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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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Rice Tennis: Sumit Sarkar resilient through adversity

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Rice Tennis junior Sumit Sarkar fought through injuries and still managed a productive season. The future remains bright for the Owls’ ace.

Sumit Sarkar had been a rock for the program since he arrived in the spring of 2018. During his freshman season, he recorded the only singles win by a Rice tennis player over a ranked opponent. As a sophomore, he was named C-USA Men’s Player of the Year, the first Rice player to receive that distinction since Bruno Rosa in 2010. The 2019-2020 season was supposed to be a springboard for future success, but things never quite materialized.

The summer started off well for Sarkar. Following the NCAA Tournament, he played a number of international events that ran into July. Then a late-summer injury altered the course of his Rice season. He rehabbed in August and played in a few national tournaments, but he wasn’t back to playing at his best. Winning matches is hard enough when healthy.

Sarkar fought through it and found some success, going 6-3 from the top spot in the lineup during the season. But according to coach Efe Ustendag, Sarkar was never quite back to 100 percent.

Adjustments and improvements to his game which the two had hoped to work on this year were tabled. The 2019-2020 season became solely about getting him back onto the court and healthy, somewhat stunting any developmental goals he might have had for himself.

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

Ironically, his healthiest stretch of the season came as the campaign itself was halted. “He’s healthy right now,” Ustendag said with a laugh. “But we’re just sitting.”

When the season ended he stayed in Houston to finish the semester, looking forward to an opportunity to get back to tennis. Sarkar will be back on the court soon enough. When that will be remains to be seen, but his impact on the team will be the same, greater even, with more than enough time to recover.

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Rice Baseball: Owls making progress on the recruiting front

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Rice Baseball continues to score big wins on the recruiting front, turning an unexpected early offseason into a stepping stone toward future success.

The abrupt end to the 2020 Rice Baseball season came amidst a tough string of weeks, both in sports and in the country. Instead of spending his Friday evenings at the ballpark, he was at home like the rest of the country. But, just like he’s always done, he kept working.

“The positive is, from my standpoint, [is that we’re] still working, still trying to get better,” he said during a conversation this spring after the season had been cut short. “It’s not a ‘take a vacation for the next 30 days”, he continued. “There’s work to be done.”

Winning recruiting battles has been one of those advantages the Owls have found over the prolonged break from baseball. One need look no further than the social media feeds of assistant coaches Cory Barton and Paul Janish, who have chronicled the Owls’ ascent with Janish’s favorite #Hootem hashtag and Owl gif:

Some of the players in question have been made public, some have remained secret. But the latest addition turned heads on the national stage when it was announced by Kendall Rogers of D1 Baseball: former Ole Miss signee Connor Walsh will transfer to Rice.

Walsh was the No. 27 ranked player in the nation coming out of high school. His expectations at the collegiate level were, and remain, sky high. But his debut had to wait longer than expected. He didn’t see the field for the Rebels last season, but his absence from the lineup card wasn’t his doing. He was tucked away behind stud shortstop Anthony Servideo, who hit .390 during the 17-game season.

Podcast: Former Rice Baseball star Anthony Rendon talks extended offseason

Current shortstop Trei Cruz is seen as an obvious MLB Draft selection. Should he leave the program for the pros this offseason, Walsh would step in as his replacement. Adding Walsh is the latest in an extremely productive extended offseason. By the time Rice baseball returns to the diamond they’ll be in much better shape.

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