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Rice Basketball sputters from deep, drops road tilt at Louisiana Tech

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Rice basketball couldn’t find their stroke from deep, dropping a road contest to Louisiana Tech in one-sided fashion.

Rice basketball knew they’d be in for a tough one when they hit the road for Ruston, Louisiana on Thursday night. Although Louisiana Tech had fallen to UAB the weekend prior and lost their status as the conference’s lone unbeaten team, the Bulldogs were still one of the best teams the Owls had on the schedule this season. It was going to be a challenge.

Halfway through the first half, Rice looked to be up to the task. The Owls led by as many as five points and never trailed in the first nine minutes of regulation. Then Rice, leading 20-18, missed nine of 10 shots and watched as a close game turned extremely perilous in the span of a few trips down the court.

Last Time Out: Rice Basketball slips at home, falls to Charlotte

The two-man tandem of Kenneth Lofton and Cobe Williams proved lethal in this game. Both mean reached double-digit scoring in the first half, helping Louisiana Tech stretch a small lead to a 15-point halftime advantage. Rice was able to claw away part of the deficit in the second half, relying heavily on Mylyjael Poteat in the post. His inside presence proved stabilizing for most of the second half before Louisiana Tech regained their shooting stroke.

After Rice cut the deficit to single digits, Louisiana Tech rattled off a 10-0 run, their second such double-digit streak of the evening. Rice did a lot of things well, but those two spurts proved too much for the team to overcome on an off shooting night on the road where the Owls made just 32.8 percent of their field goals compared to Louisiana Tech’s much better 48.5 percent from the floor.

Player Spotlight | Quincy Olivari

Olivari’s season started slow, in large part because of a wrist injury that hampered his shooting stroke. His contributions on offense were limited as he worked to get back to full strength. He’d had a few strong showings, highlighted by a 27-point outburst against Houston Baptist. His 18 points and 10 rebounds marked his most productive contest since then and his first career double-double.

Stat Corner | Off the mark

Rice basketball has come a long way from its live-by-the-three, die-by-the-three reality in recent seasons. The defense has improved and the team has found a reliable inside presence in Poteat whom they can turn to when the outside shots aren’t falling. They won’t shoot the lights out of the gym every night, but they’re going to have to at least find some level of success to win games like this.

Thursday was a bad night from three, marring what could have been a much closer contest. Rice made 4-of-26 three-point shots, an abysmal 15 percent. The Owls are 1-6 this season when making less than 33 percent of their triples. They’re 10-2 in all other games. Some of those included white-hot outside shooting performances, but many of them didn’t. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it can’t be 15 percent.

Final Box | LA Tech 80 – Rice 63

Up Next | Full Schedule

Rice basketball completes its current two-game road trip on Saturday in Hattiesburg against Southern Miss. From there they’ll head home for a three-game homestand featuring games against UTSA (Thursday, Feb 3), UTEP (Saturday, Feb 5) and North Texas (Saturday, Feb 12).

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Rice Football Recruiting 2022: Recapping a busy Junior Day

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More than a dozen potential members of the 2022 Rice Football recruiting class were on campus this weekend. Here are a few names to know.

The vast majority of the 2021 Rice Football recruiting class has put pen to paper and made their pledges to the Owls permanent, predominantly during the Early Signing Period. There are a few names left to formalize, but there’s enough nailed down to allow the Rice staff to turn one eye toward the future and host their first Junior Day of the year.

In this update, we’ll hit on which recruits were on campus, which received offers and share a few comments from some of the Owls’ newest targets.

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Rice Football 2021: NFL Owls Divisional Round update

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Rice Football is well represented on 2021 NFL rosters. Here’s the latest from the NFL Owls in action in the Divisional Round.

There are former Rice football players scattered across the NFL. Stay tuned each week for their game results and notables from each player.

Divisional Round Schedule

Game NFL Owl(s) Result
Cincinattiat at Tennessee Coaches James Casey, Justin Hill Bengals win 19-16
San Francisco at Green Bay  — 49ers win 13-10
LA Rams at Tampa Bay Nick Leverett (OL) Rams win 30-27
Buffalo at Kansas City  — Cheifs win 42-36 (OT)

Divisional Round Schedule

Game NFL Owl(s) Date / Time
Cincinattiat at Kansas City Coaches James Casey, Justin Hill Sun. Jan. 30 at 2:05 pm
San Francisco at LA Rams  — Sun. Jan. 30 at 5:40 pm

NFL Owls Update

Nick Leverett– OL, Bucs

For the third time this season, Leverett was called into emergency action following injuries to players in front of him on the depth chart. He played nine snaps for the Bucs primarily during their first scoring drive of the second half which set up what was nearly a thrilling 24-point comeback had it not been for a Rams field goal as the clock ran down.

The broadcast was quite complimentary of Leverett’s play:

Coaches James Casey and Justin Hill

Casey and Hill have plenty to smile about after watching Joe Burrow and the Bengals reach the AFC Championship Game. This is Casey’s second season with the Bengals and Hill’s first

Offseason Owls

With the 2021 season coming to an end several Owls have recently become free agents. Calvin Anderson is a restricted free agent. Bryce Callahan, Christin Covington and Andrew Sendejo have become unrestricted free agents.

More Owls in the NFL

From practice squads to current free agents, there are other Owls on the cusp of returning to active rosters. Find more detail on current contractual agreements and former Rice football players waiting for their next opportunity here.

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Conference USA Basketball 2022: January 24 Roundup

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Conference USA Basketball nearing the halfway point of league play. What have we learned so far and where does each team stack up against the rest?

Team NET  KenPom Record
Charlotte 162 209 10-7 (3-2)
FAU 136 147 11-8 (4-2)
FIU 236 245 12-7 (2-4)
LA Tech 85 85 15-4 (6-1)
Marshall 246 222 7-12 (0-6)
MTSU 118 141 12-6 (3-2)
North Texas 55 67 13-4 (6-1)
Old Dominion 221 203 7-11 (2-3)
Rice 164 180 11-7 (4-3)
Southern Miss 325 317 6-12 (1-4)
UAB 37 41 16-4 (6-1)
UTEP 185 182 11-8 (4-3)
UTSA 339 326 7-13 (0-7)
WKU 139 121 10-9 (2-4)
Kenpom rankings and standings as of 1/23/2022

Key Storylines

Wild, Wild West

The race for the top of the West Division got much more interesting this weekend when UAB went into Ruston and walked away with a relatively comfortable road win over Louisiana Tech. That leaves UAB, Louisiana Tech and North Texas tied atop the West with 6-1 conference records. Rice and UTEP, both 4-3, remain within striking distance.

Owls on the move

Florida Atlantic has won three in a row, completing a perfect three-game homestand against Charlotte, WKU and Marshall. The Owls began conference play 1-2 and fell near the bottom of the standings. Now they sit alone in first place atop the division. Their namesake counterparts, Rice, posted an emphatic win of their own over the weekend, finishing their game against Old Dominion on a 16-0 run.

Toppers in a tailspin?

Western Kentucky was expected to be among the best teams in Conference USA entering the season. They didn’t receive any first-place votes, but they were a clear No. 3 choice in the conference’s preseason poll. There wasn’t reason to panic after a narrow loss to Louisiana Tech on the road to start conference play, but their recent three-game has to at least raise some concern. They host UAB and Middle Tennessee next week. Getting a split would, at the very least, ease some anxiety.

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Rice Basketball falters late, loses at home to Charlotte

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Rice basketball couldn’t hit the shots they needed to down the stretch, dropping a winnable home tilt against Charlotte and moving to 4-3 in C-USA play.

There are days when the ball bounces your way and there are days it rims out. On Saturday against Charlotte, that clang off the iron went against Rice Basketball, who fell at home in a back-and-forth game the Owls would probably like to have back.

Charlotte struck first, jumping out to a 4-0 lead, their largest advantage in a game they’d win by three, matching by an 8-4 advantage minutes later. Rice quickly countered, clambering out to a 15-11 lead at the midpoint of the first half, scoring six straight points. Neither team would go on a run longer than that at any point in the contest.

Last Time Out: Rice Basketball blanks ODU down the stretch, slams door at home

Rice was uninspiring from three, connecting on just 7-of-22 from beyond the arc. The Owls shot a modest 42 percent from the field and held their own on the boards. Charlotte’s advantage came in their scoring. The 49ers shot 53.3 percent in the game and 59.1 percent in the second half. That accuracy proved to be the difference, down to the final shot.

Carl Pierre, who had been lights-out from deep in his previous two outings, made three of his eight triples in the game, missing two threes in the final six seconds, either of which would have likely pushed the game into overtime. In a relatively evenly matched game, it served as a synopsis of the 40-minute slugfest: Charlotte made the plays when it counted. Rice did not.

Player Spotlight | Mylyjael Poteat

On a night when Rice wasn’t quite on the mark from long range, Mylyjael Poteat played a huge role in the paint. The up-and-coming center led all scorers with 15 points, knocking going 6-of-9 from the field and 3-0f-4 from the free throw line. Head coach Scott Pera has been extremely complementary of his growth all season, noting his growth from last season to this one.

“He’s played a lot more basketball. He’s getting used to the speed,” Pera said of Poteat. “We knew he was a really good player when we recruited him. Now he’s starting to really take advantage of his minutes.

Stat Corner | When it counts

It wasn’t a great afternoon shooting the basketball for Rice, but they shot well enough to have the chance to win the game late. It’s what happened in the final two minutes that made the difference and should serve as a teaching tool for a team that aspires to make some noise in the conference tournament.

With 1:52 on the clock, Poteat hit a layup to tie the game at 62. From that point onward, Rice did not hit another shot outside the paint. Their only points following Poteat’s layup was a dunk from Poteat with 18 seconds remaining. Travis Evee missed a layup. Chris Mullins was called for a charge and turned it over. Pierre missed from deep, twice. The great teams find a way to get at least one of those shots to go in. They had some good lucks. Things just didn’t work out in the last 90 seconds.

Final Box | Char 67 – Rice 64

Up Next | Full Schedule

Rice basketball went 1-1 on the homestand and will now return to the road next week. On Thursday they’ll pay a visit to Louisiana Tech before playing at Southern Miss on Saturday.

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