I started watching halfway through the first half. Here are my favorite JP calls:

Honorable mention: Unfortunately, I didn't take down the details, but when some player -- who had been cold, but then made his last couple of shots -- got the ball, JP said he was "starting to percolate."

#3: With 28 seconds left in the game and the Blue Raiders down by just 3 (62-59), MT's Antonio Green -- who averages five 3-point buckets a game, but had only hit one so far in today's game -- got the ball beyond the arc: "Green! You know he's going to shoot it." (He did. It was an air ball! Yay!! Green finished 1-9 for his 3-point shots.)

#2: With 3:53 left in the game, Millora-Brown got a pass deep in the paint, and the MT defense crashed in on him: "Millora-Brown - surrounded by 3 Blue Raiders. Pick a number! ... he draws the foul!"

And the winner is ...

#1: With 9:37 left in the game, no Rice defenders were close to MT's Junior Farquhar when he was got the ball and jacked up a 3-point shot: "Wide open! It's a brick for Farquhar! Check the backboard for damage!"

WTG, Rice!! Bring that winning spirit and spunk to Frisco!

Owls now 12-17 with 2 winnable regular season games to go.

Finish strong Owls and take that momentum to Frisco.

Looking forward to being able to see both the men & women next week.

If you're planning on coming to the tourney, come to the happy hour at City Works (right across from the Ford Center) next Wednesday: https://www.facebook.com/events/2292019857527699/

Wasn't the prettiest of efforts. We had a strong start but I'd say that was partly due to a terrible 1st 10 minutes by MTSU. But I don't think we ever trailed so ultimately it was a solid win.

I'm pretty sure Rice & MTSU have clinched 11th and 12th seeds, since MTSU was 2-0 vs Charlotte. Rice is 1 win or 1 MTSU loss away from being the 11th seed.

As of this moment, I am satisfied with the season no matter what else transpires. I would of course like to see us not get swept by Charlotte, but the positives are sufficient at this point for me.

I am valuing the result at ODU more and more as the weeks go by. ODU has a solid resume with only one really bad loss (at St. Joseph's), and they have pretty good wins against Syracuse and VCU (the presumptive A10 champ, coached by our old "friend"). The Monarchs also beat WKU twice, albeit both times at home.

To think that Rice almost won at ODU... Things are looking up. For now at least.

A fairly vocal and loud Autry Army showed up.
Not as many as yesterday's game, but they were heard.
The student next to me in The BOB said that "they didn't advertise this game as much" when asked "where are the students?".
That was just before the tip-off, and there were as yet zero students.

An exciting game, particularly in the last few minutes, as the lead dwindled.
They played the slow-down game much better this time (than the last men's game I attended (double-OT los)), but still had trouble making a basket after chewing up seconds. Our low-post players were getting mauled.

MTSU's three-point shooting was incredibly bad - 1 out of 15.

Next Saturday's game is during Spring Break, so the student turnout may be pretty sparse.

1. Yay Owls!
2. Rice can also still reach .500 in conference play. * something I’d sort of ‘predicted’ on the conference board after last year’s tournament (I’ll post a link when/if we sweep Charlotte)
3. Rice can also win CUSA... if we do snag that 11 seed we have a path to the finals without facing ODU until the last game
4. Yay Owls!!

I might’ve missed it but it looks like Harrison is out for the season with a leg injury. Big brace on the knee and was using crutches.

Really good game by Peterson. 16 pts, 4 rebounds, 1 steal in 26 minutes. Played good defense and hit the crucial FTs at the end.

Yes and yes on the last two comments. Tough break for Harrison but he hadn't played for awhile anyway. He was in warm-ups for the last home game. I suspect something was bothering him and he had to eventually have surgery. That's just a guess.

Since the Charlotte games don't mean much (and Saturday in particular may not mean a thing win or loss), I'm hoping Jones and the walk-ons (well Owen and the walk-on) get some minutes on Saturday.

Viewing the first 16 minutes of the game was watching the Owls play as strong of a team basketball effort as we have seen all year. The final 24 minutes of the contest were like watching a car with an oil leak struggle to reach the finish line. They had just enough in the crankcase to finish. Credit the Rice defense and MTSU's inability to hit an outside shot. Antonio Green, the Middle Tennessee guard (#55) was quicker than all the Rice Guards and sprinted through the screens set for him (great to watch, a good lesson for Rice guards to remember). If he was hitting his shots Rice would have been in trouble, but luckily (or by defensive design) He only hit 1 three pointer the entire game and the rest of the team hit none if I remember correctly. Having Donovan Sims, the MTSU starting point guard out for the game with a leg injury helped Rice measurably as well.

Rice game planned for MTSU very well. The Owls got to the Free throw line with regularity but missed way too many shots with the exception of Drew Peterson at the end of the game when it was needed the most. Quite frankly, If Rice made their free throws Sunday this game was easily a 20 + point win. They should have had an additional 5 points at half time due to missed free throws, including multiple front ends of 1 and 1 shots and the same thing was true in the 2nd half. The 21 for 33 FT number was misleading because they missed 5 of 6 front ends of 1 and 1 opportunities. It was painful to watch

I was a bit surprised with the injury to Josh Parrish that Payton Moore did not get more minutes. The big benefactor of Parrish's injury was Drew Peterson, who had his best game in ages. It was great to see him coming up big when the team really needed someone to step up and close out the game

The 3-point shooting was also a struggle for Rice. Ako at 2-8, Murphy 2-9, Martin 1-4 was difficult but the good news is that in general all were good shots to take and they just did not connect.

This team has a good chance to win 13 or 14 games in the regular season and perhaps a game in the tournament. They have still not strung together a complete 40 minutes of basketball but they continue to improve and I believe the future on South Main is pretty bright, with the usual "if they keep the team together" caveat.