Line is Rice -3.5 with an O/U of 148.5.

Really good defensive work from Charlotte on our first 3 possessions for a team that has struggled defensively. 4-2 Charlotte early.

6-4 Charlotte at the U16. Pera turning pretty early to Poteat with Charlotte going with a front court of Braswell (6-7) and Vasic (6-8). Any time Khalifa is on the bench needs to be a time where we dominate inside. Charlotte doesn't have the interior bodies behind him.

Charlotte is 295 in defensive efficiency but this is legitimately one of the best 5+ minute stretches by a team defensively against us all season. We'll see how long it lasts, but this very much looks like a team that has their scouting down.

A very unexpected defensive game has broken out at Tudor. 11-9 Charlotte at the U12.

Khalifa has two fouls, which means Fiedler and Poteat need to eat inside. Vasic and Braswell are too small and Garcia is nowhere near ready for extended minutes (and also not big enough). 12-11 Rice. Olivari draws a charge, which he needed because it hasn't been a good start for him.

(01-22-2022 06:43 AM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  Line is Rice -3.5 with an O/U of 148.5.

Rice -4.5 per ESPN (via Caesar’s) and 145 O/U.

Either way that O/U is a loooooooong way away

Rice now up 15-11. If that score holds the -3.5 or -4.5 both look pretty close.

20-19 Rice. Nightmarish start to the game from Olivari. Fouls Trapp on a 3PA with 2 seconds left on the shot clock. Silly foul with 15 seconds left on the shot clock, inexcusable with 2 seconds. Need to consider giving him some time on the bench, because that isn't the first defensive mistake. He got blown by early on in the game and also lost Threadgill in the corner on his first 3.

(01-22-2022 03:27 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  20-19 Rice. Nightmarish start to the game from Olivari. Fouls Trapp on a 3PA with 2 seconds left on the shot clock. Silly foul with 15 seconds left on the shot clock, inexcusable with 2 seconds. Need to consider giving him some time on the bench, because that isn't the first defensive mistake. He got blown by early on in the game and also lost Threadgill in the corner on his first 3.

Also, you forgot to mention Trapp made the shot. 4-point play ties it at 20

Evee loses Threadgill behind the arc for a second time. His third 3 ties the game at 23. On the other side, Vasic is hopeless at the 5. I know it's a stopgap with Khalifa in foul trouble, but at least Garcia gives you a semblance of a chance inside. For one thing, Garcia is an actual big and not a guard.

Not a sharp game so far by either team. Not too impressed with Charlotte so far, we need to win this game at home.

Charlotte bench is louder than the rest of Tudor combined. Always forget about Rice crowds…

And Garcia immediately picks up his 2nd foul in a super stupid fashion.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many offensive fouls in a half.

It appears that we should be able to beat this team more easily.
I'd like to see more of Poteat -- he continues to improve and is a legitimate scoring threat.

36-30 Rice at the half. Honestly, I was super impressed with Charlotte's defense. They're not UNT, but I thought their discipline on the perimeter was really good throughout the entire half. But Khalifa having two fouls hurt them a lot. He'll be back out there to start the 2nd half, though, so scoring will be a bit more difficult. We still lose a few too many shooters, but I'm mostly positive about our defensive performance.

Poteat's gotta be the starting 5. Fiedler hasn't been bad, but it's obvious that his passing isn't as effective as last year. And if he doesn't have his passing, Poteat is the more complete player.

Olivari also continues to struggle. Not really sure what you can do, though. You need him out there. If he gets confident he's a walking flamethrower. And neither Sheffield nor McBride has looked overly great.

For the life of me I can't understand how this team continues to struggle so much with weakside (and strongside corner) shooters.

48-46 Charlotte. Probably the second ugliest performance of conference play behind the UNT game. Maybe 3rd if you count the second half of the WKU game.

54-51 Charlotte at the U8. Can't say the score is unfair. They've been the better team so far.

Owls shooting in 2H has been dismal. 50% at the half is down to under 44%.

And yet the are only down 1.