(01-08-2022 06:16 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  UAB fans a bit ticked off at the refs (they have a point...there were a few late stoppages that I didn't understand which gave Rice free TOs). But not sure they can claim they deserved to win that one. Took 30+ minutes of gametime for Kennedy to adjust to the Poteat P&R, they kept fouling Evee at the end of the game despite him being our best FT shooter, they missed 5-10 bunnies around the rim in the 2nd half, etc. etc.

Kind of a bittersweet win in a way, because I want UAB to have the resume for an at-large bid. Knowing how the selection committee operates, this is going to really hurt their chances.

How can UAB fans complain about the refs? Seriously? Until the final couple minutes, UAB got every single call. #55 should have been called for at least 2 - 3 traveling calls the first half, and he was guilty of at least 2 charges that were not called. In fact, on one, they called a blocking foul on Posteat. In addition, they were repeatedly crashing the offensive boards on guilty of over the back fouls, but none were ever called. And in the first half, we were called on a couple truly tick tack fouls (if they were even that).

Really impressive win....especially when you consider that Posteat, Evee, Olivari and Pierre played virtually the entire second half without substitution. Sheffield subbed sparingly for Mullins in the 2H, but IMO really played poorly-- both on defense and especially on offense.

so much for the naysayers....

If there were calls going Rice's way towards the end, they were makeups for a number of horribles vs Rice earlier.

Really great game across the board. What I like best is the depth-somebody different can step up.

And I think Travis is really solid at the point and if they sag, he has that from the shoes 3 point shot.

(01-08-2022 06:25 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(01-08-2022 06:11 PM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  Well that was fun. Congrats Owls!

Can someone explain why Pera allows opponents to roll the ball to mid-court without the clock running? Just seems to provide an advantage to the opponent when the Owls have a lead.

??? Every team does this, including in the pros.

Thanks for the incredibly insightful answer.

Seems to me you use one defender to force them to pick up the ball and start the clock. If that one defender can’t get back on defense before the 2 offensive players get into the front court then you defense has major issues. Seems like the basketball version of prevent defense.

(01-08-2022 06:30 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(01-08-2022 06:16 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  UAB fans a bit ticked off at the refs (they have a point...there were a few late stoppages that I didn't understand which gave Rice free TOs). But not sure they can claim they deserved to win that one. Took 30+ minutes of gametime for Kennedy to adjust to the Poteat P&R, they kept fouling Evee at the end of the game despite him being our best FT shooter, they missed 5-10 bunnies around the rim in the 2nd half, etc. etc.

Kind of a bittersweet win in a way, because I want UAB to have the resume for an at-large bid. Knowing how the selection committee operates, this is going to really hurt their chances.

How can UAB fans complain about the refs? Seriously? Until the final couple minutes, UAB got every single call. #55 should have been called for at least 2 - 3 traveling calls the first half, and he was guilty of at least 2 charges that were not called. In fact, on one, they called a blocking foul on Posteat. In addition, they were repeatedly crashing the offensive boards on guilty of over the back fouls, but none were ever called. And in the first half, we were called on a couple truly tick tack fouls (if they were even that).

Really impressive win....especially when you consider that Posteat, Evee, Olivari and Pierre played virtually the entire second half without substitution. Sheffield subbed sparingly for Mullins in the 2H, but IMO really played poorly-- both on defense and especially on offense.

elw, please send Walt the URL for that UAB-fan thread ... so he can post a "What game were YOU watching" retort ... with his detailed explanation, as above.

(01-08-2022 06:16 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  UAB fans a bit ticked off at the refs (they have a point...there were a few late stoppages that I didn't understand which gave Rice free TOs). But not sure they can claim they deserved to win that one. Took 30+ minutes of gametime for Kennedy to adjust to the Poteat P&R, they kept fouling Evee at the end of the game despite him being our best FT shooter, they missed 5-10 bunnies around the rim in the 2nd half, etc. etc.

Kind of a bittersweet win in a way, because I want UAB to have the resume for an at-large bid. Knowing how the selection committee operates, this is going to really hurt their chances.

Anyone saying that we lost for any reason other than us sucking, particularly on defense, is just clueless. We were outclassed, especially in the second half. Rice won fair and square, no doubt about it.

(01-08-2022 07:36 PM)Blazer4Life14 Wrote:  

(01-08-2022 06:16 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  UAB fans a bit ticked off at the refs (they have a point...there were a few late stoppages that I didn't understand which gave Rice free TOs). But not sure they can claim they deserved to win that one. Took 30+ minutes of gametime for Kennedy to adjust to the Poteat P&R, they kept fouling Evee at the end of the game despite him being our best FT shooter, they missed 5-10 bunnies around the rim in the 2nd half, etc. etc.

Kind of a bittersweet win in a way, because I want UAB to have the resume for an at-large bid. Knowing how the selection committee operates, this is going to really hurt their chances.

Anyone saying that we lost for any reason other than us sucking, particularly on defense, is just clueless. We were outclassed, especially in the second half. Rice won fair and square, no doubt about it.

I thought your perimeter defense was outstanding. However, it took you guys until the final several minutes to adjust to our pick and roll (which was never much of a pick or screen to begin with)...and other teams have pressed us far more effectively.

On offense, again, your coach never made the necessary adjustments. You scored at will whenever you drove to the basket or threw in the post to the big guy (#55), but you failed to exploit this repeatedly.

You were outcoached and out hustled. You had the much more athletic squad.

(01-08-2022 06:16 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  Kind of a bittersweet win in a way, because I want UAB to have the resume for an at-large bid. Knowing how the selection committee operates, this is going to really hurt their chances.

Well maybe if Rice can stay hot and keep winning this can eventually go down as a “quality loss “ for the Blazers.

Seriously we should qualify as a Q2 team (we had been borderline) but if we do finish at least Q2 then this road L for UAB shouldn’t be too bad.

Post-dub locker room celebration...

https://twitter.com/RiceMBB/status/1479961126146387969

(01-08-2022 07:44 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(01-08-2022 07:36 PM)Blazer4Life14 Wrote:  

(01-08-2022 06:16 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  UAB fans a bit ticked off at the refs (they have a point...there were a few late stoppages that I didn't understand which gave Rice free TOs). But not sure they can claim they deserved to win that one. Took 30+ minutes of gametime for Kennedy to adjust to the Poteat P&R, they kept fouling Evee at the end of the game despite him being our best FT shooter, they missed 5-10 bunnies around the rim in the 2nd half, etc. etc.

Kind of a bittersweet win in a way, because I want UAB to have the resume for an at-large bid. Knowing how the selection committee operates, this is going to really hurt their chances.

Anyone saying that we lost for any reason other than us sucking, particularly on defense, is just clueless. We were outclassed, especially in the second half. Rice won fair and square, no doubt about it.

I thought your perimeter defense was outstanding. However, it took you guys until the final several minutes to adjust to our pick and roll (which was never much of a pick or screen to begin with)...and other teams have pressed us far more effectively.

On offense, again, your coach never made the necessary adjustments. You scored at will whenever you drove to the basket or threw in the post to the big guy (#55), but you failed to exploit this repeatedly.

You were outcoached and out hustled. You had the much more athletic squad.

Jemison largely took advantage of Fiedler. With Poteat in the game, he didn't have quite the same strength advantage. I thought the bigger problem was not posting up Buffen a ton more. At 6-7, 230, he has a massive size advantage over Olivari and Pierre. Him taking only 9 shots would've frustrated me as a UAB fan, especially because he was scoring the ball so easily when he did shoot it. I think if they had occupied Poteat with Jemison (or Leblanc) and posted Buffen up on the backside more often, he could've had 30. Or at the very least he could've forced us to double, creating more number mismatches.

Article in the Chronicle already https://www.houstonchronicle.com/texas-s...760097.php

Lookie who was at the game...

Quote:Clark Kellogg
@ClarkKelloggCBS

So glad I chose an “in person” drop in on
@UAB_MBB @RiceMBB today !! Competitive, entertaining, and well played game !! Clapping hands signClapping hands signClapping hands signClapping hands sign
@ConferenceUSA @MarchMadnessMBB

Quote:Clark Kellogg
@ClarkKelloggCBS

An impressive home win for @RiceMBB today ! Gave a good @UAB_MBB it’s first L in league play. Got strong contributions from several and made FTs throughout. Well done Owls ! Clapping hands signClapping hands signClapping hands signClapping hands signClapping hands sign

One final thing to add. It really is fun watching how engaged Pera is on every single possession. I know it bugs other coaches, and it's probably not healthy, but that man hangs on to every single second of the game as if it's the last of the game. There can be little doubt about how much he cares.

(01-08-2022 04:38 PM)MOBalum Wrote:  Elw: thank you for your constant love and attention given to Rice hoops. These game threads don't bring the same controversy as other topics so I imagine you might feel lonely, but know that I and others appreciate the insight that you provide. Kayjay too - you guys rock!

I second that emotion

(01-08-2022 06:34 PM)texowl2 Wrote:  so much for the naysayers....

I withdraw my nay saying and replace it with a feeling of pride for these boys… This is all I ever won our Rice men to do

(01-08-2022 11:59 AM)elw4796 Wrote:  Interesting game. UAB easily looks like the best team in CUSA, but they're not (at least on paper) as bad of a matchup for us as North Texas was. UNT's MO was stopping the 3. They were 30th in the country in 3PT defense but 327th in rim defense. Meanwhile, UAB is only 184th in 3PT defense. While they're not as good defensively on the perimeter, UAB is much better defending the paint and better defending in transition. While we won't be able to run on UAB, and their length will be super disruptive, theoretically we should get more open looks today.

We're still going to need a miracle to win this one, though. UAB should score 80+ on us with ease.

Well, they scored 80 on us, but not with ease as they needed a couple last minute, desperation 3s to get there.

As it was, UAB defended the perimeter every bit as well as UNT did (or close to it), but we killed them on the pick and roll.

BTW, second consecutive game Abercrombie was available and never saw action. (He wasn't out against MTSU with COVID; two of the Freshmen were.) And unlike Thursday's game, McBride made only a cameo appearance today, and Hutchins never made it off the bench. We went pretty much the entire game with only 7 players...and Fiedler and Sheffield hardly played the 2H.

That was a great game to watch in person. The Owls played their most complete game of the season. UAB had a huge advantage in size, 8 players over 210 lbs. and they were quick, athletic and disciplined. The first thing that Rice did that made a difference was consistently breaking the press and running their offense thru their post(s) when Poteat was in the game. Max again struggled with the ball. I think he needs to improve his hand strength because the ball was knocked out of his hands 2 or 3 times pretty easily (from my vantage point). I thought he played better defensively during his minutes this game and his 5 boards were important.

The second thing that helped the Owls was the fact that for this game, Coach Pera shortened the bench. In other games he has gone 9 to 10 deep but this was essentially only Poteat and Sheffield off the bench. I think it was the right call. (At least in retrospect it looks good).

UAB did a good job at getting mismatches which led to several easy baskets but the Owls never got flustered and overall they played defense hard and did a good job blocking out and controlling the boards against a stronger and bigger team.

Pierre continues to look like the leader on the court and Evee was up to the task to finish the game at the free throw line.

Evee’s ISO step back 3 attempt was a mistake near the end, he had to move sideways slightly and did not get to square his feet and shoulders before he shot but he was trying to put a knife in the Blazers heart and if it would have fallen we would all have screamed how cold-blooded he was….

Poteat had the game of his career (so far). His performance today is a great example of how Coach Pera is able to develop players during the season. Imagine if he would have been healthy all of last year and logged substantially more playing time in 2020. I was so impressed with his confidence at the free throw line.

Even though Evee and Poteat were the breakthrough players at the game, the Owls had 4 players in double figures, meaning that UAB could not key on any one or two player. This was the second straight game we have seen 4 players in double figures.

I also thought Sheffield played well defensively and even though he gave up that 3 point shot in the last 25 seconds, UAB was unable to duplicate the shot during the final few moments because Cameron did a much better job closing and altering their shot. Pera subbed Sheffield in for Poteat to add perimeter defense, which was the right substitution call by Pera.

I did not expect Rice to be able to climb back in the game when they were down by 10 points. Even if they had lost by 10, I would have still said that the Owls had played their best game of the season and showed that they could compete with the best teams in CUSA. I really admire how they kept focused and were able to come back and win the game. Let’s hope this level of play continues for the rest of the season.

Reading about the game makes me wish I had watched it. Sounds like a great job for the team and the coaches. Keep it going, guys.

(01-09-2022 12:10 AM)gsloth Wrote:  Reading about the game makes me wish I had watched it. Sounds like a great job for the team and the coaches. Keep it going, guys.

The whole game is available here on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7z_P6o4Kxc

Today's Massey ratings has Owls' as biggest improvement--42 positions!


https://masseyratings.com/cb/ncaa-d1/ratings