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Rice Football: Offensive lineman Brady Feeney commits to Owls

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The 2020 Rice Football recruiting class picked up another huge addition with the commitment of offensive lineman Brady Feeney.

Winning in the trenches has been the standard from the first day Mike Bloomgren arrived on campus. It’s no surprise then that he’s building on a strong 2019 class of big men in the trenches with a second impactful offensive lineman in the 2010 class.

A day after landing a commitment from Tomball offensive lineman Braedon Nutter, Rice doubled down up front. St. Louis, MO offensive lineman Brady Feeney has committed to the Owls. 247 Sports rates him as the No. 56 guard in the nation, but he has the power and foot skills to play either tackle position. It’s well within the realm of possibility that he forces his way into the starting lineup across from Clay Servin.

Athletically Feeney is everything you’d want in an offensive lineman. Standing 6-foot-5 and 270 pounds, he measures up well with everyone currently on the Rice roster. For someone of that size, he can move with balance and push defenders around, almost at will.

There will be some technical aspects of his game to clean up as he assimilates into the Owls’ scheme, but as a pure prospect, there’s a ton to like about Feeney’s game. He was one of the high priority guys from the start of Rice’s 2020 push. Getting a commitment from him in the spring is icing on the cake.

His commitment brings the 2020 class up to three, all three-star rated recruits, all in the running to be some of the highest rated commitments Rice has seen in the past five years. A strong senior season from Feeney could propel him even higher.

No matter where the rankings fall, Feeney is another high-talent, instant impact player who will make a difference at South Main quickly.

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Rice Baseball: Sunday comeback averts home sweep vs UTSA

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Rice baseball salvaged a tough weekend series against UTSA with a come from behind win on Sunday, their first victory when their opponent scored first this season.

It was another up and down weekend for Rice baseball as the Owls dropped the first two games against UTSA before rallying for a Sunday victory. The win snapped a seven-game losing streak for the Owls and an 0-5 start in conference play. Here’s a wrap up on each of the three games and some closing thoughts on the Owls’ second CUSA series.

FRIDAY | UTSA 4 – Rice 2

Rice ace Matt Canterino put together a career-long outing in the series opener on Friday, throwing 8 2/3rds innings before being relieved in the ninth by Kendall Jeffries for one final out. As was the case in his outing against FAU, Canterino was sharp for the duration, save for one crooked number which would prove to be the decider.

Canterino retired the first 10 batters he faced, hurtling through his start until the seventh inning where two triples, a single and a wild pitch put his team behind 3-0. Rice would respond with two runs of their own in the bottom half of the frame, leaving the tying run on third after a triple of their own.

UTSA would tack on an insurance run on a two-out double in the ninth, leaving Rice one more chance to even the score. With two men on in the ninth, Cade Edwards struck out to end the game.

SATURDAY | UTSA 9 – Rice 3

Jackson Parthasarathy, bumped up from his typical Sunday slot in the starting rotation, lasted two innings in the second game of this series. He was ticketed for four earned runs on five hits before being replaced by Addison Moss out of the bullpen in what felt like a crucial game for Rice tow in.

Not only was Moss unable to stop the bleeding, he had his second consecutive poor outing, allowing four earned runs on five hits, walking two. Trailing 8-0 entering the bottom of the fourth, Rice was unable to get enough big hits to make a meaningful dent in the sizable deficit.

Andrew Dunlap and Dominic Cox each picked up two hits and scored all three of the Owls’ runs on the afternoon. The bullpen combination of Blair Lewis and Dalton Wood held the Roadrunners scoreless over the final four innings, but it proved to be too little too late.

SUNDAY | Rice 8 – UTSA 3

Rice entered the final game of the series in desperate need of a victory to stop a seven-game skid. Evan Kravetz held his own early, but trouble in the third allowed UTSA to strike first. At that point, Rice was 0-14 when their opponents scored the first run.

Sensing the need to right the ship, Rice flipped the script in the bottom half of the inning. Following an RBI single from Bradley Gneiting, the Owls took the lead on a drooping double from Cade Ewards which landed on the right side of the right field line, scoring two to give Rice a 3-1 lead. UTSA evened the score the following frame with a two-run homer to left field.

Momentum seemed to shift toward the Owls in the fifth. In the top half of the inning, Braden Comeaux gunned down the would-be go ahead run at the plate. In the bottom half, Cade Edwards punched a bullet into center field, scoring Andrew Dunlap to give Rice a 4-3 lead.

TAKEAWAYS | UTSA wins series 2-1

1. If the starting rotation stumbled, Rice is in trouble

The combination of Matt Canterino, Jackson Parthasarathy, Evan Kravetz and Addison Moss have been ticketed as the biggest assets this team has in 2019. Canterino has a future in the big leagues, while the others have each achieved legitimate collegiate successes.

The bullpen has been hit or miss. The lineup has struggled through injuries and been inconsistent when healthy. The starting rotation isn’t all this team has to turn things around, but it’s unquestionably the greatest weapon in the arsenal. But Canterino is losing ball games. Moss and Parthasarathy didn’t make it through three innings. Kravetz was marginally better on Sunday, throwing 4 1/3rd innings and allowing three runs.

Nobody else has emerged to help right the ship. Rice’s big guns need to step up. If the starting rotation doesn’t turn things around Rice is going to lose a lot more 4-2 games.

2. The lineup wasn’t deep … and then came the injuries

Dominic DiCaprio will miss the remainder of the season with recurring back injuries. A senior, it looks like DiCaprio has played his last games ever for the Blue and Gray. He ends his career with a .299 average, 173 hits and 85 RBI. DiCaprio hadn’t been the same since injuries spoiled his junior season, but his veteran presence in the lineup will be missed.

That alone would be a concern for a thin Rice lineup which is already coping with a string of injuries. Braden Comeaux returned to the lineup this weekend after missing a week with a back injury. Brandt Frazier eased back in last weekend against FAU after recovering from a hamstring injury.

Justin Collins didn’t miss extended time, but a midweek scare on a backswing against Texas State made all Rice fans hold their breath. Rice absolutely must stay healthy, particularly with one of their senior bats being put on the shelf.

3. Consistency is needed from Six – Seven – Eight – Nine

Health aside, Rice has been able to find relatively consistent production from their top half of the lineup. The Owls have five players hitting better than .300 on the season, but the rotation of outfielders and whomever draws the start at first base has been problematic.

Dominic Cox, who had four base hits on the season entering the UTSA series, had his best weekend yet with three hits from the bottom third of the order. Outside of his strong weekend, the bottom four spots in the lineup hit a meager 7-for-33 (.212) with nine strikeouts, salvaged by a big seventh inning on Sunday against multiple UTSA relievers.

The bottom third of most lineups in college baseball will punch below the level of the top third; there are only so many bats to go around.  Expecting a .400 hitter to emerge from the eight-hole isn’t realistic, but finding someone who can make contact consistently and put balls in play at a reasonable clip is doable. Rice has yet to find the combination which makes that happen.

ON DECK | at Texas State (Tues),  at Old Dominion (Fri-Sun)

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Rice Football: Offensive lineman Braedon Nutter commits to Owls

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The 2020 Rice football recruiting class has gotten off to a great start with Braedon Nutter joining safety Plae Wyatt as the initial members of the Owls’ next class.

Big things are happening at South Main. As Rice begins to grow the third recruiting class of the Mike Bloomgren era the word seems to have gotten out. High-caliber players from around the state are flocking to Houston. Offensive lineman Braedon Nutter was the latest to buy in to the vision, committing to play his college ball for the Rice Owls.

Nutter is a perception-changing commitment for Rice. The program had finished near the bottom of the conference in recruiting over the last several years prior to Bloomgren’s arrival. But with two highly regarded in state commitments already, things are changing.

At the time of his commitment, the 6-foot-3, 287-pound lineman held offers from Houston, Tulsa, UAB, Air Force, Army, a host of Ivy League schools and Colorado. He has more than a dozen offers under his belt, but Rice has won the battle for his services.

A two-way player in high school, Nutter is being slotted in on the offensive side of the ball. He’s been pegged as a center, but could move down the line or back to defense depending on need. A mauler in the trenches, Nutter is as physical as they come. He embodies everything about the culture of Intellectual Brutality that Bloomgren is seeking to build at Rice.

There aren’t many programs in Conference USA beating out Pac-12 programs for recruits. And if the trajectory of the Owls’ first two commitments continues, he might not be the last. Let’s just say the future is as bright as it’s been in a while at South Main. Watch Nutter’s film for yourself. He’s not going to get moved out of the way very often. He’ll be the one lowering the shoulder and delivering a big blow.

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Rice WBB: Poise, pressure and trying to move on

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Rice women’s basketball saw their season come to an end in heartbreaking fashion by way of an overtime loss to Marquette in the NCAA Tournament. The Owls look to learn and move on.

With 2:54 remaining on the fourth quarter clock Erica Ogwumike drained a three point shot that sent the largely pro-Rice crowd at Reed Arena into a frenzy. After going back and forth with Marquette, the Owls had seemingly broken things wide open. The nine-point lead was the largest margin by either side that day. Rice could almost taste their first NCAA Tournament victory in nearly 20 years.

Unfortunately for coach Tina Langley’s young squad, they’ll have to wait at least one more year. The veteran-laden Golden Eagles were not afraid of the moment, forcing overtime and going on to win by a final score of 58-54. It was Ogwumike herself who seemed to take the loss the hardest after the game. “I think a lot of the things that we messed up were in our hands,” she said, “poise was the thing we were missing toward the end.”

RECAP: Rice women’s basketball drops overtime slugfest to Marquette in NCAA Tournament

Poise. An easy self-possessed assurance of manner according to Merriam Webster. More specifically, the overflowing of the only thing this team was missing entering the NCAA Tournament for their first times — experience. Rice had practiced the situational drills. They knew what to do in every situation. But when Ogwumike hit that fourth quarter three, their collective poise dissipated at the worst possible time.

Credit the Owls with this. They didn’t lose their poise for long. It less than two minutes of game time the 9-0 Marquette run was over. Rice had the basketball with enough time to take the potential game-winning shot. It ricocheted out. The Owls would go on to lose in overtime, an extra period which they probably could have avoided had it not been for the brief lack of composure that allowed Marquette to tie the game.

Learning the hard way

“Any time you have experience, you’re going to learn from it. And we will learn from this game” Langley said in her postgame comments. Those two minutes of uncertainty will stick with this team all offseason and into 2020. They will learn from it, and Langley remains as confident as ever they’re on the right track. “I think the future is very bright,” she added, this is a very young team and really talented team. So we know that we can continue to compete at this level for a long time.”

In overtime, the shots fell for Marquette and not for Rice. The Owls had a few hurried looks, but even their best drawn up possessions ended in layups that bounced off the suddenly miniature basket. Poise or not, a more fortunate bounce here or there could have swung the outcome of this game.

That’s part of what makes this loss so frustrating. Even with the miscues, Rice could have won. “I think it also gives you a little bit of hunger when you’ve had the chance to be there,” Langley explained,” We talked about this in the locker room, how we went from a team that had no post‑season to WBI champions to being in the NIT and NCAA. It is just hard to skip steps in life.”

Perhaps for Rice, this really will be an unskippable, character building step on the journey to something more. The underdog who went toe-to-toe with the Big East regular season champs came up feeling scorned. Like they should be moving on in the Tournament, not going home emptyhanded.

The floor has been raised

Call it a lack of poise. Call it bad luck. Either way, it’s safe to say this season did not end the way Rice had hoped it would, largely because of the stratospheric expectations this program had engendered over the last five months.

Rice set a myriad of program bests, going a perfect 16-0 in conference play, winning 21 games in a row and finishing the season perfect at Tudor Fieldhouse. Ogwumike was named CUSA Player of the Year. Nancy Mulkey was named CUSA Tournament MVP. Lauren Grigsby was named CUSA Sixth Person of the Year.

The reason this team is disappointed in a loss to a Top 20 team is partly because Rice ended the season ranked No. 21 in the AP Poll, the highest rank in school history. A feat in itself considering being ranked in the first place was also a first, achieved by this year’s squad.

The future is bright

The potential of this group of women is astronomical. They proved it all season long, and now they’ll go into the offseason with new experience and an even greater drive. Grigsby, Shani Rainey and Nicole Iademarco will be moving on, but Rice has plenty of pieces to make another run in 2020. And that’s exactly what they plan to do.

“Sometimes you can have a special group of people that can take you a little farther than you anticipate,” Langley said as she wrapped up her postgame thoughts. She wasn’t referring directly to next year’s team, but the undercurrent theme of rising about expectations syncs perfectly with this team’s experience. They did go further than most anticipated. And they’re ready to take the next steps. It’ll just have to wait until 2020.

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WBB: Owls drop NCAA slugfest vs Marquette in OT

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Rice women’s basketball went toe-to-toe with the Big East regular season champion Marquette but came up just short in their first NCAA Tournament game since 2005.

At 1:oo p.m. on Friday afternoon the pregame festivities came to a close and the lights turned on, shining brighter on Rice women’s basketball than they had all year. A scattered crowd of blues, maroons and trace amounts of gold filled Reed Arena in College Station, a host site for the first and second round of the Women’s NCAA Tournament. The ball was tipped, the pageantry was put aside, and Rice went back to what they know best — basketball.

Rice controlled the first tip and, despite being the lower-seeded team, looked every bit the equal of Marquette from the start. Eric Ogwumike opened the scoring with a corner three to give the Owls the lead which they maintained throughout the first 10 minutes of play. Marquette, who averaged 82.9 points per game this season, was held to eight points in the first quarter.

The Golden Eagles leveled the score in the second quarter before taking a one-point advantage into half. Trailing 20-19 at the break, Rice didn’t seem like much on an underdog.  Nancy Mulkey was patroling the paint. The Owls had a host of shooters who’d gotten off to slow starts and Rice looked like they belonged. They just needed to finish.

Down, but not out

For the third game in a row, Rice trailed at halftime. And for the third game in a row, coach Tina Langley’s team made adjustments and executed. Rice started the third quarter on a 6-0 run as both teams heated up from the field. Ogwumike, Mulkey and Sydne Wiggins made some big shots to hold the lead, setting the team up for an all-important fourth quarter.

Rice would extend the lead to as many as nine before Marquette clawed back. Each team had their chance to win the game in regulation. Mulkey blocked Marquette’s last shot in the fourth quarter. That set up an inbound play with less than a second to play. Shani Rainey would get a shot off at the buzzer but it bounced off the rim.

Maquette would take an early lead in overtime and the Rice offense stalled. Eight total points were scored after regulation. Rice made one basket. At the final buzzer, Rice had been outscored for the first time in 2019, 58-54.

An incredible season comes to an end 

Survive and advance is the steady drumbeat of the NCAA Tournament. 64 teams entered. By the end of the day on Saturday, only 32 will be going home. After falling in the first round, the Owls’ season, too, has come to an end. Reaching the big dance is an accomplishment in itself — one that the previous 13 Rice women’s basketball teams had failed to achieve.

The “what if”s and “if only” questions will linger, but those won’t change the tremendous successes this group has accomplished. And they’re not done just yet. The core players on this team are underclassmen. Ogwumike and Mulkey, who combined for 40 points and 17 rebounds with both be back, ready to make another run at a championship in 2020.

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