(03-09-2021 09:33 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  As good as our defense was the first half, it's that bad in the second half. We cannot stop anything.

And we’re being boxed out of our own backboard. BUT we take the lead.

Havsa has made plays, but I'd still rather have Mullins out there. Not really sure what he did to find the bench in crunch time.

Rice on a 12-0 run. Up 55-49 @ 1:57...and we're in the bonus.

57-49 after a shifty fadeaway by Havsa (after an Olivari buzzer beating corner 3).

57-50 @ 1:12 No turnovers and hit our free throws and we should have this one.

And Havsa has promptly proved me wrong. We've gotten good Havsa (for the most part) in the second half. Maybe as a reward the announcers will pronounce his name correctly.

(03-09-2021 09:49 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  And Havsa has promptly proved me wrong. We've gotten good Havsa (for the most part) in the second half. Maybe as a reward the announcers will pronounce his name correctly.

Next game. And the good news is.... the next game is TOMORROW.

61-52 Rice. Final. It was not pretty for the most part. We will need to be much better against Marshall. But a win is a win. I'd rather have to stress over two games than one. Mullins was big in the first half. Evee kept us in it at the start of the second half. Fiedler was great. Timely shots from Olivari and Havsa.

Rice wins 61-52.

Fiedler: 16 points, 11 board, 2 assists
Olivari: 9 points, 10 boards (career high), 4 assists
Mullins: 12 points (all in first half)
Evee: 12 points (all in second half)
Havsa: 8 clutch points and a huge block resulting in a fastbreak bucket for Fiedler-- all down the stretch.

When was our last tourney win? An upset of Marshall tomorrow would cement this season as a surprising success.

Two strong runs both offensively and defensively, one in each half is the difference. Congrats to the team and staff.

Our 3rd overall winning season record in 16 seasons in C-USA.

One more win and this team matches the win total from last year. Last year the team was 15 - 17 in 32 games. This year they are 14 - 12 in 26 games. The team was picked to be the worst in CUSA preseason and they have won more conference games to-date than 4 other CUSA teams. Despite the large number of transfers over the past 12 seasons this program is slowly improving under Coach Pera. To be competitive in the future they have to stop the transfer epidemic, learn to play defense, and limit turnovers. I believe that Pera and his staff have a nose to find under appreciated/valued high school talent and have proved that they are adept at developing players (at least on the offensive end), but this teams has to radically improve in the areas, mentioned above to be successful.

(03-09-2021 09:52 PM)cr11owl Wrote:  When was our last tourney win? An upset of Marshall tomorrow would cement this season as a surprising success.

2017 - also against USM. So this was Pera's first tournament win. Marshall will be a tough draw tomorrow. Yes I agree, an upset win would really label this season as a success based on preseason predictions.

This was an almost humorously negative thread for a win where Rice held the opponent to 52 points in post-season play.

Out of the coaches in the big 3 men’s sports, Pera is definitely the best so far. He gets a minor pass on the transfer issues just because Rice doesn’t really fair any better than anyone else. I also love that he has hired multiple alums to help them get their foot in the door coaching. He needs to figure out the defense. I would be really curious to hear his explanation for why Rice’s defense is normally pretty poor (obviously last night was different). Are his defensive schemes bad? Player fundamentals? Just hard with so many new players every year? What adjustments has he tried to make?

I was always disappointed that Rhoades did not press more at Rice. Do we just not have the overall athleticism for it compared to other teams? Not a deep enough bench? Maybe try more aggressive defense and trapping when the ball crosses half court? I am not a basketball guy, what does Rice need to change on defense moving forward?

This team is basically middle of the pack in CUSA. We are good enough and actually consistent enough to beat the bad teams in this conference, but can't quite hang with the top 4 teams. Which is way beyond predictions for this season. We had a tough draw during conference play, but we did win against the worst teams in the league and hence our first over .500 record since Rhoades last year. I've said it before, Pera has done the best out of the 3 coaches of the major mens sports and it's honestly not that close right now. Bloomgren and Bragga have accomplished much less in their time at Rice.

USM is not a good team and I would have been disappointed to lose to them here after sweeping them convincingly earlier this season. Marshall will be a tough game and an upset would be fantastic. I don't expect it but I am still glad that we are over .500 this year and I hope for even better next year.

In this day in age, is talent RETENTION more important than actual recruiting? Me thinks so. I'm proud of the team for managing to stay above .500 this season, especially after they were gutted by transfers last season. Pera deserves credit, and by credit, I mean he deserves a chance to build. He's earned at least that much in my eyes.

Re: retention. You've got to think we've got Evee locked up for at least one more season (the double transfer is pretty uncommon). Olivari and Fielder are the two I'd be more concerned about.. I'd assume that Fielder will be able to get his degree after 3 years given his academic accolades, so he'd be incentivized to stay at Rice one more year and transfer as a grad (fingers crossed he doesn't!). Olivari is my biggest concern when it comes to transfer risk. That said, if we can retain 2/3 of these guys, we should still be decent next year.

I don't really fault anyone for transferring as a grad. You've gotten your Rice degree which I think is still the most important thing and playing as a grad transfer somewhere else pays for an advanced degree which is also very expensive. Many of Pera's recruits continue to develop year upon year. If Fielder, Olivari, and Mullins stay, assuming Evee is also here, the team is starting off next year from the best position we've had in several years. 2 years in a row of over .500 play would actually bring some stability to this program. I don't think we've had over .500 2 years in a row in basketball for a very long time and unlike football, CUSA basketball hasn't been a dumpster fire, the top teams are decent and there's usually more than 2 good teams in the league.

(03-10-2021 10:27 AM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  Re: retention. You've got to think we've got Evee locked up for at least one more season (the double transfer is pretty uncommon). Olivari and Fielder are the two I'd be more concerned about.. I'd assume that Fielder will be able to get his degree after 3 years given his academic accolades, so he'd be incentivized to stay at Rice one more year and transfer as a grad (fingers crossed he doesn't!). Olivari is my biggest concern when it comes to transfer risk. That said, if we can retain 2/3 of these guys, we should still be decent next year.

Olivari tweeted something yesterday to the effect of “we’re building something here” but I’ve been fooled by public tweets before. Fingers crossed we keep everyone together. 66% of our points this year are from sophomores.

Hopefully Mullins stays for his last year. That would put him up there with Tamir, etc in my eyes as a guy that saw most of his teammates bail on him but stuck it out as a leader on the team and got his degree.