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Rice Women’s Basketball: ’19-’20 season a reminder there are no sure things

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Rice women’s basketball head coach Tina Langley has come to terms with the team’s truncated season. For here, there’s more to success than wins alone.

Fans were disappointed when the final buzzer sounded in Reed Arena and Rice women’s basketball was eliminated from the 2019 NCAA Tournament. Erica Ogwumike, Nancy Mulkey and a core group of young players had fallen just short of upsetting Marquette in College Station.

The Owls had come close to keeping their tremendous season alive, but all was not lost. Rice would return almost the entire unit next year. Surely, Rice would get another chance at an NCAA Tournament win. It just wouldn’t come as soon as many had hoped.

Months later, Ogwumike and Co. walked onto the court in Frisco, TX to play their first game of the Conference USA Tournament. The Owls were favorites to win the game and the tournament. That would secure another trip to the Big Dance. But minutes before tip the game was called off and the tournament was canceled. With 48 hours the NCAA Tournament had been canceled too and any that second chance at an NCAA win with this group went up in smoke.

In the weeks and months that followed the NCAA would opt not to grant additional eligibility to basketball students who’s seasoned’ were shortened. Ogwumike would hear her name called in the WNBA draft. Life would move on.

In the aftermath, Rice women’s basketball head coach Tina Langley found comfort in another kind of success, one that she said carries just as much weight as championships.

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“We’ve never been a program that really evaluated ourselves based on winning and losing or whether we won a championship or not. It’s just did we become the best team that we could possibly become?” she asked before going on to answer her own question. “I’m just really proud of who we became.”

And perhaps that is the best way to evaluate a season without a true ending. Rice started slow, and saw a 30-game conference winning streak snapped midseason. They rebounded, winning their final five games. Although they didn’t know it at the time, the season would end with a home win over Old Dominion. That victory — weeks after the Monarchs had snapped the Owls streal — solidified the Owls as back-to-back outright champions. Like every coach hopes, they were playing their best basketball at the end of the season.

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Rice Women’s Basketball clinches share of 2020 regular season C-USA title

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It was another banner night for Rice Women’s Basketball, which defended their spot atop Conference USA, clinching a share of the regular season title.

Rice Women’s Basketball clinched a share of the Conference USA Women’s Basketball regular season title with a Thursday night win over UTEP. The Miners kept things close early before Rice used their seemingly inevitable third quarter surge to put things out of reach and lock down the win at home.

The victory clinched a fourth consecutive season of at least 20 wins for Rice women’s basketball. That’s a testament to the incredible work done by head coach Tina Langley, who earlier this season became the fastest coach in program history to reach 100 wins.

Langley and the Owls aren’t done yet, though. The win over UTEP came in parallel with an Old Dominion loss to UAB in overtime. For the moment, Rice (15-2) holds sole possession of first place in Conference USA and the right to the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament. That sets the stage for a winner-take-all contest this weekend between the Owls and the Monarchs.

Old Dominion (14-3) would leapfrog Rice with a win at Tudor Fieldhouse on Saturday by nature of the head-to-head tiebreaker. Even with a loss, Rice could fall no further than the No. 2 seed. Since the top four teams in C-USA get byes in the first round and the middle-tier of the conference is fairly robust, the difference between the No. 1 seed and the No. 2 seed might not matter much this year. Still, the optics of being No. 1 carry some relevance.

This season has been flush with highs (Erica Ogwumike’s 2000-point, 1000-rebound plateau, 30th consecutive C-USA win) and lows (Injuries to Ogwumike and Nancy Mulkey, back-to-back C-USA losses, bad start to nonconference play). In the midst of all of the noise, Rice women’s basketball has proved to be resilient. Now it’s time to win when it counts — in March.

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Rice Women’s Basketball: Season at crossroads after Charlotte loss

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After going more than a calendar year since their last C-USA loss, Rice women’s basketball dropped their second conference game of the week, falling to Charlotte.

Wait, what happened? Those thoughts danced through the heads of Rice women’s basketball fans when the team fell to SMU all the way back on November 13. Rice came out rusty in their first road game and was stunted from start to finish by a team which did not have the athleticism to match the Owls — or at least, it didn’t seem like it on paper.

Three months later that guttural feeling has returned, placing the season at a crossroads. At this point last week the Owls were 11-0 in C-USA play, owners of first place and presumptive favorites to repeat as back-to-back Champions. Now they’re in second place, with fewer wins and more losses than fifth-place Charlotte, who handed Rice their most uncomfortable defeat since that ominous SMU affair.

Against SMU, Erica Ogwumike and Nancy Mulkey played well. Ogwumike led the way with 17 points and eight rebounds while Mulkey blocked 11 shots. For whatever reason, the team didn’t shoot well, finishing 24.1 percent from the field.

Rice couldn’t buy a bucket against Charlotte, either. Ogwumike had 14 points. Nancy Mulkey was limited by injury, scoring five points with six rebounds in 21 minutes, playing just four minutes in the second half. Kendall Ellig, Mulkey’s primary backup this season, had more fouls (three) than points (two). From start to finish, Rice was out of sorts, confused. They didn’t look much like the team that had overcome every obstacle for the past several months.

Returning to Tudor Fieldhouse and ending this forgettable road sweep will be a welcome homecoming. The pressure to be perfect is gone, but if the Owls have their eyes on a top seed in the C-USA Tournament and a repeat trip to the NCAA’s, there isn’t time to dwell on this dismal result.

The Owls will see their resiliency tested in the next three weeks. How they respond will determine the narrative that accompanies a season that began with lofty expectations.

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Rice Women’s Basketball: Owls top LA Tech with Ogwumike sidelined

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Rice Women’s Basketball was without their star guard but still managed to blow past Louisiana Tech. The Owls are a perfect 5-0 in Conference USA play.

Rice women’s basketball had won in a variety of ways on their way to a C-USA leading 24-game winning streak. They’d blown out countless teams and played close contests with others. But they’d never won without their best player on the court — they hadn’t had to.

The white and blue-clad Owls showed no timidity when they took the court without Erica Ogwumike on Thursday night against Louisiana Tech. The senior guard had suffered an injury against FIU that kept her sidelined against Louisiana Tech. She did not dress for the game and has no official timetable on her return. However, the expectation remains she’ll be back sooner rather than later.

If that wasn’t enough, the team was hit with sickness during the week. Rice dressed a half dozen players for their first practice of the week and had to send coaches and players home to rest. “We were barely able to practice,” head coach Tina Langely said postgame, not as an excuse, but as a credit to the performance her shorthanded squad had put together against a conference foe.

With Ogwumike out, there were some jitters. Rice had a few shot clock violations and lost possessions early on, clearly impacted by the loss of their primary ballhandler. What never wavered was their defense. Rice has now held 15 of their last 24 (and three of their last five) C-USA opponents to 50 points or fewer. Louisiana Tech shot a season-low 26 percent from the field.

“I love the pride that they take on the defensive end of the floor. I think it speaks to the character of our team.” Langely said. “Defense is about your heart and your effort and you don’t usually get a lot of credit from the defensive end of the floor as individuals. And you see our team really comes together and gives all that they have to defend well.”

That defense turned into just enough offense. Rice scored 13 points on fast breaks, relying on Jasmine Smith and Destiny Jackson to push the team down the court. Once the team stretched the lead to double digits at halftime, Louisiana Tech never got closer than eight for the remainder of the game.

Final Stats

Player of the game – Sydne Wiggins

On a night in which only two Owls reached double-digit points, it was the defensive performers who stood out. Nancy Mulkey registered her 200th career block and a career-best 15 rebounds, but it was the furious play of Sydne Wiggins that stood out the most. She was relentless on that side of the court, registering one steal, two blocks and plenty of headaches for the Owls’ opponent. Langley praised her focus, “She plays with such poise,” Langely said, “[She] has a great IQ. She brings so much to the court for us.” With Ogwumike on the bench, Wiggins was a much-needed energizer.

Up Next

Saturday they host Southern Miss with tip-off scheduled for 2:00 p.m. Then the team gets a few days off before a Thursday/Friday road trip to play UTEP and UTSA.

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Rice Women’s Basketball: Have the Owls flipped the switch?

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Rice Women’s Basketball improved to .500 on the season with their first conference win, but something felt different in the Owls’ most recent victory.

Uncertainty hung in the air around Rice Women’s Basketball as they tipped off against Marshall on Thursday night. On one hand, it was just another game, the next one on the schedule following a disappointing 5-6 start. On the other, it was a chance to defend last season’s perfect standard that has seemed worlds away from where the current team had been in recent weeks.

The game started, ended, and the scoreboard served as evidence for the Owls’ resounding blowout victory. The win felt a lot like last season’s Conference USA games, all wins for the Blue and Gray. Now, winners of 20 conference games in a row, the 2020 Owls are growing into their identity. At least, that’s how senior leader Erica Ogwumike explains the subtle shift she’s seen over the past week.

“I don’t think anything was really different, but I think we learned a lot this past week,” Ogwumike said. “We’ve learned a lot in Puerto Rico. Each game we’re learning. So I think you’re going to see that growth in every single game.”

That maturation process has come with a cost. Rice doesn’t have any Power 5 wins under their belt. They were a disappointing 0-4 in those marquee opportunities. Because of that, it’s probably going to require a conference tournament victory to return to the NCAA Tournament. The Owls’ résumé isn’t likely to have enough star power to get them to the Big Dance as an at large selection. Rice isn’t unaware of the uphill battle they face. But they’re also undeterred.

Head coach Tina Langely said she was “actually pleased with a lot of things in the non conference [schedule]”, clarifying the young roster that’s had to rely on more freshman than they did at this point last season is progressing. “We have a lot of players playing that maybe didn’t play as much last year. And so we had a lot of growth to do,” Langely said. “We played great competition and every day we got better.”

Thursday’s “better” was two-fold. First, and most importantly, Rice locked played some of their most tenacious defense of the season. They had 50 rebounds, seven steals and forced 15 turnovers. Center Nancy Mulkey only had one block. Yet Rice held Marshall to three points in the second quarter (and 43 overall), putting the game out of reach before the halftime buzzer sounded.

As has been the Owls’ penchant under Langley, defense won the day. Rice was able to work through a 3-for-11 start to that dominant second quarter and still stretch a nine-point lead to a 23 point advantage. Poor shooting, something which has hampered this team already this season, gave way to some of the most purposeful defensive possessions Rice has yet to put forth.

“I definitely think that you saw us on the defensive end really stick to who we are as a defensive team,” Langley said. “On the offensive end, I think we’re just continuing to learn each other and, and learn our offense.”

When Rice is playing well on defense, it doesn’t often take 80 points to win games. Rice could have won with 50 on Thursday, but the extra work afforded to their young core was important. By the midpoint of the third quarter, Ogwumike, Mulkey, Sydne Wiggins and Jasmine Smith were all on the bench.

“I think we’re just locked in,” Ogwumike said after posting only her second double-double of the season. She looked as sharp as ever, cutting through the lane and scrapping for every rebound remotely in her vicinity. That focus spread to the rest of the team, impacting the off-the-ball movement and the shot selection all night. Even when they had cold spurts from the floor, how Rice attacked the basket was different.

And now it’s onto the next one. Langely called it the one that matters the most.”The game in front of us is the biggest game of the year,” she said, speaking of the team’s newfound focus. “If we continue to play with that mindset, I think we can have some success.” Whether it’s the mindset, the defense, the offense, or a mixture of all of it together, whatever Rice did to generate their blowout victory in their first conference game of the season, more of that, please.

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