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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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2025 Rice Baseball Season Preview

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Rice Baseball is set to enter Year 4 under Jose Cruz Jr with what he believes to be the Owls’ most talented team of his tenure. Can Owls take flight this season?

Head coach Jose Cruz Jr. was quick to not promise the moon when he arrived on campus in the summer of 2021. He spoke then about building things the right way, acquiring talent and developing that talent within the Rice baseball culture. From there, the next step was winning games. It was always a long term plan, at least, that’s how the message was conveyed.

Three seasons in, Cruz and the Rice faithful are hoping enough of a foundation has been laid to turn those aspirational ideals into tangible wins. “We’re getting better every year, we’re getting better. The mentality is better. The athletes are better. The physiques are better,” Cruz said. “Every year we’re just going to keep getting better.”

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2024-2025 Rice Basketball Season Preview

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Rice Basketball embarks on a new era under head coach Rob Lanier this season. What will the new-look Owls be able to offer in his debut season on South Main?

Emotions are always high when you hire a new coach. A new day dawns and all the prior struggles and frustrations are momentarily thrust back into the depths. But the games will eventually start again and the neverending cycle of hope and tragedy that plagues all sports will soon return. New Rice basketball head coach Rob Lanier is responsible for ensuring those woes are shortlived and the Owl faithful see a product on the court that makes them proud.

Lanier didn’t shy away from those obligations when he first addressed Rice fans the day he was hired. “We’re gonna win. It ain’t a hope. It ain’t a dream. It’s a reality. So you can get prepared for that,” he said at the podium that afternoon. In a short time, those words will be put to the test.

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2024-2025 Rice Women’s Basketball Season Preview

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Expectations are high for the 2024-2025 Rice women’s basketball season following an NCAA Tournament appearance under now fourth-year head coach Lindsay Edmonds.

Rice women’s basketball has hit its stride under Lindsay Edmonds, raising the bar in each successive season with her at the helm of the program, culminating in an NCAA Tournament appearance last season. That taste has everyone on the roster — which returns the vast majority of its key players, sans one — eager for an encore this coming season.

“This is the most veteran, the most mature team that we’ve had since I’ve been here,” Edmonds said. With that experience comes a different level of urgency and an even greater sense of purpose. “We’re going faster and the expectations are just higher,” Edmonds declared.

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