The good news is that attendance still seems to be good at baseball games with 2100 at the game on Friday and over 1900 yesterday. I'm sure today's attendance will be affected by basketball but I anticipate well over 1500 for today's game.

(03-01-2020 09:22 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  My freshman year, we beat Texas in Austin. My sophomore year, we began the season beating LSU at home, and then pulling defeat from the jaws of victory against #2 UCLA, SWC champion SMU, and Texas.

I was in attendance at every one of those games.

(03-01-2020 10:38 AM)DFW Owl Wrote:  

(03-01-2020 09:22 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  SMU, which got the death penalty, is now ahead of us.

Being in AAC vs CUSA is a big advantage they have. I think our chances of getting into that conference were almost zero due to UH being in same city no matter what we did. Our big hope was UH getting a Big 12 invite to open up a spot but unfortunately that didn't happen.

Problem is that we managed to be terrible at exactly the wrong point in time for the selection process. If we had managed to be beating UH in everything, instead of losing to them, we would likely have been the choice over UH, or they would have taken us both. But there seemed to be no urgency to be better. Losing is okay as long as you have a good enough excuse. The "Rice Way."

(03-01-2020 11:07 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  oth. But there seemed to be no urgency to be better. Losing is okay as long as you have a good enough excuse. The "Rice Way."

We had a safety net in the WAC and later in CUSA. Now we are tangled in it.

5 of the posts were about Saturday's game; the next 17 have been .

(03-01-2020 11:07 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(03-01-2020 10:38 AM)DFW Owl Wrote:  

(03-01-2020 09:22 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  SMU, which got the death penalty, is now ahead of us.

Being in AAC vs CUSA is a big advantage they have. I think our chances of getting into that conference were almost zero due to UH being in same city no matter what we did. Our big hope was UH getting a Big 12 invite to open up a spot but unfortunately that didn't happen.

Problem is that we managed to be terrible at exactly the wrong point in time for the selection process. If we had managed to be beating UH in everything, instead of losing to them, we would likely have been the choice over UH, or they would have taken us both. But there seemed to be no urgency to be better. Losing is okay as long as you have a good enough excuse. The "Rice Way."

One of the biggest mistakes Rice made was to sponsor/agree with UH for the SWC. Their shady ways in recruiting et al. and winning 3 of the first post-admittance FB titles led to the scandals of the 80's (not to mention TAMU hiring Jackie and SMU's lack of institutional control led by THE GOVERNOR OF TEXAS), which was a key aspect to the collapse of the SWC.

Rice is back in the Shriners Classic in 2021, just announced. Good to see as I think that’s the only time over the last three years that I’ve seen us have a slight pulse.

(03-01-2020 11:22 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(03-01-2020 11:07 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  oth. But there seemed to be no urgency to be better. Losing is okay as long as you have a good enough excuse. The "Rice Way."

We had a safety net in the WAC and later in CUSA. Now we are tangled in it.

Problem is, we've been content to fall back on the safety net in every league we've been in since Jess left--SWC, WAC, diminished WAC, CUSA, and now diminished CUSA. And each successive safety net was set lower than the prior one. And I don't see any inclination to do better.

(03-01-2020 11:30 AM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  5 of the posts were about Saturday's game; the next 17 have been .

When you care, and you see the absolute lack of urgency about fixing a dreadful situation, it's hard not to vent frustration.

(03-01-2020 11:58 AM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  Rice is back in the Shriners Classic in 2021, just announced.

The 2021 field is Texas A&M, TCU, Texas Tech, Texas State, Rice & Sam Houston State ... according to this announcement by Sam Houston State (https://gobearkats.com/news/2020/3/1/bas...-2021.aspx)

(03-01-2020 12:03 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(03-01-2020 11:30 AM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  5 of the posts were about Saturday's game; the next 17 have been .

When you care, and you see the absolute lack of urgency about fixing a dreadful situation, it's hard not to vent frustration.

We have a winner!!! (Or perhaps and sadly, a loser-not referring to owl 69)

(03-01-2020 11:34 AM)texowl2 Wrote:  One of the biggest mistakes Rice made was to sponsor/agree with UH for the SWC. Their shady ways in recruiting et al. and winning 3 of the first post-admittance FB titles led to the scandals of the 80's (not to mention TAMU hiring Jackie and SMU's lack of institutional control led by THE GOVERNOR OF TEXAS), which was a key aspect to the collapse of the SWC.

I have a hard time agreeing with this. The best thing that could have happened to Rice athletics would have been developing a truly intense, competitive rivalry with UH. We are the ones who failed to hold up our end of the bargain there.

The collapse of Rice athletics didn't happen because of UH, or SMU, or aTm, or the SWC. It happened because of RICE. We did it to ourselves by absolutely refusing to field competitive teams in any sport (other than the occasional one-off) for a period of about 20 years. From men's basketball in 1970, track in 1971, and tennis in 1970-72, to a women's cross country in 1994 (per Wikipedia; is anybody but me angry that RiceOwls.com no longer has easy links such information? Maybe we are just ashamed of our history), Rice did not win a single conference championship in any sport. None. Zero. Zip. Nada. Unfortunately, that was the same 20 years when intercollegiate athletics evolved into a big business. We missed the boat--badly. Whether we can climb back into the boat or not is questionable, but clearly not easy.

Owls getting something going in the 3rd, down 0-1. Cruz up, runners on 1 & 2, nobody out.

Bases loaded, zero out. Owls score 1, ending inning on botched double steal. 1-1

MO has runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out. Pop fly in foul territory... Edwards runs and runs and runs... and makes the catch near the Rice dugout. Wait, what? - MO is trying to tag! Edwards turns and throws him out at the plate on a short throw. 2-1 Rice going to bottom of 5.

Bulman 2-run home run! 4-1 Rice. New pitcher for MoSt.

Bulman with a 2 run dinger in B5.
Rice leads 4-1.

Rice wins the series with a 5-1 victory today over Missouri State
Cienfuegos gets the win out of the bull pen with over 4 innings of scoreless pitching. He really looked good.

I’ll take it!

Great job by Cienfuegos to save some pitching for our two midweek games coming up.

I’ll take a series win just about anytime. Keep it going Owls!