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2025-2026 Rice Basketball Season Preview

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Rob Lanier was tasked with laying the foundation for Rice Basketball a year ago when he arrived on South Main. What’s in store for the Owls in his second season?

Extended rebuilds are no longer a thing in the world of college athletics, but Rice basketball knew they’d be facing more than a one-year reboot when they made the decision to move on from Scott Pera a year ago and hire Rob Lanier. The roster was gutted and Lanier and his new staff scrambled in the portal to rebuild the roster in short order. The results were mixed.

This time around, the Owls did lose players to the portal, like is normative for just about every program these days except for perhaps the upper-tier blue bloods, but the continuity already established has those around South Main more optimistic about what the program might be able to accomplish in Year 2.

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2025-2026 Rice Women’s Basketball Season Preview

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Fifth-year head coach Lindsay Edmonds leads a Rice women’s basketball squad with high expectations that is looking to rebound from a rocky season a year ago.

The 2025-2026 Rice Women’s Basketball will look to quickly step past what was largely a disappointing season a year ago, one which began with NCAA Tournament aspirations only to end with a middling 17-17 campaign. This time, the year would not be salvaged by a conference tournament run, although the Owls certainly gave it a shot.

No, this season doesn’t come with vocal proclamations or lofty promises. Just work. At the American Conference Tipoff event, Edmonds sported a bracelet with the initials TNT, which stands for “Today, Not Tomorrow.”

In her eyes, focusing on the present will help alleviate some of those stumbles the program has gone through in prior years.

“[We have to be] making sure that we’re taking care of today. When we get to the tournament, we’ll worry about the tournament,” Edmonds said. “But making sure that we’re taking care of each and every day because all those wins are going to matter, all those games are going to matter.

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The Winding Road: Jack Ben-Shoshan’s circuitous path to the top of the Rice Baseball bullpen

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Rice Baseball, Jack Ben-Shoshan
March 29, 2025, Houston, Texas, US: Jack Ben-Shoshan delivers a pitch during game two between the East Carolina University Pirates and the Rice Owls at Reckling Park. Mandatory Credit: Maria Lysaker | Rice Athletics

A position player turned ace reliever only begins to tell the story of the winding road that made Jack Ben-Shoshan a crucial member of the Rice baseball bullpen.

A member of Jose Cruz Jr’s 2021 Rice baseball recruiting class, Jack Ben-Shoshan was viewed as an all-purpose addition to the Owls’ program when he signed. Listed by the Perfect Game recruiting service as a shortstop, second baseman, third baseman and right handed pitcher, there was little doubt the program could find a way to use him. The only question was where.

Ben-Shoshan came to Rice primarily as a position player, riding the momentum of a standout high school career at St. John’s in Houston. There, he posted a .357 career batting average and a .995 OPS, leading his team to the district championship game as a senior. But the transition to college ball didn’t come easy.

He made a strong first impression, doubling in his first collegiate at-bat, a pinch-hit appearance against Texas in Austin. Still, the rest of his freshman season proved more challenging. He finished the year hitting just .115 over 30 appearances, all as a position player.

Health was part of the reason Ben-Shoshan’s contributions to the program had been limited to the batter’s box and the field at that point. His relatively unrefined pitching history was the other. While many players have pitching coaches and do extra work in high school, Ben-Shoshan did not. Everything he knew on the mound came from personal experience.

“I always pitched, but I would call myself more of an infielder who threw,” Ben-Shoshan summarized. “I didn’t really know how to pitch.”

In his eyes, he was a ball of clay, willing to be molded. And when the decision came to pursue pitching full-time, he dove into the study headfirst, trusting pitching coach Parker Bangs’ instruction as if it were gospel. Without previous instruction to weigh against the new information, Ben-Shoshan became a sponge, eager to absorb everything he could.

“I always pitched, but I would call myself more of an infielder who threw… I didn’t really know how to pitch.”- Jack Ben-Shoshan

Ben-Shoshan took to his new responsibilities well enough, showing encouraging signs throughout the fall, but the newly-made pitcher wouldn’t see game action until the following March, beginning the season as one of several pieces in the bullpen working to carve out a role for himself.

From there, the successful outings began to cascade and Ben-Shoshan began to take on a more instrumental role in the program’s pitching plans. The closer role was spoken for — Matthew Linskey was in no danger of losing his job to anyone when it came to that spot — but Ben-Shoshan was just fine settling into a setup position and turned himself into one of the most trusted leverage relivers on the roster.

The first-year pitcher led the team with a 3.20 ERA, outdoing both Linskey and staff ace Parker Smith, who would go on to be MLB Draft selections following the conclusion of the season. Not draft eligible yet, Ben-Shoshan hoped to join them in a year’s time but life had other plans.

A Pitching Wilderness

All the momentum and goodwill Ben-Shoshan had accumulated during his sophomore season came to a screeching halt when his junior season began.

In the season opener, Ben-Shoshan ceded the game-winning run in his first appearance against Notre Dame. He entered another game against the Irish two days later only to give up a first-pitch home run and back-to-back four-pitch walks before being pulled.

Ben-Shoshan failed to complete a full inning of work in four of his next five appearances, spiraling further and further from his aspirations and seeing his season-long ERA climb to 13.50 before the coaching staff had seemingly seen enough.

More: “He’s A Bulldog” — Parker Smith’s Journey to Rice Baseball Ace

Following a four-run, no-out misadventure against Tulane on March 22, Ben-Shoshan made just four further appearances in the final two months of the season. Davion Hickson ascended to closer status while Ben-Shoshan was remitted to the bench, an arm reserved for blowouts and eating innings in games decided long before he was summoned to the mound.

A season that began with such promise had ended in disaster.

Ben-Shoshan, whose Rice baseball career had been anything but linear to that point, resolved not to let that bad year define him. He spent the summer working at the Driveline facility in Washington, an organization that prides itself on utilizing technology and analytics to improve performance. His goal was to get his mechanics back to where he’d been the previous season.

“I told myself I’m not going to let a year like that happen again. It’s a personal thing that I took,” he said. “I had a good fall last year and then it kind of fell apart during the season. I pretty much did whatever I could to not let that happen again.”

From his perspective, he’d been pressing too much. That search for added velocity had negatively impacted his command. When that went sideways, his confidence and composure on the mound followed suit. Given an offseason to reset, he returned to South Main ready to contribute.

At that point, though, he was an older arm that looked to have lost a step the season prior amidst a bullpen with more promising young pieces. The coaching staff collectively told him they envisioned him as a reserve reliever who might throw 20 or 30 innings in the season. In their eyes, the days of Ben-Shoshan being a high-leverage option were long gone.

The Road Back

Sure enough, Ben-Shoshan made four appearances in the first month of the season including a no-out, five-run debacle against a ranked Mississippi State squad. But when head coach Jose Cruz Jr. was fired in mid-March, Ben-Shoshan saw an opportunity for one final chance to make his case under the leadership of newly installed head man David Pierce.

Ben-Shoshan remembers it being right around that point in the year when he’d truly begun to settle into his routine. His velocity was where he wanted it to be and his command had returned, too. Most importantly, he was as mentally locked in as he could recall being in a long time. For him, the coaching change came at just the right time.

“[Pierce] came in and harped on working the strike zone, getting ahead early,” Ben-Shoshan recalled. “I think that’s something that I’m really good at. He really liked that part of me, filling up the zone.”

Rice Baseball, Jack Ben-Shoshan
March 29, 2025, Houston, Texas, US: Jack Ben-Shoshan delivers a pitch during game two between the East Carolina University Pirates and the Rice Owls at Reckling Park. Mandatory Credit: Maria Lysaker | Rice Athletics

Flush with newfound confidence, Ben-Shoshan did just that. He did not allow an earned run in his first four outings under Pierce, including a marvelous nine-strikeout, 3.2-inning relief outing against Sam Houston. All of a sudden, Ben-Shoshan was back in his groove.

Since Pierce was hired, Ben-Shoshan owns a 2.41 ERA and his season-long ERA of 3.51 is the best on the team, narrowly edging out staff ace Davion Hickson’s 3.70 mark. Among Rice pitchers who have appeared in at least five games, none boast a lower WHIP (walks plus hits per innings pitched) than he does. Put simply, he’s been the most reliable arm on the roster for the better part of two months.

It’s not as if Pierce entered with hopes of authoring Ben-Shoshan’s comeback story. He was hired to win baseball games, something that, in his estimation, requires a certain kind of fearlessness that Ben-Shoshan has developed through the trials along his path.

Pierce praised Ben-Shoshan as having a “bulldog mentality. Where he’s like, here’s my stuff, I’m coming at you. If you hit it, I’m going to do it again.”

“He’s not afraid of an at bat,” Pierce continued. “That’s the key, trusting his stuff. He knows he’s going to get popped a little bit, but he never backs down. And that’s impressive to me. That’s what I want from our pitchers. If you don’t believe in your stuff in the zone, then why should we believe in it? And he believes in his stuff.”

Given how unceremoniously his 2024 season ended and this campaign began, Ben-Shoshan’s reemergence represents perhaps the most stark turnaround of any singular player on the roster.

When asked to reflect on his bounce-back year, Ben-Shoshan couldn’t help but crack a smile.

“I’m not surprised,” he said.

“Starting at that Yale game, my confidence just kept going and going and I realized I was in a really good spot, to just keep working through that with that mentality and those mechanics and I didn’t need to change anything mentally of physically.”

The Journey Ahead

Ben-Shoshan credits his pitching success in large part to pitching coach Parker Bangs who has been with the program all three seasons Ben-Shoshan has been pitching for the Owls. It was Bangs who was briefly named the interim coach for the week between Cruz and Pierce trading places and Bangs who gave Ben-Shoshan the opportunity against Yale he credits as the beginning of his turnaround.

“We click,” Ben-Shoshan said of Bangs. “He understands how to coach me and how to motivate me, what kind of feedback I work well with. I would credit a significant portion of my pitching to him. I think he’s been unbelievable in helping me.”

The coordination between Pierce — who comes to Rice with an extensive history as a pitching coach — and Bangs has allowed Ben-Shoshan to thrive.

“When I’m on the mound, I know I’ve got two coaches who have my back and are going to help me if I need anything. I think it’s just a confidence boost when I’m up there,” Ben-Shoshan said. “I can trust myself. I can trust the guys behind me. I can trust the coaches. That’s been a big, big change that I really enjoy.”

To that extent, Ben-Shoshan’s emergence is a testament to the level to which mindset and confidence are essential to pitch at a high level. There was no ah-ha moment, new pitch or refined windup that restored the Owls’ 6-foot right-hander to prominence. No, it was his mind that needed to be readjusted. That, and plenty of hard work to turn those dreams into tangible results.

“I think it’s a mental thing,” Ben-Shoshan said. “I spent the whole summer trying to get my mechanics back to what they were and once I got comfortable with them, kind of just not changing them and trying to do more.”

More: 59 Minutes — David Pierce Challenges Rice baseball to grow

Back in his sweet spot, Ben-Shoshan is doing all he can to take it one pitch a time. He admits he at least briefly entertained the notion of going pro and thoughts of the MLB Draft and potential opportunities he might have after the season, but at the end of the day, focusing on the present is the best thing he can do to bolster his chances of future success.

“I’m hesitant to think about what comes after this because part of me thought about that last fall, and I think it hurt me,” Ben-Shoshan said. “For most of this season it’s just been living in the moment, trying to keep stringing good outings together and then, you know, if it happens, it happens.”

“If I can keep playing, I would love to, but at the same time I don’t want to get bogged down on that and affect how I pitch.”

And so he’ll continue to take the baseball whenever he’s asked, soaking in his situation and reflecting on the winding road he took to get here. The future, he hopes, will sort itself. For now, Jack Ben-Shoshan is living in the present and doing all he can to get one more out for his team, one at bat at a time.

**Photo credit: Maria Lysaker**
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59 Minutes: David Pierce challenges Rice Baseball to grow

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Following a midweek loss to UTRGV, Rice baseball coach David Pierce had a heart-to-heart with his team, hoping to spark change within the program.

By the time the first player rose from the dugout and began the walk back towards the locker rooms, the stands of Reckling Park had been emptied and attendants had long since finished combing the stadium seats for loose trash. Outside a few scattered family members down the right field line, the facilities were empty, with the exception of head coach David Pierce, his assistants, and every member of the Rice baseball team, huddled together in the dugout for an impromptu team meeting.

Pierce held court for 59 minutes following a 20-5 defeat at the hands of UT Rio Grande Valley. The words weren’t audible from the stands, but the tone was clear. Everyone in the dugout needed to wake up.

“We’re just really trying to find out who we are, not necessarily even as baseball players, just as teammates, the respect for each other and the accountability,” Pierce summed up after the lengthy gathering. “I think once we start becoming a closer team and chemistry’s built and accountability takes place, you won’t see those types of games.”

Pierce noted the conversation ranged from upperclassmen and underclassmen roles to leadership, body language on the field and how the players were treating each other.

“I told them, I lost my job last year. And I learned a lot about myself and learned a lot about falling back in love with just the purity of the game,” Pierce said. “And that’s really what I want them to do. Don’t worry about the record, become more involved in each other.”

Coaching isn’t a one-size-fits all type of business. And while there’s no better way to measure its effectiveness than wins and losses, there’s something to be said for the time spent in the dugout on Wednesday night by a coach whom quite easily could have assumed leadership and accountability for this program after an offseason of improvements yet instead chose to get his hands dirty in the midst of a season already veering off center.

“This could be a perfect night for us if they take it the right way,” Pierce said.

Podcast: Unpacking the Pierce hire and midseason start

Moments like this are part of what pulled Pierce back to South Main after so many years away.

“I told them every day how much I love this place and it’s my mission to get the mentality the way it’s supposed to be and [to elevate] the cultural and the standard. And I’m not gonna stop until we get that,” he declared. “And if we got guys that are just cruising, then they don’t need to play, they probably don’t need to travel and probably don’t need to be on the roster.

“But they have the opportunity right now to flip the switch and really, just get back to enjoying the game and enjoying being in a clubhouse with teammates because it’s going to pass them by.”

On Tuesday, the Texas State team Pierce was assisting at the beginning of the season defeated No. 5 Texas. Sticking around in San Marcos would have been the easier path. Yet here Pierce is, spending 59 minutes in a post game dugout, pouring his heart and soul into players someone else recruited, days removed from taking over a 5-17 team that didn’t reach that record by happenstance.

“I can handle anything. I mean, at the end of the day, I’ve been through it on both sides,” Pierce remarked, shaking off the single game result as he willed his players to see the bigger picture.

“I just was so fortunate to be a part of what Coach [Wayne Graham] started and be a piece of the nine-year share of what this place became,” he said. “And that’s my goal, my mission, to just get that attitude and the fan base excited about us playing. There’s a lot of things that need to be done. And I don’t want to get ahead of myself because I want to make sure that I do everything possible for these guys. I think they want it. They just don’t know how to get it yet.”

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“Do or Die”: Matt Sykes emerges as Rice Football’s go-to guy

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From a one-catch campaign to becoming the go-to guy, Rice football wide receiver Matt Sykes has stepped up in big ways when his team has needed him most.

Rice football wide receiver Matt Sykes had the best spring of any player at his position, bar none. It was hard to walk through the halls of the Brian Patterson Center and avoid the chatter about the transfer wideout’s big step forward. Coaches and teammates were quick to speak of his playmaking ability at practices. The drumbeat for a breakthrough season was there.

But at the same time, it was just spring football.

Countless players have shown out in the spring when nobody wearing a different color jersey breaks across the middle of the field and delivers a jarring hit the stakes are lower. Translating practice into game day has always been the differentiator between good and great. Sykes had done all the right things, but he still hadn’t done it on Saturdays, not yet.

Sykes caught one pass in his first season at Rice following a transfer from UCLA. Injuries and inconsistent play kept him from making a more meaningful impact that season. Then came the strong spring and a chaotic fall camp that transformed the Owls’ feel-good story from a luxury to a desperate need. Sykes wasn’t going to be eased into his new role. He was needed now.

Landon Ransom, Rawson MacNeill and Thai Bowman were thought to be the Owls’ top three receivers entering the season. All three of them were injured in some capacity by the time the 2024 season began. Suddenly, Sykes’ emergence was essential.

Debut

In the Owls’ season opener against Sam Houston, Sykes caught six balls for 74 yards, both career-highs in his fifth season of college football. He followed that up with two catches for 47 yards and his first Rice touchdown grab a week later against Texas Southern. For a receiving corps decimated by injuries in need of a playmaker, Sykes delivered.

“I feel a lot more comfortable,” Sykes said, evaluating the difference between his first and second season on South Main. “Getting a lot of reps, just feeling back in my flow. [I’m] really confident, playing fast.”

Sykes would continue to be the primary target for Rice quarterback EJ Warner as the season progressed. As the offense ebbed at flowed, having No. 8 on the field proved to be a positive more often than not. As his production on the field grew, expectations came with it. More and more was asked of Sykes as the offense tried to find its way.

“The thing that I’m most impressed with him and most pleased with him about is that I think he wants to step up. I think he’s capable of doing it. Like I said, he hasn’t arrived yet, but I think he’s on his path to being that guy,” receivers coach Bobby Kennedy said. “Because of him and the way he works, you think, okay, maybe he can get this done. Maybe he can really, really, really be the guy. And if he continues to have some more success, I’m excited to see what happens as games go on because I think he’s got it in him.”

Although so much of what Sykes did on the field was encouraging, there were still growing pains that come with less experienced players growing their roles so quickly. Sykes struggled through some concentration drops against Army and had a pass tip off his hands into the waiting arms of a defender for an interception.

“He just became a dominant catcher of the ball, like he was so confident in his ability, he saw the ball in the sky and went and got it,”

Adversity is part of the game, but it’s also one of the reasons Sykes’ coaches theorize he’d yet to emerge in a significant way on Saturdays. Coaches pointed to a lack of confidence in the old Matt Sykes, a tendency to get in his own head and get rattled with things didn’t go according to plan. The veteran player had struggled when faced with trying situations in the past, but with no relief coming, something was going to have to change.

Sykes responded to a rough start against Army with a flawless touchdown grab later in the game. Then he authored the best game of his college football career.

Against Charlotte the following week Sykes hauled in a career-best eight passes for a career-high 97 yards. A 25-yard reception in the fourth quarter put Rice in position to attempt a game-winning field one play following what could have been a debilitating penalty that set the offense back near midfield.

At that point, the grab was one of the most high-leverage moments in Sykes’ well-traveled career. This time, he made the play.

Miracles

Unfortunately, Rice football didn’t win that game. A missed field goal at the end of a regulation made Sykes’ valiant effort for naught. For as far as he had come to that point, the Owls still needed a little bit more from their new go-to receiver. Could Sykes transcend from reliable to game-changer?

Sykes almost didn’t get that chance. A week and a half later he found himself in a hospital bed, forced to check himself into the emergency room on the Monday evening prior to the Owls’ next game against UTSA. He stayed in the hospital for almost three days. “He was essentially ruled out,” Bloomgren admitted.

The situation got so dire that the team elevated multiple scout team players during the week to take reps with the first team offense. Corner Sean Fresch even made a cameo appearance as a receiving threat. It was all hands on deck with Sykes, regrettably, sidelined.

Then the first miracle happened. Sykes walked out of the hospital and was cleared to return to practice. Members of the coaching staff were making resurrection jokes on the sideline while inwardly breathing sighs of relief that their top passing game option would be on the field, still not knowing for sure how much he’d have in the tank to give. As it turns out, he had plenty.

Days removed from his hospital bed, Sykes hauled in seven receptions for 85 yards, setting a career-high in receiving for the fourth time this season and the third consecutive game. This time, though, it wasn’t just the counting stats that told the story.

With nine seconds remaining on the clock on third down, Rice had the ball at the UTSA 18-yard line trailing by four points with one time-out. Even by conservative estimates, that meant the Owls had time for two shots at the endzone should they require it. Warner took the snap, dropped back and fired a missile to the middle of the field, finding the fingertips of Sykes at the top of the capital C in the white RICE OWLS lettering that adorned the navy blue endzone.

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Blanketed by a defender who had one hand already on his jersey and another swiping at the ball, Sykes momentarily juggled the pigskin in the air before hauling the precious rock into his arms, which smacked the turf in bounds milliseconds later. At that moment, fans listening to the radio broadcast heard longtime Rice Owls Voice announcer JP Heath exclaim, “Matt Sykes pulls down a miracle, back of the endzone, Rice scores.”

Touchdown. Not only had Sykes secured the ball, he’d won Rice the game.

“I knew I was definitely one of the reads to get open on the post and I know EJ likes to take chances with me so I knew, regardless, that I had to win my route,” Sykes said after the game. “I knew that was a must-do, do-or-die moment, so I had to come down with it.”

In so many ways, Sykes’ journey has been unbelievable. A fifth-year senior who had one catch to his name and was bound to a hospital bed just days before had somehow transformed into a storybook ending.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” Sykes said. “I don’t think I’ll ever have something like this again, to feel this great.”

The 2024 version of Matt Sykes remains a work in progress. There will be more highs and lows along the way. But it’s hard to imagine where Rice football would be without him.

“He just became a dominant catcher of the ball, like he was so confident in his ability, he saw the ball in the sky and went and got it,” head coach Mike Bloomgren said of Sykes’ ascension. “That’s the standard he set for himself and what we have to expect of him. When you ask what’s different, I think it came down to confidence in allowing him to grow into the player we thought he could be.”

** This story has been modified from its original version ** Photo credit: Maria Lysaker **



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