The shooting woes continued for Rice basketball who dropped its American Conference opener on the road against Tulane on Wednesday night.
Playing in their first-ever AAC game, Rice basketball looked every bit the part in the opening minutes against the Tulane Green Wave. The Owls got to the line, made their free throw shots, knocked down a big three and otherwise went toe-to-toe with a Tulane squad that had won seven of eight on their home court so far this season. Then things went sideways.
The three ball faded away quickly. The foul trips stopped. But Tulane just kept scoring. A five-point game with a little under 13 minutes to play in the first half ballooned into a double-digit deficit in the blink of an eye. Then Rice was down by 14. Then 18. Rice was held to 25 percent shooting from the floor in the first half as the deficit continued to grow.
When Rice did manage to string a few baskets together, things got interesting, albeit in brief flashes. Rice got the game back within seven points early in the seven half. Tulane lengthened their advantage only for Rice to sneak back within nine points via a 7-0 run midway through the half. The Owls wouldn’t have much more of a resistance after that, though.
Following Rice’s last push to get within nine, Tulane outscored Rice 20-2 in the next six minutes of action. Down by 27 with zero points from Max Fiedler and only one Rice player above 12 points on the night, there wasn’t much more the Owls could do, falling on the road to begin AAC play 0-1.
Final Box | Tulane 84 – Rice 59
FINAL | Tulane 84 – @RiceMBB 59 pic.twitter.com/SJqsfsyN4F
— The Roost (@AtTheRoost) January 4, 2024
Key takeaway | Yellow Light U?
Green Light U has been the Owls’ tagline over the last several seasons, meant to reflect the “green light” head coach Scott Pera gives his shooters in what is meant to be a fast-paced, three-point-heavy offense. There’s just one problem so far this season: the shots aren’t falling. This was covered in further detail in our midseason Rice Basketball State of the Program and it doesn’t appear to have corrected itself in a significant way during the holiday break. Rice isn’t hitting threes.
Rice shot 25 percent from three against Tulane. Conservatively, that’s at least 10 percentage points behind what they’d call a mediocre day and 15 points behind a great day from deep. This team was built to have great days from long range. It can win with okay days. To continually fail to find any sort of production from three is going to render this offense sluggish, at best.
Travis Evee was 3-for-9 (33 percent) from three on Wednesday night. The rest of the team was 5-for-23 (22 percent). Simply put: the shooting wasn’t there and Rice basketball lost by double a landslide.
Up Next: vs UTSA (Saturday, Jan. 6)
