Owls Announce Sked

HOUSTON, TX -- Though I now spend more time covering the Houston Rockets and women's college hoops than I do covering men's college hoops, I want to mention some news about the Rice Owls.

Tuesday, the Owls announced the dates for the Conference USA portion of their schedule as well as their entire 2008-2009 schedule.

Rice plays home-and-home series with East Carolina, Houston, SMU, Tulane and UCF.

In addition to home-and-home series, the Owls played three league opponents at home and three on the road last year and the sites for those games will be flipped for the 2009 season. The Owls will also play host to Southern Miss, Tulsa and UTEP while traveling to Marshall, Memphis and UAB in 2009.

Rice will open C-USA play at Tulane on January 10, before playing back-to-back home games against SMU and UCF (January 14 and January 17).

The league schedule takes the Owls to defending Conference USA champion Memphis on January 24. Rice plays at crosstown rival Houston on February 7, and plays host to the Cougars on February 28.

Rice closes out regular-season league play March 7 against Tulsa. The Conference USA Tournament is slated for March 11-14 in Memphis, Tenn.