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Rice Basketball: Owls drop another heartbreaker, this time to UTSA

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Rice basketball made plenty of big shots, but missed their last attempt. That lead to a crushing last-second UTSA layup and the Owls’ fifth straight loss.

Trailing 13-5 after barely five minutes of game time had elapsed, Rice basketball was on the verge of another lopsided defeated. Not only did the Owls manage to avoid that pain, they thundered back from the eight-point deficit, outscoring UTSA 14-2 over the next five minutes to take a 19-15 lead. Game on.

The energy and strain Rice exuded in their narrow loss to UTEP on Thursday galvanized this team to keep fighting. They did not execute perfectly, but their will to battle through eight lead changes was noticeably different from where they’d been even a week ago.

It was Rice that jumped out to the double-digit lead in this one. Josh Parrish pushed the lead to 10 midway through the first half. Trey Murphy made it 11 with a three, one of a season-high 18 three-point baskets the Owls made during the contest. Rice hadn’t made that many threes in a game since November 29, 2013, an overtime loss to Rider.

Like the Rider game, the Owls’ hot hand eventually cooled. With the game tied at 88, Rice had the ball and a chance for the go-ahead bucket. Not only did they miss the shot, UTSA corralled the ball and dashed down the court for a layup of their own. A halfcourt heave fell short, dooming Rice to another strenuous defeat. Midway through C-USA play, Rice sits in last place.

Final Stats

Player of the Game – Ako Adams

Ako Adams had 21 points, 18 of which came from six three-pointers. The senior’s final trey pushed his career total to 201, officially the most in school history. His timely shots, three assists and four rebounds continued to will Rice back into the game. Thanks to Adams’ resolve, this was a slugfest that Rice very much could have won.

Up Next

Rice basketball will get a brief respite after playing five games in the last 10 games. They won’t play on Thursday, returning to the court for the next time on Saturday, Feb. 1 at Tudor Fieldhouse against North Texas.

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Rice Football Recruiting: 2020 Linebacker Terreance Ellis commits to Owls

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With National Signing Day fast approaching, Shadow Creek linebacker Terreance Ellis is the newest member of the 2020 Rice football recruiting class.

The 2021 Rice football recruiting class was the center of attention last weekend. The Owls handed out nearly a dozen offers to prospective juniors who won’t be eligible to sign before December of this year and won’t play college football for at least another 20 months. That future wasn’t the only focus for the Rice staff, though. They also keyed in on some 2020 targets. One of those was Shadow Creek edge rusher Terreance Ellis.

Standing at 6-foot-1 and tipping the scales at 201 pounds, Eliis probably profiles more like a linebacker than a defensive lineman in college. Wherever he lines up, Rice is going to use him to get pressure.

Ellis was part of a state championship team this past season, continuing a tradition of winners the Rice staff has targeted as they rebuild this program. He’ll pair nicely with linebacker Geron Hargon and edge rusher Jalen Reeves, rounding out an impressive collection of havoc makers in the middle.

Class Tracker: Updated list of 2020 Rice Football commits

Houston Baptist and Northwestern State were the only other schools to offer Ellis before Rice swooped in this weekend but he did have a preferred walk-on offer from Baylor as well. Once he set foot on campus it didn’t take him long to make a decision.

Ellis is a versatile pass rusher with the ability to make plays on the ball. He spent a lot of time with his hand in the dirt this past season, powering through blockers on his way to the backfield. His arsenal includes more than brute force. Open field tackling is a requirement at the next level and Ellis has shown he has the burst and the follow-through to succeed in space.

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Conference USA Football 2020: Stop rate and three-and-out defense

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Conference USA football fielding an array of defenses in 2019. Which were the best at getting off the field by stop rate and three-and-out rate?

Recently published by The Athletic, stop rate is a useful tool for measuring college football defenses. Max Olson, who compiled the sat, defines stop rate as:

The percentage of a defense’s drives that end in punts, turnovers or a turnover on downs. Every defense in college football has the same goal on every drive: Get a stop and get off the field. It’s the most basic measurement of whether a defense is successful. And the successful ones win a lot of games.

So what does that mean for Conference USA football? The league as a whole had four teams ranked inside the top 25 in stop rate nationally, including conference champion FAU. The Owls also ranked No. 1 in C-USA in three-and-out rate. The distribution from that point onward gets wide, quickly. Here’s a breakdown of each squad.

Two outliers stand out. Rice football finished 3-9, but boasted the seventh-best stop rate in C-USA and the fifth-best three-and-out rate. Every other team to finish in the top half of the conference in both metrics went bowling this past season. Defensive coordinator Brian Smith has made a tremendous impact at South Main so far, and the Owls have room to grow. They return almost every member of their two-deep on defense in 2020.

The second outlier is Charlotte. The 49ers gave up a lot of points last season — 32.4 per game to be exact — but found a way to get to a bowl game in their first year under Will Healy. Replacing defensive end Alex Highsmith will be a challenge next year, as will backfilling the running back spot behind Benny Lemay. There are some questions, bu things are headed in the right direction.

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Rice Basketball 2020: Owls outrun by North Texas on the road

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Big deficits have become the norm for Rice Basketball who failed to claw out from a double-digit hole on Monday, falling to North Texas.

Things started out well for Rice basketball on the road against North Texas. The Owls scored the first two baskets, keeping the Mean Green within striking distance throughout the first half. Zach Crisler had 11 first-half points. The teams were even with 13 rebounds apiece and both shot better than 50 percent from the field. Yet Rice found themselves down by eight at the break.

The defensive woes which had plagued the Owls in recent weeks lingered into the second half. North Texas shot 45.5 percent from the field in the second half, worse than their 54 percent shooting for the game, and still managed to double the lead — and then some.

The margin would finally balloon to 20 points, courtesy of a North Texas three-pointer in the final second of play. The final shot put Rice down by 20 for the fourth time in seven conference games.

When they needed a spark the cold hands grew colder. Rice shot 26.9 percent from the field in the second half, converting three of 10 attempts from three. North Texas outscored Rice in the pain 32-20 and scored 16 points off Rice turnovers to the Owls’ eight.

Final Stats

Player of the game – Zach Crisler

Just about everything Crisler did in the first half ended up for the better. The freshman had a career-high 11 points and six rebounds, connecting on four of five shots from the field. Then he vanished. Crisler played 10 minutes in the second half with no shots, no points, two rebounds and two turnovers. His strong start was encouraging.

Up Next

Rice basketball returns to Tudor Fieldhouse for a much-neeeded homestand over the next two weeks. Rice will host UTEP on Thursday (Jan. 23) and UTSA (Jan. 25) on Saturday. They’ll have a week off after the UTSA game before hosting North Texas on Feb. 1.

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Rice Football Recruiting: Flurry of offers go out at 2021 Junior Day

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Several new offers were handed out over the weekend to prospective members of the 2021 Rice Football recruiting class. Here’s a rundown of Junior Day.

Entering the weekend, the offer list for the 2021 Rice Football recruiting class was extremely short:

Wyatt Begeal – QB – Cibolo Steele (TX)
Mason Tharp – TE – Klein (TX)
DJ Arkansas – LB – Denton Ryan (TX)
Bryce McMorris – DB – Bridgeland (TX)

The Owls expanded that shortlist to 14 names, offering these additional 10 players.

Jordon Vaughn – RB – Manvel (TX)
Bryson Reeves – WR – St. Francis (CA)
De’Kedrick Sterns – OL – Del Valle (TX)
Jacoby Jackson – OL – Mansfield Summit (TX)
Davis McKenna – OL – Marist (GA)
Remington Strickland – OL – Fort Bend Christian Academy (TX)
Aidan Siano – LB – Prosper (TX)
Kenny Seymour – LB – Fort Bend Marshall (TX)
Placide Djungu-Sungu – Saf – Arlington Martin (TX)
Trevor Woods – Saf – Katy Taylor (TX)

The crop of offensive line offers is an important place to start. Rice needs to get depth up front and they’re looking to make sure that depth has plenty of upside. Each of the four offers has prototypical size with room to grow: Jacoby Jackson is 6-foot-5.5, 306 pounds, Davis KcKenna is 6-foot-5, 275 pounds, Remington Strickland is 6-foot-3, 294 pounds and De’Kedrick Sterns is 6-foot-4, 250 pounds.

Jordan Vaugh is extremely versatile and could slot in several places. Rice likes him at running back. Bryson Reeves has much-needed size (6-foot-3, 185 pounds) at the wide receiver position. Rice was the first to offer both of those guys, and first on six of their 10 offers over the weekend. They’ve developed a proven track record of identifying talent rather and they stuck too that this weekend.

On defense, Rice absolutely loves this group of linebackers offers. Kenny Seymour and Aidan Siano, along with DJ Arkansas, all look like potential game changers at the position. Seymour is built like a truck and plays downhill. Siano has a nose for the football and great pursuit.

Woods and Djunu-Sungu round out the new offers in the secondary. Both are potential safety prospects who would be excellent fits in Brian Smith’s defense.

At this point last year, Rice had handed out a few offers for their 2020 class, prioritizing their first wave of selections. Plae Wyatt was the first to jump on board, committing to Rice at the end of February. The groundwork Rice laid this weekend was significant. Don’t be surprised if the Owls’ first commitment of the 2021 Rice Football recruiting class was in this wave.

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