(I know this is the wrong forum...thought we'd get a bit more attention in the HO) I know that Louisville had several key players out for this game but screw it! This was a great win against a ranked opponent! Props to Houston for outlasting 16th ranked Louisville 70 - 67. Hopefully the hoops teams will help bring some pride back to Cougar High and start getting the fans, students and locals, back on the bandwagon.
sweetness. i havent made it a game this year, but ill be sure to get out to a couple in the coming weeks. go cougs.
Just got home from the game. What a great win for the Houston program. Penders outcoached Pitino tonight. This UH team is on the right track and it wont be long until they are a Top 25 team.
Congrats to the Coogs on the win. I agree that Penders has them moving in the right direction. There is no reason why they can't be a very very good team for many years if he can convince the local talent to stay at home.
Great win against a good Louisville team. I echo the sentiments that Penders has them going in the right direction. Go Coogs.
One of the top teams in the country comes to Houston. If the Coogs can't put more asses in the seats for Louisvllle, when will they? I was there with a buddy tonight and just shook my head at the empty and covered seats. Yes, the crowd there was great and vocal. And Louisville brought a bunch of fans as well. What is it going to take? Better advertising? A top 10 ranking? Face it. We are a bad sports town when it comes down to it.
Its not that we are a bad sports town. Its that we are a bad college town. But the older I get the more I am coming to the opinion that we are a really ****ty sports town.
Yes. Better advertising. I didn't even know there was a game last night until I saw this thread. When is the last time you heard a single UH b-ball commercial on 610 or 790? As far as being a "bad sports town" goes, every college located in a big city suffers attendence problems.
ESPN had bonus coverage, and the CNN ticker said it was our first win over a nationally ranked team since 1996. Publicity is starting to roar.
I believe that the fans will show up if the Cougars continue to play like they have lately. Penders has them in games. The Cougars have not even been close to competitive against the good teams for a long time. Nobody expects the Coogs to win every game, but some of the teams have been awful the last few years. Sometimes it is not just about loyalty, but also the entertainment value. The Cougars have a lot of competition for people's entertainment value in a city the size of Houston. If games are fun, they start winning more then they lose, and they start competiting against and beating a few of the ranked teams, then I feel like there will be more fannies in the seats. I personally was thrilled when they hired Penders. I loved to hate him when he coached Texas, but he put solid teams on the court when coaching the Longhorns.
UH throws surprise party Victory over Louisville Cougars' first against ranked team since '96 By MICHAEL MURPHY Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Karen Warren/Chronicle UH's Rodney Hannah beats Louisville's Juan Palacious to a rebound during the second half. Back-to-back losses to Washington and Texas A&M showed how far the Houston Cougars still had to go in their quest to return to college basketball's elite. But on Wednesday night against No. 17 Louisville, the Cougars showed everyone just how far they have come. With the Conference USA opener — and perhaps their credibility as a league contender — on the line, the Cougars made every big play down the stretch and upset the Cardinals 70-67 at Hofheinz Pavilion. For the Cougars, it was their first victory against a ranked team since 1996, when they beat No. 21 Tulsa, and the first time they had beaten Louisville since 1993. Have Houston fans been waiting for something like this? Indeed, several of the 4,328 in attendance were in tears as the final seconds slipped off the clock. When the final buzzer sounded, Houston players and coaches rushed the court in a wild, spontaneous release of emotion. "It was great," Houston coach Tom Penders said of the celebration. "We've talked about that — winning brings fans. I think we made a major step in that direction. There may be a couple of teams that might be more exciting to watch, but nobody plays harder than we do." Penders wasn't saying that a couple of days ago. After getting drilled at Washington (by a school-record 47 points) and Texas A&M (13 points) in their previous two games, Penders closed practices to the media and put his players through a series of brutal workouts that sometimes ran until 2 a.m. The Cougars ran the steps at Hofheinz, wrestled one another for loose balls and endured charge-taking routines that bordered on suicidal. "Man, it's been tough," said Andre Owens, whose season-high 27 points included a pair of late 3-pointers that saved the Cougars. "I haven't worked that hard since I've been in college basketball, but we needed it." For the Cougars (9-5, 1-0), the game came down to the final seconds. The Cardinals (11-3, 0-1) trailed much of the game but rallied behind Juan Palacios (20 points) and Francisco Garcia, who got the last of his 13 points on a drive to put Louisville up 67-65 with 40.5 seconds left. But Owens, who moments earlier buried a game-tying 3-pointer, sank another trey that put the Cougars up 68-67 with 21.5 seconds left. "I always go for the win," Owens said. "I figured they (the Cardinals) were looking for us to go for two (points) and the tie, so I wasn't going to go for that. I wanted to go for the win." Louisville's last hopes evaporated when Garcia was called for charging with 13 seconds left, which not only gave the Cougars the ball but also took the junior swingman out of the game with his fifth foul. Forced to foul, the Cardinals sent Lanny Smith to the line. But Smith hit two free throws with 10.7 seconds left to put UH up by three points. "I had struggled all game, so I knew I had to do something," said Smith, who had 12 points and four assists, but had seven turnovers and missed nine of his 12 shots. "Those last two free throws, with the pressure on, I wasn't shaken at all." When Louisville's Lorenzo Wade missed a desperation 3-pointer, it touched off the party for Houston fans. Appropriately, that final miss landed in the hands of Houston's Rodney Hannah, who stepped up with a career-high 16 rebounds. With Sergio de Randamie (ankle) and Darius Brannon (back) sidelined, it couldn't have come at a better time. "I felt it was on me to be physical," said Hannah, who had a total of only 11 rebounds in the first 13 games. "A lot of people thought they were more physical and tougher than we were, but I came in with the mentality that we weren't going to be out-toughed." michael.murphy@chron.com http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/2980172
It is night and day as far as the atmosphere this year to years past.I am actually suprised I have a voice this morning.It was funny listening to the Loserville fans whining all around us all game long.
Football and Baseball are more important in Houston than basketball, especially for a basketball program that hasn't been good in many years. I live in Georgia and Atlanta is the worst sports town ever. Hawks games have always been empty, Falcons games were empty before Vick and the Braves can't even come close to a sell-out during the playoffs.
