Great Alaska Shootout

[JohnELinden]

Hey sooner fans.... i am a fan of the houston cougars who you will be playing in the great alaska shootout... obviously your team will be the best in the field of 6 but i think the game with houston could be a real good one.... the cougars should be much improved from last year aned they have a great recruiting class this year.... they are young but will start two preseason C-usa first teamers in aubrey coleman and kelvin lewis... tulsas jerome jordan was tabbed the preseason player of the year but i think it could have easily been coleman... anyhow just wondering your thoughts on the matchup... good luck this season i look forward to seeing how well willie warren does this season after deciding to return!!

 

[Krugerfan52]

I think the matchup of the guards will be a good one. Inside I think Tiny Gallon will have a big day.

If Marcus Cousin were still there, he would be able to hold his own against Tiny. But he's not.

 

[Sooner23]

 

[BigTime]

John,

Welcome. While I am not a huge fan of Tom Pender's coaching ability, I do think that you guys will put out a good product this year. It should be a good test for OU's young talent.

I sure wish we could get those games on TV....

 

[thebigabd]

http://ouhoops.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9815

This is a detailed matchup thread... now, I realize I got the point guard spot wrong for Houston in the preview. I have read recent comments from Penders that say the returning guy has developed into the point guard he needs him to be, so thats even better for Houston..

I expect a battle and I have no idea who is going to win. Houston has great guards and athletic forwards, so it should be a VERY interesting game on a neutral court.

 

[thebigabd]

While I am not a huge fan of Tom Pender's coaching ability

Yea, coaches who have won 626 games in their career probably dont have much coaching ability.

 

[BigTime]

Yea, coaches who have won 626 games in their career probably dont have much coaching ability.

How long has he been coaching? If you think he was impressive at UT, then you must enjoy the mediocre. To have all that talent in state and to coach in a weak basketball conference, and to still not do much in the postseason is pretty bad. He got exposed real fast after the Big 12 was formed.

 

[MsProudSooner]

Yea, coaches who have won 626 games in their career probably dont have much coaching ability.

I distinctly remember when Penders was at Texas. We had a tight game against them in Austin one year. Kelvin moved Renzi Stone to the high post in the second half and he passed the ball to cutting guards the rest of the game. Penders had no clue how to defense it. We ended up winning by a comfortable margin. Now that was several years ago, and maybe he has improved. But I never would have called him a coaching genius.

 

[thebigabd]

How long has he been coaching? If you think he was impressive at UT, then you must enjoy the mediocre. To have all that talent in state and to coach in a weak basketball conference, and to still not do much in the postseason is pretty bad. He got exposed real fast after the Big 12 was formed.

Texas basketball was in the tank before Penders... Penders revived Texas hoops.

While averaging 20.8 wins per season at Texas, his Longhorn teams scored nearly 90 points per game and forced more than 19 turnovers per contest. Penders ended his tenure at Texas with a 208-110 record.

The feat is made more remarkable when considering he took a program that had not won 20 games in nine seasons and averaged just 4,028 fans in a 16,231-seat arena the year before he arrived.

The Longhorns also set 22 school and SWC records while more than doubling the attendance average to 10,011 per game, the largest increase in NCAA Division I.

In 1990, Texas surprised most college basketball fans across the nation by advancing to the Elite Eight as the No. 10 seed in the NCAA Midwest Regional and was just three points shy of advancing to the Final Four, losing to the fourth-seeded and SWC rival, Arkansas.

 

[BigTime]

Texas basketball was in the tank before Penders... Penders revived Texas hoops.

While averaging 20.8 wins per season at Texas, his Longhorn teams scored nearly 90 points per game and forced more than 19 turnovers per contest. Penders ended his tenure at Texas with a 208-110 record.

The feat is made more remarkable when considering he took a program that had not won 20 games in nine seasons and averaged just 4,028 fans in a 16,231-seat arena the year before he arrived.

The Longhorns also set 22 school and SWC records while more than doubling the attendance average to 10,011 per game, the largest increase in NCAA Division I.

In 1990, Texas surprised most college basketball fans across the nation by advancing to the Elite Eight as the No. 10 seed in the NCAA Midwest Regional and was just three points shy of advancing to the Final Four, losing to the fourth-seeded and SWC rival, Arkansas.

Look at the conference he coched in. Compare it to the Big 8. Look what happened after Texas joined the Big 12 (I will give you a hint: Penders got the boot.)

 

[thebigabd]

Look at the conference he coched in. Compare it to the Big 8. Look what happened after Texas joined the Big 12 (I will give you a hint: Penders got the boot.)

Again, Texas hadnt won 20 games in a decade before Penders and they won 21 games a year under him.

Is he the greatest coach ever? No, but he is a good coach and someone with 626 wins shouldnt be getting bashed for not knowing what he is doing.

 

[campbest]

Based on the above criteria, Jim Phelan wasn't impressive either. (which is a joke)

 

[Sooner23]

Would Houston finish ahead of Baylor if they were in the Big 12?

 

[thebigabd]

Would Houston finish ahead of Baylor if they were in the Big 12?

We dont know enough about those teams yet... Houston has two new guys in the paint this year, so we need to see how that goes.

 

[Sooner23]

Where would Houston finish in the Big 12 North?

 

[WaymanFan]

Sorry, BigTime, but I have to agree with Bigabd. I remember Texas basketball in the '80s. It was "Colorado bad." Penders had just taken a #11 seed Rhode Island within 2 points of the Elite Eight the year OU played for the title. When he got hired at Texas, I knew their days of being a pushover were over. It took him two years to get Texas to the Elite Eight and had another couple of Sweet 16 appearances after that. He's no Rick Barnes as a recruiter, but the guy can definitely coach.

 

[JohnELinden]

thanks for the input guys.... i see one guy predicted a OU blowout.... while possible i just dont see it happening.... houston was up 33 against lsu in their scrimmage and wound up winning by 17 although lsu only had 9 scholarship players... 8 now due to injury to a player in the scrimmage.....

im not a fan of all the juco players but they did sign a few high school kids this season.... my guy is desmond wade as he is from my hometown of Linden nj.... he was throw right into the fire last year as a freshman and led the team in assists.... at only 5'8" he is lightning quick and it is almost impossible to strip the kid.... he had something like 3:1 turnover to assist ratio which was very impressive for a true freshman...he is also an excellent on ball defender... tyreke evans asked last year after houston played memphis "who the heck was the kid sticking me" or something along those lines..... he started for most of last season but was replaced late when zamal nixon started to come on strong..... dez struggled with his shot and thats the area he needs to improve the most in order for teams to not back off of him.... i believe desmond will be the starting PG.... all reports so far is that adam brown is the real deal and showed that he is a team player by volunteering to come off the bench as the 6th man as to not mess with the chemistry of the team.....

rebounding was definitely a problem last year... any time a guard (aubrey coleman) is your 2nd leading rebounder there is a problem... but if you think the loss of calhoun will hurt houston you are wrong.... he barely mixed it up in the paint and played mostly on the perimeter as a 4..... i believe the newcomers will make us a much better rebounding team.... i forget which one was the louisiana player of the year... but i think it was kendrick washington.... also we added juco all american maurice mcneil..... and the word is that 6'9" true freshman kirk van slyke is a lights out shooter and destroyed lsu from the outside...

in my opinion aubrey coleman would start on any team in the country.. he can do it all... drive on any one... pull up on any one.... he has worked on his 3 point shot which was really his only weakness.... sometimes the team gets lazy though and sits around and watches aubrey..... one knock i have is that once you pass to aubrey you aint gettin it back.....

kelvin lewis is the teams best defender and awesome 3 point shooter..... although he strayed away from his shot late last season when he got a little cold.....

all in all i feel this team will be deeper and i hope a little tougher than last years version of the cougars....... the conference as a whole will be much improved i think and this is the year memphis will have their conference win streak snapped.... also with the conference tournament moving from memphis to tulsa i think their might be a new sheriff in C-USA but i would not be surprised if memphis wins the conference again...... also i see the conference getting two teams into the tournament in a traditionally one bid league.....

Good luck!!! After watching some major meltdowns on the houston board last year i look forward to hopefully causing other boards to meltdown!!! lol peace!!!

 

[SoonerNorm]

You could put a pretty good team together if you didn't sign anyone other than Houston kids.

 

[JohnELinden]

You could put a pretty good team together if you didn't sign anyone other than Houston kids.

i think the problem with that is the houston studs go to UT, Baylor, Texas Tech...etc..... also there is competition with rice

 

[BigTime]

John,

You guys could certainly make a living out of getting all Houston area high schoolers. There are some really good players coming up from there in the next three classes (2012 and 2013 especially).

OU is really glad to have TMG and Tiny from the Houston area.