Owls targeting next step up C-USA ladder
Marcus Jackson hadn’t seen much losing until his freshman season at Rice.
He’s one of the few still around from the 7-23 team in 2013-14. He hadn’t seen .500 basketball since — until this year.
“I went from winning a state championship to winning seven games,” the Rice guard said. “It was tough.”
There was Saturday’s 95-80 victory at North Texas, too, which isn’t sending shock waves throughout college basketball but is meaningful for Rice.
It was the Owls’ first win in Denton in seven tries.
“Since I’ve been here, the last two times we went over there, we had a really good first quarter two years ago, then they just went after us,” Rice thirdyear coach Mike Rhoades said. “Last year, we were just playing from behind the whole game.”
This time? A decisive 15-point victory with Jackson producing 17 points.
Progress. That’s what this season was supposed to be about for Rhoades’ Owls.
But this last month of the season could give an even clearer picture of where a still-young Rice roster is headed.
That North Texas win was the beginning of a three-game road swing that has Rice visiting Florida for the rest of this week. The Owls (15-8, 5-5 in Conference USA) play at Florida International at 6 p.m. Thursday and then travel 55 miles north for a date at Florida Atlantic on Saturday.
Making headway
Then, a four-game homestand against UTSA, UTEP, Southern Mississippi and Louisiana Tech.
The Owls’ goals are in front of them for the first time in the Rhoades era — like a plus-.500 record overall as well as in conference play.
There are objectives the tunnel-visioned Owls aren’t openly talking much about yet.
“We want to win a conference championship,” Rice forward Marquez Letcher-Ellis said. “We want to go to the NCAA Tournament. We know what we have to do to get there. So we kind of just take it step by step but still knowing what the big picture is.”
As the calendar turned to February, Rhoades told his players there are two types of teams around this time of year — those that are content and those trying to improve even more.
Rice seemed to take that concept to heart last February with a fourgame winning streak in the middle of the month.
This year, Rice has its first back-to-back wins in conference play. Any sort of positive momentum might have the Owls flirting with a high seed in the conference tournament and playing their best basketball at the perfect time.
Breaking from bunch
Rhoades is trying not to look that far in advance. Heading into this trip, North Texas, Florida Internatinal and Florida Atlantic were the bottom three teams in the conference.
But FAU has won three games in a row. UAB, one of the conference favorites, has lost two straight. Middle Tennessee State lost its first conference game last week at UTEP.
It serves as a reminder of a lesson Rice already knows well in this conference.
“It shows parity in the league,” Rhoades said. “It shows there’s some upper-echelon teams and there’s a lot of teams bunched up. We’re one of those teams bunched up. You want to separate yourself from the teams you’re bunched up with and try to go grab some places with people in front of you. The only way you can do that is to take care of what’s next.”