Conference USA - Opening Round, Evening Session

(5) Tulsa 73, (12) Rice 62

Tulsa 's perfunctory 73-62 opening round win over a bad Rice squad said little about either team, aside from solidifying the fact that it doesn't really take a full 40-minute effort to beat the Owls.  An unfocused Tulsa side found itself trailing Rice 24-16 around the eight-minute mark of the first half.  Doug Wojcik's squad continued digging a hole for itself and the favored Golden Hurricane trailed 41-26 at the half.  It turned out that the 15-point deficit was a shot (or several) of espresso for Tulsa, as the Golden Canes dropped 47 second-half points on Rice to avoid the upset.

The Big Picture: Wonder no more about why a Tulsa squad with oodles of talent has underachieved this season, as the Golden Hurricane's lethargic first half versus Rice on Wednesday night explained everything.  In the end, Rice wasn't able to surmount the massive talent deficit, and Tulsa will move on to a quarterfinal scrap versus C-USA four-seed Marshall.  Survive and advance, baby, survive and advance.

The Good:   The fact is that no team wants to find itself down by 15 points in a conference tournament game, but that's where Tulsa found itself on Wednesday night. A good 35 minutes later, the Golden Hurricanes were 73-62 victors who were looking forward to a Thursday quarterfinal.  Even by itself, the second half comeback was stirring, but for the Tulsa faithful it had to be galvanizing since it was the Golden Hurricanes’ two best players that paved the way to victory. Senior guard Ben Uzoh delivered 9 of his 15 points and 5 of his 7 dimes in the critical second half while 7-foot center Jerome Jordan scored 10 of his 16 points and grabbed all but one of his eight boards in the second half.

The Bad: Oh, Rice, how did you manage to waste the best 20 minutes of basketball you've played all season at such an inopportune time?  A 15-point Owls' lead vanished over the course of 14 minutes in the second half, transforming into a 58-57 deficit with 6:02 left to play.  With momentum no longer on their side, and the turnovers and missed shots mounting, it's not that surprising that the Owls’ slide continued for the final six minutes of the second half.

The Ugly: Maybe they moved the three-point line back during halftime, as Rice's 1-of-7 shooting behind the arc in the second half - they were 6-of-8 in the first half - is as much to blame for the case of the vanishing 15-point lead as is anything else.

What’s Next

Tulsa will need to play 40 minutes of basketball if it’s going to beat its quarterfinal opponent, Marshall, on Thursday evening.  The Golden Hurricane lost to the Thundering Herd in the only meeting between the two teams this season, so a Tulsa win could be considered a mild surprise.  Rice coach Ben Braun has no such immediate worries, as he has little to do but get ready to hit the recruiting trail and start prepping for 2010-11.