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Maybe it was because it is a long drive to Mississippi. Maybe the Owls were intimidated by having Brett Favre analyze their game. Maybe the team had a Robert Griffin III hangover. But no matter the cause, the Rice Owls simply were not ready to play when they took the field against the University of Southern Mississippi last Saturday in Hattiesburg, Miss.
When the football team's schedule was released this summer, few could have guessed that Baylor University (3-0) would be the highest ranked team on the slate. But with a legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate under center for the team, a receiver with 420 receiving yards and four touchdowns and a tailback with 294 yards and three touchdowns through three games, Baylor's offense has to be considered one of the most dangerous in the country.
The No. 24 ranked University of Texas (1-0) has to be glad that Rice is absent from its schedule next year. After two years of games that left Longhorns fans holding their breaths for three quarters, there will certainly be relief in Austin next year when the University of Wyoming comes to town to start the season in place of Rice.
Earlier this month, ESPN.com put Head Coach David Bailiff on a list of head coaches in risk of losing their jobs, claiming that his job performance over the last two years, despite the first Rice bowl victory in decades three years ago, puts his future in jeopardy. Surely, Bailiff is feeling this pressure and knows that this is the year in which he and his team must perform, or the last few years of rebuilding will be for naught.
After a couple of tough losses, the Rice women's basketball team still heads to the Conference USA tournament in El Paso in a great position - sitting on a first round bye and avoiding a potential matchup with powerhouse Houston until the final game. The Owls, going into the last few weeks of the season, needed to win one game of the next three to clinch a first-round bye, an important few days off for a team at the end of a long season. They had games against three of the very best teams in C-USA: Tulane, Houston and Southern Methodist University - all of which could earn byes inside the tournament.
This season has been all that women's basketball Head Coach Greg Williams could have ever hoped for. He never would have imagined, after losing its leading scorer from the year before, that his team would be tied for second in Conference USA, winning seven of its last eight games and on the verge of clinching a first-round bye in the C-USA Tournament.The Owls had two key games this past weekend, with a home game against a tough University of Texas-El Paso team (13-12, 5-8 C-USA), and then an away game at a very beatable University of Southern Mississippi squad (10-16, 5-8 C-USA). In order to have a shot at staying in the top three of the conference standings, it was no secret that Rice would have to win both of these games.
Talking with freshman star forward Jessica Kuster before last weekend, it was no secret that these two Conference USA games were the Owl's most important - and most difficult - of the season. "It's great being one of the best teams in the conference right now, but we have to get wins this next weekend," she said. "It's no secret that [the University of] Houston and [the University of] Memphis are both great teams, and we're going to have to play really well to stay at the top."
In a conference known for its parity among the 12 schools, the women's basketball team has not won four straight regular season conference games since 2007, a large reason for its Conference USA struggles the last few years. It is hard to rise above .500 - and gain any traction in the standings - if it is impossible to string together victories. The Owls had the chance to get their fourth straight win this weekend, as Southern Methodist University (11-11, 4-5 C-USA), a team in the middle of the pack in the C-USA, came to town. In the last two weeks, the Owls' three straight wins had catapulted them into third in the conference, leaving people talking about the young team that had started playing like seasoned veterans.
Weeknight road games are difficult for any team; there is just something about having to travel on class days, then getting on the bus and heading back late at night. Last week's bus ride home was an easy one for the women's basketball team, which had just knocked off one of the top teams in the league and pushed itself above .500 in Conference USA play.
With only one senior on the roster, Head Coach Greg Williams should probably be pleased with his team's standing in the middle of Conference USA - but he isn't. He knows they are one or two big wins away from launching themselves into a serious talk about a deep postseason run, and he isn't relenting until they get there. Six games into the conference schedule, the Owls are an even 3-3 in C-USA but are certainly poised to jump into the top slots. The Owls had a chance last weekend to put themselves into a tie for third at the top with two conference games but only managed to find a split.
All it took to fall back into the pack was a few missed shots and some unforced turnovers. The women's basketball team, which has taken large strides this season, just cannot seem to win those big games that could earn the team its place among the Conference USA's most elite programs. The Owls, lumped into the middle of the standings beginning the weekend, had two conference games that could have started talk around the league about the possible successes of the team. They welcomed Marshall University into Tudor on Thursday and then traveled to East Carolina University on Sunday afternoon, two very winnable games for the young team.
It is a good season for a freshman if she can make an immediate impact on the court, helping her team win games. It is a great season for a freshman if she can earn Player of the Week honors and work her way into the starting lineup. It's an unbelievable season if she can win five freshman Player of the Week awards; a feat only seen one other time inside Conference USA. With senior starting forward and team leader Jackie Stanley out with a knee injury, Head Coach Greg Williams (Hanszen '70) knew that someone on his roster would have to fill the void. Little did he expect that help to come in the form of a freshman - 6'2" Jessica Kuster - who is leading the team in rebounds and second on the team in points, which is just what the Owls needed to stay above .500 despite the injuries to their star.
2010 certainly did not end up being the football season that Rice had in mind. 4-8 and a November end to the season left many on the team disappointed, but the final two weeks will make the early offseason much easier to stomach. The Owls played their first home game since October on Nov. 20, welcoming East Carolina University (6-6, 4-4 C-USA), who will be playing in the Military Bowl later this month, into Rice Stadium, looking for a spark of confidence after losing three-straight games on the road.
Despite playing two of the top teams in the country, the women's basketball team is above .500 seven games into the season, giving Head Coach Greg Williams a big reason to be happy with the play of his team. Despite a setback against Texas A&M University (5-0) the weekend before, the Owls came out storming in the Georgia State Thanksgiving Tournament, winning the event and returning both the championship and MVP trophies to their locker room.
The Owls (2-2) started their season off with a big road win in overtime against Montana State University (3-2), an occurrence that was hard to come by last season. Junior forward Brianna Hypolite stepped up big in her first game as a staple in the starting lineup by scoring 28 points, a career high. Also chipping in double-digit points were junior point guard D'Frantz Smart and senior forward Morgan Mayse with 13 and 12, respectively. The Owls shot especially well in the game, with a 58-percent shooting percentage. Rice was missing key pieces of their lineup, including star junior forward Jackie Stanley, who had to sit the weekend out with knee injuries.
Not only does the football team have one of the highest points-allowed averages in college football, injuries in seemingly every position and one of the best teams in Conference USA coming to town this weekend following last weekend's 54-49 loss to Tulane University (4-6, 2-4 C-USA), but now they have one more toxic, team-dividing issue to deal with - a full-blown quarterback controversy. The quarterback is arguably the most important position in all of sports; the man who handles the ball on every play and leads the team in both a figurative and literal sense. Offenses like stability, and up until recently, redshirt junior transfer Nick Fanuzzi had provided that.
An offense being forced to score more than 30 points every single week in order to win will lead to a disastrous season, one with a definitive losing record. And, with the Owls failing to hold an opponent under 30 points all season, including Saturday's 64-27 loss to the University of Tulsa, it is clear that that burden is one the offense has failed to overcome.The defensive bloodletting continued this week for the Owls, as opponents have scored an astronomical 105 points in the last two games, 20 more than Texas Christian University has given up in 10 games this season. In their trip to Tulsa, Okla. last weekend, the Owls continued the trend by going down 41-7 at the half. Rice had hoped Tulsa would still be reeling from their emotional victory over the University of Notre Dame at Notre Dame Stadium the weekend before, but the Golden Hurricane was clearly ready to play.
Women's basketball Head Coach Greg Williams (Hanszen '73) knows the expectations that his team faces this season, with a core group of returning players that began playing up to their full potential at times, while lapsing at others. They were young last year and are still relatively young compared to some of the other teams in Conference USA, but that should not stop the Owls from competing for a conference title and an NCAA tournament berth."Our team goal this year is to do better than last year," junior guard D'Frantz Smart said. "My biggest thing this year is winning road games. We kind of struggled last year, and hopefully that won't happen this year."
Despite having their respective seedings in the Conference USA tournament already set in stone, the Rice soccer team and the University of Houston fought as if the C-USA tournament had already started, chasing after every loose ball and getting physical when it was necessary. The two teams combined for a bruising 27 fouls, including one yellow card for each side, to a 0-0 tie. To followers of Rice athletics, the intensity was no surprise. Any game that pits these two Houston schools against each other has more meaning than simply a win or loss. More than a few of the Cougar football players attended the game in support of their fellow athletes.
