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Rice Basketball to face Duquesne in first round of 2023 CBI Tournament

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Rice basketball has accepted an invitation to participate in the 2023 CBI Tournament and will play Duquesne in the first round.

Rice basketball is postseason bound. After falling to UAB in the second round of the Conference USA Tournament, the Owls have accepted a bid to the College Basketball Invitation Tournament (CBI). The Tournament will take place from March 18 to 22 with all games at the Daytona Beach Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, FL.

This is the Owls’ third appearance in the CBI. Rice first played in the 2017 tournament, defeating San Francisco in the opening round before falling to Utah Valley in the quarterfinals. Last year Rice went down to the wire against 3-Seed Ohio in the opening round, taking a lead with five seconds to play, only to watch it crumble on a buzzer-beating shot from the Bobcats that sent Rice home.

Opening round games will be played on Mar. 18 and Mar. 19 with the remaining rounds taking place over the next three days. Should a team play on the second day of opening round games and advance to the finals, they would play four games in four days.

Rice basketball head coach Scott Pera released this statement regarding the news:

“We are excited to be heading back to Daytona Beach and participate in the CBI in back-to-back years. We had a good, but too short, experience last year. For our program to get to back-to-back postseasons is another barrier we have broken down as we continue to grow Rice Basketball and head into the American Athletic Conference next year.”

The entire field was announced on Selection Sunday, following the release of the NCAA Tournament and NIT Brackets. Here is the full CBI bracket. Should Rice advance past the first round, the Owls would play the winner of the first round game between Southern Utah and North Alabama.

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Rice Basketball bounced from C-USA Tournament by UAB

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Rice basketball hung around for a while, but couldn’t keep pace with UAB, bowing out in the second round of the Conference USA Tournament.

It was going to take an extremely well-played game for Rice basketball to give UAB a run for its money. The Owls did not get that out of the gate, turning the ball over frequently and falling behind 12-5 in the first five minutes. Rice collected itself and made some threes, retaking the lead 16-12 on an 11-0 run.

In that span, Rice looked comfortable on both sides of the court. They protected the basketball and took advantage of UAB’s mistakes. They hung tough through the ensuing UAB run, falling behind by 10 before firing back to make it a two-point game with one minute remaining before the halftime buzzer. Travis Evee and Max Fiedler provided almost all of the scoring on an unusually quiet night from Quincy Olivari.

It was at that one-minute mark when the poise of UAB made the difference. Rice fouled a three-point shooter, allowed a separate three-point shot and a dunk, all in the span of 57 seconds. Just like that, Rice was back down by 10 in a game they had largely played evenly with one of the conference’s best teams.

Rice would get within five early in the second half, but another rash of turnovers and the unstoppable play of UAB’s Jelly Walker proved too much. He made four consecutive three-point shots, sparking a 15-4 UAB run. Up 17 points at the under-12 timeout, Rice was unable to dig out of the hole, falling in the second round and seeing their regular season come to an end.

Final Box | UAB 87 – Rice 60

Key takeaway | Talented, but flawed

In many ways, the two-game sample of the Conference USA Tournament summed up the Rice basketball season. The Owls found a way to hang on to a win against a UTSA team below them in the standings, but it took a last-second prayer to make it happen. Then they rose to the occasion and gave a really good UAB team a scare, only for their inconsistent ball handling and spotty defense to be exposed late.

Evee hit just about everything on Thursday night. Fiedler was the key piece in the middle. Olivari had an off night, but we’ve seen him drop 20+ on a regular basis. Mekhi Mason and Cameron Sheffield have both produced throughout the year. One can’t question the raw talent on this team. But for whatever reason, it wasn’t enough.

Head coach Scott Pera is going to have to take a hard look in the mirror this offseason and find a way to reassemble the pieces in a way that produces more consistent results. The talent is there.

Up Next | ???

Rice basketball finished the regular season 16-16 last year and earned an invite to the CBI. At 18-15 this season, they’re probably in line to return to that tournament again, should they decide that’s something they’d want to do. Pera has talked in the past about how important postseason basketball is to the program, so it seems likely the Owls 2022-2023 campaign will have at least one more stanza.

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Rice Basketball escapes UTSA, advances in CUSA Tournament

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Rice basketball is moving on in the Conference USA Tournament, surviving a waved-off buzzer-beater to advance past UTSA.

Slow starts had been the painfully recurring theme for Rice basketball in their recent cold spell, but that streak did not continue into the first round of the Conference USA Tournament. Rice opened up their game against UTSA on an 8-0 run, pushing the pace and taking control of the matchup with the league’s bottom seed early.

Rice continued to shoot well throughout the game, but it was the Owls’ defense that helped the hold their early advantage. A block at the halftime buzzer sent them into the break with a nine-point advantage, which would not prove to be as safe as it felt at the time. UTSA rallied in the second half, tying the game at 46-46. The fight was on.

Although Rice never trailed, the margins felt razor-thin right up until the literal final second. With 7.0 seconds on the clock and a one-point lead, guard Quincy Olivari walked to the free-throw line to shoot a one-and-one. He missed. The rebound went to UTSA and the Owls watched guard Japhet Medor drive the length of the court and put up the would-be game-winning shot at the buzzer.

“Live, I thought it was late. But when they took all that time I got really nervous,” head coach Scott Pera said.

UTSA celebrated. The referees went to the monitor. After conferring for what felt like forever, it was determined the shot was not released in time. The basket was no good. Rice had won.

“This is March Madness, right?” Pera mused. “That was some madness.”

Final Box | Rice 72 – UTSA 71

Key takeaway | Hope is not a strategy

At the end of the day, Pera and his team just had to wait. The officials and the monitors had the fate of the Owls’ season in their hands. One signal, and it could have all been over. “You have no control over it,” Pera admitted. “It’s just did it get off his fingers or not, and it’s a very strange feeling.”

UTSA took Rice down to the wire twice in the regular season. They got as close as could have been imagined this time around. The 10-23 Roadrunners had the Owls’ season on the brink..

“Kid made a heck of a play, a very tough shot. It just happened to be, I don’t know, a quarter second too late,” Pera admitted. “We were the beneficiaries of that. We’re appreciative to get the win and we’re happy to still be playing.”

Rice moves on to play UAB, who two weeks ago routed Rice in Birmingham. The rematch will be played in Frisco, but it’s going to require a lot more than hope for Rice to keep their season alive against the Blazers.

Against UTSA, Rice had a fast start. They shot the ball well. They had a great contribution off the bench from Andrew Akuchie. And it still went down to the wire. The Owls will have their work cut out for them against the Blazers. They’re going to need to bring their A-game. Hope won’t be enough to get by this time.

Up Next: vs No. 3 UAB, Thursday at 8:30 p.m. on ESPN+

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Rice Basketball fades down the stretch, falls to FIU

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Rice basketball ended the regular season with a thud, losing a halftime lead before falling at home on Senior Day to FIU.

Fans inside the confines of Tudor Fieldhouse were treated to an entertaining back-and-forth contest as Rice basketball and FIU wrapped up their regular seasons with vigor. FIU took a seven-point lead in the first half in the back of a 10-0 run only to see Rice immediately flip the script, countering with a 10-0 run of their own capped off with back-to-back threes from Travis Evee.

That’s how the game seemed to go from start to finish. Both teams shot well (Rice 50.8 percent — FIU 49.2 percent), making it feel like the game would be decided in the final minutes. In a way, it was, but not like many would have expected. With 4:33 remaining in the second half, Evee put Rice up three with a layup. Rice would not score from the field for the remainder of the game.

Two free throws, both from Evee, would interrupt a thunderous finish from FIU, who outscored Rice 12-2 from that point onward. The Owls had their chances, but turnovers and poor rebounding killed opportunities for a late rally.

Final Box | FIU 90 – Rice 83

Key takeaway | Sluggish second half

Rice basketball opened conference play 6-3. They would win just two of their remaining 11 games, falling from a potential first-round bye in the Conference USA Conference Tournament to a play-in game, stacking the deck against themselves in the process. For a team that showed so much promise early in the year, the regular season ends in a rather disappointing fashion.

As things currently stand, Rice looks likely to be the No. 6 seed in the conference tournament, pairing them with No. 11 seed UTSA in a potential first round game which would be played on Wednesday, March 8. The winner of that contest would go on to play No. 3 seed UAB.

Up Next: Conference USA Tournament, Round 1

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Rice Basketball routed by Florida Atlantic

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Rice basketball officially said goodbye to a first round bye on Thursday with a blowout loss to Florida Atlantic on their home court.

It wasn’t so much a slow start that doomed Rice basketball against Florida Atlantic on Thursday night — although they did fall behind 9-0 to start — it was the unrelenting onslaught from Conference USA’s preeminent team. Florida Atlantic had runs of 8-0, 13-0 and 10-0 in the first half alone, concluding with an emphatic 10 points run to complete the half.

Rice scored the first second points of the second half, but it fell on hollow ears following the 29-point deficit they faced at the break. A hole that size would have been hard enough to overcome against a mediocre opponent. Florida Atlantic proved they were far from that, responding to the most Rice rally and further lengthening their lead to as much as 36 points. Rice never came close.

Final Box | Florida Atlantic 103 – Rice 74

Key takeaway | Shooting spree

Rice basketball is now officially dead last in Conference USA in opposing field goal percentage allowed. They are 10th (out of 11 teams) in points per game allowed. The defense that seemed to be slowly building through nonconference play has been nowhere to be seen for the Owls over the past several weeks.

It doesn’t matter who Rice plays, allowing 100 points should never be acceptable. They held Texas, a Top 10 team, to 87 points including overtime. Florida Atlantic dropped 103 points on Rice on Thursday, and it could have been worse.

It’s not a new refrain, but it is an ever-growing chorus: if Rice basketball can’t play any semblance of defense, it won’t matter how many threes they can make. Florida Atlantic shot 53.4 percent from the floor and 47.2 percent from three. Sometimes teams get hot. When it keeps happening time and time again, it’s a trend. And Rice is running out of time to find solutions.

Up Next: vs FIU – Saturday, Mar. 4 at 2:00 p.m.

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