(03-17-2019 06:16 PM)Tiki Owl Wrote:  Rhoades is being mentioned as a candidate for he head job at UNLV.

Dream job?

Wow! Corey Douglas denies 7'6"Tacko Fall of UCF. Both teams ice cold. Combined 1/16. 3-0 VCU at the first tv timeout. Evans is on the floor and looks okay. Lots of adrenaline. Defensive stop making UCF run out of shot clock. Where was Havoc when Rhoades was here?

Evans with some points and some accolades from the announcers. Doesn't look like that fall the other day hurt him. Both these teams starting to feel their shots now. Entertaining game to watch so far.

UCF ‘racing VCU now...

Love it!

1st Rice mention as Corey Douglas takes it downtown right to them again. 24 all now with about 3 minutes to go in 1st half. The amount of energy both teams have expended makes me wonder if the second half will be slower. Tacko Fall gets a nice rest on the bench for UCF.

(03-22-2019 10:22 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  1st Rice mention as Corey Douglas takes it downtown right to them again. 24 all now with about 3 minutes to go in 1st half. The amount of energy both teams have expended makes me wonder if the second half will be slower. Tacko Fall gets a nice rest on the bench for UCF.

Are you watching the game on tape delay or something?

34-24 at the half, UCF is pulling away. Announcers comment that VCU is not a very offensive team, score most of their points off their defense. It's kind of curious to watch a Rhoades team look kind of like the opposite of what he did here at Rice. Flipping the offensive and defensive prowess. I guess if he had stayed he would have eventually gotten the defense going here too, but surprising that at VCU, where it's got to be beasier to recruit to, especially now after they were put on the map by Shaka Smart and their Final Four run, that they can't get better offensive guys. I remember Coach Rhoades saying he liked guys with longer than average wingspans so they could disrupt more passing lanes, but I guess the awkwardness that might come from that being a young, still growing player, may take some time to adjust to?"

Game at times looked Rice-level bad at some points. VCU was 0-13 from 3 before they finally hit their first one at around the 12 min mark in 2nd half. Ugh. With that tree in the middle for UCF (sorry, Rollins) UCF needed their outside game to step up a notch. I think they went almost to 13 min in 2nd half before they got their first field goal. They had many steals, but over and over couldn;t convert missing lots of inside shots. No one seemed able to pull up for the mid-range jumpers very much until it was out of hand.

The announcers touted UCF's defense and it was good, but I think you take Tacko Fall and shift him to the other team and it might have been just as uneven a game the other way. In addition, Silva going down early hard and you could tell he was hurt even when he was back in. Douglas didn't have the answer against Fall either.

No doubt that Marcus was bothered by his leg, but this had to have been one of his worst college performances. He's always going to turn the ball over against good defenses, but you typically shake that off because he drops 20+. His value as a point guard goes down dramatically when he isn't scoring because he just isn't a good enough decision maker to just be a facilitator.

And I'm still bitter about Douglas. Even though he saw pretty limited floor time this year, I'm convinced he could've been all-conference at Rice.

(03-22-2019 11:26 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  No doubt that Marcus was bothered by his leg, but this had to have been one of his worst college performances. He's always going to turn the ball over against good defenses, but you typically shake that off because he drops 20+. His value as a point guard goes down dramatically when he isn't scoring because he just isn't a good enough decision maker to just be a facilitator.

And I'm still bitter about Douglas. Even though he saw pretty limited floor time this year, I'm convinced he could've been all-conference at Rice.

yeah, that's what makes me wistful about these situations. When guys leave, they don;t realize they could be all-time school leaders at a school that will pay much more in dividends for them in their long-term lives if they but get their degrees than other schools may pay in cash upfront 9allegedly.) Yeah, it's a little bittersweet. I did enjoy watching the game, and tip your cap for the moment to UCF, as they did what they had to do. But will be interesting to see how Duke handles Tacko Fall next round.

Evans could have had the school scoring record by quite a bit, and been revered here for life, with all the life connections that would have made him. Does he really get that from VCU? I'm not so sure. Mostly, the announcers talked about all his injuries and though he had a lot of heart they seemed to sound as if his career was nearly over due to the injuries.

At times, Rhoades looked like he was out of ideas when they couldn't buy a basket most of the early 2nd half. Actually, VCU did show a lot of heart to come back from 21 down to get it back down to 7, but then they ran out of gas. UCF started the game off stone cold, but after tying it at 24 all they went on a 19-0 run, and that was pretty much the game.

Corey seemed like a very nice kid when he was here, but he didn't seem to be academically suited for Rice, sorry. MLE was obviously not meant to be at Rice (or any college for that matter). It is what it is.

(03-22-2019 11:40 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  

(03-22-2019 11:26 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  No doubt that Marcus was bothered by his leg, but this had to have been one of his worst college performances. He's always going to turn the ball over against good defenses, but you typically shake that off because he drops 20+. His value as a point guard goes down dramatically when he isn't scoring because he just isn't a good enough decision maker to just be a facilitator.

And I'm still bitter about Douglas. Even though he saw pretty limited floor time this year, I'm convinced he could've been all-conference at Rice.

yeah, that's what makes me wistful about these situations. When guys leave, they don;t realize they could be all-time school leaders at a school that will pay much more in dividends for them in their long-term lives if they but get their degrees than other schools may pay in cash upfront 9allegedly.) Yeah, it's a little bittersweet. I did enjoy watching the game, and tip your cap for the moment to UCF, as they did what they had to do. But will be interesting to see how Duke handles Tacko Fall next round.

Evans could have had the school scoring record by quite a bit, and been revered here for life, with all the life connections that would have made him. Does he really get that from VCU? I'm not so sure. Mostly, the announcers talked about all his injuries and though he had a lot of heart they seemed to sound as if his career was nearly over due to the injuries.

At times, Rhoades looked like he was out of ideas when they couldn't buy a basket most of the early 2nd half. Actually, VCU did show a lot of heart to come back from 21 down to get it back down to 7, but then they ran out of gas. UCF started the game off stone cold, but after tying it at 24 all they went on a 19-0 run, and that was pretty much the game.

I don't think Duke has any problem whatsoever with Tacko Fall. Yes, he's tall, but not terribly athletic. Even the announcers mentioned that most of his blocks were achieved with him even jumping. I think Zion simply muscles him and will have his way around the basket. Also, Duke is an exceptional parimeter shooting team.

No offense, but what is the obsession with Rhoades and the dudes who went with him/left because he left?

Yep, we got spurned by a 'good girlfriend'. But good god, when I got dumped by a chick (yeah, it happened a *lot*, heh... for some *odd* reason....), I just moved on. This is like listening to one of my old roommates wallow for literally year when he got dumped, let alone listening to the same garbage every single time he saw her with another guy, and *especially* when she was wearing some article of clothing he remembered....

(03-23-2019 07:53 PM)tanqtonic Wrote:  No offense, but what is the obsession with Rhoades and the dudes who went with him/left because he left?

Yep, we got spurned by a 'good girlfriend'. But good god, when I got dumped by a chick (yeah, it happened a *lot*, heh... for some *odd* reason....), I just moved on. This is like listening to one of my old roommates wallow for literally year when he got dumped, let alone listening to the same garbage every single time he saw her with another guy, and *especially* when she was wearing some article of clothing he remembered....

We still have people talking about Todd Graham here. You know, bare cupboard and all that.

Personally, I'm with you. He chose to leave. Thanks for the good seasons and the fun, but beyond that I couldn't be bothered.

(03-23-2019 07:59 PM)Antarius Wrote:  

(03-23-2019 07:53 PM)tanqtonic Wrote:  No offense, but what is the obsession with Rhoades and the dudes who went with him/left because he left?

Yep, we got spurned by a 'good girlfriend'. But good god, when I got dumped by a chick (yeah, it happened a *lot*, heh... for some *odd* reason....), I just moved on. This is like listening to one of my old roommates wallow for literally year when he got dumped, let alone listening to the same garbage every single time he saw her with another guy, and *especially* when she was wearing some article of clothing he remembered....

We still have people talking about Todd Graham here. You know, bare cupboard and all that.

Personally, I'm with you. He chose to leave. Thanks for the good seasons and the fun, but beyond that I couldn't be bothered.

Maybe people were bothered by all the players the basketball coach took with him, leaving our roster pretty bare at a time it was tough to re-fill it. I am certain VCU is a fine school, but it is not Rice, and none of those players who left were pre-NBA.

He actually took only one player.

(03-24-2019 07:25 AM)tanqtonic Wrote:  He actually took only one player.

2 players-- Evans and Douglas.

Rhoades did not recruit players for Rice - he recruited them for himself. While I realize that's true for almost all coaches at most schools, it never works at Rice. There are too many obstacles for athletes at Rice, and a coaching staff must adjust. The problem with Rhoades is that he undoubtedly knew, but just kept signing talented players in order to keep things going long enough for him to get a "better" job. He did not care about Rice, except to the extent that he used it as a springboard to obtain his current position.

I tend to think that a good NCAA rule would be if a coach changes schools, he/she can't recruit anyone from his/her old school.

(03-24-2019 07:54 AM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  Rhoades did not recruit players for Rice - he recruited them for himself. While I realize that's true for almost all coaches at most schools, it never works at Rice. There are too many obstacles for athletes at Rice, and a coaching staff must adjust. The problem with Rhoades is that he undoubtedly knew, but just kept signing talented players in order to keep things going long enough for him to get a "better" job. He did not care about Rice, except to the extent that he used it as a springboard to obtain his current position.

That's spot on. Coaches like that care about the school until they don't, which is sometime shortly after the second or third press conference after they leave. I think it's apparent that some care more (or a great deal more) - Watson Brown, Scott Thompson, Fred Goldsmith, Cristy McKinney, Ken Hatfield, and Wayne Graham, to name a few. I could rate my impression of where the current coaches fall in that rank, but I think it's a big mistake to have that discussion. But, contract renewals should definitely factor that in, and we should do the best to retain coaches that do seem to care, are committed and are building success. Nevertheless, we will lose some of the better coaches that do care about Rice and are offered big opportunities. There's nothing we can do about that without improving the overall environment.