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

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 conspiracy against Houston, and that as a result, the footage of Coleman stepping on Budinger's face, was doctored - Penders didn't comment on whether there was a Conference USA conspiracy against the Coogs for their suspending Coleman one game for stepping on the dude's face.

And that brings us to last night with the Rice Owls playing Tulane here in Houston. The ref makes a call that goes against Rice. Sammy the Owl, the Rice mascot, takes exception to the call, and well, watch the video (the incident is replayed at about the 1:40 mark).

And as with the Cougars, the Owls blew their lead and lost the game. However, the Rice coach has yet to go around screaming about a conspiracy against Rice.

Unlike the incident with the Cougars, this was really funny. I also think that the Cougar mascot should avoid the Rice mascot. After all, we all know what a duck did to the Cougar, do we really want to know what Sammy the Owl would do? But this should be pretty evident: don't mess with the Owl.