Long removed from the glory days of Phi Slama Jama, many Houston Cougars fans would settle for a return to the consistently competitive yet mediocre days of Tom Penders. In six seasons from 2004-10, Penders never had a losing record and played in some sort of postseason tournament in five of those years. After three seasons since at the helm, James Dickey has recorded just one winning season. The good news for everyone is that season was last year and so those around the program have reason to believe things are headed back in the right direction.
Plus, this could be the most-talented team Houston has had in quite some time with a strong nucleus returning from a year ago, led by junior forward TaShawn Thomas, a second team preseason all-AAC selection, and sophomore guard Danuel House, C-USA Freshman of the Year last season. Another contributing returnee is sophomore guard Jherrod Stiggers. Dickey also hopes to have the services of J.J. Richardson, who missed significant action last season with a foot injury. Impact newcomers are Baylor transfer L.J. Rose and Danrad (Chicken) Knowles, a 2012 recruit who sat out last year. Knowles was a late bloomer with the frame to grow to become a legitimate star and potential NBA player. Thomas, Rose and Knowles played AAU basketball together and hope to carry that chemistry over to the collegiate level. Other returning Cougars include Leon Gibson (6.3 PPG), J.J. Thompson (6.0 PPG), Tione Womack (2.7 PPG), Brandon Morris (2.6 PPG), Mikhail McLean (2.4 PPG), LeRon Barnes (2.1 PPG) and Valentine Izundu (2 PPG).
The bad news is the competition heats up a notch with the move from Conference USA to the AAC. While the conference serves as only a stopgap for Louisville and Rutgers, it offers an upgrade for the likes of Houston and Memphis. Gone are the days when the only strong RPI and resume-building match-ups had to come in the non-conference slate or against (maybe) Memphis. This winter Houston will have home-and-home contests with Louisville, Connecticut, Memphis and Cincinnati, all teams with at minimum Top 25 and NCAA Tournament aspirations.
While the new conference home will give the Cougars plenty of opportunities to make some noise against quality opponents, it’ll also be that much harder to secure wins. As for the non-conference slate, the rivalry game with Rice and a couple decent games against power conference competition are surrounded by a bunch of must-win games against lesser competition (with the possible exception coming December 14 at Sun Belt contender Louisiana-Lafayette). The neutral court tussle with Stanford (November 25) in the Progressive Legends Classic in Brooklyn, and the trip to Texas A&M (December 4) pose the biggest threats to a perfect non-conference record.
Houston finished 11-2 with a similar non conference schedule last year. Anything less this time around will be a disappointment. Matching last season’s 20-win total before the AAC Tourney should be an attainable goal for this bunch. League coaches aren’t quite as optimistic, ranking the Cougars seventh behind SMU and rebuilding Temple. To have a successful season, the Cougars need to outperform that preseason prognostication and finish sixth or higher in the conference, make the NIT at worst, and get at least two wins against the conferences’ big four (Louisville, Cincinnati, Memphis, UConn).