The Rice Owls might be the surprise team of Conference USA through the first week of league play.
Coming off a 7-24 season a year ago, the Owls have posted a 7-9 record with a 2-1 mark in C-USA leading into Thursday night’s road test at UTSA.
Rice, starting three freshmen, played beyond expectations last week in home victories over Southern Miss and Louisiana Tech.
“Those are good wins for them,” UTSA coach Steve Henson said. “And they played very well in the (conference opener) against North Texas, who is playing as well as anybody in our league, so I think they’re feeling great about what they’re doing.”
Coach Steve Henson (left) and assistant Mike Peck confer during a timeout last week against UTEP. – Photo by Joe Alexander
UTSA beat Rice twice in 2017-18, but Henson said he sees more talent on the Owls this year.
“They’ve got a bunch of new guys and a few returners,” Henson said, “and the returners are playing much better. So they’re mixing it nice. They’ve got enough pieces. They’ve got good shooters, enough size and enough quickness to be a good team every night.
“Certainly (they) probably surprised some people, but when you look at them on film, they’re pretty legit.”
Freshman guard Chris Mullins, from Mansfield Timberview, averages 12.9 points to lead four Rice players in double figures.
Other key players for second-year coach Scott Pera include junior guard Ako Adams, senior forward Jack Williams and junior forward Robert Martin, who comes off the bench.
Rice closed out the game against Louisiana Tech on Saturday in Houston with a 17-4 run in the final 4:26, securing a 78-66 victory.
Louisiana Tech came into the game at 11-4.
“One of the things that was a defining thing in this game was consistency, especially defensively,” Pera said after the game. “I’m just really proud of our kids how they dug in, again, in the second half.”
Records
Rice 7-9, 2-1
UTSA 8-7, 2-0
Notable
The Roadrunners are on a five-game winning streak, their longest since 2011-12. A victory against Rice would equal the 2010-11 team’s six straight victories. UTSA is looking for its first 3-0 start in conference since 1990-91. UTSA beat UTEP twice last week, including 75-60 in San Antonio and 67-63 in El Paso.
Junior guard Nijal Pearson hit five 3-point baskets en route to 25 points Wednesday night, pacing the Texas State Bobcats past the Rice Owls, 74-60, in San Marcos.
Texas State (6-1) has won four straight leading into a Saturday afternoon road game at UTSA.
In the game played at Strahan Arena, the Bobcats beat the Owls 40-30 on the boards and made 11 of 27 shots from beyond the arc.
Chris Mullins led the Owls (3-5) with 12 points and four steals.
Pearson, from Beaumont, will come into San Antonio leading Texas State in scoring at 21 points per game.
The 6-5 guard has scored a combined 58 points in his last two games, including 33 against in a 91-68 win at Portland on Saturday night in Oregon.
As a team, the Bobcats are limiting opponents to 57.7 points on 37 percent shooting.
On Wayne Graham’s last trip to San Antonio as coach of the Rice Owls, his team won two out of three from UTSA and kept hope alive for a shot at the postseason.
But after the Owls shut down the home team twice on Saturday, the Roadrunners returned the favor on Sunday, courtesy of a masterful performance from pitcher Chance Kirby.
Kirby pitched into the eighth inning and struck out a career-high 13 in UTSA’s 7-0 victory.
“UT-San Antonio has a fine baseball team,” Graham said. “Winning two out of three from them here is a big deal. The kid’s pitching performance today was really that good. There’s no joke. He really pitched well.”
Baseball coaching legend Wayne Graham of the Rice Owls talks to home plate umpire Joe Brown after the fourth inning.
Any series against the Graham-coached Owls is always a highlight on the Roadrunners’ home schedule.
But this one took on added significance on April 25, when the 82-year-old, College Baseball Hall of Famer announced that this season would be his last at Rice.
Based on what he had been told by a Rice administrator, Graham said his contract would not be extended and that his 27-year tenure as coach of the Owls would be coming to an end.
Discussing the impending end of an era, UTSA coach Jason Marshall said Graham’s legacy is secure in baseball circles.
“You talk about the respect of his peers, when he sits in a room talking baseball, you just sit there and shut your mouth and listen,” Marshall said. “He is just a great baseball coach and great baseball mind (who) has always gotten the most out of his players.”
Chance Kirby struck out a career-high 13 Sunday as UTSA shut out the Rice Owls, 7-0.
Since Graham took charge in 1992, Rice has fared well on state, regional and national levels, compiling a record of 1,167-523.
Starting in 1995, the Owls embarked on a string of 23 straight NCAA tournaments, the third-longest streak in the nation behind Florida State (40) and Cal State-Fullerton (26).
In that time, they’ve played in seven College World Series, winning the 2003 national title along the way.
In the past two seasons, however, Rice’s dominance has started to fade.
Last year, the Owls struggled to a 13-25 start, before a late surge propelled them into the C-USA tournament and, ultimately, to the title at Biloxi, Miss.
This year, Rice (20-26-2) still has work to do even to qualify for the C-USA’s postseason event in Biloxi.
The Owls trail the UAB Blazers and the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, both tied for eighth in the conference standings.
If the tournament started today, UAB and Western Kentucky (both 11-13) would have the edge over ninth-place Rice (9-13-2).
Fortunately for Graham, two weeks remain on the schedule, and he gets to play UAB at home next weekend before finishing at FIU.
UTSA’s Jonathan Tapia scores from third, sliding into home to beat a throw from the outfield on Ben Brookover’s second-inning sacrifice fly.
Graham, from Yoakum, turned into a solid 1950s-era amateur ball player at Houston Reagan and at the University of Texas.
He later played third base and outfield in the pros, including 10 games for the Gene Mauch-managed Philadelphia Phillies in 1963 and 20 more in ’64 for the New York Mets, under Casey Stengel.
Graham said he learned a lot in a short time under Stengel.
“I didn’t dare sit next to him on the bench–and that’s what I occupied with the Mets was the bench,” he said during his induction into the College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2012. “But I was close enough to hear everything …
“He ran a commentary on the game as you went, especially on how the pitcher was pitching to our hitters, and I have grown to think that is pretty important.”
Graham didn’t get all the answers from Stengel.
He said he is struggling with the idea that he no longer will be coaching.
At the same time, Graham said he won’t allow his emotions to affect his work at the Owls prepare for the last two weeks.
“It’s rough off the field,” he said. “It’s not rough on the field. I’ve always come to the ball park with complete absorption in the game. I don’t have any choice. I couldn’t do it any other way.”
Having coached since the early 1970s, when he started at Houston Scarborough High School, Graham is philosophical about moving on.
“All things come to and end, unfortunately,” he said. “(But) I don’t know many people that coach that long. I’ve had 47 years in the game. Loved it.
“You know, I’m sort of like (former Texas football coach Darrell) Royal. He said the losses hurt a lot. Well, they do hurt. But I’m still able to recover. This has been a really rough year.”
Brookover sparked a two-run first inning for the Roadrunners with an opposite-field single to right.
