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November 18, 2005 > Sports > Owls’ young core hopes to lead team to successful C-USA debut

Owls’ young core hopes to lead team to successful C-USA debut

By Chris Pasich | For the Thresher

The 2005-‘06 men’s basketball team is vastly different than in recent years. Having lost four letterwinners from last year’s team, including all-time Owl greats Michael Harris (Wiess ‘05) and Jason McKrieth, the Owls have an inexperienced roster and different expectations than in previous years. The team will still look for success but has changed how it defines success.

“With the team that we have, as young as we are, we need games,” head coach Willis Wilson (Will Rice ‘82) said. “I think it’s going to take us eight to ten games … before we really hit our stride. I fully expect that as we get into January and get a couple [of] conference games under our belt, we’ll have enough experience to really gel and become a very good basketball team [down] the stretch of the conference play.”

Those opening games include teams such as Marquette University, which earned a spot in the National Invitation Tournament last year. The Owls open their season with Marquette today at the Blue and Gold Classic in Milwaukee, Wisc. Rice will then play either Winthrop or IUPUI Saturday.

Also on the non-conference schedule are NCAA tournament qualifiers Utah and Texas, who the Owls will play back-to-back — at home against the Utes Dec. 3, a game that will be televised nationally on CSTV, and at the Toyota Center downtown to face the fifth-ranked Longhorns Dec. 5. Rice also has road games against Arkansas and Oregon.

The remaining teams on the Owls’ non-conference schedule are New Mexico Highlands, Prairie View A&M, Palm Beach Atlantic, Texas Southern, Murray State, Yale and Princeton.

The Owls faced their first opposition in an exhibition game Friday against St. Edward’s. Rice won the game 68-55 and was led by junior guard Lorenzo Williams’ 25 points. As the point guard, Williams is the Owls’ leader on the floor, and Wilson said Rice will need that leadership to be successful.

“Lorenzo has really stepped up — number one as a point guard, number two as an upperclassman,” Wilson said. “He has really taken the reigns of the basketball team along with [senior forward] J.R. Harrison. [Senior forward] Jamaal Moore has been very steady for us, which is important — he’s done a nice job of leading by example. But Lorenzo has been the guy who has been willing to take the reigns of the program.”

The team includes nine freshmen and sophomores, and only Harrison, Moore, junior guard Morris Almond and Williams saw significant playing time last year. The team lost its top three scorers and top two rebounders from last year’s team, so the Owls will need junior Greg Killings, the only upperclassman post on the team, to contribute significantly this year.

“Greg … is the only guy 6’8” or bigger in the upper class,” Wilson said. “All the others are sophomores and freshmen. We’ve got a ways to go when it comes to getting experience for those guys.”

The Owls have seven redshirt and true freshmen combined, as well as two returning sophomores in forwards Patrick Britton and Paulius Packevicius, both of whom will be expected to shore up a thin front line. Britton played in all 31 games last year for the Owls, starting 23, and Packevicius played in 25 games.

Although the returnees are important to the growth of the team, the freshmen are expected to contribute as well. Cory Pflieger, Christopher Szalay, Rodney Foster and Jonathan Bailey are being asked to help the backcourt make up for the losses of McKrieth, Brock Gillespie and Walt Chancellor (Will Rice ‘04).

“Rodney Foster is doing [well],” Lorenzo Williams said. “He’s a redshirt freshman this year, but he’s stepped in [as] back-up point guard [and] done a great job of being vocal in the huddle and getting everybody going when things are not going right or when the energy level’s down.”

Meanwhile, freshmen Aleks Perka, Charles Belton and redshirt freshman Matt Hagen will try to provide depth in the frontcourt.

Wilson said Perka, Pfieger and Belton each bring a different element to the team.

“Aleks Perka … has a great deal of talent and a great deal of upside,” Wilson said. “He does some [incredible] things for a guy his size — he can score, he’s agile, and he moves extremely well. Cory Pflieger is an exceptional shooter — he’s a guy [who] may be as good a freshman shooter as I’ve ever coached. … And Charles Belton … may be the most complete out of the three. It would be nice to redshirt one of those guys. I’m not sure what we’ll do, but as long as they continue to contribute and have a chance to play for us early on, I think we’ll go with them on the court.”

McKrieth, Harris and Gillespie all started at least 17 of the Owls’ 31 games last year. Wilson said Harrison and Williams will likely start most of the Owls’ games, but he expects the starting lineup to be flexible overall.

“I think our lineup is going to change quite a bit,” Wilson said. “We’re going to try to put the guys on the floor who are going to allow us the most success. And I think there will be times when one if not a couple of [Moore, Harrison, Williams and Almond] may be asked to come off the bench because it makes us a better team. We can spread our experience out when we start to make our substitutions, and ultimately end up with that veteran group on the floor at the end of the game and of the half.”

Wilson is willing to give young players minutes — Britton and Packevicius averaged 17 and 7 minutes last year, respectively.

The Owls will need their freshmen to step up as they enter Conference USA this season. Rice now join the ranks of the University of Alabama-Birmingham and the University of Texas-El Paso, both of which advanced to the NCAA tournament last year, as well as perennially strong University of Houston and Memphis University. Memphis starts the season ranked 12th in the nation and will visit Autry Court Feb. 4. Rice faces cross-town rival UH Jan. 11 at Autry Court, and the Cougars will host the Owls March 1.

The conference is deep, but none of its teams are unbeatable. Rice played UTEP close at home and in the conference tournament last year, losing 73-71 at Rice and 85-77 in the WAC tournament. The Owls defeated UH 74-73 in a non-conference game last year on a last-second shot by Lorenzo Williams.

“The goal is to win the [C-USA] tournament,” Almond said. “I was looking at some of the college magazines. Some had us fifth, some had us sixth — in the middle of the pack. There are definitely teams familiar with us that are ranked in front of us and behind, but I think a top-three or four finish is possible.”

Rice hopes to make its first NCAA tournament appearance since 1942. Last year, the Owls got an NIT bid but lost in the first round. This year, the Owls’ season will likely come down to the C-USA tournament March 8-11 in Memphis, Tenn., because the winner of the tournament receives an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

“I think we’re moving in the right direction,” Williams said. “I think we just need to play games to tell us exactly what we need to work on [and] how we need to do it. Marquette will be a great test for us this weekend, and it will let us know a lot of things.”

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