HOUSTON -- Tom Penders was so impressed with the initial pitch to come to the University of Houston in 2004 that he got up and walked out on then-athletic director Dave Maggard.While Maggard was supposed to sell Penders on the merits of taking the job at a program with a storied history, Maggard instead spent most of their dinner that night in Dayton, Ohio, explaining why resurrecting the Phi Slamma Jamma school was really mission impossible.
Finally, Penders had heard enough and headed for the elevators thinking "You're the AD?"
"I said, 'It's real nice to meet you,'" Penders recalled this week.
"Then he chased me down the hall and met me at the elevator and said 'You're the guy I want. We can do it.'"
If this were a script, Penders would have come and quickly turned around the once proud program. But the Third Ward in Houston is far from Hollywood and the deteriorating conditions in which the Cougars programs function is far from a fairy tale.
Finally, however, a silver-lining appeared last week. The Cougars broke from their mediocre 15-15 season during the Conference USA tournament to win four games, their longest winning streak of the season, and earn the league's automatic NCAA tournament berth, the program's first entry into the Big Dance in 18 years.
"We've had a lot of great players ... but they never just got it done as far as going to the tournament. That's why this is big coming from a team that was 15-15. Come on, that ain't even supposed to happen." -- Aubrey Coleman
"I'm still sleeping right now," said UH senior guard Aubrey Coleman, who may be the best unknown player in the nation after leading the country in scoring all season in relative obscurity. "I don't want to wake up if it's like this."
Indeed these are exciting times for the program that has lost so much energy and excitement over the years. The Cougars (19-15) received a No. 13 seed in the Midwest Regional and head to Spokane, Wash., where they will take on ACC regular-season co-champion and No. 4 seed Maryland (28-3) on Friday.
Many of the Cougars are still trying to absorb the magnitude of their accomplishment.
"We've had a lot of great players come through here, putting up 50 points but they never just got it done as far as going to the tournament," said Coleman, who leads the nation in scoring with 25.6 points per game. "That's why this is big coming from a team that was 15-15. Come on, that ain't even supposed to happen."
Amid all of the hoopla of playing in the school's first NCAA tournament since 1992 is the troubled reality of where the program is. Getting hot for four games in a conference tournament may not mask the long-term issues for long. The expectations and excitement around the program are at an all-time low.
Most expected Penders, 64, to be fired at the end of the season despite the two years remaining on his contract and a payout of $500,000 due if the school terminates the contract. Penders may still be fired once the team is finished in the tournament. Former Kentucky and Texas A&M coach Billy Gillispie has been the rumored favorite to replace Penders, while in recent weeks former Mavericks coach Avery Johnson, who is still very much sought-after as an NBA coach, has expressed interest in the job and there could be mutual interest. Johnson has maintained a home in the Houston area, which would allow him to remain closer to his family.
New athletic director Mack Rhoades has declined through the sports information department to discuss any subject related to Penders' tenure.
Penders has tried to keep the focus on his team and the momentum that making the tournament can mean for his program and its future.
"Recruiting is the key and I've been getting calls," Penders said." We are down to seven guys and I've been getting calls from six on a regular basis. They are calling me, which is nice. We're only allowed two calls a week, but I've been getting two calls a day from certain people.
"I know what done in other places where I've been. Now, you have more to sell. I don't just have to sell a style, 'You can be Aubrey, you can be Kelvin, Andre.' Now, it's like you can do it, you can get to the dance."
But there is no denying that this has been the toughest sell Penders has ever had in a career that includes stops at Rhode Island, Texas and George Washington before taking over at UH in 2004. Hofheinz Pavilion, which was built in 1969, is outdated with plumbing issues so bad that the players have to return to their dorms or apartments to take showers. Few fans even bother to show up these days.
The facilities are by the far the worst in C-USA and the expectations aren't far behind. In his contract, Penders is given $8,000 for each win between No. 15 and No. 20 and it gets higher from there. He enacted an $80,000 bonus when the Cougars made the tournament.
But it wasn't like Penders wasn't warned, not just by the hiring AD and the former school president, but by his peers that UH was a tough a job. A respected coach like Ray McCallum had failed to succeed after running a successful program at Ball State and Clyde Drexler and his charisma couldn't bring back the magic to his alma mater.
"It was mission impossible," said Penders, who had gone into broadcasting after leaving George Washington. "In my profession, coaches talk and Ray McCallum is a damn good coach. I know what he did at Ball State and he couldn't get it done with 11 guys from Houston. Clyde was getting the best guys from Houston. I think the world of him but he couldn't get it done.
"All my peers were saying don't do it. I talked to Bob Knight before I took this job. He said 'Tommy, I know you've done it at Columbia, I know you've done it here and there but that (Houston is impossible.'
"Every coach was saying, 'Don't do it there, you can't win there. That made me want it more."
Knowing what he took over and what still lies ahead for either himself or the next coach makes Penders appreciate making the tournament even more special.
"This is the toughest job I've had," he said. "Some really good people were here before me and to get a team all the way back from the bottom of the league and maybe not having all the toys you need makes it a little tough. When I was at Rhode Island, we didn't have a huge arena but we had everybody in the league playing in a little gym. Here we don't have things that teams in our conference have.
"Budget-wise we've been behind and this could help."
But still there is a question of where is the Houston program that once dominated the college basketball scene with Hakeem Olajuwon and Drexler as members of Phi Slamma Jamma fame realistically is at this point.
The Cougars were mostly inconsistent this season, never winning more than three straight in any stretch during the regular season. Even more troubling was that if there ever was a year to make a move it was this season with powerful Memphis struggling.
But UH wasn't able to capitalize as a team with one star player in Coleman, who's had to do a lot of the work himself on both ends of the floor this season.
The fortunes of the team, however, changed with last week's run in the C-USA tourney, which included a one-point win over Memphis and a victory over No. 25 UTEP in the championship game. Suddenly, the sting from another disappointing season didn't hurt as bad.
"We pointed to the tournament all year long," said Penders, who is just one of eight coaches to ever take four different teams to the NCAA tournament. "It doesn't matter that this guy is hurt, we don't have this guy tonight. It's all about March, it's all about the Conference USA tournament."
That's when the Cougars shocked the world.
"Once we were 15-15 everybody was like, `Ya'll ain't going to make it, ya'll not going to do that,'" said UH freshman forward Kendrick Washington. "But we still came in and worked hard as a team knowing all we needed as a team was to win four games and we made it."
Now, it's about the Cougars against the world.
"That's how it is. Everybody was against us," Coleman said. "We had a messed up season and nobody thought we were going to go on a run like we did. I didn't even think so.
"But I always knew we were going to go on a run, but I didn't know when it was going to be. It just so happened it was the tournament. Perfect timing."
