The question mark for the Houston Cougars basketball team coming into this season was the defense. Head coach Tom Penders noted that when interviewed during practice before the season, and he reiterated it after the first game against Nicholls State.
And it’s something he reiterated after his team had to come back from a 41-23 deficit to defeat Oklahoma 100-93 on Thanksgiving Night in their first game of the Great Alaska Shootout.
“Our offense is way ahead of our defense at this point,” Penders told a Fox Sports Channel announcing crew after that game. “That’s usually what this time of year is all about.”
The team’s offense is a wonder, and any combination that Penders throws out on the floor is capable of going off on a 10-0, 15-0 run at anytime of any game. That’s a key for the Cougars as it’s these runs that allow them to overcome their defensive tendencies.
The Coogs can go on these runs because, defensively, they’re a quick
team capable of stealing the ball and getting out on a fast break. If
they can’t get the steal and can’t get off on the fast break, then
they’re in trouble.
That’s what happened on Friday night as the
Cougars, who the night before had defeated the country’s 25th-ranked
program, were themselves defeated by San Diego, 72-65.
San Diego was
able to prevent UH from going off on many runs, and they were
able to withstand a final Cougar run of 15-4 that got the score down
to 64-61 San Diego with 2:50 remaining in the game.
But San Diego was able
to take advantage of its skills shooting the ball and on the free-throw line and held off the Cougars. San Diego shot 57.9 percent from
the floor and went 25 of 30 from the free-throw line.
Aubrey Coleman
continues to be UH’s key player, and he led the Cougars to third
place in the tournament as they defeated the host team, Alaska
Anchorage, by the score of 73-57. The Cougars never trailed in this
game, a first for this year. Coleman played all 40 minutes of the game
and finished with 25 points and seven rebounds.
The win left the
Cougars at 3-2 for the season as they return to Houston where they will
play the rest of their games for this month. They take on
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Sunday afternoon, but the big game of
the month will be on December 19 when they face a Mississippi State
squad that should be one of the better teams in the SEC and the nation.
And hopefully, by that time, the Cougars defense will have caught up
with the offense.
SOME MISCELLANEOUS COUGAR NOTES: The Cougars’ 100-93 victory against Oklahoma was just the team’s second win against a top-25
ranked opponent outside of Hofheinz Pavilion since the 1986-1987
season….The Cougars opened the season with three straight games of
90-plus points for the first time since the 1976-1977 season….The win
was their 17th-straight win when scoring 100-plus points, and their
all-time record when scoring 100-plus points in a game is 168-4. The
100 points scored against Oklahoma was only the fourth time in school
history that the Cougars got a triple-digit score against a ranked
team, and it was the first time since 1983 when they did it against
LSU….Tom Penders has moved into sole possession of 19th place in NCAA
Division One history by coaching in 1,056 games. He also moved into sole
possession of 28th place in Division One history with his 631st victory
on Thursday night. The team’s next win will move him into a tie for
27th on the list….And Aubrey Coleman was named the C-USA player of the
week.
This article appears in Nov 26 – Dec 2, 2009.
