What Does The Future Hold For The Houston Cougars And Rice Owls After This Season?

On March 3rd another season will come and go for the Houston Cougars and the Rice Owls. Neither team has a record that's worthy of any real national recognition, and neither team has a player that would raise an eyebrow at the annual NBA draft this June. That leads me to ask one simple question. Why?

Being an outsider, its easy for me to ask this question. I know nothing of the history of these two programs, well outside of the Phi Slamma Jamma days back in the 1980's with Olajuwon and Drexler. As far as Rice is concerned....I've seriously never heard of anyone ever coming out of that program.

In an area like Houston, in a city and a state filled with talent, is it that difficult to get these two programs on the rise? Do coaches refuse to come to H-Town to build up a program? With Houston joining the Big East and Rice being involved in the merged Mountain West/C-USA merger, both programs could benefit from the additional spotlight.

As for Saturday, March 3rd, its the battle for H-Town once again as this will be the last time Rice and Houston face each other as conference members. Make it memorable Arsalan Kazemi and Jonathon Simmons, H-Town will appreciate it.

Here are the conference standings for C-USA for the week of February 26th.

Rice fell behind 13-0 to start but finished the game on a 16-7 run to knock off the Houston Cougars 79-71 Wednesday night. The Owls rallied and took their first lead 26-25 on a Jarelle Reischel three-pointer with just over three minutes remaining in the first half. Things would remain close from there until Rice used a 9-0 run to take a 72-64 lead with just 2:35 remaining.

Jarelle Reischel scored 16 points to lead the Owls who improved to 14-11 overall and 5-5 in Conference USA. Tamir Jackson and Connor Frizzelle each added 13 points for Rice.

Houston was led by Jonathon Simmons who finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Alandise Harris and Joseph Young each finished with 13 points. The loss drops Houston to 11-12 overall and 3-7 in conference play.

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