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Rice Basketball: Young talent the backbone for future success

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Rice basketball wasn’t forced to rely too heavily on true freshman this season, giving the Owls younger players time to grow into their collegiate roles.

Rice basketball entered the 2019-2020 season with an established core of key players. No freshman was thrown to the wolves before he was ready. Instead each contributor had time to add weight, learn and gel into the rotation at their own pace.

Zach Crisler, Max Fielder and Quincy Olivari represent the future of Rice basketball. “All three of them have really high ceilings,” head coach Scott Pera said. “They’re really going to help us next year and in all their years here.”

Fiedler saw most of his action early on, cracking the starting lineup for the Bahamas showcase. He had three double-digit rebound games, providing much-needed size for the Owls on the inside. The decision to move to a smaller lineup, essentially inserting Josh Parris in place of Fiedler, saw his playing time diminish.

He finished the year with 23 appearances, averaging 2.4 points per game and 1.7 rebounds. He played more than 20 minutes once and never had many opportunities to get into a rhythm offensively. His value came from his interior presence.

Crisler’s usage was more sporadic. He saw a few minutes off the bench here and there, ramping up to an extended stretch in January where he started seven consecutive games. During that run, he averaged 4.0 points per game, scoring a career-high 11 points in the Owls’ upset of North Texas.

More: Erica Ogwumike talks end of season, Rice career on The Roost Podcast

There was a defined role on the court for Crisler through conference play. He wasn’t an integral piece but played meaningful minutes as a starter and off the bench. All that involvement should pay dividends toward his development going forward.

Olivari’s maturation was seemingly the most linear. He played in 30 of the Owls’ 32 games, becoming more and more involved as the season progressed. His shooting stroke off the bench was his primary contribution.

He averaged eight points a game in the Owls’ first four contests of the year despite playing 15 minutes or fewer in all of those games. From there he went from meaningful depth piece to a key cog of the bench, playing at least 14 minutes of the final 11 games, playing a career-high 28 minutes twice, one against Old Dominion and once against Middle Tennesse.

All three had their bright spots, reinforced by positive behaviors off the court. Pera praised their efforts, saying their first season was “‘a roller coaster for them in so many ways. I think all three of them experienced it. They handled it with great maturity.”

That trio, plus a new crop of recruits, make for an encouraging starting point for next season. Rice basketball has two signees in its 2020 class: forward Mylyjael Poteat and guard Cameron Sheffield. They are likely to add another player over the course of the next few months.

It takes talent and execution to win. The Owls are getting close to getting the right bodies to South Main. Now the hard part. Transforming raw ability into a cohesive squad.

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Rice Basketball bids goodbye to pair of senior leaders

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Rice basketball retains a young core, but they’ll miss the leadership of Ako Adams and Robert Martin on and off the court next season.

Year 3 of the Scott Pera era of Rice basketball featured a young team growing into their collective ability. The nucleus of the Owls’ 2019-2020 squad consisted of three sophomore guards: Trey Murphy, Drew Peterson and Chris Mullins. Seniors Ako Adams and Robert Martin were the elder statesmen with some freshman and various role players filling out a developing rotation.

The team felt like a work in progress for much of the season. Yet somehow the tandem of Adams and Martin always seemed to keep them from veering too far off course. Their leadership will be miss even more than their talents on the court.

“The growth that they showed, through everything not being how they wanted it and being perfect, to hang in there and continue to do the right things [was important],” head coach Scott Pera said of his departing senior class.

More: Erica Ogwumike talks end of season, Rice career on The Roost Podcast

Although he’d never draw attention to himself, Ako Adams leaves Rice basketball as one of the program’s most decorated players. He finished his career as the all-time program leader in three-point attempts, three points made, free throw percentage and games played. He finished 12th in assists, 17th in three-point field goal percentage and 28th in scoring.

Adams’ ability to understand the rhythm of the offense and flow within it might have been his most impressive skill. He didn’t rack up his record-breaking numbers with sheer volume. He shared the basketball and waited for good shots. All the while he was confident enough to step into big moments. Adams was never afraid to put a shot up from anywhere on the court.

Martin found his home as the Owls’ sixth man, averaging 11.8 points per game off the bench. He shot 34.4 percent from three and finished second on the team with 4.8 defensive rebounds per game.

That duo, along with occasional cameos from Tim Harrison, Addison Owen and Tommy McCarthy formed a senior class that was instrumental to the growth of the Rice basketball program.

“That’s kind of what I told the seniors in the locker room after the [Conference USA Tournament] game. [I told them] how much I appreciated how they helped this program grow,” head coach Scott Pera said. “They were part of the beginning blocks of building this program.”

Pera’s program has continued to take small steps in the right direction. He credits players like Adams and Martin with setting the course for the growing team. Pointed in the right direction, it will be up to their teammates to stay the course. The Rice seniors gave all that they could.

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Rice Basketball: Making sense of an up and down season

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From its rocky start to awkward ending, the 2019-2020 Rice Basketball season was a roller coaster ride. Coach Scott Pera believes the best is yet to come.

Rice basketball ended their 2019-2020 season sooner than they’d hoped. The Owls fell to the FIU Panthers in the first round of the Conference USA Tournament on Wednesday, March 11th. Rice boarded the busses and headed home.

Less than 12 hours later on Thursday, March 12, every other team in C-USA followed suit.

“It was obviously weird, bizarre,” head coach Scott Pera said of the sudden shutdown. “I didn’t see it heading this way quickly and that’s what happened.”

Safeguards against the coronavirus had forced the suspension of the NBA season while Pera’s team was still on the court, battling for what they believed was their season. Pera is still processing that.

“You wanted to be mad you lost, but it didn’t matter if you won… But if we had won the game, then it’s all like well, what if? What if? And I don’t want to feel any of that stuff either.”

More: Erica Ogwumike talks end of season, Rice career on The Roost Podcast

The weird end to the year parallels an up and down season. Rice basketball finished the year 15-17 (7-11), one victory shy of a .500 record. The Owls boasted a few impressive program firsts along the way.

Rice took down Penn, UCSB and ECU in non-conference play. The win over ECU was the program’s first over an AAC opponent. When conference play began, the Owls won on the road against UAB and Middle Tennessee for the first time in program history. They also topped C-USA regular season champion North Texas at Tudor Fieldhouse. Meanwhile, Ako Adams smashed through the Rice record books, leaving Rice with the most games played in program history.

Although the team was a touch more consistent than they had been in previous seasons, the low points were seemingly just as frequent. Rice went 0-3 against C-USA Tournament 11-Seed UTEP. Losses to Southern Miss and UTSA in the regular season pushed them into the bottom pod for bonus play.

After taking time to collect his thoughts after the season’s whirlwind finish, Pera is able to walk away with some sense of closure. “We played we lost. We had finality,” he said of the conference tournament.

Panning out further toward the season as a whole, Pera takes a more optimistic vantage point. “I have one major goal and purpose, and that is to continue to grow the program. That goal, in my mind, I think was undoubtedly accomplished,” Pera remarked. “Could we want a few more games? Sure, we could have… but it’s all part of the growth. I feel like we took a necessary step.”

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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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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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