The 2017–18 Rice Owls men's basketball team represented Rice University during the 2017–18 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Owls, led by first-year head coach Scott Pera, played their home games at Tudor Fieldhouse in Houston, Texas as members of Conference USA. 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 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. 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 Name Number Pos. Height Weight Year Hometown Notes Marcus Evans 2 G 6'2" 195 Sophomore Chesapeake, VA Transferred to VCU Egor Koulechov 4 G/F 6'5" 210 RS Junior Volgograd, Russia Graduate transferred to Florida Corey Douglas 11 F 6'8" 190 Freshman Louisville, KY Transferred to Tallahassee CC Marquez Letcher-Ellis 12 F 6'7" 205 Sophomore Houston, TX Transferred to Nevada Chad Lott 21 G 6'3" 190 RS Freshman Shreveport, LA Transferred to Howard Marcus Jackson 22 G 6'3" 185 Senior Acton, CA Graduate transferred to UC Santa Barbara Harrison Brown 31 G/F 6'4' 200 Sophomore Austin, TX Walk-on; left the team for personal reasons Andrew Drone 54 C 6'10" 260 Senior Ridgway, IL Graduated
Incoming transfers Name Number Pos. Height Weight Year Hometown Previous School A. J. Lapray 2 G 6'5" 190 RS Senior Salem, OR Transferred from Pepperdine. Will be eligible to play immediately since Lapray graduated from Pepperdine. Dylan Jones 4 F 6'8" 215 RS Senior Houston, TX Transferred from Penn. Will be eligible to play immediately since Jones graduated from Penn. Josh Parrish 12 G 6'5" 220 Sophomore Arlington, TX Transferred from TCU. Under NCAA transfer rules, Parrish will have to sit out for the 2017–18 season. Will have three years of remaining eligibility.
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
See also 2017–18 Rice Owls women's basketball team
References