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What is Rice Basketball getting in Rob Lanier? March 2024 Q&A

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Rice Basketball has a new head coach. Rob Lanier “won the press conference”, but what will he bring to the Owls on the court?

Introductory press conferences are always exciting days. New coaches bring with them new energy and excitement. That was true for Rice basketball and its new headman Rob Lanier on Tuesday. But what does Lanier bring on the basketball court? That was the nature of our Patreon question we’re focusing on for this month’s Q&A.

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Q: Rob Lanier’s introductory press conference was exciting, but what exactly is he going to bring to the table as a coach? Are we sure he can win like he said he would?

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Rice Baseball falls to SHSU in midweek bout

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Rice Baseball saw a five-game winning streak over Sam Houston snapped on Tuesday, falling in Huntsville by the score of 6-2.

The first two Rice baseball hitters reached base on Tuesday against Sam Houston, but only one of them came in to score with the second stranded at third base. That inability to push runs across despite having chances would prove to be the theme of the night in a game that was low-scoring until the home team broke things open in the middle innings.

Rice led 1-0 after one inning. It wasn’t until the fourth frame that Sam Houston was able to tie the game on a throwing error on a dropped third strike. Things slowly began to unravel from there. The Bearkats scored two in the fifth and three in the sixth, doing the bulk of their damage against Garrett Stratton and Tom Vincent after start Robert Fernandez was charged with three unearned runs in 4.2 innings of work.

Last Time Out: Rice Baseball wins one of three against Tulane

Trailing 6-1 after six, the Owls didn’t have much of a response. Brendan Cumming tacked on an additional run in the ninth to narrow the deficit by a slim margin but the result was the same, a loss, which snapped a five-game winning streak for Rice in their all-time series against Sam Houston.

What it means | Converting Opportunities

It’s hard to boil an entire game down to one statistic, but on Tuesday night there was one glaring gap in the numbers that had an outsized impact on the game. Sam Houston hit .143 on the night, but a staggering .429 (3-0f-7) with runners in scoring position. Two of those three big hits came in the sixth inning when Sam Houston hung a three spot on the board, doubling their lead and putting Rice away.

In comparison, Rice hit an equally uninspiring .188 for the game but just .143 (1-of-7) with runners in scoring position. Looked at another way, Sam Houston converted two more run-scoring opportunities than Rice did and Sam Houston won the ball game. Rice stranded seven base runners, including two in the sixth, two in the eighth and one in the ninth.

Both sides had their chances. The one that took advantage of them won.

ON DECK | at Wichita State (Thr-Sat)

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Rob Lanier checks every box for Rice Basketball

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Rice Basketball has its next head coach, officially naming Rob Lanier to the position on Tuesday after a whirlwind search that concluded rapidly.

Twelve days ago Athletic Director Tommy McClelland met with assembled media and announced Rice basketball was making a leadership change, embarking on a national search immediately. Interviews began as the shortlist was whittled down. Then a curveball came: Rob Lanier “became available”. Two days later he and McClelland were in contact. On Tuesday, he was introduced.

The last week has been a blur. Lanier admitted as much, but the end result might just be a tremendous advance for everyone involved. “I didn’t see this coming,” Lanier said of his dismissal at SMU. “But there’s a reason why I was attracted to this as soon as the name was mentioned. I didn’t imagine it would happen, but I couldn’t have been happier that it did.”

McClelland quickly came to the same conclusion, summing up the hiring on Tuesday like this: “One thing became very clear to be during these conversations, that Rob Lanier the right fit, the right person, the right coach and the right visionary leader we had been looking for from the very beginning.”

Lanier will bring with him top assistant Chris Kreider, who previously served as an assistant at Rice from 2017 to 2019 before joining Lanier’s staff at Georgia State and eventually moving with him to SMU. Lanier’s son, Emory, will also join the team for his final season of eligibility. Emory was one of eight players to play in every game for the Mustangs last season.

As for the decision to pull the trigger and hire Lanier, McClelland acted with intentionality. He made a list, he said, the day the search began. He disclosed the items on that list on Tuesday, describing what his ideal candidate would look like:

  • A person of high integrity
  • A driven leader with an intensity for developing winning culture
  • A coach with a clear identity regarding style of play
  • An emphasis on community involvement, campus, alumni and Houston
  • Proven head coach experience
  • A program builder
  • Texas ties
  • Private school experience

As he sums it up, “These qualities and attributes aligned with coach Lanier, his character, how he leads his program and what he has accomplished in his career has led me to this day,” the announcement of Lanier as the program’s next head coach.

A few additional segments of the press conference are featured below. The full version is available here:

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BREAKING: Rice Basketball hires Rob Lanier as next head coach

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Rice basketball has named Rob Lanier as its next head coach. Lanier brings more than 30 years of collegiate coaching experience to South Main.

Lanier was most recently the head coach of SMU this past season. He led SMU to a 20-13 record, including 11-7 in AAC play. One of those wins came at Tudor Fieldhouse where Laniers’ Mustangs blasted Rice basketball 95-69. Athletic Director Tommy McClelland evidently was impressed with what he saw, hiring Lanier a little more than a month later.

Prior to arriving at SMU, Lanier spent three seasons at Georgia State. He went 53-30 there, taking the Panthers to the NCAA Tournament in the 2022 season before being hired at SMU. Lanier also had a prior stint at Siena where he took the Saints to the NCAA Tournament in 2002.

In between his head coaching stops, Lanier served as an assistant at Virginia, Florida, Texas and Tennessee. He’s worked under prominent head coaches in the sport such as Rick Barnes and Billy Donovan, among others.

Lanier’s dismissal was a surprise to many in the industry. He wasn’t a free agent long. He takes over for Scott Pera who was relieved of his duties just 10 days before Lanier’s appointment. The university has a formal introductory press conference planned for Tuesday. More details to come.

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Rice Baseball drops Tulane series but notches first-ever AAC win

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Although they dropped the series to Tulane two games to one, Rice baseball was able to salvage the finale and earn its first-ever AAC win.

FRIDAY | Tulane 14 – Rice 7 (11 innings)

Treyton Rank got Rice baseball off to the right foot on Friday night. His first big hit came in the third inning, a double to left center which put the Owls in front 2-0. Just two innings later, a triple gave the home team a 4-0 advantage. A big lead with Parker Smith on the mound had Rice feeling good, but trouble loomed as soon as Smith left the game.

Last Time Out: Rice Baseball drops Silver Glove Series to Houston

Tulane forced Smith to exit in the sixth, scoring two runs credited to his ledger in the frame. The Green Wave tied it up in the seventh then took a 6-4 lead in the eighth. Jacob Devenny leveled the score with a clutch, two-out single in the eighth. The score stayed there for a while until the 11th inning. Garrett Stratton lost command and loaded the bases before ceding the mound to Jack Ben-Shoshan, who was battered and left with a large deficit and no outs recorded.

SATURDAY | Tulane 10 – Rice 1

JD McCracken labored through 5.2 innings on Saturday, working through base runners to give Rice a chance, allowing just three runs (all unearned) on six hits and four walks. The offense gave him one run of support while he was on the mound, a solo home run in the fifth from Jack Riedel.

McCracken gave way to Mauricio Rodriguez who got out of the sixth inning without further damage then allowed one run in the seventh before things went south in the eighth. Tulane struck for five in the inning, expanding their lead to 9-1 against the Owls who didn’t manage any additional runs for the afternoon, falling 10-1.

SUNDAY | Rice 4 – Tulane 2

Little by little, Rice built a lead in the series finale. An RBI groundout from Nathan Becker put Rice in front in the first, then a fielder’s choice and a single from Kyte McDonald added two more to the Owls’ total in second inning before Becker pushed the Rice lead to 4-0 with a single in the fifth.

As the bats methodically tacked on runs, the pitching trio of Tucker Alch, Ryland Urbanczyk and Tyler Hamilton were able to limit the Tulane bats, which had vexed the Owls’ relievers throughout much of the weekend. Hickson entered in the ninth inning to slam the door, notching the first-ever American Conference win for Rice baseball.

THREE FOR THE ROAD

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1. Fridays have to be for the Owls

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ON DECK | at Sam Houston (Tues), at Wichita State (Thr-Sat)

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