Might as well have a single place to discuss everything, rather than posts in game threads.

As I've mentioned in the recruiting thread, the staff on the men's side began reaching out to guys in the transfer portal even before the CUSA tournament. Always less clear on the women's side because it doesn't have the recruiting/reporting infrastructure.

No obese females warbling just yet.

(03-10-2023 11:54 AM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  No obese females warbling just yet.

Seems like they sang pretty loudly on Thursday.

(03-10-2023 12:27 PM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  

(03-10-2023 11:54 AM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  No obese females warbling just yet.

Seems like they sang pretty loudly on Thursday.

You are certain there there will be no tournament invites? How do you know?

It's possible that the women get a tournament invite. Wouldn't be the worst experience for the freshmen. But hard to get excited, even if it's the WNIT.

Here’s the approach I would like to see on the men’s side. I would borrow a bit from the Paul Westhead/David Arceneault Grinnell System, but with more emphasis on defense and rebounding.

Defensively, rotate among 4 basic schemes. 1) a switching man-to-man like John Woden’s UCLA teams’ basic defense. 2) a trapping 1-3-1 like Guy V’s UH teams. 3) 3/4 to full court pressure like Woden’s or Guy V’s teams. 4) with a lead fall back into a 2-3 matchup like John Chaney’s amoeba.

Offensively, 1) fast break whenever the numbers are there, 2) secondary break until defense gets set, shoot a lot of 3s because offensive rebounds are easier in a scrambled floor, 3) set offense based on personnel, 4) continuity, passing game, and 5) second chance, emphasize offensive rebounding.

Make defense and rebounding our calling cards. Play lots of people, a 10 or 12 player rotation. Maybe some don’t have the offensive skills of starters, but anybody can be taught to play defense and rebound. 40 minutes of hell.

(03-10-2023 12:41 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  It's possible that the women get a tournament invite. Wouldn't be the worst experience for the freshmen. But hard to get excited, even if it's the WNIT.

Exciting or not, a postmortem on a patient that isn't dead yet seems inappropriate to me.

I'm also not OK with talking about the season already being over when the team might not be done playing, this being a fan discussion board and all.

But, if I don't like it, I don't have to read it and participate.

(03-10-2023 12:34 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  

(03-10-2023 12:27 PM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  

(03-10-2023 11:54 AM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  No obese females warbling just yet.

Seems like they sang pretty loudly on Thursday.

You are certain there there will be no tournament invites? How do you know?

No, I’m not certain about possible alphabet tournament opportunities, but those ladies you referenced representing the CUSA and the NCAA tournaments sure belted out a finale.

MBB and WBB at least have winning records, which is more than the bowl playing Football Owls can say, I suppose.

Rice men are at #215 in Pomeroy, 8 spots lower than last season, and 27 spots lower than 2020-21, Pera's best season. Where, exactly, is there any progress at all over the past 4 seasons?

There isn't any

It looked like Olivari would be back next year, with rumors he was going to get a Rice MBA. Since he participated in senior day though, he might have decided to try to find a spot on a team that will go to the tournament next year, or he might even go pro.

Also, Lewis wasn't on the bench for the last several games. Did he have surgery?

The 2 ranked recruits Rice signed should be huge for Rice basketball next year and beyond.

Guess the men are "accepting" an "invitation" to play in the CBI, so we can officially shelve this thread for a couple of weeks. Not sure I can get myself to care about the CBI.

(03-11-2023 05:59 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  Guess the men are "accepting" an "invitation" to play in the CBI, so we can officially shelve this thread for a couple of weeks. Not sure I can get myself to care about the CBI.

Here's the predicted CBI field by a fellow who claims nearly perfect past performance (**) in his craft: https://happeninghoops.com/2023/03/10/cb...0-3-10-23/

Quote:Duquesne (20-12 A-10)
Charlotte (18-14 CUSA)
Cleveland State (21-13 Horizon)
Eastern Kentucky (20-13 ASUN)
Indiana State (22-12 MVC)
Marshall (24-8 Sun Belt)
Middle Tennessee State (19-14 CUSA)
Milwaukee (21-11 Horizon)
North Alabama (18-14 ASUN)
Radford (19-14 Big South)
Rice (18-15 CUSA)
San Francisco (20-14 WCC)
Southern Indiana (16-16 OVC)
Stetson (17-13 ASUN)
Weber State (18-15 Big Sky)
Western Carolina (18-15 SoCon)

**

Quote:2022: 97% (36/37) Perfect CBI

2021: 100% (8/8) Perfect CBI

*2020: 88% minimum *It was later determined three days from Selection Sunday (at the time of the cancelations) I had already correctly predicted 37 of the would-be 42 teams confirmed in the fields.

2019: 93% (39/42)

2018: 75% (27/36)

Not listed is 14-19 Detroit Mercy, which may have been considering paying the $27,500 CBI buy-in (and other associated expenses) ... if it received an invitation ... as a way to enable Antoine Davis to score the 4 points he would need to break Pistol Pete Maravich's long-standing D1 career scoring record (3,667 points).

https://www.sportico.com/leagues/college...234711329/

(Note: The article did remind readers that "Davis’ and Maravich’s statistics aren’t an apples-to-apples comparison. Davis has played 144 games in a five-year career extended by an extra season because of the COVID pandemic, while Maravich, who died in 1988, set his record in just 83 games over three seasons. Davis has also had the benefit of the 3-point shot.")

FTR, the CBI does not have any rule that requires participants have a winning regular season record. (https://www.sportingnews.com/us/ncaa-bas...pqvupseonm)

In the second year of the CBI in 2009, Oregon State was invited with a 13-17 record and went on to win the championship.

"We are evaluating (Detroit Mercy) and considering it,” said Rick Giles, the CBI's president, when asked if the tournament would invite UDM and give Davis a chance to break Maravich’s record. “Antoine Davis has had a remarkable career that deserves to be celebrated.”

Take a look at this string of facts (most know he didn't have the benefit of the 3-point line):

And I've heard this before, which is even more insane to believe.

No doubt that Maravich deserves to stand at the top of the college scoring list. Hard to dispute that. But in Davis's defense, he played 5 years and took 200 or so fewer shots. Maravich averaged 44.2 points on an ungodly 38 shots per game. He was a (hall of fame level, legendary) chucker. Maravich also benefitted from CBB's pace in the late 60s and early 70s, which was dizzying. His LSU team in 69-70 put up 75.0 shots per game and their opponents 78.0. For comparison, EKU leads the NCAA in that category this year and they're only taking 66.7 shots per game! Kind of crazy.

Anyway, I hope Detroit doesn't get invited to an Alphabet tournament. Davis had his shot and not only did he choke, he probably lost his team a very winnable game and possibly a chance to make the NCAA tournament. Youngstown St (the #1 Horizon seed) tied the game up at 60 with 5:28 to go. From that point on, Detroit took 12 shots. Davis took 9 of them. And as somebody who watched, half of them were bad, bad looks. And it's like his teammates cared more about the record than a chance at the tournament! They'd grab an offensive rebound or beat their man...and immediately would look for Davis. Like they were programmed to find Davis first, score second.

I remember Maravich announcing a UCLA game when I was a student there. He did a neat trick for the fans where he spun the ball on his finger, tossed it onto his head and then tapped it off the head and into the basket for a layup. You could tell drugs had done a number on him, but he still had it after his career petered out.

(03-11-2023 05:59 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  Guess the men are "accepting" an "invitation" to play in the CBI, so we can officially shelve this thread for a couple of weeks. Not sure I can get myself to care about the CBI.

Looks to be real. The CBI is listed in the Rice Update today under athletic events for next week.

Memphis just knocked off Houston in the AAC finals. Which means we will be playing in a men’s basketball conference next year with two returning NCAA teams — for the first time in what seems to be a long, long time.

I get the sense UH needs Sasser back to have a deep NCAA run. That said, I hope their loss today doesn’t knock them from being a solid 1 seed.

(03-12-2023 12:49 PM)ESE84 Wrote:  

(03-11-2023 05:59 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  Guess the men are "accepting" an "invitation" to play in the CBI, so we can officially shelve this thread for a couple of weeks. Not sure I can get myself to care about the CBI.

Looks to be real. The CBI is listed in the Rice Update today under athletic events for next week.

Yep. Here's the riceowls.com news: https://riceowls.com/news/2023/3/11/mens...ional.aspx

Evee is staying per twitter