The 2017–18 Rice Owls men's basketball team represented Rice University during the

2017–18 NCAA Division I men's basketball season The 2017–18 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 10, 2017. The first tournament was the 2K Sports Classic and the season ended with the Final Four in San Antonio on April 2, 2018. Practices officially began on September 2 ...

. The Owls, led by first-year head coach

Scott Pera Scott Pera (born August 27, 1967) is an American college basketball coach and current head coach for the Rice Owls men's basketball team. Coaching career Pera started his coaching career at Elizabethtown College in 1992, before embarking on a hi ...

, played their home games at

Tudor Fieldhouse Tudor Fieldhouse is multi-purpose arena in Houston, Texas. Previously known as Rice Gymnasium, it was renamed in honor of Rice University alum Bobby Tudor, who spearheaded the renovation of the facility with a multimillion-dollar donation. The co ...

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

as members of

Conference USA Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are l ...

. They finished the season 7–24, 4–14 in C-USA play to finish in 13th place and failed to qualify for the C-USA tournament.

Previous season

The

Owls Owls are birds from the Order (biology), order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly Solitary animal, solitary and Nocturnal animal, nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vi ...

finished the 2016–17 season 23–12, 11–7 in C-USA play to finish in fifth place. They defeated Southern Miss in the first round of the C-USA tournament before losing in the quarterfinals to

UTEP The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public research university in El Paso, Texas. It is a member of the University of Texas System. UTEP is the second-largest university in the United States to have a majority Mexican American stude ...

. They received an invitation to the College Basketball Invitational where they defeated San Francisco in the first round before losing in the quarterfinals to Utah Valley. On March 21, 2017, head coach Mike Rhoades resigned to become the head coach at VCU. He finished at Rice with a three-year record of 47–52. On March 23, the school promoted assistant coach Scott Pera to head coach.

Offseason

Departures

Incoming transfers

2017 recruiting class

2018 recruiting class

Roster

Schedule and results

, - !colspan=9 style=, Exhibition , - !colspan=9 style=, Non-conference regular season , - !colspan=12 style=, Conference USA regular season

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2017-18 Rice Owls men's basketball team Rice Owls men's basketball seasons Rice

Rice Owls men's basketball The Rice Owls men's basketball program is the intercollegiate men's basketball program of Rice University. The program is classified in the NCAA's Division I, and the team competes in Conference USA. They previously participated in the Southwest ...