Tulsa Golden Hurricane

Freakish Practice Injury Nearly Kills Houston Cougars' D.J. Hayden

Football is a violent, dangerous sport. But when watching a running back break free of the line of scrimmage and bust into the open and sprint 40 yards for a touchdown, the violence and danger can be forgotten. The perfect spiral into the outstretched arms of a receiver sprinting down the sideline b ... More >>

UH Releases Schedule for Last Season in Robertson Stadium & Conference USA

The UH Cougars will be ending some relationships after this season -- they'll be leaving Conference USA for the Big East, and demolition crews will begin working on Robertson Stadium in December 2012. The school isn't sure yet where the 2013 football team will play while a new stadium is being buil ... More >>

Owls Stage the Comeback and Stun the Coogs in Game That Epitomized Both Teams

The Houston Cougars dashed off to a 13-0 lead against the Rice Owls on Wednesday night. The offense worked to perfection. There was some decent defense being played. But as the teams went into a timeout only 7:45 into the game, one couldn't help but sense doom hanging over the Hofheinz Pavilion cour ... More >>

The Cougars Would Like You to Meet Jimmie Jones

​Jimmie Jones doesn't yet have his name on the back of his jersey. He's just a walk-on. His stat sheet doesn't look that impressive, and he's played in less than half of the Houston Cougars' basketball games this season. But if Saturday night was any indication, then Jimmie Jones could well ... More >>

Owls and Coogs Disappointing Basketball Fans, Dammit

These guys are turrible!​The Rice Owls (11-8, 2-2) lost a basketball game they should have won on Wednesday night. The Houston Cougars (9-9, 1-4) were blown out yet again. It's turning into another disappointing men's basketball season in Houston, Texas. It's not supposed to have been this ... More >>

Rice Basketball: Farce? Fiasco? Either Way, the Owls Lose Another

John RoyalThe malfunctioning shot clock displays Rice's chances of advancing to the NCAA Tournament​What if they played a basketball game and nobody cared? What if it was senior night, but the school was on spring break and not even the band or cheerleaders could be bothered to make even a to ... More >>

College Basketball: Owls Lose a Heartbreaker While Coogs Appear to Give Up

John RoyalRice's Arsalan Kazemi battles for position under the Rice basket​No coach wants to have to draw up a play with 2.3 seconds left that, if it works, merely ties the score and sends the game to overtime. But such was the position Rice Owls coach Ben Braun was in last night, his Owls do ... More >>

UH and Rice Attempt to Salvage Their Seasons This Weekend

John RoyalMaurice McNeil hopes to lead the Cougars out to three more wins​The Houston Cougars and Rice Owls looked to be moving in different directions as the men's basketball season got underway. The Cougars had a new head coach, James Dickey, who hadn't been a head coach since the 1990s. T ... More >>

Cougars Come Close, But Close Isn't Good Enough

John RoyalZamal Nixon looks for the open guy in the first half​Basketball teams don't win games they let the opponent shoot 50 percent from the floor. They also don't win basketball games when they miss 12 of 31 free throw shots. Or take ill-advised three-point shots when hanging on to a one ... More >>

Houston Cougars Blow Away the Golden Hurricane

John RoyalKirk Van Slyke tips off against Tulsa to start the game​James Dickey preaches the importance of defense to his players. If the Houston Cougars can't score, the thinking goes, they can still win the game by shutting down the offense of the other team. So when the Tulsa Golden Hurric ... More >>

Cougar Basketball: Happy Birthday, Mr. Nixon

John Royal Maurice McNeil goes strong to the bucket​Have you ever had one of those moments? A flash that this is your day, your time, and that nothing can change that? Houston Cougar point guard Zamal Nixon had one of those moments on Saturday. And when he had that flash, he just knew that ... More >>

Rice Owls Overwhelmed by a Barrage of Three-Pointers

John RoyalArsalan Kazemi makes a jumper in the first half​Rice Owls head coach Ben Braun was worried about the Tulane Green Wave last week. Even as the Owls were defeating LSU and TCU for some impressive out-of-conference wins, Braun was worried about a Tulane team he thought might be the most i ... More >>

Cougar Basketball: Thanks for Playing Hillcats, Now Bring On Conference USA

No. I said Hillcats, not Top Cat​Rogers State University is located just outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma. They've only been playing basketball for four years. They're part of the NAIA, not the NCAA. They've yet to defeat a Division I NCAA program in their history, and coming into last night's gam ... More >>

NFL, College Football, Twitter, Pancake Bites and Bestiality -- Weekend's Best Bets

A regular Paul the Octopus​So last season I did these Best Bets posts on Fridays and made every attempt to conduct myself like an actual handicapper, coming up with reams of statistics and subjective observations to lead to a conclusion that I hoped made reasonable sense. End result? A predic ... More >>

Coogs Show Sparks, But Are One-And-Done In The NCAAs

Photo courtesy UH​On Friday, I laid out a series of necessary keys that the Houston Cougars had to meet were they to have any chance of defeating the Maryland Terrapins in Friday night's opening-round NCAA Tournament match. You've seen the final score by now: Maryland 89, Houston 77. But at th ... More >>

Cougars Are, At Long Last, A Part Of March Madness Again

Photo courtesy UH​I owe Tom Penders and his players an apology. I thought that there was no chance of the Houston Cougars running the table in the C-USA men's basketball tournament, and thus making the NCAA Tournament. And I wrote such.Boy was I wrong.The Cougars pulled off the expected defeat ... More >>

UH's Tom Penders, Maybe On The Way Out The Door

Photo courtesy UH​The Tom Penders radio show has the potential to be rather interesting tonight. Interesting not so much because of the basketball team, but because of the rumors and turmoil currently swirling around the team, primarily those rumors surrounding the coaching staff.The known facts a ... More >>

UH Loses: Fans Tossed From The Game

Photo by UH​Hofheinz Pavilion was a rather interesting place to be on Saturday night. There was the Houston Cougars playing a conference opponent in front a national television audience. There was a close game that saw the Cougars down by only one point with 1:19 remaining in the game.Oh, yeah, ... More >>

Coogs Come Out Flat-Footed Against La. Tech

Photo courtesy UH​The Houston Cougars (7-4) lost 99-94 to the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (12-2) last night in what UH head coach Tom Penders called a "rock-em-sock-em up-and-down great basketball game." And despite the loss, it was one of the more exciting games played inside Hofheinz Pavilion this s ... More >>

Tough Stretch For UH Begins This Weekend

Photo courtesy UH​The Cougar basketball team is taking on the Mississippi State Bulldogs tomorrow afternoon, and it's this game, probably more than any other non-conference game, that head coach Tom Penders has been pointing his guys toward. This is the game he discussed the most in off-season cha ... More >>

Coog Hoops Has Leaders, Bulk And A Good Shot At March Madness

Photo courtesy UH​The time has come. The time for Tom Penders and his Cougars basketball team to show their worth. The hopes are that this squad is one that will make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the early 1990s.There are a couple of things working in the team's favor. First and ... More >>

Sorry, UH Cougars. You Need to Go Down.

Responses to our Best of Houston® Issue

Best Of Show

College Football Review: Tulsa Beats Rice in Douchebag Bowl

College Football Preview, Zooey Deschanel Edition

John Royal’s College Football Preview

John Royal’s Friends’ Top Twenty Sports Moments of 2007, Part One

Todd Graham, or the Tale of the Douchebag

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

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

The College Football Preview, Week 11: Sorry, Charlize, I'm Just Not Feeling It...

The College Football Review, Week Ten: Rice Is Officially Better than Notre Dame

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

A Good Run

The elite and the goofy converge at the HP Houston Marathon