GETTING INSIDE
While some Houston Cougars ranted and raved about nobody respecting them and proving all the doubters wrong with their surprise C-USA title run that earned the team its first NCAA berth since 1992, star guard Aubrey Coleman was in the same boat as the rest of the college basketball world.
"This ain't real," Coleman told the Houston Chronicle. "I don't think it's real. I think I need to wake up. It seems like a dream. I'm still waiting to wake up."
Fellow guard Adam Brown had a very different reaction.
"We did everything we said we were going to do," Brown told the Chronicle. "Nobody else believed us. We came out here and conquered."
The improbable championship game win over C-USA regular season champ UTEP highlighted exactly what makes the Cougars so dangerous. They were able to dictate tempo and hit 12 3-pointers, something head coach Tom Penders loves to see.
The four tournament victories in as many days may have just saved Penders' job at Houston. Entering the field of 65 makes Penders the ninth coach to take four teams the The Big Dance.
"When I came to Houston, it was almost considered mission impossible," Penders told the Houston Chronicle. "We came so close a couple times with some more talented kids, but not as gutty a group."
NOTES, QUOTES
--The 12 3-pointers made by the Houston Cougars in their March 13 C-USA tournament title game win over UTEP marked the 13th time this season the team hit 10 or more treys.
--Houston head coach Tom Penders is the ninth coach to take four different teams to the NCAA Tournament. He has led Houston, Texas, George Washington and Rhode Island to the Big Dance.
COACH: Tom Penders, six years at Houston, 11th appearance in NCAA Tournament (1st with Houston).
KEYS TO VICTORY: Houston wins when it dictates the pace of the game and that pace the Cougars love is up and down, high scoring and a lot of transition basketball. Their opening round NCAA Tournament matchup with Maryland could be just the type of game head coach Tom Penders dreams of as the Terps averaged an ACC-best 79.3 points per game. Houston will gun plenty of long balls after averaging 23.4 of them per game through the March 13 C-USA title game. If they start getting hot from beyond the arc, Houston can upset anyone (see 12-trey explosion against UTEP in the C-USA title game as example No. 1). Houston picks up a lot of assists, but most are in transition as opposed to half-court offense. If the Cougars don't totally ignore the boards, which they've often done this season, and keep the rebounding battle close, they may have shot.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "These kids, they're a special bunch. 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." -- Houston coach Tom Penders to the Houston Chronicle.
STRATEGY AND PERSONNEL
SCOUTING REPORT: G Aubrey Coleman is as good an offensive player as you'll find in the NCAA Tournament. His national-leading 25.6 points per game can come from all over the court. But G Kelvin Lewis is as good a secondary scorer as there is in the nation as well, averaging 15.3 points per game and coming off a 28-point outing in the C-USA contest with UTEP.
GAME REVIEW:
Houston 66, Memphis 65 (C-USA quarterfinals)
Houston 74, Southern Miss 66 (C-USA semifinals)
Houston 81, UTEP 73 (C-USA final)
GAME PREVIEW:
vs. Maryland, Thursday, March 18, NCAA Tournament, first round.
ROSTER REPORT:,p.
--Senior G Aubrey Coleman didn't have his best scoring game of the season in a March 13 C-USA tournament championship win over UTEP -- he scored 13 points on 4 of 20 shooting -- but still wrapped up the pre-NCAA Tournament portion of the season as the leading scorer in C-USA and the nation with 25.6 points per game.
--Thanks to foul trouble, and eventually fouling out, junior F Maurice McNeil had just five rebounds in 25 minutes of action against UTEP on March 13. He still leads the team with 7.4 rebounds per game and ranked 8th in C-USA on the season.
--Senior G Kelvin Lewis hit a C-USA championship game record six 3-pointers on March 13 against UTEP. His 28 points in the game was one shy of the title game record of 29 set by Marquette's Aaron Hutchins in the league's debut title game in 1996.