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The Roost Podcast | Ep 106 – Pressing questions for Rice Football this spring

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Rice Football spring practices kicked off this week. As the Owls hit the grass, this episode focuses on what we want to see from the team this spring.

Spring camp kicked off on Tuesday, March 8. Rice football was back on the field. As with every set of spring practices, there will be plenty of items to address and questions the team and fans have regarding the program. In this week’s episode of The Roost Podcast, we dive into which items are of the most concern and debate the likelihood that we get answers to those important issues over the next several weeks.

Disclaimer: Yes, there was some important Transfer Portal news that happened to break right after we taped this show… we’ll get to that on the next episode and have some comments on Patreon soon.

You can find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, give a listen to Episode 106.

Episode Notes

  • Housekeeping
    • Don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice. Every little bit helps.
    • Please support us on Patreon. Be the first to get the inside scoop on what’s going on with Rice football and stick around for even further analysis. That includes updates from spring practices and more. Your support matters and makes The Roost better.
      Become a Patron!
  • 2022 Rice Football Spring Camp – We talk about recent news items around the team and the hot-button items we’re most concerned about this spring and how likely those issues find answers, including:
    • Changes to the coaching staff
    • Future scheduling changes: Owls swap BYU for UConn in 2023
    • Position changes and key names to watch
    • Areas of the most concern on both sides of the ball
    • Offensive identity and what we want to see this spring

Where can you find us?

Download and subscribe to The Roost Podcast on any of your favorite podcast providers. The show is available on iTunes, GooglePlay, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn and PodBean. Please consider leaving a review wherever you listen.

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

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Rice Women’s Basketball’s Cinderella run halted by Charlotte

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For the first time in nearly a month, Rice Women’s Basketball lost in regulation, falling to Charlotte in the Conference USA Tournament.

Once sitting at 0-5 in conference play, Rice women’s basketball found themselves disappointed when they fell to No. 1 seed Charlotte in the third round of the Conference USA Tournament on Thursday afternoon. The Owls had battled the 49ers to the wire, leading roughly midway through the fourth quarter but were unable to close things out.

“I think if you had told me that a month ago, I’d have been like, okay, great,” head coach Lindsay Edmonds said in the aftermath. “Today, to be in it and to be so close. [I’m] not into a lot of moral victories so I would have liked to have seen that go the other way.”

It almost did. Rice women’s basketball led by as many as nine points in the first half, doing a tremendous job of keeping the Charlotte offense out of sync. The Owls fell out of rhythm themselves in the third quarter, but were able to settle down, buoyed by three-pointers from Maya Bokunewicz and Ashlee Austin, and keep the game within striking distance right up to the fourth quarter.

Last Time Out: Malia Fisher’s big day lifts Rice Women’s Basketball past Marshall

Trailing by four with 28 seconds to go, Rice would gather three offensive rebounds in the next possession, but none of their putback attempts would fall through the irons. Charlotte would take over, knock down a few more free throws and close it out.

“[I’m] just really proud of them, proud of their effort, proud of their fight,” Edmonds said. “There were times in this game we could have hung our heads, but we didn’t. That’s not who we are. That’s not what we’re about.”

Player Spotlight | Destiny Jackson

Jackson might not have received the accolades or attention some of her fellow young teammates have, but her impact on this basketball team cannot go unnoticed. She’s the glue on offense and led the team on Thursday with 14 points while still contributing a team-high four assists, nabbing four steals and finishing with six rebounds. When she’s productive this team is better. She was great against the 49ers.

Stat Corner | Free throw discrepancies

Both teams featured eerily similar box scores in this contest. They tied with 37 rebounds apiece. Rice had 14 turnovers, Charlotte had 15. Neither shot particularly well, with that shooting lull spilling into the fourth quarter. Free throws were the difference. Charlotte attempted 25 free throws to Rice’s 11 shots from the charity stripe. Had the Owls gotten to the line a few more times this game really could have gone either way.

Final Box | Charlotte 59 – Rice 53

Up Next |

Part of Edmonds’ postgame message was a rallying cry. “I told them I don’t want the season to be over with yet and that their mindset should still be locked in on basketball and continuing to play,” she said. They deserve to continue to play. The way we’ve been playing, they deserve to continue to play.”

Rice will receive consideration from the WNIT, who Edmonds said had been to see Rice play as well as the WBI. Either way, some sort of postseason berth seems like for this team, which ends the regular season as winners of seven of their last nine.

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

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Rice Basketball bounced by North Texas in CUSA Tournament

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In a game that never felt close, Rice basketball saw its Conference USA Tournament run come to a close in a blowout loss to favorite North Texas.

“Playing with house money” is the phrase Rice basketball head coach Scott Pera used when previewing Thursday night’s game against North Texas when he met with his team following the Owls’ opening win of the Conference USA Tournament over Charlotte. He knew the odds were stacked against his team against the league’s No. 1 squad. He was right.

North Texas hit Rice hard from the jump, converting their first nine two-point shots. Whether it was Max Fiedler or Myljael Poteat inside, Rice had no answer in the paint. At the same time, Rice struggled to get into any sort of offensive rhythm against Conference USA’s best defensive squad.

“We didn’t bring our A-game and that’s what happens,” Pera said, summing up a rough two hours of basketball in one quaint refrain.

Last Time Out: Rice Basketball pounds the paint, tops Charlotte in CUSA Tourney

Trailing 14-9 in the first half, the Owls sputter became a slump.  A 14-0 North Texas run spanned part of a 10 minute, 34-second streak in which Rice didn’t hit a single field goal. They missed all eight of their shots during that time. By the time Max Fiedler finally got the Owls a bucket, the North Texas lead had ballooned to 20 points. Rice would go into halftime down by 18.

Rice wouldn’t find any relief after the break. Beat up and, as Pera put it without “a ton of juice”, things spiraled. North Texas’ first three field goals of the second half were three-pointers, giving them six triples to the Owls’ singular made three.

With the edge on the boards, in the paint and from distance, there wasn’t much Rice was able to do to fight back. North Texas would sprint through the half, closing out their third win of the season over Rice in convincing fashion.

Player Spotlight | Mylyjael Poteat

Poteat subbed in quickly once it became clear North Texas would have its way on the interior of both sides of the court. He struggled at times against the Mean Green, too, but finished with a team-high 10 points and four rebounds, missing time with an apparent injury suffered on his way to the basket. On a night filled with misses, Poteat made 4-of-5 and remains a bright spot for the future.

Stat Corner | Two

There were a myriad of stats that went against the Owls in a game that got away from them rather quickly. Perhaps the most fitting was the Owls’ hallmark measure: three-point shots. Rice made just two three-point shots, a season-low. They’d been held to three or fewer triples by just one other opponent this season, fittingly, North Texas who had held them to three apiece in each of their previous meetings.

Final Box | North Texas 58 – Rice 50

Up Next |

The Conference USA Tournament loss marks the end of all currently scheduled games for Rice basketball. As things currently stand, they’ll be in the mix for postseason action. Details of if the Owls make any field and who/when they’ll play next will be made available in the coming days.

Pera said he believes there might still be a postseason spot for this team. “Any time we can late in March in this program, that’s the goal. That’s what we’re striving to do,” he said of any potential postseason bid. “We’ll be exciting as heck to get that opportunity.”

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Rice Baseball drops first Silver Glove matchup vs Houston

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Shaky defense soured a productive evening for the Rice baseball offense as the Owls fell to Houston in Game 1 of the Silver Glove Series.

The recent string of strange, painful games accumulated by Rice baseball this season continued on Tuesday night. Amidst a backdrop of errors and missed opportunities, Parker Smith delivered a strong performance, eventually be saddled with five runs, although only three were earned.

The drama began on what should have been a routine fly-ball hit to left fielder Jack Ben-Shoshan in the first inning. Instead of out number two, the ball bounced off his glove and put two runners in scoring position. Both would come in to score, spotting the visiting Cougars to a 2-0 lead.

Last Time Out : Takeaways from Rice Baseball 3-1 series loss to Harvard

Rice would leave the bases loaded in the second before loading them once more in the third inning, despite not tallying any hits. Aaron Smigelski would take care of that evasive base knock, delivering a two-run double to spot Rice to a 3-2 lead. That advantage would last mere minutes before Houston found the equalizer in the fourth when a would-be base stealer would score from second on a pair of errors.

Soon after, Rice found themselves trailing 5-3 and began to chip away. Rice scored would engineer runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, tying things up with Houston 6-6 after the Owls allowed another unearned run following another outfield mishap.

On the mound, Garrett Zaskoda was extremely effective after taking the reigns from Cooper Chandler in his first relief appearance of the season. Zaskoda tied a career-high with four strikeouts, giving the team a fighting chance in the middle innings which they’d hold until an RBI double scored the winning runs against Zaskoda’s replacement, Brandon Deskins, in the eighth.

What they’re saying | Fix the fielding

Head coach Jose Cruz Jr. was quick to praise the strong outings on the mound, giving nods to several individuals including Chandler, who essentially threw his midweek bullpen session in the game. The critical comments came when addressing the fielding woes. “I don’t know how you can possibly have five errors and win a game,” he said. “That’s just something that we’re going to have to fix. The amount of errors we’ve had in so many games is just unacceptable.”

Cruz Jr. went as far as to say he’d consider moving players to the bench if they couldn’t hold on to the baseball. At this point, everything is on the table as he and the rest of the coaching staff work to assemble the best starting lineup to win games.

“We had three errors in the outfield today and that’s crazy town. I mean, that doesn’t happen,” Cruz Jr. said. Indeed, it hasn’t happened for Rice baseball since an eight error game against Arizona in 2019, spread across a host of different position players.

What it means | Offense waking up?

Seven runs against anyone is a particularly important milestone for a team that’s struggled at the plate early this season. Tuesday was proof the Owls can get the bats going. Now they just need to do it consistently.

They might start working on a bust of Aaron Smigeliski to keep in the Rice baseball dugout. After pinch hits in his first two appearances of the season, Smigelski earned his spot in the regular lineup where he stayed until being hit by a pitch in the Sunday finale against Lamar. That injury kept him out of the lineup against Baylor and through the weekend series against Harvard.

He made his return to the order on Tuesday, walking in his first plate appearance to earn an eight-game on-base streak. He one-upped that accolade in his second plate appearance, blasting a double to the alley in right-center, turning a 2-1 Rice deficit into a 3-2 Rice lead. It was the Owls’ only hit of the first three innings, but it was the biggest. He also added a productive out to advance a runner in the seventh.

At a time when the bats around him were struggling, Smigelski made every trip to the plate count, going 2-for-4 with 2 RBI. In all seriousness, it’ll take more than a good couple of weeks to earn some tangible hardware. But in a season filled with lows for Rice baseball, Smigelski has been a bright light.

Jack Riedel also earned a mention. Despite not starting the game and coming in as a defensive replacement in the fourth inning he finished a triple short of the cycle, mashing his first career home run along the way.

ON DECK | Texas Tech

The extended Rice baseball homestand marches on this coming weekend with a three-game set against Texas Tech. First pitch for Friday is set for 6:30 p.m. The series will be the Owls’ final non-conference weekend slate before opening up conference play the following weekend against UAB.

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

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Rice Football to hire CJ Anderson as running backs coach

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All signs point to Rice football naming former Super Bowl 50 champion and All-Pro rusher CJ Anderson as its next running backs coach.

Just days away from the start of spring practice, Rice football will have a new face to introduce among its coaching ranks. Former NFL running back CJ Anderson has announced he will be joining the Owls’ staff as the running backs coach.

Anderson spent last season as the head coach at Monte Vista High School in California where his team went 7-3. MVHS won its first seven games of the season after gaining winless during the previous spring season.

A Pro Bowl selection in 2014 and Super Bowl 50 champion, Anderson brings a weighty resume to the running backs room at South Main. He rushed for 1,007 yards in 2017 and also helped lead the Los Angeles rams to the NFC Championship game in 2018.

Head coach Mike Bloomgren has always preached having an NFL Curriculum. Bringing a player like Anderson who has done it at the highest level fits that bill.

More: Rice football adds 2023 game with UConn

Anderson will fill the final coaching spot vacated earlier this offseason by Robbie Picazo, who had served as the Owls’ running back coach for the past two seasons.

Picazo accepted a role as an offensive assistant with the Houston Texans under their new head coach Lovie Smith. Up until this point, he had been one of the longest-tenured Rice assistants, originally coming with Bloomgren from Stanford.

Rice begins spring practice on March 8.

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Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

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