Concessions were a disaster last night. We had a good crowd with all the promotions going on, and they looked to be overwhelmed by the number of folks.

Student turnout this year has been up I'd say compared to past years. It was 'Spring Recess' Thursday and Friday (on Feb. 7-8, one month after the spring semester began - go figure). Spring Recess is not to be confused by the way with Spring Break, which is March 9-17. But that's probably why we had less students Thursday and Saturday.

(02-10-2019 11:50 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Concessions were a disaster last night. We had a good crowd with all the promotions going on, and they looked to be overwhelmed by the number of folks.

Student turnout this year has been up I'd say compared to past years. It was 'Spring Recess' Thursday and Friday (on Feb. 7-8, one month after the spring semester began - go figure). Spring Recess is not to be confused by the way with Spring Break, which is March 9-17. But that's probably why we had less students Thursday and Saturday.

Forgot about Spring Recess. Good to hear it’s generally up.

One nice thing. We didn't play our best, and missed a lot of free throws but we still won. We're making progress, but with freshmen there's still some bad mixed in with the good. Talked with Peterson's mom last night and she said Drew has put on some weight and muscle and it's affected his shot some. People worried about Trey's height gain, but it apparently hasn't changed his shot. Every case is different.

I’m not “sold” on Pera and or this team.

I will be more sold if/when transfers are kept to a minimum this offseason (4/5 frosh staying would be fine).

That said, I’m certainly not dismayed by this team as I was earlier this season... There has been definite progress and I think we should let Pera see it through.

I missed my first home game of the season last night so I appreciate everyone pitching in for the win without me! Winning is really hard to accomplish for a young team and the ghosts of losing close games can begin to feel like "groundhog day" when a team struggles to close the door on their competition in the final 8 minutes, or as Yogi used to say: fearing "deja-vu all over again". Pera's strategy of pushing the tempo has really paid dividends between 14 and 8 minute mark of the 2nd half in most games when the opposition has tired legs and seems to miss a number of shots. Unfortunately, it is that final 8 minutes that the Owls struggle to finish and fatigue claims them as well. It was so evident in the WKU game and the game day stats seem to show that the Marshall contest was no exception. I have been highly complementary of the even number of minutes that Coach Pera has distributed among his starting 9 players, but I thought against WKU the lack of minutes to Moore and Peterson in the 2nd half contributed to the fatigue of the rest of the team that did not allow them to finish off the Hilltoppers. Last night Moore played 23 minutes instead of the 5 against WKU which probably helped rest some of the other Owls and allowed them to close out another close game. Let's hope Peterson's diminished minutes (3 last night) inspires him to work harder and earn back some PT. instead of spiraling in a manner that shuts down his season. Parrish has been incredibly patient, losing his starting position, continuing to work hard and finally getting another chance to be in the starting lineup.

My forecast was 12 wins this season and it looks like I may have underestimated the amount of success this young team will accomplish (slightly?). I will reiterate that this is a real fun team to watch and I hope college basketball fans will come to watch their remaining home games.

I think we can feel pretty good that Pera is at least a good “coach” from the black box that includes x’s and o’s, timeout management, player development, etc. I think we can also say he is a good evaluator of talent and recruiter. What remains to be seen is whether he can retain his players at a school like Rice. So far, the answer has been a decided “no,” but this is his first class where he had a full recruiting season.

(02-10-2019 02:54 PM)Kayjay Wrote:  I missed my first home game of the season last night so I appreciate everyone pitching in for the win without me! Winning is really hard to accomplish for a young team and the ghosts of losing close games can begin to feel like "groundhog day" when a team struggles to close the door on their competition in the final 8 minutes, or as Yogi used to say: fearing "deja-vu all over again". Pera's strategy of pushing the tempo has really paid dividends between 14 and 8 minute mark of the 2nd half in most games when the opposition has tired legs and seems to miss a number of shots. Unfortunately, it is that final 8 minutes that the Owls struggle to finish and fatigue claims them as well. It was so evident in the WKU game and the game day stats seem to show that the Marshall contest was no exception. I have been highly complementary of the even number of minutes that Coach Pera has distributed among his starting 9 players, but I thought against WKU the lack of minutes to Moore and Peterson in the 2nd half contributed to the fatigue of the rest of the team that did not allow them to finish off the Hilltoppers. Last night Moore played 23 minutes instead of the 5 against WKU which probably helped rest some of the other Owls and allowed them to close out another close game. Let's hope Peterson's diminished minutes (3 last night) inspires him to work harder and earn back some PT. instead of spiraling in a manner that shuts down his season. Parrish has been incredibly patient, losing his starting position, continuing to work hard and finally getting another chance to be in the starting lineup.

My forecast was 12 wins this season and it looks like I may have underestimated the amount of success this young team will accomplish (slightly?). I will reiterate that this is a real fun team to watch and I hope college basketball fans will come to watch their remaining home games.

I'm not sure Peterson's lack of minutes against WKU was much of a factor in the 2nd half, but I do think that QMB not getting much 2nd half PT last time was a factor that allowed Marshall to come back. Martin looked a bit tired at times last night and I was surprised QMB didn't play at all in the last 8 minutes or so. Hopefully Peterson will adjust to his new role of coming off the bench and thrive in it. I compared him to Seth Gearhart earlier in the year and I still think it's a valid comparison. Gearhart struggled as a freshman too but got better every year, and I still think Peterson has that potential.

Probably the biggest factor to me in both games though was Murphy just turning cold from the field. He's certainly a streak shooter and probably has the easiest time of any Rice player getting his shot off because of his length. He's had plenty of open looks the last 2 games and just didn't hit the shots, but I still feel mostly good about his shot and feel like it will return just as quickly as it left him.

(02-10-2019 12:35 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  I’m not “sold” on Pera and or this team.

I will be more sold if/when transfers are kept to a minimum this offseason (4/5 frosh staying would be fine).

That said, I’m certainly not dismayed by this team as I was earlier this season... There has been definite progress and I think we should let Pera see it through.

With Pera, for me, there are three distinct and independent 'grading' criteria:

a) record vs expected;
b) 'growth' of the maturity of play; and
c) retention of younger players.

In order, for me:

a) I will give Pera an 'A' at this point. I would have never expected the number of wins to be at the number they have right now. I truly expected a 5 win total season.

b) The team has shown an ability to play well beyond where they were at the first of the season. They have shown the maturity to play *with* any team in CUSA at this point --- a far cry from the beginning of the season. Give Pera a B+ here --- by getting into the middle pod there is still one assignment outstanding here which could pop them to an A- for me.

c) Inc. ---- we have no idea what type of Exodus-fever will strike, if any. If three bolt I would offhand say a D, 2 bolt C-, 1 bolt B+, zero bolt A or A+.

Those would be the yardsticks for me, at this point. If I see any others here that I think are good to include, this list is not set in stone for me. Just my gut, seat of the pants look at the present time.

Wonder if Murphy has a big home/road split on his 3-pt attempts?

I checked our NET rating this morning and we are at 184, which I think going below 200 is a phenomenal result for this year. I think if we win a few more, we could go under 150, putting us in the top half of D1 basketball. I certainly would not have expected that at the beginning of the season. As many have said, the final test here is whether the team stays together after the season. If they do, then the future looks bright.

(02-10-2019 04:05 PM)mrbig Wrote:  Wonder if Murphy has a big home/road split on his 3-pt attempts?

52% on the road from 3, 36% at home. 57% in January versus 33% all other months.

(02-11-2019 12:46 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  

(02-10-2019 04:05 PM)mrbig Wrote:  Wonder if Murphy has a big home/road split on his 3-pt attempts?

52% on the road from 3, 36% at home. 57% in January versus 33% all other months.

Thanks! I was going to crunch the numbers today since I was curious, but you saved me the effort.

I think the team is playing better than their record, which isn't surprising for such a young team, but nice to see. Hope they stay and we can convert some of the close losses into wins

(02-10-2019 03:21 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  

(02-10-2019 02:54 PM)Kayjay Wrote:  I missed my first home game of the season last night so I appreciate everyone pitching in for the win without me! Winning is really hard to accomplish for a young team and the ghosts of losing close games can begin to feel like "groundhog day" when a team struggles to close the door on their competition in the final 8 minutes, or as Yogi used to say: fearing "deja-vu all over again". Pera's strategy of pushing the tempo has really paid dividends between 14 and 8 minute mark of the 2nd half in most games when the opposition has tired legs and seems to miss a number of shots. Unfortunately, it is that final 8 minutes that the Owls struggle to finish and fatigue claims them as well. It was so evident in the WKU game and the game day stats seem to show that the Marshall contest was no exception. I have been highly complementary of the even number of minutes that Coach Pera has distributed among his starting 9 players, but I thought against WKU the lack of minutes to Moore and Peterson in the 2nd half contributed to the fatigue of the rest of the team that did not allow them to finish off the Hilltoppers. Last night Moore played 23 minutes instead of the 5 against WKU which probably helped rest some of the other Owls and allowed them to close out another close game. Let's hope Peterson's diminished minutes (3 last night) inspires him to work harder and earn back some PT. instead of spiraling in a manner that shuts down his season. Parrish has been incredibly patient, losing his starting position, continuing to work hard and finally getting another chance to be in the starting lineup.

My forecast was 12 wins this season and it looks like I may have underestimated the amount of success this young team will accomplish (slightly?). I will reiterate that this is a real fun team to watch and I hope college basketball fans will come to watch their remaining home games.

I'm not sure Peterson's lack of minutes against WKU was much of a factor in the 2nd half, but I do think that QMB not getting much 2nd half PT last time was a factor that allowed Marshall to come back. Martin looked a bit tired at times last night and I was surprised QMB didn't play at all in the last 8 minutes or so. Hopefully Peterson will adjust to his new role of coming off the bench and thrive in it. I compared him to Seth Gearhart earlier in the year and I still think it's a valid comparison. Gearhart struggled as a freshman too but got better every year, and I still think Peterson has that potential.

Probably the biggest factor to me in both games though was Murphy just turning cold from the field. He's certainly a streak shooter and probably has the easiest time of any Rice player getting his shot off because of his length. He's had plenty of open looks the last 2 games and just didn't hit the shots, but I still feel mostly good about his shot and feel like it will return just as quickly as it left him.

Agree about the Murphy not hitting at the end of the WKU game hurt, but I think everyone had tired legs. While Peterson and Moore getting more 2nd half PT may not have been an offensive plus, the additional rest for the other rotation players might have allowed the team to score a couple of more buckets during the final 8 minutes instead of running on fumes. All pure speculation on my part but that is what this board is for!

(02-11-2019 02:50 PM)Kayjay Wrote:  

(02-10-2019 03:21 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  

(02-10-2019 02:54 PM)Kayjay Wrote:  I missed my first home game of the season last night so I appreciate everyone pitching in for the win without me! Winning is really hard to accomplish for a young team and the ghosts of losing close games can begin to feel like "groundhog day" when a team struggles to close the door on their competition in the final 8 minutes, or as Yogi used to say: fearing "deja-vu all over again". Pera's strategy of pushing the tempo has really paid dividends between 14 and 8 minute mark of the 2nd half in most games when the opposition has tired legs and seems to miss a number of shots. Unfortunately, it is that final 8 minutes that the Owls struggle to finish and fatigue claims them as well. It was so evident in the WKU game and the game day stats seem to show that the Marshall contest was no exception. I have been highly complementary of the even number of minutes that Coach Pera has distributed among his starting 9 players, but I thought against WKU the lack of minutes to Moore and Peterson in the 2nd half contributed to the fatigue of the rest of the team that did not allow them to finish off the Hilltoppers. Last night Moore played 23 minutes instead of the 5 against WKU which probably helped rest some of the other Owls and allowed them to close out another close game. Let's hope Peterson's diminished minutes (3 last night) inspires him to work harder and earn back some PT. instead of spiraling in a manner that shuts down his season. Parrish has been incredibly patient, losing his starting position, continuing to work hard and finally getting another chance to be in the starting lineup.

My forecast was 12 wins this season and it looks like I may have underestimated the amount of success this young team will accomplish (slightly?). I will reiterate that this is a real fun team to watch and I hope college basketball fans will come to watch their remaining home games.

I'm not sure Peterson's lack of minutes against WKU was much of a factor in the 2nd half, but I do think that QMB not getting much 2nd half PT last time was a factor that allowed Marshall to come back. Martin looked a bit tired at times last night and I was surprised QMB didn't play at all in the last 8 minutes or so. Hopefully Peterson will adjust to his new role of coming off the bench and thrive in it. I compared him to Seth Gearhart earlier in the year and I still think it's a valid comparison. Gearhart struggled as a freshman too but got better every year, and I still think Peterson has that potential.

Probably the biggest factor to me in both games though was Murphy just turning cold from the field. He's certainly a streak shooter and probably has the easiest time of any Rice player getting his shot off because of his length. He's had plenty of open looks the last 2 games and just didn't hit the shots, but I still feel mostly good about his shot and feel like it will return just as quickly as it left him.

Agree about the Murphy not hitting at the end of the WKU game hurt, but I think everyone had tired legs. While Peterson and Moore getting more 2nd half PT may not have been an offensive plus, the additional rest for the other rotation players might have allowed the team to score a couple of more buckets during the final 8 minutes instead of running on fumes. All pure speculation on my part but that is what this board is for!

Ive had season tickets the last nine years. To me, two things differentiate this team from others during that time. First, they really play team ball on both offense and defense. Second, we have a deep bench. There’s not a ton of difference between the top five and next five. Pera has managed the depth well. Given the mess he inherited, Pera has done a great job to bring the team where it is today.

(02-10-2019 08:12 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  

(02-10-2019 02:02 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(02-09-2019 10:27 PM)cr11owl Wrote:  There’s a lot of complaining on here when everyone said at the beginning of the season they didn’t think we’d get to double digit wins.

Our team has come together so well by February our biggest problem is not closing out DOUBLE DIGIT LEADS. Let that sink in. Sure we have stuff to work on but we always will. Every team does.

We can beat anyone in conference. Be happy

True that. I’d bet that most of us thought our team had no chance in being decent this year. They’ve truly out-performed my expectations.

Some of Pera's most vocal critics haven't been seen in a basketball thread in months. Gee, I wonder why. Oh well, we'll see them next football season I guess with their 1 or 2 win predictions.

Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible

(02-10-2019 08:12 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  

(02-10-2019 02:02 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(02-09-2019 10:27 PM)cr11owl Wrote:  There’s a lot of complaining on here when everyone said at the beginning of the season they didn’t think we’d get to double digit wins.

Our team has come together so well by February our biggest problem is not closing out DOUBLE DIGIT LEADS. Let that sink in. Sure we have stuff to work on but we always will. Every team does.

We can beat anyone in conference. Be happy

True that. I’d bet that most of us thought our team had no chance in being decent this year. They’ve truly out-performed my expectations.

Some of Pera's most vocal critics haven't been seen in a basketball thread in months. Gee, I wonder why. Oh well, we'll see them next football season I guess with their 1 or 2 win predictions.

It's almost like midgets who haven't been to a track and field meet in decades somehow are disappointed with how those teams are doing. Except: track and field (and cross-country meets) are not generally on TV, so you actually have to make an effort to support the teams.