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Rice Football Recruiting: OL Brad Baur commits to Owls

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With National Signing Day looming, the 2022 Rice Football recruiting class has picked up another big addition in the form of offensive lineman Brad Baur.

The 2022 Rice Football recruiting class got off to a great start in the early signing period, but a few gaps still remained. One of those needs came at offensive line, a position that accounted for roughly half of the Owls offers in December and January combined. With National Signing Day mere days away, Rice got their man. Brad Baur has committed to the Owls.

Baur is a three-star offensive lineman out of Rocklin High School in California. Rice swooped in with an offer on January 29. He committed two days later. At the time his other offers included Cal Poly, San Diego, Fordham Idaho, Portland State and others. The Owls are quite happy the 6-foot-6 people mover in the trenches is headed to Houston.

The 2022 Owls’ haul at the position in this cycle is smaller, but when paired with fellow offensive line commit Miguel Cedeno, quite powerful. Rice will bring in a few additional walk-ons at the position and may keep their eye on the transfer market should the right fit arise, but Baur and Cedeno give Rice great building blocks for the future.

Premium: Rice Football Recruiting Offer and Commitment Tracker

There’s a lot to like when it comes to Baur’s play on the field. He’s going to enter college with the requisite frame to play the position at the high level, that’s a strong starting point. Baur is going to be a great piece of clay for the Owls’ to work with as he continues to develop.

He plays with a lot of power in his game and that showed in much of his film. His knack for playing through the whistle and finishing plays violently will fit right in at South Main.

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Rice Football: What’s at stake for Mike Bloomgren in 2022? — Patreon Q&A

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Should Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren be on the hot seat entering 2022? We discuss in this month’s Patreon Q&A.

No sooner does the clock hit zero and the whistle at the National Championship Game than do college football writers and media outlets pivot to the next season at hand. This year was no different. Amidst the usual way-too-early rankings and projections are other lists too, including some that attempt to delineate coaching hot seats, the focus of this month’s Q&A focused on Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren after collecting your questions.

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For those checking in for the first time, or those returning, a quick programming note. Q&A’s are reserved for our subscribers. Have questions? You can get those answered and get access to all practice notes, recruiting updates and special features like this one when you subscribe on Patreon today.

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Rice Women’s Basketball can’t keep up with hot-shooting Southern Miss

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Rice women’s basketball fell behind and couldn’t recover, dropping their Saturday home tilt against Southern Miss.

Fresh off their first conference win of the season, Rice women’s basketball opened Saturday’s contest with Southern Miss the same way they’ve begun the majority of their recent games, with a strong first-quarter run.

Rice jumped out to a 9-2 lead, propelled by a set of layups and a three-pointer from Maya Bokunewicz. Then they powered through a run from Southern Miss that ate up the seven-point advantage and turned into a three-point deficit by the time the opening quarter was through. Then things started to spiral.

The Owls shot 36.4 percent from the field in the second quarter but it was the seven turnovers that paralyzed the team and handed too many extra opportunities to the visiting team. Southern Miss scored 15 of their 17 second-quarter points off Rice turnovers, opening up a 12-point halftime advantage.

Last Time Out: Rice Women’s Basketball holds off LA Tech for first C-USA win

Southern Miss would only heat up from there, dominating Rice on the boards in the second half 18 to 10 and shooting at a blistering 60.9 percent clip in the final 20 minutes of action. Try as they might, Rice could not keep up defensively and was unable to slow down the league’s top shooting offense.

The loss drops Rice women’s basketball’s record to 6-9 and 1-6 in Conference USA play. Five of the seven teams in the West Division currently have losing conference records.

Player Spotlight | Destiny Jackson

Jackson was one of three Owls who reached double-digit points in Saturday’s loss. She was one of the most accurate shooters on the team, converting 4-of-7 attempts and her lone three-point try. She also contributed seven assists, three rebounds, two steals and a block. Everyone on the team is being asked to do a variety of things. Jackson played well in several facets despite the loss.

Final Box | Southern Miss 78 – Rice 55

Up Next | Full Schedule

Rice women’s basketball will play their next three games on the road starting next weekend with a Thursday trip to UTSA and a Saturday visit to UTEP. They’ll finish the road trip the following Thursday, Feb. 10, at North Texas.

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Rice Basketball surges past Southern Miss on the road

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Rice basketball showed great composure, weathering a second-half cold snap to secure a comfortable win at Southern Miss.

A pair of three-point baskets from Southern Miss signaled the beginning of a shotgun start in their Saturday tilt with Rice basketball. Both programs shot well early on with Rice carving out a modest six-point halftime lead thanks in part to a blistering 64 percent field goal percentage in the first half that dwarfed a respectable 40 percent showing from the floor by Southern Miss.

The offenses would cool off in the second half, but the margin would grow. The streaky Owls endured a 1-for-10 cold snap in the middle of the half but somehow were able to fend off the Golden Eagles who endured an equally frustrating 3-for-10 stretch over the same span. With neither offense moving, defenses and free throws took over.

Last Time Out: Rice Basketball goes cold from three in loss to LA Tech

The win ensures Rice basketball their fourth consecutive Conference USA weekend with no worse than a split in their Thursday/Saturday contest. The Owls sit at 5-4 in conference play with a set of four consecutive home games on the horizon.

Player Spotlight | Max Fiedler

The rise of Mylyjael Poteat has led to a couple of quiet weeks from Rice center Max Fiedler. Coming into this game, he hadn’t played more than 25 minutes since Nov. 30 against Texas State and he hadn’t reached double-digit points since Rice played Jarvis Christian on Dec. 4.

Fiedler surpassed both marks on Saturday, scoring 14 points in 33 minutes, adding 10 rebounds. It was his fifth double-double of the season. It might be no coincidence the Owls are 5-0 in those games.

Stat Corner | Multi-dimensional offense

Rice basketball produced their most anemic three-point shooting performance on the season on Thursday against Louisiana Tech. The Owls were unable to overcome a lagging showing from beyond the arc in part because they didn’t complement it with a particularly dangerous offense from inside the arc. They flipped that script on Saturday.

The Owls shot a mediocre 33.3 percent from three-point land, but were 52.9 percent overall from the floor and scored 32 points in the paint. Being able to still find success shooting the basketball on slower nights from the team as a whole will be crucial going forward. As for the deep shooters, Carl Pierre and Quincy Olivari both shot .500 from three. That’ll be good enough on most nights.

Final Box | Rice 76 – Southern Miss 62

Up Next | Full Schedule

Following this brief two-game road trip, Rice basketball heads back to Tudor Fieldhouse for a four-game homestand beginning next Thursday night against UTSA. Then they’ll play UTEP on Saturday, Feb. 5 before finishing the stretch with North American on Tuesday, Feb. 8 and North Texas on Saturday, Feb. 12.

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Rice Women’s Basketball holds on against LA Tech for first C-USA win

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Rice women’s basketball dug deep and found a way to win at home, holding on down the stretch to top Louisiana Tech for the Owls’ first C-USA win.

Seeking their first Conference USA win of head coach Lindsay Edmon’s tenure, Rice women’s basketball showed no signs of weariness following last week’s four-overtime loss at Charlotte. Even with their short bench, the time off looked to give the Owls enough time to capture their collective breath, rest and attack their next opponent with intensity, giving Louisiana Tech all they could handle for 40 minutes and walking away victorious.

“I’m just so happy for this team,” head coach Lindsay Edmonds said. “We went through a lot. We’ve had adversity with injuries, with COVID, with low numbers. And with the four-overtime game this past weekend we could have easily came in here feeling ‘Woe is me, we’re 0-5’ and just not performed the way that we did. I am just so proud of their effort. I am so proud of them coming in tonight and competing the way they did and being rewarded for their efforts.”

As they’ve proven accustomed to in recent weeks, Rice started fast, making three of their first five shots on their way to an 11-4 lead. Louisiana Tech would battle back, tying the game up at 16 apiece by the time the first quarter ended. Things stayed close for the early portions of the second period until the Owls ripped off a 16-4 run. They’d double up the Lady Techster’s in the second quarter 24-12 on their way to a 12-point halftime advantage.

Last Time Out: Rice Women’s Basketball comes up short in 4OT battle at Charlotte

Staked to a double-digit lead, Rice women’s basketball was now tasked with doing something they’d yet to do this year: close out a conference win. Both teams traded buckets in the third quarter, splitting points 18-18. Neither team hit more than two shots from the floor before the other answered. That brought both teams to the fourth quarter and Rice 10 minutes away from an important milestone.

Edmonds relayed this message to the team in those final minutes: “Basketball is a game of runs. There’s always going to be runs. You’re hoping that your the team that makes the most runs. I think LA Tech made a little bit of a run there and we needed to get stops,” she said. “That was basically what my message was: get stops.”

Things would get higher than Rice would have hoped for, but for every run, the Owls had a stop and an answer.  Louisiana Tech was able to get the game within four points before Malia Fisher hit a layup and Ashlee Austin drained a pair of free throws and a jumper to quell the rally. Louisiana Tech would get back within five in the final minute but Rice hit was sturdy enough from the charity stripe and was able to seal the win.

The milestone did not go noticed. “This team has been through a lot. We’ve faced a lot of adversity,” guard Ashlee Austin said after the game. “We really bounced back. Today we played as a team.”

Player Spotlight | Ashlee Austin

Austin led all players in scoring despite playing just 27 minutes, the fewest of any of the Owls’ five starters. Although she admitted to feeling the effects of the extended outing against Charlotte, she showed no signs of wear against Louisiana Tech. When the team needed to dig deep, she was there. She scored 27 points, added five rebounds had one assist and four blocks.

Stat Corner | Get to the stripe

Rice women’s basketball was far from perfect from the free throw line on Thursday night, but their aggressive to get themselves the extra shots paid off in a big way. Rice attempted 30 free throws to Louisiana Tech’s 16. The Owls would make 22 of those, providing them just enough of a cushion down the stretch to secure their first C-USA win of the season.

Final Box | Rice 72 – LA Tech 64

Up Next | Full Schedule

Rice women’s basketball has one more home game left on the schedule this weekend before making their first three-game road trip of the season next week. They’ll start at UTSA on Thursday before venturing to UTEP for a Saturday contest. The Owls close the trip out with a game at North Texas the following Thursday.

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