First win ever for Rice at Birmingham. Hell, it's just our 2nd win total against UAB in 16 tries.

Great game. Balanced scoring, solid defense and good shooting. We have a winnable game for sure on Saturday, and if we can get that one, we will come home with a ton of confidence.

Going small with the lineup, and giving Parrish more PT have really helped us turn the corner. But getting hot from the field helps too.

Good win. 6 guys with 10+. Only 8 TOs. Got a bit sloppy after we opened up the big lead to start the second half. Peterson is back to shooting with confidence. Olivari, Murphy, and Ako are hot. Parrish remains tough to stop downhill. I'd still like to see Crisler and Fiedler get a few more minutes. But this was never really close.

3 more games until the pods are announced. Unfortunately, we may need to win them all to make pod 2 (a 2-1 record might do it but we will need some help). The good news is all 3 are winnable the way we have played the last 2 1/2 games.

Just to expand on the last post - here are current conference W-L records along with the remaining schedule before pod play begins. 5 teams make Pods 1 and 2, and 4 teams make Pod 3.

North Texas 9-2 (at UAB, Charlotte, ODU)
Louisiana Tech 8-3 (at Marshall, FIU, FAU)
WKU 8-3 (USM, at UTEP, at UTSA)
FIU 7-4 (at FAU, at La Tech, at USM)
Charlotte 7-4 (UTSA, at UNT, at Rice)
Florida Atlantic 6-5 (FIU, at USM, at La Tech)
UAB 5-6 (UNT, MTSU, at MTSU)
Marshall 5-6 (La Tech, at UTSA, at UTEP)
UTSA 5-6 (at Charlotte, Marshall, WKU)
Old Dominion 5-6 (UTEP, at Rice, at UNT)
UTEP 4-7 (at ODU, WKU, Marshall)
Rice 3-8 (at MTSU, ODU, Charlotte)
Southern Miss 3-8 (at WKU, FAU, FIU)
Middle Tennessee 2-9 (Rice, at UAB, UAB)

Of the 5 win teams, Marshall seems to be the one with the hardest remaining schedule. Oh well, just take it 1 game at a time starting with MTSU. We've done pretty well against the Pod 1 and 2 teams this year, but haven't played well against the likely Pod 3 teams.

(02-07-2020 06:35 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  3 more games until the pods are announced. Unfortunately, we may need to win them all to make pod 2 (a 2-1 record might do it but we will need some help). The good news is all 3 are winnable the way we have played the last 2 1/2 games.

You have nailed it. 6-8 might not even do it if UTSA beats Marshall, Marshall beats UTEP, and UAB wins both against MTSU. Need to win them one at a time and hope for some help.

If I am an opposing coach I would throw everything at Drew Peterson to try to take him out of his game. He is really developing into a key part of this team and his leadership is becoming quite evident. Not sure if this 2 game win streak happens without him and his court presence. Also, I can never remember a Rice team with this much balanced scoring over the last couple of games. When this happens it is difficult for the opposition to stop the Owls. It must be gratifying to Coach Pera that the team is (seemingly) starting to come together, even thought it may be a few games too late to make a serious run for a solid position in the post season tournament.

If you project out the results using Massey's predictions (which I tend to think are not the greatest), here would be the CUSA standings heading into Pod play.

Pod 1
UNT 12-2
Louisiana Tech and WKU 11-3
2 out of 3 teams between FAU, FIU and Charlotte 8-6

Pod 2
1 out of the 3 8-6 teams
UAB 7-7
UTSA, ODU and Rice 6-8 (Massey has Rice winning all 3 games but they are all close)

Pod 3
Marshall and UTEP 5-9
USM 3-11
Middle Tennessee 2-12

(02-07-2020 04:54 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  If you project out the results using Massey's predictions (which I tend to think are not the greatest), here would be the CUSA standings heading into Pod play.

Pod 1
UNT 12-2
Louisiana Tech and WKU 11-3
2 out of 3 teams between FAU, FIU and Charlotte 8-6

Pod 2
1 out of the 3 8-6 teams
UAB 7-7
UTSA, ODU and Rice 6-8 (Massey has Rice winning all 3 games but they are all close)

Pod 3
Marshall and UTEP 5-9
USM 3-11
Middle Tennessee 2-12

I used Pomeroy's system to predict the standings after the 14 scheduled games. Using the results and what I can remember as to how C-USA's tiebreaking system works (there's no listing of it on the website), they look like this:

Pod 1
1. UNT 12-2
2. WKU 11-3
3. Louisiana Tech 11-3
4. Charlotte 9-5
5. FIU 8-6

Pod 2
6. FAU 8-6
7. UAB 7-7
8. Marshall 6-8
9. UTSA 5-9
10. UTEP 5-9

Pod 3
11. Rice 5-9
12. ODU 5-9
13. USM 3-11
14. MTSU 2-12

Rice's losses to Marshall, UTSA and UTEP make it very difficult to win any tiebreaker to put the Owls above Pod 3. Win any one of those, and Rice would've been firmly in Pod 2; win two of those, and the Owls would've been in the running for Pod 1.

Do any other conferences do a pod system like ours? I think I would prefer a fixed regular season schedule. I think the main reason is to try to improve chances of an NCAA at-large bid. The very slim prospect of these four games really pushing a team over the line to get a bid is outweighed by the negatives. Am sure travel costs are higher and it probably affects attendance negatively. Also it really makes your final conference position unclear.

(02-08-2020 11:53 AM)DFW Owl Wrote:  Do any other conferences do a pod system like ours? I think I would prefer a fixed regular season schedule. I think the main reason is to try to improve chances of an NCAA at-large bid. The very slim prospect of these four games really pushing a team over the line to get a bid is outweighed by the negatives. Am sure travel costs are higher and it probably affects attendance negatively. Also it really makes your final conference position unclear.

There are other conferences using the system, yes. The purpose is to lessen the chance of an at-large opportunity being torpedoed by an RPI-killing loss to a cellar-dweller, while also maximizing the at-large chances by avoiding late-season games against the lowest RPI teams.

(02-08-2020 02:31 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  

(02-08-2020 11:53 AM)DFW Owl Wrote:  Do any other conferences do a pod system like ours? I think I would prefer a fixed regular season schedule. I think the main reason is to try to improve chances of an NCAA at-large bid. The very slim prospect of these four games really pushing a team over the line to get a bid is outweighed by the negatives. Am sure travel costs are higher and it probably affects attendance negatively. Also it really makes your final conference position unclear.

There are other conferences using the system, yes. The purpose is to lessen the chance of an at-large opportunity being torpedoed by an RPI-killing loss to a cellar-dweller, while also maximizing the at-large chances by avoiding late-season games against the lowest RPI teams.

*Very* small chance this ever generates a bid for our conference. That the 4- game result vs a pod#1 schedule vs a fixed schedule makes the difference to the selection committee.

(02-08-2020 09:40 PM)DFW Owl Wrote:  

(02-08-2020 02:31 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  

(02-08-2020 11:53 AM)DFW Owl Wrote:  Do any other conferences do a pod system like ours? I think I would prefer a fixed regular season schedule. I think the main reason is to try to improve chances of an NCAA at-large bid. The very slim prospect of these four games really pushing a team over the line to get a bid is outweighed by the negatives. Am sure travel costs are higher and it probably affects attendance negatively. Also it really makes your final conference position unclear.

There are other conferences using the system, yes. The purpose is to lessen the chance of an at-large opportunity being torpedoed by an RPI-killing loss to a cellar-dweller, while also maximizing the at-large chances by avoiding late-season games against the lowest RPI teams.

*Very* small chance this ever generates a bid for our conference. That the 4- game result vs a pod#1 schedule vs a fixed schedule makes the difference to the selection committee.

It isn’t intended to generate a bid. It’s intended to quarantine the bottom teams of a conference so a team with post-season potential won’t get dragged down in the rankings by playing a team at the bottom.

(02-08-2020 11:38 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  

(02-08-2020 09:40 PM)DFW Owl Wrote:  

(02-08-2020 02:31 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  

(02-08-2020 11:53 AM)DFW Owl Wrote:  Do any other conferences do a pod system like ours? I think I would prefer a fixed regular season schedule. I think the main reason is to try to improve chances of an NCAA at-large bid. The very slim prospect of these four games really pushing a team over the line to get a bid is outweighed by the negatives. Am sure travel costs are higher and it probably affects attendance negatively. Also it really makes your final conference position unclear.

There are other conferences using the system, yes. The purpose is to lessen the chance of an at-large opportunity being torpedoed by an RPI-killing loss to a cellar-dweller, while also maximizing the at-large chances by avoiding late-season games against the lowest RPI teams.

*Very* small chance this ever generates a bid for our conference. That the 4- game result vs a pod#1 schedule vs a fixed schedule makes the difference to the selection committee.

It isn’t intended to generate a bid. It’s intended to quarantine the bottom teams of a conference so a team with post-season potential won’t get dragged down in the rankings by playing a team at the bottom.

Post-season potential = at-large NCAA bid potential? Why else would we care about a slight RPI bump?

Edit: I guess it could help with NCAA seed too, but wonder if our champ going 2-2 vs 4-0 might hurt more than help.