Rice

[50's PONY]

Nov. 11, 2003, 12:03AM


RICE NOTEBOOK
Rice coaches excited over C-USA move
By BRIAN McTAGGART
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle


Rice's impending shift from the Western Athletic Conference to Conference USA for the 2005-06 academic year is considered an overwhelming positive by the head coaches of the school's marquee sports.

When Rice joins SMU and Tulsa in leaving the WAC after the 2004-05 academic year, the Owls will dramatically reduce their travel budget and time spent on the road, as well as having to forge rivalries with schools such as Houston, TCU and Tulane.

Perhaps nowhere will the shift in leagues be more beneficial for Rice than on the football field, where C-USA has more bowl opportunities (five) and television exposure than the WAC.

"We'll have a couple of more games a year that will be a lot closer, and the families of players are going to be able to see them play," Rice football coach Ken Hatfield said. "They will remember how tough it was playing some of the long road games we had at Fresno and Hawaii and things like that."

The addition of Rice will make C-USA one of the best baseball leagues in the country, with the Owls joining strong programs such as Houston, Tulane, Southern Miss and East Carolina. TCU, which is considering a move to the Mountain West, and Central Florida are programs on the rise.

"If we could keep TCU, it could be a very good league with more opportunities to get more regionals because you'll just have more teams," Rice baseball coach Wayne Graham said. "I think Conference USA has been putting three and five teams in regionals every year, and I think that's good."

C-USA took a major hit in men's basketball when Marquette, Cincinnati and Louisville announced they were moving to the Big East, but the league will have some strong programs with Memphis staying and the addition of Tulsa and SMU.

Rice men's basketball coach Willis Wilson, whose team could contend for the WAC title this year, expects C-USA to be a better basketball league.

"There's certainly advantages -- and as I've said in a number of occasions we've been through so many situations -- going from the Southwest Conference to the 16-team WAC to where we are now headed into Conference USA," he said. "I think this is a unique opportunity for Rice to be aligned with a significant number of private schools, a significant number of schools that have a similar demographic and athletic mission.

"The other thing that shows a lot of promise is the basketball schools that are going to join Conference USA are on the upswing, and I think that's important in terms of the image and just what people are looking for a public perspective on Conference USA basketball."

In women's basketball, Rice will be leaving a league that has been dominated by national power Louisiana Tech and into one that had five teams make the NCAA Tournament last year -- TCU, Tulane, Cincinnati, Charlotte and DePaul. But Cincinnati, DePaul and Charlotte won't be in the league when Rice joins in 2005.

"I think it's tougher top to bottom, but you don't have that one dominant team like you do in Louisiana Tech," Rice women's basketball coach Cristy McKinney said. "There's two ways to look it. It's better that anyone has a chance, but that one team helps bring a lot of notoriety into the league. I don't think it will be a bad thing."

Around the campus


Try, try again
-- Coming off a 31-28 loss to Tulsa that guaranteed Rice its fifth losing season in the last six years, the Owls face a pair of games against two of the worst teams in the nation.

Rice (2-7, 2-3 WAC) meets winless SMU (0-10) at 3 p.m. Saturday in Dallas, where the Owls haven't won since 1995. The Owls will then face UTEP (2-8, 1-4) on Nov. 22 at Rice Stadium in their final home game of the year. UTEP was beaten 69-41 by San Jose State, which lost to Rice.

The Mustangs, who are 0-10 for the first time in history, are last in the nation in scoring offense (10.1 points per game) and total offense (256.7 yards per game). SMU is third in WAC defense at 377.8 yards per game.

"When you look at the film, it's hard to see how they could have put in a better effort than they did against Fresno (a 20-11 loss on Nov. 1)," Rice coach Ken Hatfield said.

Saturday's game will realistically be SMU's final chance for a victory. The Mustangs end the season Nov. 29 against unbeaten TCU.


Final word
-- After reaching the semifinals of the conference tournament in its first two years of existence, the Rice women's soccer team took another step by reaching the finals of this year's tournament before losing 2-1 to SMU on a goal in the 90th minute.

Rice finished 10-8-1 and placed five players on the all-tournament team -- forwards Ashley Anderson and Sara Yoder, defenders Erin Droger and Caitlin Currie and goalkeeper Lauren Shockley.


Class complete
-- Rice men's basketball coach Willis Wilson received a commitment last week from 6-9 forward Paulis Packevicius of Arlington Oakridge, completing the Owls' recruiting class.

Packevicius, a native of Lithuania who chose Rice over Texas Tech, Oregon State, Princeton and Penn, averaged 8.1 points, 10.3 rebounds and 3.4 blocks per game last year. He will sign with the Owls on Wednesday along with Patrick Britton (San Antonio Southwest), Matt Hagen (Pekin, Ill.) and Rodney Foster (Mayde Creek).

The Owls will also play their first exhibition game of the season Wednesday when they face Rockhurst College at 7:35 p.m. at Autry Court.


Lady Owls lose exhibition game
-- The Everyones Internet team staged a second-half comeback to defeat Rice 73-70 in exhibition play Monday night at Autry Court. The Lady Owls led for most of the first half and were up by as many as six points, thanks in part to eight first-half points from redshirt freshman Laure Neaves. The Lady Owls had trouble controlling the ball and converting on free throws and Rice committed 26 turnovers. The Lady Owls will continue exhibition play Saturday at 7 p.m. against the Houston Jaguars. The season opener is Nov. 21 at Kent State.


Owl prowl
-- Rice freshman punter Jared Scruggs was named the WAC's special teams player of the week after averaging a school-record 52.4 yards on five punts in Saturday's 31-28 loss to Tulsa. Scruggs is third in the nation at 46.9 yards per punt. ... Saturday's football game against SMU in Dallas will be televised on Ch. 51 at 3 p.m.

Brian McTaggart covers Rice University athletics and the Western Athletic Conference for the Chronicle. His notebook appears Tuesdays.


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[Cheesesteak]

"We'll have a couple of more games a year that will be a lot closer, and the families of players are going to be able to see them play," Rice football coach Ken Hatfield said. "They will remember how tough it was playing some of the long road games we had at Fresno and Hawaii and things like that."

Substitute Laramie and San Diego for Fresno and Hawaii...TCU athletes might be spending a lot of fatiguing time in airports and airplanes.

Recruiting advantage to SMU.

[Sam I Am]

I am glad that Rice is coming with us to the
C-USA. :thumbupcool:

[DallasDiehard]

Me too. Rice is the one team we've played in the WAC and back in the Southwest Conference that I never built up a dislike for. Class school, and their coaches and athletes and fans seem classy, too. And the band is hysterical.

Nice mention of the women's soccer team. For those who were at the WAC tournament here last week, you saw a Rice team that is lightyears ahead of where it's been in recent years. That is a program on the rise, and SMU will maintain a strong, healthy rivalry with the Owls on the soccer field for years to come.

[KnuckleStang]

I like Rice's band, too, always good for a laugh. I love it. Although I think they've gotten away with those halftime antics for years, in part because their team's not winning. If, or whenever they put together a consistent winning team, other schools start to lose their sense of humor. Just ask UVA, their band did similar funny, irreverent stuff for a long time (shirt tails hanging out, running around like idiots, ragging the opposing school). I loved that when I was a kid. Then about 20 years ago, their football team got good, they started ticking people off, and now I don't think they even have a band anymore (granted, they were often pretty offensive). Still, I hope that never happens to Rice's band, even if their team starts kicking tail.

[DallasDiehard]

My sister went to Yale, and years ago I visited on the weekend of "The Game" (Harvard). Unbelievable atmosphere (although greatly different from any form of football we're used to in Texas), but at halftime, you should have seen the band. They basically wandered out on the field and lounged around for a while. One guy was playing a stop sign with a broom handle. Someone else was beating on a couch with the cushions - without asking his fellow bandmates to get off the thing first. (Yes, that was part of their act - a couple of guys stretching out on the couch.) Very weird, but oddly entertaining.

[Spaz]

Yeah, that stuff's funny, but I don't see how they could do it for more than like a year. MUSTANG BAND RULES, PERIOD!!! RESPECT THE GREATNESS THAT IS THE MUSTANG BAND!!!

<img src="http://mob.rice.edu/sections/violins/2001section.jpg" alt=" - " />
HONESTLY PEOPLE!!! They are playing fricking VIOLINS?!?!?!?! WHAT THE HELL?!?!
<img src="http://people.smu.edu/band/picts/drum_line.jpg" alt=" - " />
YEAH!! That's more like it!!
<img src="http://138.47.83.232/pix/0901/half/halftime3.jpg" alt=" - " />

<small>[ 11-12-2003, 05:44 PM: Message edited by: Spaz ]</small>