Owls Get a Sunny Send-Off on the Road to the NCAA Tournament
3/21/2019 10:59:00 PM | Blog
A sunny day and a strong contingent of fans and local media greeted the Rice women's basketball team this morning as they hit the road to College Station. The women's volleyball team formed a tunnel of outstretched arms for their basketball buddies to run through on their way to board the bus while the Rice Marching Owls Band played them on.
"They're just wonderful kids," said perennial Rice supporter Roger Tower, a fixture at most Rice sporting events for the past 20 years. Tower was one of over 100 fans and supporters who turned out this morning "to wish the girls good luck," he said. He's also one of dozens more who'll be boarding buses tomorrow for a Rice caravan to Reed Arena, where the Owls will play the Marquette Golden Eagles at 1 p.m. "Hopefully we can win one and then two and then we'll see…" Tower said.
William Edmond, assistant director in the office of multicultural affairs, was one of many Rice staff there for the send-off. "This is a special moment to celebrate our women's basketball program," he said. "I wanted to send them off in a good way—tell them to bring back that win."
The Owls have a No. 12 seed going into this year's NCAA tournament thanks to one of their strongest seasons in memory.
"They've been playing very well—if I'm not mistaken it's 21 wins in a row, probably the longest active streak in the country right now," Edmond said. "I'm proud of them." After a short trip past blooming fields of bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush, the Owls settled into their locker room at Reed Arena by playing some lively games of hangman on the whiteboard.
"We're just being ourselves, playing hangman," chuckled McMurtry College senior Shani Rainey. "We actually do this on the daily. Disney is our top category." A round finished in the background with the answer revealed—Cruella—to loud laughter and wild scrambling to the board for the next game.
"It's very serious," Rainey said. Having just played her final home game as a Rice athlete—the March 2 victory over Louisiana Tech that marked the Owls' 17th straight win this season—every game of the NCAA tournament is gravy for Rainey, who says she's living in the moment.
"This is definitely not a bad way for your senior year to pan out whatsoever," she said. "It's picture perfect to say the least. We're not even worried about what's to come; we're just enjoying every moment that we have."
Before heading off to practice, three of the team's top players convened for the first press conference of the tournament, fielding questions like seasoned vets. Sid Richardson College senior Nicole Iademarco joined fellow Houstonians Erica Ogwumike and Nancy Mulkey on the dais, telling reporters how happy they were to hear that the first-round game would be played so close to home.
"We had a huge send-off this morning," Iademarco said. "We have buses coming down from campus tomorrow for the game. A lot of our families are local…so a lot of peoples' families are able to come really easily."
Speaking of family, Ogwumike reflected on how hers—sisters Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike helped Stanford University reach the Final Four multiple times during their own college days—have shaped her understanding of the NCAA tournament, which she's only attended in the past as a fan.
"I've experienced this with my sisters, but as a spectator—and that's completely different than being a player now," she said. "I think being able to watch behind the scenes with my sisters prepare for this mentally has helped me a lot because I'm trying to emulate what they did because they were pretty successful at it."
Her sisters, she said, keep telling her to enjoy the moment, "because it's not something that everyone gets to experience. I'm really just trying to absorb everything by osmosis. It's really surreal."
When asked what it means for the Owls to finally be back at the NCAA tournament, Mulkey answered, "Fourteen years later and we're here. To finally do that, give back to the university, our teammates, our coaches, the coaching staff and everyone who's a part of our journey means a lot. We're grateful to be here."
Tomorrow, that journey continues bright and early for a pregame session ahead of tomorrow afternoon's game. But first, dinner.
