Maryland will face hot team in first round
At age 64, Tom Penders is perpetually tanned, coiffed and styled.
But in his sixth year at Houston, without an NCAA bid to his credit and on his way to a .500 season, there was no turning back the clock. After 36 years as a head coach at seven staircase stops — first up, then down — it was likely the end of the road for Penders in Division I.
But from out of nowhere in the Conference USA Tournament, Houston put together its first four-game winning streak of the season, earning a surprise berth in the NCAA Tournament, the school’s first in 18 years.
Friday night in Spokane, Wash., when fourth-seeded Maryland (23-8) faces No. 13 Houston (19-15) in the Midwest Region first round, the Terrapins will have to solve a hot team, riding a wave of purpose after saving the job of its coach.
“All these rumors going around, saying he was going to be fired?” said Houston guard Aubrey Coleman, the nation’s leading scorer. “What are they going to say now?”
Probably welcome back.
In four dizzying days in Tulsa, Houston beat East Carolina, No. 2 seed Memphis in the quarterfinals — a 20-win squad, Southern Mississippi in the semifinals, and the No. 1 seed and NCAA-bound UTEP in the title game.
“We’re dancing. We’re dancing,” said Penders. “I may be dancing a little slower than the last time I went, but we’re dancing.”
Penders was last in the tournament in 1999, his first season at George Washington. He went 20-9 with a team recruited by his predecessor, Mike Jarvis. But the following two seasons, Penders went a combined 29-33 and left amid scandal.
After three years as a television and radio analyst, Penders returned to the sidelines to revive the sagging fortunes of Houston, which had one winning season in eight years.
Dubbed “Turnaround Tom,” Penders accomplished the mission, posting six straight winning seasons, including three with 21 or more wins, but an NCAA berth was elusive. A week ago, when the Cougars entered the conference tournament with a 15-15 record, coming off a season-finale loss to an 8-21 Tulane team, it seemed Houston had regressed.
So dire was Houston’s predicament that Penders dubbed the team “Dead Men Walking,” suggesting the Cougars had nothing to lose.
And with that, they didn’t.
“I love the underdog role,” guard Adam Brown told the Houston Chronicle. “Shock the world. You’re doing it for yourself, and nobody else believes in you. I love nobody expecting us to win, so we can just prove them wrong.”
Houston did that in the title game against a UTEP team that was on a 16-game winning streak. Trailing by nine points with eight minutes left, the Cougars’ comeback was sparked by a pair of 3-pointers by guard Kelvin Lewis (28 points).
Lewis, a 6-foot-4 senior, hit 11 of 15 shots, compensating for a sub-par performance by Coleman, a 6-4 senior, who hit 4-of-20 shots and finished with 13 points, half his gaudy average.
Houston plays Penders’ distinctive, up-tempo style with pressure defense and an emphasis on the 3-pointer. The Cougars fired up 97 treys in the tournament, hitting 37.
Maryland will have a rare height advantage. Houston starts a 5-8 point guard, Desmond Wade. The Cougars have shortcomings, ranking last in Conference USA in field goal defense (46.0 percent) and rebounding margin (minus 8.1 pg). They can be disruptive and explosive, however, ranking No. 1 in the league in 3-pointers (8.3 pg), steals (9.5 pg) and turnover margin (7.8 pg).
“These kids are a special bunch,” said Penders. “We’ve got apples, oranges, bananas, peaches, plums. We’ve got all kinds of different kinds of kids out there and they all came together.”
