Rice leads by 1 in a low scoring game at Tudor with a bit under 7 minutes to go. I think the Owls have lost 7 straight home games (6 at Tudor) dating back to the December 20 game vs PVAMU?

But Rice has won four of five on the road, with the lone loss being the overtime loss at Tulsa.

9-0 run by ECU. Now down by 6

Nice response by Rice to close out the half on an 8-0 run. Owls lead 29-27 at the break.

Rice up by 9 at the under 12 media break. Good defensive game. Evee leading the offense with 21.

From watching today's game and parts of the UAB game, we do look genuinely improved in certain areas. Still some defensive breakdowns, but fewer than I remember earlier in the season. More guys making plays on offense. No clue about sustainability but cool to see a positive turnaround.

We made a move in the starting lineup which might be helping now after a bit of a delay. But moving Dawes to the bench and starting Akuchie in his place is a significant change. Fiedler and Akuchie aren’t doing anything on offense today, but are getting rebounds (and Fiedler assists). Plus, Dawes seems to be handling the transition to the bench with a lot of maturity for a freshman.

(02-24-2024 03:38 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  We made a move in the starting lineup which might be helping now after a bit of a delay. But moving Dawes to the bench and starting Akuchie in his place is a significant change. Fiedler and Akuchie aren’t doing anything on offense today, but are getting rebounds (and Fiedler assists). Plus, Dawes seems to be handling the transition to the bench with a lot of maturity for a freshman.

Funnily enough, I was thinking about whether adding Akuchie to the starting lineup was a significant net positive because I wanted to credit Pera. Coming into today, that combo has quite possibly been one of the worst in the country. They have a shocking -37.4 net rating (i.e., point differential per 100 possessions). That will definitely change for the better after today. But these last two games seemingly can't be attributed to getting Akuchie and Fiedler more time on the floor together.

Also, interestingly: in the last 5 games Dawes has a net rating of +25.7, good for 98th percentile. So as FBO said, he has handled the move to the bench exceedingly well. On the flip side, over the last 5 games Fiedler has been arguably one of the worst players in the country by impact. We're 34.3 points per 100 possessions worse when he's on the court. Our offensive rating is literally 0th (?) percentile. If you stretch the range of games to conference play, Fiedler's rating is 1st percentile (-25.5 points per 100 possessions).

Back to today, it's Rice 70-49. ECU isn't great, but they're #159 in KenPom so this is a legitimately solid win. Tons of credit to Pera and the players who haven't quit.

70-52 final. rice outscored ECU 49-25 over the final 23 minutes or so. Evee with 34. 7 three-pointers to give him 300 career 3 pointers at Rice alone.

Solid win.

Well done, Owls!! When they’re clicking, it’s a fun team to watch.

We should play ECU every week

Nice to see the Owls pull away in the 2H. Peaking at the right time?

Well done guys! Keep it going.

Rice is up to #178 in Pomeroy - top 50% of NCAA!

The remaining schedule isn’t brutal either - only the Charlotte game there is one where we will be a decent underdog. UNT to end the regular season at home was one that I had labeled as a likely loss, but they are struggling now. In fact, UTSA beat them up in Denton today.

Our goal is still a 5-10 place finish and one bye, but maybe 7th or 8th is a possibility instead of at best 9th or 10th.

(02-24-2024 06:24 PM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  Rice is up to #178 in Pomeroy - top 50% of NCAA!

Those Vegas tournament opponents were good - Indiana State is 24-5 and leading the Missouri Valley, New Mexico is 21-7, and UC Irvine at 20-8 and leading the Big West. The non-conference strength of schedule probably helps.

I watched the game (replay) this morning and was quite pleased at how cohesively the team played on both sides of the court and the results were quite good. Back to back big victories against two teams above them in the standings (including a 4th road win) tells me that this team is gelling and clearly getting better as the season progresses (Like we have seen with most Pera-coached teams, with the notable exception of last year where the Owls ran out of gas …. most likely due to the shallow bench rotation in 2022/23). The three OT losses were frustrating but they seem to indicate that the team was close to competing effectively in the conference and we are now seeing that was/is the case. They are better defensively (still not great), offensively they are getting the shot selection they want and their shooting touch has improved over the past several games. Early in the season they got blown out against good teams, but since the Tulane game they have been in each contest (with the exception of SMU).

I think they can at least split their final 4 games and enter the tournament with some momentum and pick up a win or two in the tournament.