston Baptist (2)
New Orleans

So we were 8-13 against real teams. And included in the 13 are 4 blowout losses (20+ points) to conference opponents.

I'm glad this is the first offseason in forever without a mass transfer exodus. But I've yet to see acceptable on-court results. Again, some of your expectations are embarrassingly low.

Of the three blowout losses two occurred after the team had not practiced in over a week. There were a number of games where more than one player had not practiced with the team in over a week..in short, there were reasons for some of the losses that were out of the control of the coaches.