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Rice Basketball: COVID-19 issues force MBB, WBB cancelations

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COVID-19 related issues within both the men’s and women’s programs have forced all Rice basketball games this weekend to be canceled.

The women were set to visit Texas A&M on Sunday while the men would have hosted Saint Thomas.

Here are the official statements from Rice Athletics:

On Rice women’s basketball:

The Rice women’s basketball game at No. 23 Texas A&M scheduled for Sunday, Dec. 19 has been canceled due to COVID-19 related issues within the Rice program.

Rice has one more scheduled non-conference game set for Wednesday, Dec. 29 when they host Texas College at 6 p.m. from Tudor Fieldhouse.

On Rice men’s basketball:

Rice Basketball’s home game against St. Thomas, originally scheduled for Sunday, December 19, has been postponed due to COVID issues within the Owls’ program.

The teams will look to reschedule at a later date.

Rice currently holds a 7-4 record and is on a three-game winning streak.

What does this mean going forward?

First and foremost, our best wishes go out to all the impacted players and personnel and hope for a swift recovery for all. On the basketball side of things, these cancelations offer a warning of what may be in store for college basketball over the next several weeks.

On the men’s side, the roster is robust and has already shown an ability to play through injuries. Losing out on a nonconference game against St. Thomas will cause a delay in court time that isn’t ideal, but the impact on the season as a whole seems fairly minimal at this point. Rescheduling was mentioned as an option in the official statement.

More: 2022 Rice Football recruiting updates

On the women’s side, this further emphasizes the fragility of the current roster. The Owls did sign the No. 1 recruiting class in Conference USA, but they won’t be on campus until next season. That leaves this team with a very thin lineup that won’t be able to withstand much in the way of injuries or COVID-19 complications. The margin for this team will be razor thin.

COVID-19 challenges are currently impacting the full range of professional sports, too. This is not an isolated incident. If things continue to persist, there could be more delays and cancelations, reminiscent of where things were last year at this time. Hang in there. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.

UPDATE 12/20:

The men’s game against Texas has also been postponed.

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Rice Athletics experiences first self-initiated COVID-19 postponement

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The first self-initiated COVID-19 postponement occurred at South Main this week. Through the ups and downs, Rice Athletics is battling COVID-19 well.

Rice Athletics issued its first self-initiated COVID-19 postponement on Tuesday afternoon. The Owls were forced to defer a set of Rice women’s basketball games originally scheduled for this weekend “due to a positive COVID-19 test within the program and related contact tracing”.

That postponement represents the first time Rice has had to back out of an athletic contest since the Owls kicked off their 2020-2021 athletic year on Oct. 24, 2020 against Middle Tennessee, 87 days prior.

Rice has been on the opposite end of those dour phone calls on numerous occasions. Rice has three football games postponed by COVID-19 tests and contact tracing by their opponents this fall. The women’s basketball team lost games against UT Arlington and Texas Southern. The men’s basketball team missed out on the marquee non-conference game: the Bayou Bucket against Houston.

Altogether Rice has played 30 games (not counting six postponements) over the last three months without being the offending party. That streak ends on Friday.

More: Conference USA COVID-19 Postponement Tracker 

The Rice women’s basketball team was thin on numbers before COVID-19 had any impact this week. The Owls played seven out of a maximum of 15 allowable scholarship players in their most recent contest, a road win against Old Dominion. The team found ways to keep winning, but simply did not have the bodies to afford to lose any more players. Even still, they lead Conference USA with a 10-1 (6-0) record.

The way Rice Athletics has handled COVID-19 hasn’t been perfect. But through rigorous contact tracing and safety protocols, the Owls have made it longer than most every college program in the nation before bowing out of any games. They’ve given their athletes their best chance to compete.

Volleyball, soccer and baseball will all begin soon. Cases continue to climb in the Houston area. The degree of difficulty will only rise from here. But so far, it’s been (relatively) smooth sailing at South Main. Here’s hoping they can keep it up.

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Conference USA Football and COVID-19: Postponements abound in 2020

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Conference USA football struggled in its battle against COVID-19 this fall. Here’s the final total of postponements and cancelations.

The impacts of COVID-19 were ever-present on the 2020 Conference USA football season. No program was immune. From Western Kentucky, which played 12 games and had just one game postponed, to Charlotte, which had NINE games impacted, schedules were adjusted on the fly.

A total of 37 games involving Conference USA football teams were postponed following the start of the season in late August. Compared to the 116 games scheduled, that’s a postponed/cancelation rate of 31.9 percent.

From a national perspective, Conference USA was near the bottom of the barrel when it came to scheduling success. The SEC, which shares somewhat of a similar geographic footprint, had only two scheduled regular season games unplayed at the end of the year.

In comparison, Conference USA had just three weekends in the regular season without any games canceled. The first came in Week 1, which was missing two originally scheduled games (Rice vs Houston and FIU vs Jacksonville State) but those had been postponed indefinitely during the summer. All scheduled games were played in Week 8 and then in Week 15, which included only the conference championship game.

Graph – Postponements and Cancelations by week

Graph – Postponements and Cancelations by team

List – Postponements and Cancelations by team

SchoolOpponentH/AAt FaultReasonWeek
FIUUCFAwaySelfSeason Delay2
LA TechBaylorAwaySelfCOVID2
MarshallECUAwayOppCOVID2
CharlotteNorth CarolinaAwaySelfCOVID3
FAUGeorgia SouthernAwaySelfCOVID3
CharlotteGeorgia StateAwayOppCOVID4
FAUUSFHomeOppCOVID4
North TexasHoustonAwaySelfCOVID4
UTSAMemphisHomeOppCOVID4
MarshallRiceHomeOppSeason Delay5
RiceMashallAwaySelfSeason Delay5
FAUSouthern MissAwaySelfCOVID6
RiceUABHomeSelfSeason Delay6
Southern MissFAUHomeOppCOVID6
UABRiceAwayOppSeason Delay6
CharlotteFIUHomeSelfCOVID7
FIUCharlotteAwayOppCOVID7
Southern MissUTEPAwaySelfCOVID7
UTEPSouthern MissHomeOppCOVID7
FIUMarshallHomeSelfCOVID9
MarshallFIUAwayOppCOVID9
North TexasUTEPAwaySelfCOVID9
UTEPNorth TexasHomeOppCOVID9
CharlotteMiddle TennesseeAwaySelfCOVID10
FIUUTEPAwaySelfCOVID10
LA TechNorth TexasAwayOppCOVID10
Middle TennesseeCharlotteHomeOppCOVID10
North TexasLA TechHomeSelfCOVID10
RiceUTSAHomeOppCOVID10
UTEPFIUHomeOppCOVID10
UTSARiceAwaySelfCOVID10
RiceLA TechAwayOppCOVID11
LA TechRiceHomeSelfCOVID11
North TexasUABAwayOppCOVID11
UABNorth TexasHomeSelfCOVID11
CharlotteGardner-WebbHomeOppCOVID11
LA TechUL MonroeAwayOppCOVID12
UABUTEPAwaySelfCOVID12
UTEPUABHomeOppCOVID12
MarshallCharlotteHomeOppCOVID12
CharlotteMarshallAwaySelfCOVID12
Southern MissUABAwaySelfCOVID13
UABSouthern MissAwaySelfCOVID13
LA TechFIUHomeOppCOVID13
FIULA TechAwaySelfCOVID13
Middle TennesseeFAUHomeSelfCOVID13
FAUMiddle TennesseeAwayOppCOVID13
RiceUTEPHomeOppCOVID13
UTEPRiceAwaySelfCOVID13
CharlotteWKUHomeSelfCOVID13
WKUCharlotteAwayOppCOVID13
Southern MissUTEPAwayOppCOVID14
UTEPSouthern MissHomeSelfCOVID14
UABMTSUAwayOppCOVID14
MTSUUABHomeSelfCOVID14
CharlotteFIUHomeOppCOVID14
FIUCharlotteAwaySelfCOVID14
MarshallFIUAwaySelfC-USA15
FIUMarshallHomeOppC-USA15
MarshallCharlotteHomeSelfCOVID15
CharlotteMarshallAwayOppCOVID15
UABSouth CarolinaAwayOppCOVIDBowl

List – Postponements and Cancelations by week

Week 2

FIU at UCF
LA Tech at Baylor
Marshall at ECU

Week 3

Charlotte at North Carolina
FAU at Georgia Southern

Week 4

Charlotte at Georgia State
FAU vs USF
North Texas at Houston
UTSA vs Memphis

Week 5

Rice at Marshall

Week 6

FAU at Southern Miss
UAB at Rice

Week 7

FIU at Charlotte
Southern Miss at UTEP

Week 9

Marshall at FIU
North Texas at UTEP

Week 10

Charlotte at Middle Tennessee
FIU at UTEP
LA Tech at North Texas
UTSA at Rice

Week 11

Rice at LA Tech
North Texas at UAB
Charlotte vs Gardner-Webb

Week 12

LA Tech at UL Monroe
UAB at UTEP
Charlotte at Marshall

Week 13

Southern Miss at UAB
LA Tech at FIU
FAU at Middle Tennessee
UTEP at Rice
WKU at Charlotte

Week 14

Southern Miss at UTEP
UAB at MTSU
FIU at Charlotte

Week 15

Marshall at FIU
Charlotte at Marshall

Bowls

UAB at South Carolina

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Rice Football: A season in flux hits encounters third postponement

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Rice Football did not play their scheduled game against UTEP on Saturday, another snag in a season full of challenges off the field.

At 1:30 p.m. Mike Bloomgren sat in his office with a Zoom screen pulled up. The virtual press conference wasn’t a new development — he’d done that too many times to count since the 2020 season began — the time of the call was the unfortunate wrinkle.

When Bloomgren woke up on Saturday morning, he was expecting to be playing a football game at that time. UTEP had arrived from El Paso. Rice ate their normal pre-game meal. Preparations were in place for Rice football to play. Then poof. No game.

Around 12:20 p.m., supposedly 20 minutes after its initial start time, positive tests and contact tracing at UTEP forced the cancelation of the game. An hour later Bloomgren was back in front of the mic rather than making halftime adjustments with his team.

“There’s a lot of flux going on,” Bloomgren said. “The uncertainty has been tough for everybody in 2020.” An understatement if there ever was one.

30 of 84 Conference USA games have been postponed this season. The Rice game was the 100th FBS game postponed this year.

More: Conference USA COVID-19 Postponement Tracker

Prior to 2020, Bloomgren can remember just one in-season cancelation in his entire coaching career. That came in 2001 in the wake of 9/11, a game against Southern Miss when he was on staff at Alabama was canceled. Since then, he’s played the game on his schedule. Until this year, when he’s had to have that uncomfortable conversation with his team three times in the last four weeks.

“We had our normal morning,” Bloomgren said, before then running through the play by play of another postponement.

What comes next, not even Bloomgren knows. Right now Rice football is scheduled to fly to West Virginia to play Marshall. Bloomgren mentioned continued dialogue in the conference office about replacing that game with a West opponent.

Rather than fly East, rescheduling a previously postponed contest with UTSA is on the table. Bloomgren also mentioned moving up the Dec. 12 contest with UAB, which hasn’t played a game in more than a month. Further clarification is expected from the league office this weekend.

Amidst the chaos, Bloomgren remains resolute on one thing: “Whoever we get the opportunity to line up for next Saturday, we will be thankful for that opportunity,” he said. At this rate, a football game against anyone would be a welcome development.

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BREAKING: Rice Football vs UTEP game canceled

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Rice football’s upcoming Thanksgiving weekend game against UTEP has been canceled due to COVID-19 complications at UTEP.

For the third time in four weeks, Rice has had their game postponed. Due to COVID-19 complications at UTEP, the Owls and Miners will not play today as previously scheduled.

Rice was able to play both of their scheduled October games without a hiccup. The Owls opened at home against Middle Tennessee on Oct. 24 and went on the road to play Southern Miss on Oct. 31. Since then, they’ve lost the opportunities to play UTSA on Nov. 7, Louisiana Tech on Nov. 14 and now UTEP on Nov. 28. The UTSA game was postponed on Friday. The Louisiana Tech game was postponed on Thursday.

Conference USA added games against Marshall (Dec. 5) and UAB (Dec. 12) prior to the Owls’ first postponement. Given the three missed games against opponents from C-USA West, there’s still a decent chance the Marshall game is canceled in favor of a divisional contest, but nothing can be certain in 2020 at this point. Marshall most recently lost a game against East division foe Charlotte that has yet to be made up.

More: Rice Basketball Season Preview

Western Kentucky remains the only C-USA school to avoid a postponed game because of COVID-19. A full list of C-USA games impacted by postponements since the season kicked off in late August is available on our Conference USA COVID-19 Postponement Tracker.

The next game on the schedule for Rice football is the Marshall game on Dec. 5. Rice hasn’t played at home since Oct. 24, more than a month ago. At this rate, playing any football, anywhere, would be welcomed. With the calendar creeping into December, there’s not much time left to play this season.

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