Hopefully the refs give us a chance. That's the X factor in my book.

Two years ago at our place, we led them by 7 at the half and then Trey Murphy got hurt in the 2nd half. He continued to play on a bad leg but it wasn't the same. Grimes went off too for Houston with 21 2nd half points so that was obviously a key too.

I think this Rice team is better than that Murphy/Peterson (as sophomores) team. Whether this Houston team is as good remains to be seen. They think they're better, but that was a pretty stout UH team too (Elite Eight maybe?).

eta -- "Assuming Mullins can't go, my starting 5 is probably: Fiedler-Sheffield-Pierre-Olivari-Evee." That's who we started in the 2nd half against Pepperdine, and that group started us off on one of the best 20 minutes stretches I've seen in a long time for Rice basketball. Even if Mullins is healthy, I'd go with that five against bigger teams (Houston, Texas, maybe someone like UAB, WKU and La Tech in conference play). Most of the other teams we can go with Mullins over Sheffield.