(11-08-2015 08:42 PM)OldOwl Wrote:  How is Marcus Evans? How bad was his injury? Hopefully nothing serious.

(11-08-2015 03:21 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  

(11-08-2015 12:09 AM)Tiki Owl Wrote:  

Wow! What a great Rice game thread to read through! Thank you so much, Tiki for all the pictures for us out-of-towners to get a sense of how it looked. great job!

Soory to hear about Jackson's injury. Hope it turns out well, but at least the cupboard is being filled up by Rhoades & Co. (See what I did there?)

I'm sure the Cal game on Friday will be a real test, but it looks like we will give most teams a good run and be able to steal a few more wins this year against "better' teams we're not "supposed" to beat (all my quotes).

Congrats to the Owls cagers for all their hard work and effort in preparation for Year 2 of Mike Rhoades. Looking very much forward to following all the Owls hoop action. I even think one of the women's games will be on national tv, and also will be interested to see how our new women's coach does turning that program around.


Thank you again, JK, for hiring these coaches. Keep it up! Go Owls!

This is going to get old quickly....

Updates on Marcus Jackson? I would think he's had an MRI by now if it was his knee... I'd speculate no news isn't good news

Stephanie from the Chronicle tweeted out last evening that she had no further information.

Really hoping for the best. If Jackson joins Lott on the bench for a significant time, the roster depth starts to look very similar to last season, with really only 8 guys taking significant minutes. 2014 comparison to 2015 without Lott or Jackson (just looking roughly at how the minutes will be replaced):
Guercy (33.0 min)-->Guercy
Mency (29.2 min)-->Mency
Drone (22.7 min)-->Drone
Gearhart (33.9 min)-->Koulechov
Jackson (31.7 min)-->Cashaw
Peera (16.1 min)-->Evans
Green (14.1 min)-->Letcher-Ellis
Jones/Rivers (~15 min)-->Pollard
Pollard (5.7 min)-->Smith

Smith only played 5 minutes during the exhibition, which has to tell us something about how many minutes he will be getting early. Even with the lost depth, I still think the normal rotation looks taller, longer, and more athletic. But the depth is scary and probably limits Rice's ability to play full-court the entire game. And obviously expecting the freshman to replace Jackson's scoring and shooting is tough.

(11-09-2015 04:29 PM)mrbig Wrote:  Really hoping for the best. If Jackson joins Lott on the bench for a significant time, the roster depth starts to look very similar to last season, with really only 8 guys taking significant minutes. 2014 comparison to 2015 without Lott or Jackson (just looking roughly at how the minutes will be replaced):
Guercy (33.0 min)-->Guercy
Mency (29.2 min)-->Mency
Drone (22.7 min)-->Drone
Gearhart (33.9 min)-->Koulechov
Jackson (31.7 min)-->Cashaw
Peera (16.1 min)-->Evans
Green (14.1 min)-->Letcher-Ellis
Jones/Rivers (~15 min)-->Pollard
Pollard (5.7 min)-->Smith

Smith only played 5 minutes during the exhibition, which has to tell us something about how many minutes he will be getting early. Even with the lost depth, I still think the normal rotation looks taller, longer, and more athletic. But the depth is scary and probably limits Rice's ability to play full-court the entire game. And obviously expecting the freshman to replace Jackson's scoring and shooting is tough.

Bigs, I think you're overdoing the Freshman thing, as in college basketball, there is a long history since the Fab 5 of true Freshman playing starring roles even on the most elite programs. Yes, a Jackson loss would be tough to overcome as it would further shrink the bench and our ability to press for 40 minutes...but Evans and MLE are light years superior in talent to Peera and Green, and from everything we've heard, Mency, Drone and Pollard have all improved as players from last year.

Walt - I wasn't trying to minimize the freshman. I realize that Evans & MLE are expected to be more talented than Peera/Green and presumably play more minutes. I realize true freshman tend to contribute in basketball more frequently than football (and even baseball). I have seen everyone's reports that some of the returning guys are looking much improved.

My only point was that without Jackson and Lott, we basically have 8 guys taking the same minutes as last season's 8 guys. This year's 8 guys might be more talented, but they are still only 8 guys. When I was predicting a top-4 CUSA finish, part of that was based on more talent and part was based on much more depth. My expectations will be understandably scaled back some if Jackson ends up missing significant time.

I think Xu will get in the rotation if Jackson is out. He seemed fine in the few minutes we saw from him Saturday night - a bit taller than Peera but maybe not as good defensively? That's your 10-man rotation in a worst case scenario. Smith will get PT. My guess is initially they were hoping to redshirt him but those plans have probably changed since Lott is out for sure.

Oh is was Jackson injured. What a bummer.

(11-09-2015 08:55 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  I think Xu will get in the rotation if Jackson is out. He seemed fine in the few minutes we saw from him Saturday night - a bit taller than Peera but maybe not as good defensively? That's your 10-man rotation in a worst case scenario. Smith will get PT. My guess is initially they were hoping to redshirt him but those plans have probably changed since Lott is out for sure.

(11-09-2015 08:55 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  I think Xu will get in the rotation if Jackson is out. He seemed fine in the few minutes we saw from him Saturday night - a bit taller than Peera but maybe not as good defensively? That's your 10-man rotation in a worst case scenario. Smith will get PT. My guess is initially they were hoping to redshirt him but those plans have probably changed since Lott is out for sure.

Will be interesting to see how they develop. On paper, Peera wasn't great defensively (or in general), however he played with a drive unlike anything I have ever seen. Some of his defensive plays were less about athletic ability and more about him giving his all, diving at a loose ball and crashing into the court to ensure that our team kept possession.

Peera was a great leader and the textbook definition of an overachiever. He will be missed.

So with perhaps our best player and one of our top newcomers out, it will be Guercy, Mency, and Drone playing with a quality transfer and a bunch of freshmen.

Hmm... This is going to be interesting.

(11-09-2015 09:46 PM)Wiessman Wrote:  So with perhaps our best player and one of our top newcomers out, it will be Guercy, Mency, and Drone playing with a quality transfer and a bunch of freshmen.

Hmm... This is going to be interesting.

The "quality transfer" many think would have been our best player last year (yes, even better than Jackson), and the "bunch of Freshmen" are more talented than any of the returning players from last year's team.

(11-09-2015 11:20 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(11-09-2015 09:46 PM)Wiessman Wrote:  So with perhaps our best player and one of our top newcomers out, it will be Guercy, Mency, and Drone playing with a quality transfer and a bunch of freshmen.

Hmm... This is going to be interesting.

The "quality transfer" many think would have been our best player last year (yes, even better than Jackson), and the "bunch of Freshmen" are more talented than any of the returning players from last year's team.

I don't doubt it. It's just amazing how close we are to having a completely new team for the upcoming season.

Jackson and Lott are big losses as far as I can tell. However, there is an upside: we might be awfully formidable and deep in 2016-17.

This season's going to be fun. Rhoades has now got a slightly different team than he probably anticipated having, and the kids are going to have to log some serious minutes. I think we'll still make waves in CUSA.

I will say that our times our defense looked lost, and that's a bit worrying. I hope it was first game jitters but a number of possessions we left shooters wide open, didn't find people on box-outs etc. Going to be very interesting to see how we match up against Cal.

(11-09-2015 11:49 PM)OwlWind Wrote:  I will say that our times our defense looked lost, and that's a bit worrying. I hope it was first game jitters but a number of possessions we left shooters wide open, didn't find people on box-outs etc. Going to be very interesting to see how we match up against Cal.

1. To Weissman, we haven't lost Jackson yet. Let's hope for the best.

2. Defense requires coordination amongst all 5 players on the court. It's not surprising that it's still a work in progress as we enter the season, especially with all the newcomers we have. I fully expect this part of our game to improve very quickly and become a team strength.

(11-10-2015 06:56 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(11-09-2015 11:49 PM)OwlWind Wrote:  I will say that our times our defense looked lost, and that's a bit worrying. I hope it was first game jitters but a number of possessions we left shooters wide open, didn't find people on box-outs etc. Going to be very interesting to see how we match up against Cal.

1. To Weissman, we haven't lost Jackson yet. Let's hope for the best.

2. Defense requires coordination amongst all 5 players on the court. It's not surprising that it's still a work in progress as we enter the season, especially with all the newcomers we have. I fully expect this part of our game to improve very quickly and become a team strength.

Agree with Walt. I fully expect some learning time for the newcomers in the early games. Unlike last year though I don't see it taking half a season to get to our comfort level. Also I don't see the "learning of the defense" to impact the offense like it did last year.

(11-09-2015 04:29 PM)mrbig Wrote:  Really hoping for the best. If Jackson joins Lott on the bench for a significant time, the roster depth starts to look very similar to last season, with really only 8 guys taking significant minutes. 2014 comparison to 2015 without Lott or Jackson (just looking roughly at how the minutes will be replaced):
Guercy (33.0 min)-->Guercy
Mency (29.2 min)-->Mency
Drone (22.7 min)-->Drone
Gearhart (33.9 min)-->Koulechov
Jackson (31.7 min)-->Cashaw
Peera (16.1 min)-->Evans
Green (14.1 min)-->Letcher-Ellis
Jones/Rivers (~15 min)-->Pollard
Pollard (5.7 min)-->Smith

Smith only played 5 minutes during the exhibition, which has to tell us something about how many minutes he will be getting early. Even with the lost depth, I still think the normal rotation looks taller, longer, and more athletic. But the depth is scary and probably limits Rice's ability to play full-court the entire game. And obviously expecting the freshman to replace Jackson's scoring and shooting is tough.

Big, I know you mean this figuratively, but there is optimism in what you write here. 6 of the 8 lines above read to me like large or small improvements. Letcher Ellis should play 28 minutes per game, meaning not only do we not have to play Green for 14 but we also don't need Cashaw to take the whole Jackson load.

If you rejigger and give the Jones/Rivers minutes direct to Smith then you can be more cautious in the improvement you expect from Pollard--any improvement there would be gravy. That puts 7 or the 8 as improvement.

I think we expected Jackson to be our best player, therefore it is a large loss no matter what the other minutes shifts are. But I wasn't expecting NCAA tournament this year, so given our class mix a Jackson redshirt might bode well for 16-17.

Personally speaking, I expected Egor and ML-E to be out two best all-around players.

I wasn't trying to suggest that the minutes would be split the same way, sorry for the confusion. I fully agree with you MemOwl.

Our preseason all conference player was injured 3 days ago and still no update? Usually you get something by now...

(11-10-2015 10:22 PM)cr11owl Wrote:  Our preseason all conference player was injured 3 days ago and still no update? Usually you get something by now...

Yeah, strange, but I'm taking this as a positive. I presume he had an MRI no later than Monday. If surgery was required, you'd think they would have announced something by now.