Pleased with Pera. At this point, I have him as our #1 coach in the 3 major sports, with Incomplete grades from Bloomgren and obviously Bragga. But as of now, feel best about Pera, which is something I wouldn't have imagined a while back. We'll see how 1) baseball turnaround goes, 2) Bloomgren in year 2, and most important, 3) if Pera can keep this squad together into next season, before I re-assess our major sports coach ranking :)

I always thought Pera would be a pretty good coach, from a pure coaching standpoint. Hard to luck your way into high school state championships in 2 of the best basketball states (California and Pennsylvania). But after all the transfer issues, the big issue for me was recruiting and whether he could find players who were willing to stay at Rice and really valued a good degree. Still a couple months before we'll really know whether he has overcome the transfer hurdle. But very happy to see the team's progress this year.

This team still needs someone who will make the big play offensively and/or defensively and be able to carry the team on his shoulders when needed. No one has emerged as that leader yet. Robert Martin is the closest thing Rice has to that player at this point. However, this team is still young, young, young and it is great to watch them develop this year. Someone should emerge.

This team is one Connor Cashaw from being one of the top teams in the conference this season.

(02-04-2019 12:38 PM)mrbig Wrote:  This team is one Connor Cashaw from being one of the top teams in the conference this season.

Unfortunately I think you are spot on in that conclusion :( and given the year he seems to be having, I think both parties lost in that deal. Someone may have given him bad advice.

(02-04-2019 12:44 PM)owl95 Wrote:  

(02-04-2019 12:38 PM)mrbig Wrote:  This team is one Connor Cashaw from being one of the top teams in the conference this season.

Unfortunately I think you are spot on in that conclusion :( and given the year he seems to be having, I think both parties lost in that deal. Someone may have given him bad advice.

Creighton is also not likely to make the tournament as it stands now.

(02-04-2019 12:38 PM)mrbig Wrote:  This team is one Connor Cashaw from being one of the top teams in the conference this season.

I liked Connor but he wouldn't have made that much of a difference on this team. Martin has completely taken over his role.

Now Marcus Evans would be a completely different story.....

Rice has lost 4 CUSA games by 4 points or less, plus the overtime UCSB game. I feel pretty comfortable saying that Rice wins at least 3 of those games (and probably all 5) with Cashaw. I am not saying he is elite like Marcus Evans, but Cashaw is a good college player and giving him 25 minutes that have otherwise been going to Peterson, Moore, and Parrish is pretty likely to benefit the team. I am glad he attained his Rice degree and wasn’t trying to open a can of worms mentioning him. Just occurred to me when talking about upper-class leadership and another good player, he would have helped in those areas.

I agree we win at minimum the two egregious CUSA losses with Cashaw.

Connor leaving was a real gut punch amongst many in recent years. Imagine what could have been without the transfers of the last two years....

(02-04-2019 12:21 PM)Kayjay Wrote:  This team still needs someone who will make the big play offensively and/or defensively and be able to carry the team on his shoulders when needed. No one has emerged as that leader yet. Robert Martin is the closest thing Rice has to that player at this point. However, this team is still young, young, young and it is great to watch them develop this year. Someone should emerge.

(02-04-2019 06:46 PM)texowl2 Wrote:  Connor leaving was a real gut punch amongst many in recent years. Imagine what could have been without the transfers of the last two years....

Yea....with Miles Lester we were a lock for the Final Four. And we probably would be looking at our third title if Quez had stayed. Sorry, but I don’t even want to hear about any of these folks. This current group has shown great potential and glad they and the staff are finally getting some praise from the posters here.

Realistically, and I know that this is a silly game to play, but the guy that I'm pretty sure would've elevated the team more than anybody is Najja. I'm still convinced he had the highest ceiling of any player on campus in the last 5 years.

(02-04-2019 08:48 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  Realistically, and I know that this is a silly game to play, but the guy that I'm pretty sure would've elevated the team more than anybody is Najja. I'm still convinced he had the highest ceiling of any player on campus in the last 5 years.

Well, he's not doing anything special in junior college this year.
http://www.nmjcthunderbirds.com/sports/m...najja_kd0z

(02-05-2019 01:43 AM)owl95 Wrote:  

(02-04-2019 08:48 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  Realistically, and I know that this is a silly game to play, but the guy that I'm pretty sure would've elevated the team more than anybody is Najja. I'm still convinced he had the highest ceiling of any player on campus in the last 5 years.

Well, he's not doing anything special in junior college this year.
http://www.nmjcthunderbirds.com/sports/m...najja_kd0z

Yeah, I saw that earlier. Think it'd probably be a different situation had he stayed d1, but who knows. 6-5 with a good handle and a decent shot...all the tools to be a great player, just needs to find the off the court stuff too.

I think Trey Murphy deserves to be in that conversation. He's leading CUSA in 3-point FG percentage (in conference games only) at over 53 percent. 6-7 with a great shot. I still think he needs to be starting over Peterson and we'll see that change before the end of the year.

Unfortunately, this ODU game, Murphy did not have his shot. 3 of 9 from long distance, and only 1 of 3 on free throws. For a shooter, can't afford to miss both and would have loved to have all 3. He hit 2 threes in quick succession in that second half, and then launched a heat check-type shot (a little too deep) that wasn't a good choice and was hunting for his shot from there. Can't say he hasn't been good for Rice to date, but that ODU game wasn't his best (offensively).

I know this is probably late but just wanted to jump in here and give your team some compliments. It looks like you are all excited for the future as you should be. You have a very talented roster and I personally believed your squad was better than what most were saying in preseason. ODU isn't the easiest place to play and your players didn't crack under pressure, I think there was only two turnovers that were mental time errors (shot clock violation and a 5 second inbounds violation). Overall I was impressed and hope you guys continue to trend up!