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Rice Tennis: Trial by fire sets stage for Owls in 2020

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The trial-by-fire approach was painful for two Rice tennis sophomores, but the light at the end of the tunnel paints a reason to retain optimism.

Rice tennis found themselves in uncharted water when they trotted out Campbell Salmon and Karol Paluch as their top two players last fall. Head coach Efe Ustendag was excited about the potential each of those sophomores possessed, but seeing it tested so early as the frontrunners of an injury-plagued roster was decidedly not according to plan.

“We were out of bodies,” Ustendag admitted when asked about his decision to turn to the emerging duo. Reigning C-USA Player of the Year Sumit Sarkar was far from being 100 percent. Several other players were knocked up here and there. The sum total of the various injuries was a roster stretch thin early in the year.

Salmon and Paluch were asked to lead the way. They struggled early. They were noticeably affected by the jump in the level of competition they faced on a weekly basis. The Owls had planned to hit the duo sixth and seventh in the order, not first and second. Bruised but not beaten, the sophomores learned from the experience.

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Ustendag knew he was playing the long game. “I think this is really going to set them up well for the rest of their careers,” he said, seeing the good in a challenging situation.

Those two won’t be left alone to lead the way. Rice loses just one player, senior Eric Rutledge, from their starting rotation next season. They also add incoming freshman Trinity Grear and should have a more experienced version of returning sophomore Wes Barnett.

Next year’s upperclassmen-laden roster will have seen a thing or two in their college playing days. The adversity wasn’t comfortable in the moment, but the far-reaching impact could be very positive.

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Rice Tennis: Tough injury luck leaves Owls wishing for 2019 mulligan

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Injuries derailed the 2019-2020 Rice tennis season before it ever picked up much momentum. The Owls must pick up the pieces and look toward the future.

The 2019-2020 Rice tennis season needed a reboot by the time mid-March arrived. That reset that hit the Owls’ tennis program left no room for course corrections, instead causing the premature end of what had been a frustrating campaign

Reigning C-USA Men’s Player of the Year Sumit Sarkar had battled injuries throughout the fall. So too had fellow junior Jacob Eskeland. Outmanned, Rice battled against an unforgiving schedule that included a spring stretch with three Top 15 teams in the span of a month.

“I felt it would actually be a pretty good year for us,” recalled head coach Efe Ustundag. “We graduated nobody from the starting lineup, especially in singles, so everybody was coming back. We added a stellar freshman we thought was just going to make our entire unit stronger and Conference USA player of the year from the year before Sumit Sarkar [was] returning as a Top 25 collegiate player.”

It’s impossible to boil things down to a single “why” but the injury-riddled fall certainly played a significant role in what had become one of the worst starts of Ustendag’s tenure. Which is what made the March halt all the more disappointing.

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

Rice had turned the corner on the injury front. For the first time in months, the team was able to match its opponents’ top players against its own.

“The record wasn’t stellar,” said Ustendag. “However, the quality of play was getting there and more importantly, we were getting healthy.”

Rice would never get that chance. There was no conference tournament this year and no NCAA Tournament either. The record books have been inked for this 4-8 season, one which was one win away from flipping the script. Sometimes you just have to chalk it up to a bad year and move on.

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Rice Tennis and the Zoom call heard ’round the world

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Rice tennis is adapting to their new normal. Their biggest challenge: how to get an entire international team together for a meeting at the same time.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted college athletics around the world. What should have been the spring season for Rice tennis was tabled just like everything else. Many players returned home, just like members of a slew of other athletic teams.

For many members of Rice tennis, though, home is a bit further than the average Rice athlete. The Owls have two Texans on their 10-man roster, one of which has now graduated and moved on. Of the other eight members (nine counting 2020 signee Trinity Grear), four of them make their homes in the United States. The remainder of the roster consists of international players.

Mohamed Abdel-Aziz is from the United Kingdom. Jacob Eskeland is from Norway. Karol Paluch is from Poland. Salmon Campbell is from Australia. A diverse roster isn’t unusual for the collegiate tennis, but it doesn’t have its challenges when it comes to working remotely.

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

Coach Efe Ustundag has been forced to thread the needle when he wants to schedule time to chat with his entire team. 4:00 p.m. central time has become the window of choice. The team meetings then stretch from 2:00 p.m. local time in San Diego, to 11:00 p.m. local time in Norway and Poland to 7:00 a.m. local time in Melbourne, Australia.

It’s unconventional, especially compared to the hundreds of college sports teams who aren’t meeting simultaneously in the middle of the night and at the crack of dawn. But for Rice tennis, it works.

“A couple of the chats were clearly designed to catch up and let the guys be loose,” Ustundag said. “They haven’t seen each other for a while.” Each is led by a team member or a coach. Topics of the calls have varied widely from tennis specifics to mindfulness and time management.

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CFB Realignment: Where does Rice Football fit when chaos breaks out?

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Realignment is a continual undertone beneath college football. What happens when the dam breaks? And how could that impact Rice football?

Much has been speculated about what the landscape of college sports might look like in the coming years. Regional scheduling, realignment, partial realignment and expansion have all been bandied about in some form or fashion. But what does that mean for Rice football? Where will the Owls stand if and when chaos does shake up the sport?

Conference USA and its potential tipping point

The list of “what ifs” is long, but the bulk of the options revolve around the membership situation on Conference USA. If and when that membership changes, Rice will need to be quick to respond.

If someone leaves C-USA for greener pastures (the AAC or otherwise), the conference will need to decide on new membership. At the extreme, C-USA could proactively initiate a merger of some sort, pairing Rice with more geographically similar schools.

Or more chaotic still, what happens if Conference USA folds? Where would Rice go? Could independence or the FCS ranks be options? Independnce would be challenging, both logistically and financially. Playing in the FCS would require the program to swallow some pride, but the long term optics might return some swagger to the program. It’s hard to say definitively if either would be the “best” option for the Owls.

The truth is, everything would likely be on the table if Rice found themselves suddenly conference-less, including the possibility of the Owls founding a new conference in the midst of the chaos.

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

As mention in the AAC expansion conversation, the best thing for Rice football to do in the present is win. Winning will open doors while losing will close them. TCU didn’t magically arrive in the Big 12. They were in the right time at the right place, waiting to jump through the door as soon as it opened.

Right now there’s no way to know what doors will open or shut for the Owls in the near future. The current climate of the sport suggests an extended run of stability is unlikely.

Conference USA is nowhere near the top of the pecking order. It shares the lower runs with the Sun Belt in terms of prominence and has little cache as a collective. Individual brands and schools are interesting, but the collection of 14 institutions seems more convenient than beloved. There will be change. When and where? No one knows.

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Rice Football: Making the case for AAC Membership

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When AAC football lost UConn to the Big East a potential opening appeared in the conference. What stands in the way of Rice football making the move?

The college sports world seems like it’s careening toward chaos. Programs have been cut. Football season is in doubt. No one is in charge and no one has definite answers regarding what the future will hold. That lack of clarity is time to ask questions. Among them, where does Rice football fit in the college football landscape?

Will Conference USA be the Owls’ forever home or could there be an opportunity to make the move to the ACC in the future?

What stands in the way?

Let’s start a rung higher with the Big 12. Money has been the reason the Big 12 hasn’t expanded since it’s stopgap measure to add TCU and West Virginia. Adding another team would mean splitting the pie in yet another slice. The same rationale is true for the AAC and other conferences as well.

Unless the new member is going to bring enough revenue to make each current member’s slice bigger, the new addition would “cost” the current members money. That’s especially concerning in the current economic climate.

But that’s assuming stability. If the makeup of the membership of the AAC changes further, there could be opportunities to lay claim to a spot. And if for any reason the Big 12 went through a change in its membership and began looking toward the AAC, the ensuing musical chairs that followed might benefit Rice.

What if, for instance, Houston finally got the call? Wouldn’t the AAC consider replenishing its ties to the Houston market by adding Rice?

Why it makes sense

When UConn left the AAC was left with 11 football members. The conference had an easy opportunity to pursue expansion at that time, but chose not to do so. The 11-member schedule scraps divisions, creating a modified round-robin style of scheduling, or at least that’s the purported plan.

Rice will surely tout its academic prestige as a reason for admission. The Owls would easily sit atop the conference in that regard. Adding that widely accepted asset with a strong narrative on the field could get the Owls a seat at the table when the madness starts.

What does Rice need to do now?

If Mike Bloomgren can take Rice football to a few consecutive bowl games and push for a C-USA title over the next couple of seasons, selling the story of an up-and-coming program in a top national market becomes a little easier. For Rice, winning will be the prerequisite for any vertical ascent.

Stability is no longer the norm, especially not for college sports. Changes to the conference landscapes are coming. Rice could do a lot to bolster their attractiveness by winning, and winning now. Strong academic and strong athletics sell. Rice has half of that covered and has done extremely well in other sports like volleyball and women’s basketball.

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

If football joins the ascent, Rice could have a chance. At this point, it would still be a sizable jump, but what seams feasible in today’s climate could change drastically from what made sense yesterday. For the time being, win.

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