Subject: Conference USA

• Take That, Princeton!

  March 15, 2007

• A Nice Bowl o' Rice

  December 19, 2006

• A View to the Rooms

  March 20, 2007

• A Nice Bowl o' Rice

  December 19, 2006

• Did the Conference-USA Championship Game Really Happen, or Was It Just a Dream?

  August 27, 2007

• Don't Forget the Coogs, the Owls, the Tigers and the Panthers

  August 31, 2007

• College Football Preview: Week Three

  September 14, 2007

• College Football Review: Week Three

  September 17, 2007

• The College Football Preview, Week Six: The Red River Showdown, the Tears of Touchdown Jesus, the Glory of the Rice Owls

  October 5, 2007

• The College Football Review, Week Seven: Plenty of Reasons to Get Upset

  October 15, 2007

• The College Football Preview, Week Eight: More Babes. And More Babes.

  October 19, 2007

• The College Football Preview, Week Nine: What Do Pushing Daisies, The Office and Chuck Have to Do with Football? Good Question.

  October 26, 2007

• The College Football Review, Week Nine: Is Hawaii the Next Boise State?

  October 29, 2007

• The College Football Review, Week 11: What Happened to the Coogs?

  November 12, 2007

• The College Football Preview, Week 13: Nick Saban Is a Turkey

  November 21, 2007

• Longing for Sports Sunday

  June 4, 2008

• College Football Preview, Scarlett Johansson Edition

  September 5, 2008

• College Football Preview, Tea Leoni Edition

  September 12, 2008

• Texas College Football Report

  September 16, 2008

• Football U: Texas Roundup, and Then Some

  September 22, 2008

• College Football Review: Plenty of Upsetting (in a Good Way) Results

  September 29, 2008

• Sorry, UH Cougars. You Need to Go Down.

  November 10, 2008

• Whine All You Want, Longhorn Fans

  Let the whining commence. You know, that whining about the Texas Longhorns being screwed by The Man. It all started on Friday when Richard Justice talked about how the Horns were forced to run up the score on the Aggies in order to prevent the injustice of Oklahoma being ranked in front of the Horns. And after the BCS rankings came out yesterday, the whining grew ever louder. Especially since those rankings put the Sooners at number two in the country while sticking Texas at number three.

  December 1, 2008

• Rejoice, Football Fans: Notre Dame May Be Coming To Houston

  The eyes of millions of Houstonians were glued to ESPN last night, to see if there was a chance they would be uniquely blessed.Sure, hundreds of thousands were just Rutgers fans, but.....okay, maybe a dozen were Rutgers fans. And maybe only a dozen more were watching the game, especially after the Scarlet Knights (that's Rutgers, btw) went up 49-0 at the half.But Rutgers' win may mean a Very Big Thing: Notre Dame is coming to Houston to play a football game.We'll give all you UT fans a chance

  December 5, 2008

• Rejoice, Football Fans: Notre Dame May Be Coming To The Texas Bowl

  The eyes of millions of Houstonians were glued to ESPN last night, to see if there was a chance they would be uniquely blessed.Sure, hundreds of thousands were just Rutgers fans, but.....okay, maybe a dozen were Rutgers fans. And maybe only a dozen more were watching the game, especially after the Scarlet Knights (that's Rutgers, btw) went up 49-0 at the half.But Rutgers' win may mean a Very Big Thing: Notre Dame is coming to Houston to play a football game.We'll give all you UT fans a chance

  December 5, 2008

• Longhorns Can't Brag About Buckeye Victory

  I want to thank The Ohio State Buckeyes. Sure, they lost to the Texas Longhorns, but because the Longhorns needed a bad spot by the referees to help get the victory, I'm pretty damn sure that the country has been saved from listening to Longhorn fans bitch about not playing for the BCS Title. Because, Longhorn fan, if your team is dependent on bad officiating to beat The Ohio State Buckeyes - a team that had to play without its best player for most of the second half because of an injury - the

  January 6, 2009

• Mess With the Owl, Get the Horn-Shaped Tufted Feathers

  "Say 'O RLY?' to me and it's your effing face, cowboy." I'm not sure what exactly is going on with Houston's college basketball teams, but it does appear that there might be something in the water. First there was Houston's Aubrey Coleman stepping on the face of Arizona's Chase Budinger on Saturday while the Coogs had a big lead, which they then proceeded to blow on the way to losing the game. Then yesterday morning, on 1560 The Game, Houston coach Tom Penders claimed that there was an ESPN co

  January 29, 2009

• Why Is Everybody Getting Laid Off But Tom Penders?

  You know, as the NCAA Tournament starts today, I can't help but notice that the Houston Cougars have once again failed to gain entry into the field of 65. Sure, they're playing in something called the CBI, but that's really not the same thing, is it? (Especially seeing as how the Cougars lost last night to an Oregon State team that won only 13 games this season.) Hard as it might be for many of you to remember, the Cougars were once one of the great basketball powerhouses in the country. T

  March 19, 2009

• Chron Guts Sports Department

  Photo by Lori Greig On Tuesday, the Houston Chronicle laid off a whole bunch of writers and reporters, including Michael Murphy, MK Bower, and Terrance Harris, the beat writers for the University of Houston, Rice, and TSU. On Wednesday, while they were laying off people over on the advertising and sales side of the paper, they made some changes over at the sports section. And I doubt the Chron is done. For those who haven't checked out the Chron today, you may not know, but while TSU still ap

  March 26, 2009

• Why Is Everybody Getting Laid Off But Tom Penders?

  You know, as the NCAA Tournament starts today, I can't help but notice that the Houston Cougars have once again failed to gain entry into the field of 65. Sure, they're playing in something called the CBI, but that's really not the same thing, is it? (Especially seeing as how the Cougars lost last night to an Oregon State team that won only 13 games this season.) Hard as it might be for many of you to remember, the Cougars were once one of the great basketball powerhouses in the country. T

  March 19, 2009

• Mess With the Owl, Get the Horn-Shaped Tufted Feathers

  "Say 'O RLY?' to me and it's your effing face, cowboy." I'm not sure what exactly is going on with Houston's college basketball teams, but it does appear that there might be something in the water. First there was Houston's Aubrey Coleman stepping on the face of Arizona's Chase Budinger on Saturday while the Coogs had a big lead, which they then proceeded to blow on the way to losing the game. Then yesterday morning, on 1560 The Game, Houston coach Tom Penders claimed that there was an ESPN co

  January 29, 2009

• Longhorns Can't Brag About Buckeye Victory

  I want to thank The Ohio State Buckeyes. Sure, they lost to the Texas Longhorns, but because the Longhorns needed a bad spot by the referees to help get the victory, I'm pretty damn sure that the country has been saved from listening to Longhorn fans bitch about not playing for the BCS Title. Because, Longhorn fan, if your team is dependent on bad officiating to beat The Ohio State Buckeyes - a team that had to play without its best player for most of the second half because of an injury - the

  January 6, 2009

• Battle for the Bayou Bucket

  It’s the socially inept Rice Owls vs. the intellectual slackers the UH Cougars

  November 27, 2008

• Responses to our Best of Houston® Issue

  Best Of Show

  October 16, 2008

• Sex at Rice University, Indicted Politicians, McGrady vs McCready

  The South Main campus is Virgin Central

  May 8, 2008

• Cat 'n' Bird Fight

  May 11, 2006

• Eyes on the Prize

  Everyone's All-American Joe Savery and the top-ranked Rice Owls fight for college baseball glory

  February 8, 2007

• Goal Oriented

  Rice's women's soccer team kicks it up a notch

  August 25, 2005

• Glove Love

  The diamond days of Rice baseball are in full swing

  February 17, 2005

• A Good Run

  The elite and the goofy converge at the HP Houston Marathon

  January 13, 2005

• Fight Club

  The action at Renegades Extreme Fighting can't be beat

  November 4, 2004

• Rice's Joe Savery, Still On The Path To The Major Leagues

  Photo by Daniel KramerA little over two years ago, we did a feature on Rice's Joe Savery, a linchpin of the school's elie baseball team, a guy who combined excellent power pitching with a terrific batting average.Savery is a complete local product, having played in Bellaire, at Lamar High and for Rice. The Owls didn't quite get to the championship in 2007, his final year, but Savery became the 19th player chosen overall in Major League Baseball's ensuing draft.He expected big things from himself

  June 17, 2009

• Conference USA's Media Day Perhaps Not As Smooth As It Could Have Been

  ​"Media days" used to be a big thing in college football; reporters would fly in to town on a pre-determined day before the season and interview coaches and players. In some of the lower-echelon conferences, schools would gather in a central place to make it easier for reporters.Then came financial disaster, and papers and local TV stations aren't signing off on travel budgets like they used to. So a lot of conferences are trying to come up with different ways to have their events.Conference U

  July 31, 2009

• At Least One Football Team In Town Is Supposed To Be Good This Year (Hint: They Don't Get Paid)

  ​Most of Houston's football focus is going to the Houston Texans, who are once again striving to produce an actual winning season. But there are several other football teams in Houston, and today, one of those teams officially reports for preseason camp.The team in question is the Houston Cougars, and unlike the Texans and their quest for a mythical winning season, the Cougars over the past several years have been producing winning records. And last season, the Cougars actually won a bowl game

  August 6, 2009

• Listen Up, People: The Top Ten Coaches In Houston History

  ​The Chron's Jerome Solomon has another of those endless lists we writers like to do, this one asking for input on the top 10 coaches in Houston college and pro sports history. And he helpfully provides us with some candidates for the list. So I thought I would help out and provide what I consider to be the definitive list of the Top 10 coaches in Houston college and pro sports history.  1. Guy V. Lewis: One of the most underrated, under appreciated coaches in history. It's a crime that t

  August 11, 2009

• Rice Getting Piece Of Art That It Declares Will Be A Masterpiece

  ​Rice University announced today that, as the headline on the release put it, a "Multi-Million Dollar Gift Will Bring Turrell Masterpiece To Rice."A donation from alum Suzanne Deal Booth has allowed the school to commission a large work by noted artist James Turrell that will be built once plans are approved and -- Wait, the designs aren't even approved yet and you're calling this thing a "masterpiece"?Who's calling it a masterpiece?"We are," says Rice spokeswoman Jessica Stark.Yeah, but it's

  August 17, 2009

• Bayou Beat: Cougars for a Cause at House of Blues, Mandy Moore Hearts Jandek, Bun B Orders Up Some PB&J, etc.

  ​Want to help fight breast cancer and possibly get pawed by some of Houston's hottest older ladies? Boy, is this the right weekend for you. Sugar Ray, pimping its new album Music for Cougars, headlines House of Blues' "Cougars for a Cause" show Saturday night with Austin power-pop heroes Fastball, Green River Ordinance, Aimee Allen and Kate Voegele in tow. Don't look at us - Rocks Off didn't come up with that name, but we do like it a lot better than Mix 96.5's "Bosom Bash." A portion of the p

  August 19, 2009

• UH Hoops Still Dreaming Of Making It Back To March Madness

  Photo courtesy UH​Guy V. Lewis last coached the University of Houston men's basketball team in 1986. His last great team lost in the 1984 NCAA title game to the Georgetown Hoyas. He left a legacy of 27 straight winning seasons. Fourteen seasons with 20-plus wins. Fourteen NCAA tournament appearances. Five Final Fours and two championship games.  That's a history that many college problems would die to have.  But since 1986, the Houston Cougars have been living off of that history. An

  October 30, 2009

• UH Hoops, Battling The Second-Rate Reputation Of Conference USA

  ​Tom Penders has been tasked with returning the Houston Cougar basketball program to relevance. And that's a task at which he feels he's been successful. But he's yet to succeed with the ultimate goal of basketball relevance, and that's getting into the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.Now, the Cougars have won basketball games in Penders' five seasons coaching the team. But they haven't won enough. And for the most part, they haven't won the right games because they've been defeating team

  November 6, 2009

• Coogs Open The Basketball Season With A Solid, If Expected, Win

  Photo courtesy UH​On Monday night, Cal State-Fullerton defeated UCLA in one of those so-called easy basketball openers that so-called major powers are supposed to easily win. Kind of like Houston's Tuesday night opener against Nicholls State was supposed to be one of the easy games for a so-called major team to win.And make no doubt about it. The Cougars were fully aware of what happened in Los Angeles on Monday night. And they weren't going to let it happen to them. Which is why, despite

  November 18, 2009