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Sports

No NCAA at-large bid, no big deal for Cougars

With 20 wins under their belt and two top 25 upsets in 2005, 
Houston has come a long way

Silent Assassin

Ronnie Turner 

The UH men's basketball team got what it wanted on Thursday night against Central Florida in the quarterfinals of the Conference USA Tournament: A 71-52 win that pushes them to the semifinals against No. 5 Memphis. The victory increased the chance of capturing a bid in the NCAA Tournament. 

With today's game, the Cougars (20-8) are faced with an interesting proposition that could end two ways: a victory or defeat with the Tigers. 

If UH defeats Memphis and advances to the championship game, they can start packing their bags for the big tournament. 

The tournament will bring excitement, publicity and a ton of school spirit from students and pep rallies. Most importantly, the Cougars will bask in the glory that comes with earning a spot to the Big Dance.

The other possibility is the Cougars' defeat to the Tigers. Of course, there will still be the excitement, publicity and school spirit. Unfortunately, the National Invitational Tournament will be slightly different and less prestigious. If this were the case, it would be UH's second consecutive appearance in the NIT. 

But even with this accomplishment in the bag, there will still be some critics who say that the Cougars underachieved this year by not getting to NCAA Tournament. 

These same critics will point to losses against Rice and UCF as support for their claim. To them, the Cougars are probably just the same good-for-nothing ballers like the ones a few years back that could never get anything done right. 

I have a question for these critics: Where have you been for the last two years?

To say that the current Cougars are anything like Ray McCallum's Cougars of 2002-04 would be ludicrous; these Cougars are way better. 

They're consistent winners. They've proven themselves to be among one of the dominant defensive teams in the nation. 

They've shown that they can hang with some of the top teams in the nation, as evidenced by they're wins against ranked LSU and Arizona earlier in the season. And if you haven't already noticed, they're extremely talented. Tom Penders has made certain of that.

This is a case where the records clearly speak for themselves. From 2002-04, UH was 17-38. Since Penders has been at the helm, the Cougars are 38-22. And the most importantly, there was no drop-off from the first year when the Cougars finished 18-14.

Even if UH doesn't succeed in reaching the NCAA Tournament, there's no need to rip this team. Penders has done a masterful job with this group of characters and he's got the UH program finally headed on the right track after so many years of inefficiency and disappointment. 

Penders has shown his recruiting prowess by exploring talent located at junior colleges and recruiting talent like Oliver Lafayette, Jahmar Thorpe and Brian Latham. All of which are valuable to the team's success.

Over these past two seasons, UH fans have been re-introduced to the winning feeling. But what they have to understand is that it takes time before one can get to the next level -- the powerhouse level. 

The Cougars haven't been at this level since that stretch in the early 1980s when the Cougars were regular Final Four participants under the direction of Guy V. Lewis. Of course, that takes more time and dedication, and the Cougars are nowhere near that yet. Fans will just have to be patient.

A victory for the Cougars today's makes them NCAA bound. Even if they lose, it shouldn't matter in the end. 
 

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