Sports
 

Coogs try to end pair of streaks

by Jay Gandy
The Daily Cougar

If the UH men's basketball team wants to end its road funk, it may have to wait until Saturday against South Florida.

The Cougars will try for their first road win of the season when they face Louisville, the No. 4 team in The Associated Press Top 25 poll, at 6:30 p.m. today in Louisville. The Cardinals come into the game with a 15-1 overall record and a 5-0 record in Conference USA. After losing their first game of the season, the Cardinals have won 15 consecutive games. 

Louisville head coach Rick Pitino will be absent from the bench for the first time this season after going on an indefinite leave of absence for health reasons. It appears Pitino will miss only tonight's game against the Cougars. UH head coach Ray McCallum said he doesn't think Pitino's absence will hurt Louisville's chances.

"I've been in this long enough to know how players respond," McCallum said. "They're going to rally behind (assistant coach Frank) Willard and his staff and feel like they can get the job done."

If they do, it will be important for the Cougars to weather the storm early, rather than repeat what happened Saturday against Memphis. Houston managed just 10 first-half points and dug itself into a 21-point halftime deficit. Despite a strong second half, UH could not dig out of the hole and lost the game 64-48.

Like Memphis, Louisville is led by a strong backcourt that gets the ball up and down the court quickly and can cause turnovers. Sophomore guard/forward Francisco Garcia leads the team with 16 points and five assists.

Fellow sophomore Taquan Dean plays the other guard and is one of the best three-point shooters in the country, connecting on 47 percent of his attempts from behind the arc, including nine of 12 against the Virginia Military Institute. Dean could be the key to the game, as the Cougars like to force their opponents to take shots from the perimeter.

"They really like to press and they turn their opponents over," McCallum said. "The bottom line is, we've got to take care of the ball, and we've got to score some points if we want to have a chance to win the game."

For the Cougars to win, they'll have to continue their momentum from the second half of Saturday's loss at Memphis, in which they outscored the Tigers 38-33 while shooting 52 percent from the field. For the Cougars to have a chance against Louisville, they'll have to play both halves at that level, and probably higher.

A silver lining to the clouds condensed by the Memphis game was the quality playing time some of the newer Cougars were able to get — something that can pay dividends in the long run.

"Elijah Miller played well, Parker Pinkalla gave us some quality minutes and did some good things. Lanny Smith had a good second half, and Andy Ikeakor played a key role for us," McCallum said.

The Cougars held Memphis to 64 points, 15 under its season average, by packing in their zone and forcing Memphis to shoot the ball from outside. Louisville comes into the game averaging around 80 points per contest, making it crucial for the Cougars to control the tempo.

UH's backcourt, highlighted by Smith, junior Andre Owens and senior Marcus Olver, has played solid defense this season.

"We get after you defensively," McCallum said. "Our problem is offense. If Marcus and Andre give us the numbers they've been giving us, we feel like our defense is good enough to win."

Against Memphis, Oliver led the team with 15 points, shooting 7-of-11 from the field. But Owens managed only six points, well under his 18 point average. Another problem offensively for the Cougars came from the free throw line, namely a lack of attempts. The Cougars didn't attempt a single free throw in the first half against Memphis and were outshot 21-6. 

After playing USF on Saturday, the Cougars will return home to take on Southern Miss at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

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