The Rice Owls men's basketball program is the
intercollegiate men's basketball program of
Rice University
William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University, is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. Established in 1912, the university spans 300 acres.
Rice University comp ...
. The program is classified in the
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...
's
Division I, and the team competes in the
American Athletic Conference
The American Athletic Conference (AAC), also known as The American, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States, featuring 13 full member universities and 6 affiliate member universities that compete in t ...
. They previously participated in the
Southwest Conference
The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference also included schools from Oklaho ...
(1914–1996), the
Western Athletic Conference
The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the Western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, Texas, Utah and Washington (state), Washington.
Due to ...
(1996–2005), and
Conference USA (2005–2023).
The Owls play their home games in
Tudor Fieldhouse, which they have called home since 1950. Previously known as Rice Gymnasium, it was renamed in honor of Rice alum Bobby Tudor, who spearheaded the 2008 renovation of the facility with a multimillion-dollar donation. Rice has appeared four times in the
NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament
The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as March Madness, or The Big Dance, is a single-elimination tournament played in the United States to determine the men's college basketball national champion of the NCAA Division I, Di ...
, most recently in 1970. Their 54 years without making the Tournament is currently the fifth longest in
active history.
Rice has never reached a conference tournament final in any of the conferences they have played in (
Southwest
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A '' compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west— ...
,
WAC,
Conference USA,
The American).
Head coaches
Postseason history
NCAA tournament results
The Owls have appeared in four
NCAA Tournaments. Their combined record is 2–5. Their drought of 53 years is the eighth longest drought between appearances in the
NCAA Division I Tournament history.
NIT results
The Owls have appeared in five
National Invitation Tournaments. Their combined record is 1–5.
CBI results
The Owls have appeared in three
College Basketball Invitational (CBI) tournaments. Their combined record is 2–3.
CIT results
The Owls have appeared in one
CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT). Their combined record is 2–1.
Players of note
Owls in the NBA
*
Morris Almond
*
Ken Austin
*
Bill Closs
*
Mike Harris
*
Bill Henry
*
Bob Kinney
*
Trey Murphy III
*
Ricky Pierce
*
Brent Scott
*
Mike Wilks
*
Drew Peterson
*
Quincy Olivari
Owls in international basketball
*
Suleiman Braimoh (born 1989), Nigerian-American in the
Israel Basketball Premier League
*
Egor Koulechov (born 1994), Israeli-Russian basketball player for Israeli team
Ironi Nahariya
Politicians
*
Glenn Youngkin (born 1966), 74th
Governor of Virginia
The governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia is the head of government of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. The Governor (United States), governor is head of the Government_of_Virginia#Executive_branch, executive branch ...
Retired numbers
Rice University has
retired six numbers.
References
External links
*
{{American Athletic Conference men's basketball navbox
Basketball teams established in 1914