PhiSlammaJamma Time. Penders must be buying players off. I love it. We are back on the map. This is pretty exciting. Houston opens with Florida Tech in 2 weeks. I'm countin the W. Cougars Ranked 24th By ESPN Expert In Preseason Top 25 Men's Basketball Poll ESPN's Peter Newmann lists Houston 24th in his national poll. Oct. 14, 2005 Houston - It has not taken second-year head coach Tom Penders long to gain national attention for his University of Houston men's basketball team as the Cougars are ranked among the nation's top 24 teams according to ESPN's Peter Newmann. Newmann has the Cougars ranked 24th, one of two Conference USA teams in his poll. He selected Duke as his preseason top-ranked team, with Texas, Villanova, Gonzaga and Oklahoma rounding out his Top Five teams. Newmann ranked Michigan State No. 6, with his other Top 10 teams being Connecticut, Boston College, Memphis and Louisville. They are followed by Kentucky, West Virginia, Stanford, UCLA, Iowa, Alabama, Wake Forest, Syracuse, Kansas, George Washington, Iowa State, Miami, Arizona, Houston and Nevada. Houston is ranked 36th overall out of 40 teams by a pool of ESPN experts that includes Andy Katz, Pat Forde, Doug Gottlieb, Jay Bilas, Fran Franchilla, Joe Lunardi, Ed Greney, Jeff Shelman, Dave Revsine, Rece Davis, Newman, Nick Loucks, Howie Schwab, Dan Steir and Andy Glockner. Houston began its preseason practice officially Friday night in Hofheinz Pavilion with Penders welcoming back four starters and three lettermen from last season's 18-14 team. Seven highly talented newcomers that make up one of the nation's Top 13 recruiting classes join them. The returning starters include junior point guard Lanny Smith, a preseason All-Conference USA selection, along with seniors Brian Latham, Ramon Dyer and Sergio de Randamie. Other returning players include senior guard Chris Lawson, a part-time starter from last season, redshirt sophomore Andrew Francis and senior forward Darrius Brannon. The new Cougars include junior college transfers Oliver Lafayette, Tristan Martin, Jahmar Thorpe and Richard Young, combined with freshmen Emmanuel Adeife, Corey Bloom and Lamar Roberson. Houston opens the 2005-06 season on November 22, when the Cougars play host to Florida Tech. The Cougars will battle against two other preseason nationally-ranked teams. Houston plays host to No. 8 Arizona on December 3 at 6:00 p.m., and ends the regular season at No. 13 Memphis on March 4. The Cougars also play home games against Sam Houston State on December 10, North Texas on December 23, Rhode Island on December 27, McNeese State on December 31 and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on January 7 before opening their Conference USA schedule with a game at Rice on Jan. 11. http://uhcougars.collegesports.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/101405aaa.html
Houston Top three: PG Lanny Smith, SF Ramon Dyer, SG Brian Latham. NIT or bust: The Cougars are getting much love nationally as a breakthrough team, but it's hard to envision them returning to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1992. Not one year after losing scoring leader Andre Owens. Tom Penders brought in another monster recruiting class, but it's loaded with junior college transfers, and there's just no telling how good any of them will be. Penders says it's the best class he has ever signed, anywhere. And he might be right. But he's quite a salesman, that Tom Penders. We'll believe it when we see it. Meantime, Lanny Smith is good enough to lead this team -- whoever's on it -- into the C-USA top third. http://www.sportsline.com/collegebasketball/story/9029751
So... how does UH relate to the Texans, Astros or the Comets? I am glad to see that Tom Penders doing well for UH though.
as much as i would love to see UH basketball prosper again, it isn't going to be long term with tom penders. he's bad news everywhere he goes as far as rules violations. he did it at texas and at GW, it's going to happen at houston. he'll have to resign or get fired.
UH should win 20 plus games this year and make in the the tourneys. They got 7 new players who all are very good and they have a future pro in Lanny Smith.
I'm blown away that they are still able to get talent to come play in that dump they call home court.
short term is okay, but would you really rather have a quick fix that will fall apart and leave you with a lot of problems that could set your program back 3-4 years or the find the right guy right now and get it done for the long term? short term fixes rarely give you what you want anyway, you don't win championships overnight, might as well find the right guy to begin with.
What's wrong with Hofheinz? When that place is full, it is loud. Unless you feel like throwing $400 milllion towards a new arena, then I say stopping hating the Cougars home court. Better yet, if you decide to throw $400 million at UH, there are better places to spend the money then on a basketball arena.
Yeah like a fence with razor wire surrounding the campus for protection. I really hate going over there to watch Rice whoop up on the Coogs, especially after dark.
^ Bigtexx, isn't there a Owls fan board you can go and hangout? You obviously hate every school in TX except the Owls, which I don't blame you, everyone loves their alma mater. BTW, Rice has a basketball team? What for?
I didn't know you left your guarded, walled compounded. You know it is dangerous on the outside. Criminals, evacuees and liberals roaming the streets. See what happens when you spend too much time "between the hedges". You forget how rough life is in the outside world. The UH area looks pretty good today. I remember what it looked like in the 1970's.
Code: Team Postseason 1. Memphis NCAA [b][i]2. UTEP NCAA[/b][/i] 3. UAB NIT [b][i]4. Houston NIT[/b][/i] 5. Central Florida None 6. Rice None 7. SMU None 8. Southern Miss None 9. Tulane None 10. Tulsa None 11. East Carolina None 12. Marshall None http://www.sportsline.com/collegebasketball/story/9029751 Booyah!
The surrounding neighborhoods are UH's greatest resource. When I lived there, there were off-the-grid liquor stores and bodegas all over the place. A seven-year-old wouldn't get carded. We would often stop and chat with the locals and they were usually quite friendly. Just regular folks after the same weekend stuff we were: Weed, booze and poon. I guess some people may prefer to head over to Rice Village and "get wild" at Little Woodrows or something, but the hood always treated me good.
I can't wait...I think we all agree this is s-t, but damn, this is exciting again...Tourney, here we come...
i visited U of H back in 2002 after i graduated from HS and it was okay. that was my second choice after Tx. State. the neighborhood isn't the greatest...okay, it's awful but it's not too much different from the ones where i spent a lot of my childhood summers at in san jacinto and pasadena, so i wan't too uncomfortable. the campus is nice, not pretty like UT or like Tx. State but still attractive. they should be able to recruit much better than what they have been doing. if they could just get the 2nd tier players from houston, they would be in the ncaa's every year. i don't know if they will ever get the 1st tier guys like TJ Ford, Daniel Gibson, etc. away from the Texas's and North Carolina's of the world, but they should still get impact players from that city full of talent.
What Hakeem06 said. The Cougs should be able to get the Dion Dowells and Lanny Smiths of the world. Lanny was a great pickup for the Cougs. Of course, Penders is probably violating a few rules, but if he can get away with it now and get the program going, it should be exciting.
And why would that be? UH is a safer campus, in terms of crime-per-capita, than A&M, UT, and Tech. Maybe you're just shakin' in your Banana Republic khakis because of all the hair braiding salons, fried chicken stands, and rim shops in the area. Third Ward; it's a way of life.
LOL, bigtexxx, shaking in his F150, cowering in fear of the scary inner city people. You're right though. Since Houston is near the geographic center longitude of the country, it is definitely right in middle of the East Coast/West coast Rap War battleground and likely bullets are flying as we speak. YOu may want to keep your head down, way down.
