What a weird end of game. Langley choosing to let the bench and freshmen try to close the game and UTSA has gotten it down to 10 after a slew of turnovers. Gonna be too little too late but the final score is gonna be much closer than the game was.

4 times in the last 3 minutes Rice fails to inbound the ball successfully.

Rice 74
UTSA 62
Final

(01-25-2020 04:55 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  What a weird end of game. Langley choosing to let the bench and freshmen try to close the game and UTSA has gotten it down to 10 after a slew of turnovers. Gonna be too little too late but the final score is gonna be much closer than the game was.

Teaching moment?

But I agree it wasn’t pretty at the end.

(01-25-2020 05:02 PM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  

(01-25-2020 04:55 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  What a weird end of game. Langley choosing to let the bench and freshmen try to close the game and UTSA has gotten it down to 10 after a slew of turnovers. Gonna be too little too late but the final score is gonna be much closer than the game was.

Teaching moment?

But I agree it wasn’t pretty at the end.

Yeah has to be. And final score doesn't matter at this point since we're not playing for an at large bid. Not reassuring though.

Good win and UTSA looks better then last year. However, Mulkey would have shut down UTSA driving to the basket. I think Rice is making Conf USA a stronger WBB conference.

(01-25-2020 05:04 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  

(01-25-2020 05:02 PM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  

(01-25-2020 04:55 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  What a weird end of game. Langley choosing to let the bench and freshmen try to close the game and UTSA has gotten it down to 10 after a slew of turnovers. Gonna be too little too late but the final score is gonna be much closer than the game was.

Teaching moment?

But I agree it wasn’t pretty at the end.

Yeah has to be. And final score doesn't matter at this point since we're not playing for an at large bid. Not reassuring though.

Disagree with you on the at-large opportunity.

ESPN currently has us projected as 12 seed, which would be just below the 11 line where most of the last 4 in reside.
They also have two other CUSA among the last 4 out and next 4 out.

I would not be surprised at all to see two CUSA teams in the tourney. Rice and ODU are who I like for those two spots right now. If we can escape league play with no more than 2 respectable Ls, and make the tourney final, then I think we’re likely in.

But I should hasten to add that with two regular season games against ODU & UAB, plus one each vs Charlotte & MT, we will still need to improve our level of play to accomplish a record like that

(01-25-2020 09:21 PM)owl at the moon Wrote:  

(01-25-2020 05:04 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  

(01-25-2020 05:02 PM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  

(01-25-2020 04:55 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  What a weird end of game. Langley choosing to let the bench and freshmen try to close the game and UTSA has gotten it down to 10 after a slew of turnovers. Gonna be too little too late but the final score is gonna be much closer than the game was.

Teaching moment?

But I agree it wasn’t pretty at the end.

Yeah has to be. And final score doesn't matter at this point since we're not playing for an at large bid. Not reassuring though.

Disagree with you on the at-large opportunity.

ESPN currently has us projected as 12 seed, which would be just below the 11 line where most of the last 4 in reside.
They also have two other CUSA among the last 4 out and next 4 out.

I would not be surprised at all to see two CUSA teams in the tourney. Rice and ODU are who I like for those two spots right now. If we can escape league play with no more than 2 respectable Ls, and make the tourney final, then I think we’re likely in.

I wish I could agree, but our RPI is near 100. And we only have two games remaining that would be considered respectable losses in ODU. Losing to MTSU at home (RPI of 64) or at Charlotte (78) would pretty much kill our at-large chances unless we sweep ODU.

Our goal at this point is obviously to win the conference tournament and get back into the NCAA's. Or at the very least, win the conference regular season and assure ourselves of an NIT bid as a consolation prize.

(01-25-2020 03:36 PM)Tiki Owl Wrote:  

(01-25-2020 03:33 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  Down 13 - 16 to one of the worst teams in the conference. This game should have been a blowout by half time. What is wrong with this team?

Pretty much the same things that have plagued them all year. With the exception of the A&M game we have not even been close to our level of play from last year.

Badly missing Iademarco's and Grisby's three-point accuracy---both over 40% last year for a team total of 36% vs this year's 28%. Even Ogwumi13 is down from 30% to 16%. Our assist to turnover ratio now at weak .72 (Schwartz & Mulkey) vs .96 last year (both Grigsby and Wiggins at over 1.20). However, we are now defending at a nice .64 ratio.

I am confident that both Swayze and Schwartz will improve their 3 point accuracy soon, which , of course, will also improve our assist ratio.

Erica got conference player of the week for her two double-doubles last week. That's her 2nd such honor of the year, and Rice's 3rd in 4th weeks.

They need to work on their passing too. Both were bad at UTSA.

(01-26-2020 08:06 AM)Viejobuho Wrote:  

(01-25-2020 03:36 PM)Tiki Owl Wrote:  

(01-25-2020 03:33 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  Down 13 - 16 to one of the worst teams in the conference. This game should have been a blowout by half time. What is wrong with this team?

Pretty much the same things that have plagued them all year. With the exception of the A&M game we have not even been close to our level of play from last year.

Badly missing Iademarco's and Grisby's three-point accuracy---both over 40% last year for a team total of 36% vs this year's 28%. Even Ogwumi13 is down from 30% to 16%. Our assist to turnover ratio now at weak .72 (Schwartz & Mulkey) vs .96 last year (both Grigsby and Wiggins at over 1.20). However, we are now defending at a nice .64 ratio.

I am confident that both Swayze and Schwartz will improve their 3 point accuracy soon, which , of course, will also improve our assist ratio.

Here are the current C-USA teams among the top 100 on the NCAA NET ratings:

26. Western Kentucky
32. Old Dominion
52. Middle Tennessee
76. Charlotte
100. Rice

Even though Rice leads the conference with an 8-0 record, the Owls have played just 1 of the 4 teams rated ahead of them (@Rice 73, Western Kentucky 65).

Rice has 2 games against Old Dominion (ROAD February 13, HOME March 7); 1 against Middle Tennessee (HOME February 8); and 1 against Charlotte (ROAD February 15).