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Rice Soccer, Basketball and more bring good news: September 2024 Q&A

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The 2024 Rice Football season has taken a turn for the worse, but Rice Soccer, basketball and more offer hope for the future. We look at both in this month’s subscriber Q&A.

Understandably, good news was the order of the day after things went south with Rice Football. Fortunately, it’s been a very active fall sports season with highlights from Rice Soccer’s tremendous start to accolades for Genny Volpe and expectations for sports yet to start like Swimming and Basketball. This update focuses on the good news from those sports. We’ll dig into the football woes elsewhere.

Questions were edited briefly for clarity. Want to get your questions answered? Subscribe on Patreon for our monthly mailbag.

For those checking in for the first time, or those returning, a quick programming note. Special features like this are reserved for our subscribers. Have questions? You can get those answered in our monthly Q&As and get access to all practice notes, recruiting updates and features like this one when you subscribe on Patreon today.

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Q: I’ve given up on football. Give me some good news on the Rice Athletics front. What else is there to look forward to this year?

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Grab Bag: What’s going on around Rice Athletics? May 2024 Q&A

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Rather than drill down on one topic, subscribers had a variety of questions this month touching all areas of Rice Athletics. We hit on them all.

A lot is going on around Rice Athletics right as the academic year winds down. This mailbag touches on a host of topics ranging from the state of college sports, possible Rice Athletics sports additions, existing sports and more.

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Q: What’s happening with upgrading Rice Stadium?

A: Finding a solution for the current stadium situation was one of the first things athletic director Tommy McClelland mentioned when he was hired and while proposed solutions haven’t been communicated yet… hang tight. The wheels are turning and progress is being made on that front. When the time comes to share those next steps, I think most Rice fans will be excited about the direction the administration wants to head with the stadium.

Q: Any chance for men’s soccer?

A: In short, probably not. Rice had now added two women’s programs, diving and golf, but both of those were logistical slam dunks. Now that the Owls are adding the sport, every D1 program in the state has women’s golf and bolstering the swimming program with diving was an obvious next step. When it comes to a brand new program with a larger scholarship base, I’d look towards the possibility of another women’s program, but a decision like that probably isn’t imminent.

Q: What’s going on with women’s soccer? The last two years have been disappointing. Is Brian Lee the right guy for the job?

A: Lee made noise when he arrived on campus and took Rice soccer to the Sweet 16, a first in program history. They were undefeated in conference play in 2022 before the aforementioned rough 2023 campaign in which they went 3-13-2. McClelland has demonstrated he’s not averse to making a change if needed, but I’d find it hard to believe there was imminent pressure on Lee or the program given what they’ve accomplished so far.

As far as recent news, Rice has the No. 32 recruiting class in the country coming to campus. Those reinforcements should be a huge boost to the program.

Q: Where does Rice fit in the future of college sports?

A: Rice obviously doesn’t have the resources of some of the biggest national brands that are making headlines. And while that’s true, it’s equally apparent Rice is committing itself to being competitive in collegiate sports for the long haul. What that will look like in two years, five years, ten years? Nobody can be certain.

The most recent NCAA House case settlement has cast further uncertainty around what that future world will include, but it won’t spell the end of college sports, far from it. Things are going to look different. Athletes are going to get compensated in ways that were unfathomable even a few years ago. But college sports aren’t going anywhere and Rice will continue to participate.

Consider this an educated guess. Rice Athletics will strive to maintain its spot in the highest level of competition available to them and will spend commensurate amounts alongside its peers to compete for championships. I don’t envision a scenario where the Owls voluntarily “give up” on that aspiration because conditions become too challenging or vary too far from the traditional model of collegiate athletics that existed in the pre-NIL world.

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NEWS: Rice Athletics to add Women’s Golf in 2026

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Rice Athletics is growing again. The university announced today the addition of Women’s Golf to their sponsored sports in 2026.

When Rice Athletics Director Tommy McClelland arrived at South Main he spoke of ambitious growth and a commitment to making the Owls excellent in everything they endeavor to do. Alongside those plans was a commitment to ensure Rice had the opportunities to succeed in both men’s and women’s athletics. In January, McClelland announced the addition of a diving program. Just a few months later, the Owls are on the move again, this time committing to add Women’s Golf.

Much in the same way there were built-in efficiencies when Rice went to incorporate diving into its preexisting swimming program, adding a women’s team to complement the men’s program is another natural stepping stone as the department continues to grow.

Lynn Laverty Elsenhans, a former Rice women’s basketball player, and her husband, John, have endowed Rice Athletics to jumpstart the program.

President Reginald DesRoches offered these comments:

“We are thrilled to launch women’s golf at Rice. This is a part of our overall commitment to excellence in every area, including Rice Athletics, and especially women’s sports. We thank Lynn for this gift to launch the program and encourage other dedicated alumni to join us in supporting women’s golf.”

You can read the full release here.

Beyond the excitement that comes with growth, the addition of a second sport in the span of a few months sends a clear statement regarding the direction and ambition of Rice Athletics. In a collegiate landscape that is rife with challenges and new obstacles, the Owls are growing — not shrinking — as they head into an uncertain future. That’s the sort of program most every athlete would tell you they’d like to join.

When combined with the move to the American Athletic Conference, the Owls certainly are putting their commitment to athletics on full display.

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Rice Women’s Basketball falls short at LSU in NCAA Tournament

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Rice Women’s Basketball pushed LSU to the wire, dropping a hard-fought game to the defending champs in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament.

A sea of frustrated purple and gold clan onlookers bemoaned a season-low first quarter point total for the defending national champion LSU Tigers following a physical battle with Rice Women’s basketball in the opening stanza of their NCAA Tournament game. The Owls held the Tigers to 12 points, and while they only managed six themselves, it was evident from the start they were going to give LSU all they had.

ā€œOnce we got over that first punch that they threw, we absolutely hung with them,” Malia Fisher said. “I think it was just about playing our brand of basketball and hitting shots early to spread their defense out and then being aggressive, and like I said, not being scared and taking it to them.”

Even when LSU went on a 10-2 run, Rice never looked rattled. The Owls weathered the storm, staying vigilant on defense and got key shots in key moments, many of them coming from the long range of Emily Klaczek whose final three of the first half silenced a full house at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rogue.

More: Potential head coach candidates for Rice men’s basketball

Despite being heavy underdogs, Rice never looked rattled. In the waning moments of the third quarter an 11-2 run put LSU up by 11, their largest lead of the game. Malia Fisher spent most of that time on the bench, struggling with foul trouble, yet the Owls battled back with Destiny Jackson leading the charge and Hailey Adams knocking down some big free throws along the way.

“I canā€™t hear myself think,” Fisher joked afterward, noting how the environment wasn’t too much for this team. Even with the noise, Rice pushed back.

That 11-point deficit dwindled as the fourth quarter progressed. Sussy Ngulefac’s layup with 1:56 got Rice within six points. The Owls wouldn’t get any closer than that, watching the clock wind down after a hard-fought battle against a battled-tested LSU team.

Final Box | LSU 70 – Rice 60

What They’re Saying

“Iā€™m incredibly proud to be their coach. We came in here and we wanted to have the exact same mindset that we had in the conference tournament and that was to come in and play our best brand of basketball and to not quit and to not give up and be relentlessā€¦ I’m incredibly proud. We came in here. We fought for four quarters. We won two of those quarters against the defending national champion. I thought we did a lot of great things, but the main thing that I’m proud of is that we never for one second quit or looked like we didn’t believe that we belonged in this game. Very, very proud. I don’t know if I can say that enough.ā€” – Head coach Lindsay Edmonds

Key takeaway | Poise under pressure

Strip away the seeds and the fanfare. If you handed a copy of this game to someone who didn’t know LSU was the defending national champions and Rice women’s basketball had only earned their ticket to play in the dance a week ago, Friday’s result wouldn’t have given many clues.

LSU turned the ball over 24 times. They shot 42 percent from the field and never led by more than 11 points, despite being nearly a 30-point favorite by most oddsmakers.

Rice won on the margins. They got to loose balls and never let effort be the differentiator between success and failure. For 40 minutes, it looked like the Owls wanted it more than the Tigers. In the end, LSU’s edge in athleticism and height — they outrebounded Rice 42-29 — proved decisive. But not once did it ever seem as if the Owls would go down without a fight.

ā€œWe were not afraid of the moment and we were ready to play. We proved that we were here and we were not going to just be somebody that they were going to be able to run over or walk all over,” head coach Lindsay Edmonds said. “And that was because of their unwavering belief in one another and their unwavering confidence in our gameplan and what we were trying to get accomplished today.ā€

The 2023-2024 Rice women’s basketball season comes to an end in Baton Rouge, but the showing was about as impressive as it could have been in a loss. The unflappable Owls will be back. They’re already charting a course for another trip to the dance next year.

“We talked about it in the locker room. Remember this feeling. Remember what it felt like to get here but next year we want to go further,” Edmonds said. “Everything matters. We’ve already started talking about that. And I think everybody’s going to be hungry.”

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14-Seed Rice Women’s Basketball to face LSU in 2024 NCAA Tournament

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Rice Women’s Basketball has earned a 14-Seed in the 2024 NCAA Tournament and will open up against 3-Seed LSU in Baton Rouge.

For the first time since 2019, Rice Women’s Basketball is going dancing. The Owls clinched an automatic berth in the 2024 NCAA Tournament when they cut down the nets this week in Forth Worth, TX, winning the American Conference Championship. They found out their postseason destination on Selection Sunday:

Rice will be the No. 14 Seed in the Albany 2 Region where they’ll face 3-Seed LSU in the first round. Should the Owls pull off the upset and advance beyond that, they’ll play the winner of 6-Seed Louisville and 11-Seed MTSU.

Rice and LSU will tip off Friday at 3:00 pm. The game will be televised on ESPN

This is the Owls’ fourth trip to the NCAA Tournament in program history and head coach Lindsay Edmonds has become the only Rice women’s basketball head coach to reach the tournament in their first three seasons with the school.

The Owls’ first appearance as a program came in 2000 when the 13-Seed Owls upset 4-Seed UC Santa Barbara in the first round. They then advanced to the second round and fell to 5-Seed North Carolina. Their second trip came in 2005 as an 11-Seed where they fell to 6-Seed Georgia in the first round.

Erica Ogwumike and Nancy Mulkey headlined the most recent Rice Women’s Basketball team to go dancing. That squad was a 12-Seed, pitted against 5-Seed Marquette in the first round. That team dropped a close overtime contest and was denied another chance at the tournament when the 2020 postseason was canceled with the outbreak of COVID-19.

The complete bracket is available here.

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