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The Roost Podcast | Ep. 25 – Erica Ogwumike reflects on Rice basketball career

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Now Former Rice basketball guard Erica Ogwumike joins the show to talk basketball, her career and the suddenness of the global sports shutdown.

Mid-march was meant to mark the end of the Conference USA Tournament. Erica Ogwumike and Rice basketball had aims on defending their conference tournament crown and making a repeat trip to the NCAA Tournament.

Instead, there is no basketball or sports of any kind to watch. The coronavirus put life as we know it permanently on hold. That left Ogwumike free to come on The Roost Podcast and talk through the impact of the shutdown on her, the Owls and her time at Rice.

You can always find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, Give a listen to Episode 25.

Episode 25 Notes

  • Housekeeping — We want your input! This wasn’t mentioned on the podcast, but Rice football spring practice was officially canceled this week. That was the last of the potential sports-related events for the spring leaving the podcast and the site with an open slate for the next few weeks (or months). Do you have something you’d like to hear about or read? Leave it in the comments or shoot us a note on social media.
  • Erica Ogwumike — Ogwumike was on the court when the power’s that be canceled the C-USA Tournament and effectively ended her Rice basketball career. We sat down with and discussed:
    • Being a college basketball player during the coronavirus cancelations
    • The decision to leave Pepperdine and transfer to Rice
    • Her favorite non-basketball moment as Rice
    • Whether or not she would consider returning if the NCAA grants her an additional year of eligibility. Spoiler alert: the answer isn’t no.

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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Rice Football Madness: Owls’ 1953 team crowned best program history

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The 1953 Rice Football team has been crowned the best team in program history, besting 15 contenders in our own March Madness tournament.

There have been many great Rice football teams throughout the years, but there can only be one champion. The top 16 were seeded in a head-to-head bracket. There were a few upsets — 11 Seed 1957 knocked off 6-seed 1937 and came within one vote of the Final 4. Ultimately chalk held with the four top seeds as the last four standing. And the winner is…

More: Calvin Anderson joins The Roost Podcast (Oct. 2019)

Champion: The 1953 Rice Football Team (57 percent of the vote)

Led by Jess Neely, the 1953 team (9-2, 5-1 SWC) went on to finish No. 6 in the nation, routing Alabama in the Cotton Bowl 28-6. Dicky Meagle set a single-season school record, averaging 7.31 yards per attempt rushing. The Owls lone losses came by a combined 11 points. Their wins were louder. Rice beat No. 15 Florida, No. 17 Baylor, Texas and TCU.

Runner Up: The 1949 Rice Football Team

Led by Jess Neely, the 1949 team (10-1, 6-0 SWC) finished its season as Cotton Bowl Champions, beating No. 19 North Carolina to cap off the first 10-win season in program history. The Owls were voted No. 5 in the nation in the AP Poll, the highest finish in program history. Notable victories included: No. 10 SMU, No. 10 Texas and No. 9 Baylor.

Third Place: The 2008 Rice Football Team (77 percent of the consolation vote)

Led by David Bailiff, the 2008 team (10-3, 7-1 C-USA) made a dramatic jump from Bailiff’s first Rice team in 2007. The 2008 Owls won seven more games, finishing tied for first place in the C-USA West and beating Western Michigan in the Texas Bowl. With Chase Clement at quarterback, the duo Jarett Dillard and James Casey was arguable among the best receiving combos in the nation.

Fourth Place: The 2013 Rice Football Team

Led by David Bailiff, the 2013 team (10-4, 7-1 C-USA) won the Owls’ only Conference USA Championship, defeating Marshall in the title game. Taylor McHargue and Charles Ross paced the offense while Christian Covington patrolled the defensive side of the ball.

Bracket

Rice Football

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NCAA eligibility recommendation spawns more questions

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The rapid cancelations of spring athletics put student athletes in a tragic spot. NCAA eligibility waivers could be an answer, but how would they work?

The continuously churning sports news cycle got more complicated on Friday when Jeff Goodman tweeted this regarding potential changes to NCAA eligibility processes:

Goodman was working off a communication that would be published later in the day. His report caught the spirit of what the NCAA would release later that day, but wasn’t completely accurate. The NCAA announced later Friday afternoon that they had “agreed that eligibility relief is appropriate” for athletes competing in spring sports. This would include sports like baseball, softball, track and field, swimming, tennis and others.

Agreeing that something should be done is not the same as a mandate. If the 2021 spring sports calendar were to happen tomorrow, there would be no new eligibility rules in place. Before any of this promise can be enacted, several more questions need to be answered:

1. How are scholarships counted?

Different levels and different sports have different scholarship limitations. In many sports, only a portion of the team can be on full academic scholarships for a given semester. Will scholarship limits be expanded? Who pays for the additional scholarships?

2. Will rosters be expanded?

Beyond scholarship situations, college rosters have limitations on the numbers of players they can have at any one time. If all seniors are granted an additional season, how does a school reconcile the unexpected returning players with a new signee class already committed to enroll in the fall? Do rosters expand? If so, to how many spots and for how long?

3. Who gets the extra eligibility?

Restoring an additional year of eligibility to all parties is going to be a challenging puzzle to solve. Would restoring the year to only seniors be a possibility? What about the MLB Draft? If a player is selected this year and opts not to return to school, does that extra year of eligibility disappear? Could the school allocate it to another player?

4. What about the winter sports?

The spring sports are in their initial weeks, but most school’s basketball seasons were in their final days, some down to a final game. Is it “fair” to restore eligibility to those players who were denied NCAA Tournament berths? I’m sure there would be seniors that would much rather get another shot at March Madness than start working a nine-to-five.

5. What about school?

And that brings us to school. These are student athletes we’re talking about and several players in this sample were graduates already. Would they have to enroll in a master’s program to maintain their additional season of eligibility and if they’ve finished a degree would they have to start another?

We have more questions than answers right now, by a wide margin. The NCAA is routinely dragged through the mud for making comical decisions, but this cause is much more commendable. Executing this recommendation is going to be the hard part. Just like the concerns over the pandemic that forced these questions, things might get more complicated before any answers emerge.

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The Day coronavirus stopped college sports in America

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The 2020 college sports calendar was abruptly halted to protect against the coronavirus. Fans across the nation are still processing the sudden shock.

On Tuesday evening USA Today columnist Dan Wolken penned what was, at the time, an incomprehensible edict: cancel the NCAA Tournament. The reaction on social media was far-ranging. Some called him a fearmonger. Others praised his advocacy. But at some level all of us wondered… could he be right?

Less than 48 hours later, Wolken was right. There will be no NCAA Tournament. There won’t even be a Conference USA Basketball Tournament — not a complete one. Players and fans were sent home from Frisco after one day of the scheduled four-day tournament had been completed.

Rice women’s basketball had dressed for the game. They were ready to play through the maelstrom of uncertainty. Then they were sent back to the locker room. The game was over. The season was over. For some, like senior guard and two-time Conference USA Player of the Year Erica Ogwumike, their careers were over.

All within 48 hours.

And it didn’t stop there. Conferences began to indefinitely postpone all spring athletics. Conference USA followed suit, halting the Rice baseball season in its tracks. The remainder of the spring sports were put on hiatus and soon after classes were moved online for the remainder of the semester. The NBA, NHL and MLB all delayed their seasons, too.

Then the NCAA announced that all spring championships were canceled. From March Madness — which was purportedly to be played without fans as a last-ditch, stopgap measure — to the College World Series in the summer. All of it. Gone. Done. Poof.

It should go without saying that the health and safety of student athletes, their families, coaches and all athletic staff personnel, is of the utmost importance. The “why” behind these cancelations is far from unconscionable. But the anguish, the disappointment, is going to last for a long time.

This fallout from these nation-shaking decisions is far from over. Eligibility questions will linger as the country readies itself for a global pandemic with no tournaments to distract them, to salve the harder days. What happens to seniors, some of which had just begun their spring seasons? Will there be waivers and how does that impact rosters for next year? Will the NCAA reach an equitable middle ground?

We don’t know.

Frankly, those three words sum up the last three days more succinctly than anything else. But the sun will rise tomorrow. Life will continue, with or without sports. It will undoubtedly take weeks to wrap our minds around what is happening in our world right now.

Rice Athletics will move forward and so will The Roost. We’re working through some contingency plans when it comes to content. We have some ideas and we’d love to get your input on what sort of things you’d be interested in reading in the coming weeks. Please leave us a comment on the forum or message us on social media and let us know. Today is a hard day, but we’ll make it through.

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Rice Football Recruiting: 2021 LB Aidan Siano commits to Owls

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Linebacker Aidan Siano from Prosper, Texas has committed to the Owls. He’s the fourth member of the 2021 Rice Football recruiting class.

It’s been an eventful spring around the world. And while some things matter much more than football, the Owls have done their due diligence on the recruiting front. Rice has done all they can to ensure the future remains bright at South Main. Those efforts have focused on the 2021 Rice Football recruiting class, which is now adding a new member.

Aidan Siano, a linebacker from Prosper, Texas, has committed to the Owls. That’s the fourth commitment of this recruiting cycle following the earlier additions of offensive lineman Faaeanuu Pepe from Orange, CA, defensive lineman Blake Boenisch from Needville, TX and fellow linebacker Kenny Seymour from Fort Bend Marshall in Houston.

Siano follows Seymour as the second linebacker in the class. Both were early offers in January who have stayed in close contact with the Rice coaching staff throughout the process. Siano was back for spring practice and has been trending in the Owls’ direction for a while. Now he’s taken the step and gone all in.

After positive initial first impressions, everything else he saw at South Main continued to reinforce that this was the place for him.”Playing the best football and getting the best education was a no brainer,” Siano said of his decision, adding that he was happy to commit early in the cycle so that he can “focus on improving for this coming season and helping bring other players to the best college in the country.”

Before he takes the field, Siano is prepared. He’s a film junkie. “Being able to identify a formation and anticipate what play is coming is a huge way I set myself up [for success],” he said.

On the field, Siano is relentless. He’s aggressive at the point of attack, but nimble enough to shed blockers at the line of scrimmage and find the football. His “Football IQ” sets him apart from many of his peers. He’s the kind of player you trust to diagnose and react to plays as they develop. Then he goes and makes the tackle, from sideline to sideline.

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