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Rice Basketball: Glue-guy Drew Peterson has become one of Owls’ leaders

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Rice basketball has gone through a transformation on and off the court this season. Drew Peterson has been one of the men leading the charge.

The 2019-2020 Rice Basketball season has bounced from high to low and back again. In the midst of those oscillating waves of success and failure, Drew Peterson has been at the center of a team learning to compete at a consistent level. A role player for head coach Scott Pera as a true freshman last year, Peterson has settled into a leadership role with this year’s squad.

In an interview in the early weeks of conference play, Peterson spoke of the changes he’s seen in his own game — changes that have continued throughout the season. “I feel more comfortable out there,” Peterson said. “I’m really trying to slow the game down. I think that’s the biggest thing between this [year] and last year. I was so fast-paced last year and I was chaotic. And now I can really see the whole floor and sit and read situations. I feel really comfortable out there.”

That comfort has translated to more time on the court. Peterson eclipsed 30 minutes once last season. He’s been on the court for at least 30 minutes in 16 of the Owls’ 27 games this season, playing 38+ minutes three times in conference play.

Pera says Peterson’s newfound confidence has turned him into a creator for the Owls’ offense. Pera called Peterson “a unique player because he’s got that size [and] vision and as he continues to be more aggressive he can make plays for us.”

For Peterson, those plays haven’t necessarily meant more scoring for himself. His 10.1 points per game average rank fourth on the team. Instead, he’s freed up others to make easier shots. Peterson has six or more assists in four of his last five outings. His 91 assists this season are Top 10 in Conference USA. His teammates have noticed the difference.

Owls’ leading scorer Trey Murphy credits Peterson for a portion of his success. “He’s been rebounding, getting assists for guys, creating his own shot, and I commend him for it. He gives me a lot of open layups when I cut.”

That’s been the most noticeable difference in Peterson’s game. He’s still rough around the edges. His improvisation has led to occasional turnover struggles that have put the Owls in tough positions. But more often than not, Peterson sets his team up for success rather than failure. The consistency should only improve as he grows into his role as a leader for Rice basketball.

Peterson’s hand will be needed now more than ever. Rice basketball was assigned to the lowest pod for the final four games of the season. Rice is in elimination mode. If they don’t edge two of UTEP, Middle Tennessee and Southern Miss down the stretch, their season is over. Peterson has come a long way. It’s time for him to elevate his game one more time.

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College Football transfer rules could be changing soon

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Changes could be coming to the college football transfer rules. The NCAA could enable one-time transfer exemptions for all sports as soon as April.

There have been rumblings of changes to the NCAA transfer policy for some time. Those ideas have reemerged recently in the national discourse. The Big Ten got things rolling in earnest a few weeks ago by announcing their support of a “one-time transfer exemption.” That policy, if enacted, would allow athletes competing in any sport to transfer to another school without being forced to sit out a year as a penalty.

A more open transfer policy is already in place in all Division 1 sports with five notable exceptions: football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, baseball and men’s ice hockey. This new proposal would bring those five spots into alignment with the rest of collegiate athletics.

The ACC quickly followed suit:

With two Power 5 conferences in support of a revised policy, the NCAA stepped in. They provided a few clarifications to the proposals, announcing potential conditions for a new rule. This proposal, created by a working group, could be enacted as quickly as April of this year. If that were to be the case, the rule would be in place before the beginning of the 2020 football season.

If the transfer rules were indeed relaxed, some language could be added to the rules to account for the fluctuation in players from school to school. The biggest change would revolve around the size of annual signing classes, currently capped at 25 players per year. Transfers currently count against that number.

So how does this impact Rice football?

The short answer is I’m not sure. I’m cognizant of the fears that Power 5 programs will all of a sudden swoop in and steal away all of the top talent from Group of 5 programs.

But let’s not pretend that’s not a threat as things currently stand. And the mobility isn’t limited upward. Rice signed six graduate transfers last year and three more this year, the majority of which came from Power 5 schools. They’ve not taken many regular transfers under head coach Mike Bloomgren, instead, they’ve relying on the JUCO and grad transfer markets.

Rice has seen several players enter the Transfer Portal this offseason. It’s reasonable to believe that a more lax transfer policy would see that number increase. But the doom and gloom preached by some seems a tad excessive. A capable starter at a program like Rice would have to weigh the trade-offs of a Rice degree and playing time with perhaps a lesser role at another institution, albeit one with a bigger football brand.

Beyond that, Rice will be playing by the same rules as everyone else. They’ll have just as much access to talent relative to their peers in Conference USA and the Group of 5. The gap between the bigger state schools is sizable already. I don’t see more transfers tipping the playing field by a noticeable margin.

I’m curious to hear what you think. Do you support these potential changes? How would you propose such a policy were implemented?

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Rice Baseball: Complete 2020 Walk up song playlist

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You’ll find yourself tapping your toe and singing along to the 2020 Rice baseball walk up songs. Here’s a list of tunes for each of the Owls.

A few quick notes. These are the songs as selected on Opening Day. Players have been known to change their music as the season progresses, but we’ve started with what we know. If you notice a new tune, feel free to drop us a note and let us know.

Get the full playlist on Spotify

Hitters

Aaron Beaulaurier – In The Air Tonight by Phil Collins

Austin Bulman – Falling in Love by Dennis Kruissen

Braden Comeaux – Welcome to the Show by Cody Johnson

Antonio Cruz – BOP by DaBaby

Trei Cruz – Jump Around by House of Pain

Justin Collins – Your Love by The Outfield

Brayden Combs – Electric Feel by MGMT

Dominic Cox – Schemin Up by Drake

Rodrigo Duluc – Plakata by  Jose De Las Heras

Justin Dunlap – Telephone Calls by A$AP Mob

Cade Edwards – Piece of Your Heart by MEDUZA

Bradley Gneiting – Whoah by Lil Baby

Cullen Hannigan – Thunderstruck by AC/DC

Daniel Hernandez – Song I Can Drink To by  Koe Wetzel

Tyler LaRue – Pure Water by Migos

Pitchers

Kel Bordwine – Ooh Ahh by Grits

Blake Brogdon – Wit It by Gunna

Caleb Burgess – Get on My Knees and Pray by Kenny Faithful

Eric Benitez – Tu No Metes Cabra by Bad Bunny

Cristian Cienfuegos – Bandolero by Tego Calderon

Jack Conlon – E.I. by Nelly

Brandon Deskins – Heartless by Kanye West

Roel Garcia – Butterfly Effect by Travis Scott

Drake Greenwood – Stranglehold by Ted Nugent

Johnny Hoyle – N.I.B. by Black Sabbath

Andrew Kane – I’d Love to Change the World by Ten Years After

Josh Larzabal – Money in the Grave by Drake

Jared Plank – Fat Bottomed Girls by Queen

A.C. Plum – Come and Get Your Love by Redbone

Ryan Rickett – Country Must Be Country Wide by Brantley Gilbert

Matthew Santos – Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked by Cage the Elephant

Dalton Wood – I’ll Make a Man Out of You by Donny Osmond

Garrett Zaskoda – Sleeping on the Blacktop by Colter Wall

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Rice Baseball 2020: Texas sweeps Owls on opening weekend

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Rice baseball played a trio of close games against longtime rival Texas, but found themselves on the wrong side of each contest, starting the season 0-3.

THREE FOR THE ROAD | Texas wins series 3-0

1. The starting pitching didn’t dazzle but kept Rice in every game

Alex DeLeon, Blake Brogdon and Kel Bordwine combined to throw 14.1 innings, allowing 14 hits, 12 runs while striking out eight. That’s not up to the lofty standard set by Matt Canterino and Evan Kravetz in 2019, but it’s not going to doom a weekend on its own. It’s a modest starting point for a weekend rotation that will go through several permutations before settling on the three men tasked with carrying a typical series.

Roel Garcia and Dalton Wood could both figure into how the rotation looks come conference time. Both are currently working back to health and should be available in some capacity later in the season. Garcia is expected to make his season debut on Tuesday with the possibility of a Sunday outing from him depending on how he fares in his first time out.

The short outings were the biggest worry spot from the weekend. Not having any of their three starters finish the sixth inning is an unsustainable hindrance for a team with eyes on a winning season.

2. The bats have to wake up

The Rice offense was purported the most likely unit to click this season. Amid concerns with new faces on the mound, Rice returned their best hitters from last season. They’d also added key transfers like Austin Bulman and Daniel Hernandez. Seeing the unit come out somewhat sluggish early on was a bit disappointing.

With opening weekend in the books, five Rice hitters are hitting better than .270 this year

  • Braden Comeaux – .417, 1 HR, 3 RBI
  • Cade Edwards – .375, 3B, 1 RBI
  • Austin Bulman – .308, 1 HR, 1 RBI
  • Trei Cruz – .300, 2B
  • Daniel Hernandez – .273, 2B, 1 RBI

There’s plenty of room for growth. And it should get better. Sunday was a testament to that. The Owls produced 10 hits, but only two runs. Third baseman Braden Comeaux, who went 4-for-4 in the finale, said Rice “just had to change our plan and our approach slightly at the plate. We were doing a little bit of guessing.”

That’s a decent portion of the lineup hitting reasonably well. The problem has been the situational hitting combined with multiple hitless outings from the likes of Tyler LaRue, Brayden Combs and Justin Collins. The 4-hole hitters combined to go 2-for-12 on the weekend.

Granted, the arms Texas through during the series were some of the better ones the Owls will face this season. Friday’s muted second inning against Bryce Elder — in which Rice scored just twice after being gifted three hit batsman and an error — serves as the uncomfortable encapsulation of the current state of the offense.

3. Don’t fix the stuff that isn’t broken

The schedule is one of the more challenging slates in the conference, if not the nation. Rice baseball doesn’t have any “gimme” weekends to iron out the kinks. They’ll play at UC Irvine, at Texas Tech and home against Missouri State over the next several weekends. Those are quality postseason teams with Omaha experience. Rice is going to have to figure things out on the fly.

The defense and the relief pitching shined on opening weekend. After starting the 2019 campaign as one of the most error-prone teams in Conference USA, Rice eventually became the best fielding team at the conference tournament. That consistently held true against Texas. The Owls watched the Longhorns commit three errors. Rice had none during the first two games before committing two on Sunday.

And although the relievers entered with just as many question marks (if not more) than the starting pitching, the Rice pen was superb throughout the series. Cristian Cienfuegos, Josh Larzabal and Drake Greenwood had great outings, spanning multiple innings against what looks to be a decent hitting team. It’s early, but those two units looked particularly crisp in their first action of the year.

FRIDAY | Texas 7 – Rice 4

Both teams came out a bit rusty on opening night. All Big-12 pitcher Bryce Elder hit three batters in the second inning and Texas committed their first of three errors on the night. That enabled Rice — despite not hitting a ball out of the infield — to take an early 2-1 lead.

Strong bats were enough for the visitors to overcome those lapses. A home run in the third and another in the fourth staked Texas to a 5-2 lead. The third Texas dinger came in the seventh, putting the Owls into a 7-3 hole from which they were unable to recover.

SATURDAY | Texas 4 – Rice 0

The Rice baseball offense was quiet again in the series-deciding Saturday loss. Rice mustered five hits and failed to convert in clutch moments, going 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position and 2-for-8 with runners on base.

Blake Brogdon pitched 5.2 strong innings on the mound, allowing three runs and keeping the Owls in the game before handing things over to the bullpen duo of Drake Greenwood and Garrett Zaskoda. A few solo home runs by the Longhorns proved enough for them to snag the series win.

SUNDAY | Texas 5 – Rice 4

It was Texas which struck first again in the series finale. The Longhorns smoked four balls to the outfield in the first inning, forcing Kel Bordwine to battle back from behind. He eventually settled in, at one point retiring six in a row before being relieved in the fifth inning.

The Rice bats were limited to small bursts. Cade Edwards had an RBI single in the fourth. Austin Bulman had a solo home run in the sixth. A recurring theme from last year reared it’s head again — hitting with runners in scoring position. Rice went 3-for-22 with runners in scoring position this weekend.

ON DECK | at Sam Houston St (Tues), at UC Irvine (Fri-Sun)

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Rice Women’s Basketball: Season at crossroads after Charlotte loss

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After going more than a calendar year since their last C-USA loss, Rice women’s basketball dropped their second conference game of the week, falling to Charlotte.

Wait, what happened? Those thoughts danced through the heads of Rice women’s basketball fans when the team fell to SMU all the way back on November 13. Rice came out rusty in their first road game and was stunted from start to finish by a team which did not have the athleticism to match the Owls — or at least, it didn’t seem like it on paper.

Three months later that guttural feeling has returned, placing the season at a crossroads. At this point last week the Owls were 11-0 in C-USA play, owners of first place and presumptive favorites to repeat as back-to-back Champions. Now they’re in second place, with fewer wins and more losses than fifth-place Charlotte, who handed Rice their most uncomfortable defeat since that ominous SMU affair.

Against SMU, Erica Ogwumike and Nancy Mulkey played well. Ogwumike led the way with 17 points and eight rebounds while Mulkey blocked 11 shots. For whatever reason, the team didn’t shoot well, finishing 24.1 percent from the field.

Rice couldn’t buy a bucket against Charlotte, either. Ogwumike had 14 points. Nancy Mulkey was limited by injury, scoring five points with six rebounds in 21 minutes, playing just four minutes in the second half. Kendall Ellig, Mulkey’s primary backup this season, had more fouls (three) than points (two). From start to finish, Rice was out of sorts, confused. They didn’t look much like the team that had overcome every obstacle for the past several months.

Returning to Tudor Fieldhouse and ending this forgettable road sweep will be a welcome homecoming. The pressure to be perfect is gone, but if the Owls have their eyes on a top seed in the C-USA Tournament and a repeat trip to the NCAA’s, there isn’t time to dwell on this dismal result.

The Owls will see their resiliency tested in the next three weeks. How they respond will determine the narrative that accompanies a season that began with lofty expectations.

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