Men last in conference

By Yan Digilov     2/25/10 6:00pm

All young teams are plagued with the unwelcome guest of inconsistency, and the men's basketball team has been no exception throughout its 13 conference matches this season. On any given night, its rebounding can be dominant or pathetic, its posts can be unstoppable or asleep and any team member can put up 15 points or put up goose eggs in every statistical category. Yet the one thing that has come in unwaveringly long streaks has been a plethora of losses. And while on any given night the players can point to poor transition defense, lack of concentration or uninspired offense as the culprit, the constancy of losing beckons Head Coach Ben Braun and his staff to find the underlying missing piece of the puzzle.

Junior center Trey Stanton is known to be a student of the game. When it comes to the team's technical flaws, he always has something to say.

"The defense that we play relies on high ball pressure, and against [East Carolina University] we didn't have very good ball pressure," he said following a 76-65 loss to East Carolina (9-18, 3-10 C-USA) Feb. 20. "That gave them the chance to get a running start on us and penetrate. It hurt us, because we rely on the pack."

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Indeed, penetration from opposing squads may be a theme recurring almost as often as Rice's (7-19, 1-12 C-USA) accumulation of losses. But Braun has always been known to be a defensively-minded coach, and his two years at Rice are not the first time he has been exposed to the dangers of point penetration.

To combat those dangers, Braun has turned to the previously unused sophomore guard Nate Schwarze, and in doing so, he exposed a newfound weapon. Shwarze is blossoming this year, impacting the game as a stalwart defender and calm hand at the point.

With the problem identified, the solution implemented and the results better than expected, the team should be rolling into the victory column, right? Not so much: Rice has lost 13 of its last 15 and is currently last in the conference.

So perhaps the long spouts of scoreless offensive production are to blame, and with the young freshman Tamir Jackson at the helm, Stanton recognizes some other deficiencies that did not exist when the Owls were led last year by level-headed point guard, Rodney Foster (Jones '08).

"The thing with Rodney was that we could set screens and pop," Stanton said. "Having two guys that can shoot in that situation is unguardable. He also knew that if there was nothing open he could drag it out and shoot.

"Tamir is great at getting by guys, but sometimes when weak side helps he doesn't make the extra pass. But that is about getting more mature and learning."

With two freshmen as their leading scorers - Jackson is averaging 11.1 points per game and freshman forward Arsalan Kazemi is averaging 10.4 points per game - the team's lack of maturity is on full display. So what more can a young team ask for than elevated play from their veteran players? That is exactly what the Owls have seen in the latter portion of their losing slide. Most notably, sophomore forward Lucas Kuipers, who emerged as the team's young scoring leader before an injury last season, has provided both leadership on the floor and points on the board.

Kuipers has averaged 15 points over the Owls' last five games and displayed relentless effort, including an inspired effort in Rice's 77-54 to Marshall University on Wednesday at Tudor Fieldhouse. Stanton himself is also having a visibly improved season. He is third on the team in scoring, and has all but wiped away memories of last season, when he was chronically tossed around in the post by smaller, weaker opponents.

Stanton has also assumed the important role of mentor to Kazemi, whose raw talent has shown glimpses of future stardom throughout the year. After one of the worst games of the year against Southern Methodist University two weeks ago, a contest in which he scored only two points in 32 minutes, Kazemi was faced with the challenge of bouncing back.

"I talk to him a lot," Stanton said. "There are going to be hot streaks and there are going to be dry spells. Especially as a freshman, it is hard to have a really consistent season. In the last few games he has struggled, but the whole team is going to have to pick him up."

But if Stanton's technical expertise is correct, the team will be relying on Kazemi's explosiveness in the post, as well. The key to putting points on the board, according to Stanton, is establishing a low-post game, getting the opponent in foul trouble and making the easy shots. Perhaps because the end of the season is approaching, the young forward has seemingly forgotten the low-post efforts that carried the team throughout the start of conference play - in the last four games, Kazemi is averaging only four points per contest.

A series in the losing effort against the Thundering Herd displays the helpless circumstances and exhibits the squad's collective frustration. With 40 seconds left in the first half on Wednesday, Marshall was up 32-21, but the Owls seemed determined to make a statement before the end of the half. With suffocating defense at the post, Rice forced a turnover, and Schwarze had the presence of mind to call a timeout with almost four seconds left on the clock.

Braun drew up a play and the team ran it to perfection, giving junior guard Bryan Beasley an open three-pointer from the corner spot. The ball took a bounce off the rim, so Kuipers came flying in to guide it in with a tip. But in a moment of chagrin, the ball dropped back into the net by the time Kuipers was in the air, leaving the flying forward hanging from the rim, wishing he had not cost the squad three points off an offensive goaltending call.

The posts had performed valiantly, getting a stop against Marshall's 6'11" forward, Hassan Whiteside, who finished the game with 19 points. Schwarze had proven why his calm head deserved a spot on the floor, sprinting from across the floor to get the referee's attention for a timeout. The veteran Beasley had executed Braun's call and sunk a shot. And even Kuipers showed determination to clean up around the rim.

But it was all for naught.

As the buzzer rang and the referee signaled that the points did not count, the team was visibly distraught. Everyone in Tudor Fieldhouse essentially watched the team's confidence call it a night and walk out of the building.

"If you make a mistake, you bounce back," Braun said. "Marshall made several mistakes tonight. It didn't seem to bother them."

The difference in the play on the court could be better identified before the whistle ever blew.

"I felt that our confidence has taken a hit as a team," senior guard Cliff Ghoram said. "You shouldn't come into a game thinking you are going to lose, ever. I know we had an opportunity to beat the team. We said it, but our actions didn't really show it on the court that we wanted it."

The team clearly wanted it when it won its first tournament of the season, and it clearly wanted it when it fought hard against the top-ranked University of Texas earlier in the year. But that confidence is gone, and the history of under-achievement that plagued former coach Willis Wilson's final years at Rice continues to spill over, despite Braun's history of success.

Ironically, it is the freshman that were never tutored by Wilson who seem to be suffering the most from the trauma of experiencing defeat for the first time.

But Braun, too, has never faced the prospects of this kind of repeated defeat. The future of the team seems to depend on its combined journey through the depths of inexplicable adversity to scare away the demons of the past.

"I feel for the guys, because I have been through winning seasons," Braun said. "I feel for some of the guys that haven't been there in college. You can't think about winning games when you shoot 10-28 from the line. Either we are tired, which I don't think is the case, or we are thinking about missing, or the pressure is starting to get to us.

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