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Rice Tennis: Culture the tone-setter for Owls’ post-pandemic

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Rice tennis fought through a challenging 2019-2020 season. The lessons learned in the tough campaign will pay off for the Owls in the future.

The injury-filled fall and the abruptly ended spring did no favors to Rice tennis. Despite the hard hand they were dealt last season, Rice is doubling down on its future.

Rice will have four seniors and four juniors on their roster next season, leaving just two underclassmen. Retaining a group of young players that have seen as much of the court as the Owls’ elder statesmen should be a huge step up from the competition for multiple reasons, but none ring truer than culture.

No one knows when the sports world will return back to “normal”. What we do know, however, is those programs starting from “square one” will be dealt an incalculably more challenging task. New coaches and players will be at an inherent disadvantage.

As tough as the 2019-2020 season was for Rice, the fortitude and endurance developed over the course of the hard year are already beginning to pay off. Those who played key roles this season will be better off and will carry what they’ve learned into next season. It took strain, but Rice tennis has developed a resilient culture that will steer them into the future.

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Head coach Efe Ustendag emphatically declared “the team is in good position” entering the fall. the bonds established from strenuous seasons, both on and off the cour, have drawn the team together while apart. Whenever Rice tennis returns, they’ll be given an opportunity to put this past season in the rear view mirror. Several members of this team remember winning the conference tournament as recently as 2017.

Rice will also have the added advantage of not having to force its younger, less-proven players to carry the load by themselves. A healthy roster that’s been through the ringer will pay off in the long run. Whenever the Owls get back on the court, they’ll be ready.

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Rice Athletics has flexibility with scholarships for spring sports seniors

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Rice Athletics is working through the scholarship situation for seniors in spring sports. Decisions will ultimately be made on an individual basis.

Most agreed that granting an additional year of eligibility for spring sport athletes impacted by the COVID-19 shutdowns was the right thing to do. Somewhat surprisingly, the NCAA held up their end of the bargain. On March 30, the NCAA D1 Council voted to enact a proposal to do just that, with a caveat. The level of financial aid a senior student receives in their “extra” season would be left up to the discretion of the institution.

Essentially, everyone was approved for an extra year of eligibility but they might have to pay their way, or at least most of it, themselves.

That’s a particularly important distinction considering the scholarship situation in spring sports. At Rice, Women’s Tennis is the only sport in which scholarships are distributed on a headcount basis. Baseball, for instance, splits up its allotted scholarship pool across the players on its roster.

The Roost Podcast: Listen now to our Extended Offseason Interview Series

For instance, any player receiving scholarship funds could still be responsible for paying the majority of his expenses. The cost for a student to play one more season, in that scenario, would be the cost of a full fall semester as well as whatever portion of the spring semester that wasn’t covered by any scholarship dollars. That adds up, particularly at a private school like Rice where the cost of attendance is steep.

Only a few dozen athletes fall into this group. Some have already chosen to move on, taking jobs after graduation. Others are still weighing their options. Given all of those factors, the administration has reached out to spring sport seniors to gauge their interest. Rice intends to work with those student-athletes who intend to return on an individual basis. This won’t be a one-size-fits-all solution.

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Rice Football: Owls cautious with return to campus plans

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Rice football decision-makers are currently evaluating a plan to return to campus. When that will be and what it will look like remain to be seen.

The future of college football is as uncertain now as its ever been, but a light has seemingly appeared on the horizon. The NCAA opened the door for college athletes to return to campus in June. That decision came after nearly a 3-month hiatus from all university athletic facilities. What that looks like, and when it will occur, vary from conference to conference and school to school.

The SEC opted for a uniform decision. League presidents voted to allow athletes to return to campus starting June 8 for voluntary workouts. Conference USA has left it up to each member institution. The Houston Cougars open their facilities across town for their student-athletes on June 1.

The ramifications of decisions of this kind rose to the forefront quickly. Three Marshall players tested positive for COVID-19 upon their return to campus. Outside of Conference USA, five Alabama players tested positive for the virus after interacting with roughly 50 players who had also returned to campus.

The Roost Podcast: Listen now to our Extended Offseason Interview Series

On May 29, Rice Athletic Director Joe Karlgaard issued an update on the Owls’ decision-making process in that area:

Speaking of return to campus, the NCAA has approved student-athletes to return to their respective campuses on a voluntary basis beginning June 1. We have not yet set a date for our own return to campus and will work with Rice leadership to ensure we can bring back our staff and student-athletes as safely as possible. We remain on track to begin our fall sports seasons on time, but with a rapidly changing and fluid situation, we are also prepared to make calendar adjustments as necessary.

The Owls are going to be cautious about this. The positive test results from other schools add to the reason for concern.

“We have to make the best decisions that we can when we’re required to make them with the information we have on hand knowing that information could change tomorrow,” Karlgaard said following the release. He added that he feels “really good about where we are and our approach.”

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The Roost Podcast | Ep. 36 – Christian Covington and Marvel Movie Draft

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The Roost Podcast has its first return guest. Christian Covington joins Matthew and Carter for a Marvel Cinematic Universe Movie Draft.

The Extended Offseason interview series has covered a lot of ground. Over the past several weeks there have been several entertaining conversations that happened to take place after the mics have turned off, prompting us to bring one guest on for a second appearance and detour away from sports for an hour.

It turns out former Rice football defensive lineman Christian Covington is a huge Marvel fan. After spending some time arguing about the best MCU movies we decided to have a draft and put the results to a vote.

You can always find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, give a listen to our chat with Christian Covington on Episode 36 and make sure to cast your vote on Twitter.


Episode 36 Notes

  • Housekeeping — Thanks to all of you who have followed the show on Twitter and left a review on iTunes. It’s quick, but it makes a difference. Make sure you Christian Covington on Twitter and let him know if you enjoyed having him on the pod.
  • Christian Covington joins the show — The first return guest on the podcast catches us up on his offseason and dives into the depths of the MCU. Get the commentary and breakdown on the show.

If you could only choose one group of movies to watch, which would it be?

Carter’s Box Office

  • Thor: Ragnarok
  • Captain America: The Winter Soldier
  • Spider-Man: Far From Home
  • Black Panther
  • Captain Marvel
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
  • Avengers: Age of Ultron

Christian’s Box Office

  • Avengers: Infinity War
  • Guardians of the Galaxy
  • Marvel’s The Avengers
  • Captain America: Civil War
  • Ant-Man
  • Iron Man 2
  • The Incredible Hulk

Matthew’s Box Office

  • Avengers: Endgame
  • Iron Man
  • Captain America: The First Avenger
  • Doctor Strange
  • Spider-Man: Homecoming
  • Thor
  • Ant-Man and the Wasp

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.

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Conference USA to trim schedules for basketball and Olympic sports

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Conference USA will shorten regular season play and alter the postseason structure for several sports, beginning this fall.

The financial ramifications of the COVID-19 shutdown made it clear changes were coming to Conference USA schedules and those modifications are beginning to take shape. This week Stadium’s Brett McMurphy reported the men’s and women’s basketball tournament would be reduced from 12 teams to 8 along with other reductions.

The Denton Record-Chronicle’s Brett Vito has provided further details:

The league made several other changes, including:

  • The tournament field in volleyball will be cut from eight to four with the top-seeded team hosting the event. The regular season will be reduced from 14 to 13 games.
  • The number of regular season games in women’s soccer will be cut from 10 to six, a move that will allow programs to schedule more regional nonconference games and reduce travel costs.
  • The number of conference games in softball will be trimmed from 24 to 15, a move that will also allow for more regional nonconference scheduling.
  • The travel squads in track and field, cross country and swimming will also be reduced.

In addition to those changes, the baseball tournament will move from a neutral site to team venues. Rice will host at Reckling Park in 2023.

The reported changes align with expectations. Travel budgets are going to be tight in 2020 and into the next several seasons, at least. Seeing the total number of conference games decrease makes sense.

Adopting a model akin to the Ivy League where regular-season conference champions received any postseason bids in lieu of playing a conference tournament was on the table. The conference stopped short of changes that drastic, but the cutbacks detailed above are still sizable.

The Roost Podcast: Listen now to our Extended Offseason Interview Series

How this plays out remains to be seen and could hinge on which games replace former league games. The more teams able to swap games against distance conference foes with in-state rivalries, the better. For Rice, this likely means adding more competitions against teams like Houston, Texas State and SMU. That, of course, will be contingent to some extent on changes to other conferences’ schedules. Getting dates with Texas and Texas A&M should be on the radar as well.

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