< Letterman on body painting | Main | BP's PECOTA projection for the 2008 Stros >

February 18, 2008

Local college hoops update

Houston%20Coogs%20hoops.jpgNormally, when a team shoots 4-12 from the field on two-point goals in a college basketball game, that's a pretty good indication that they were thoroughly throttled by the other team.

Unless, that is, the team shoots 18-43 on three-point goals during the same game. Which is what the Houston Cougars did this past Saturday night in pummeling SMU by 22.

The Cougars are now 19-5 (8-2 in Conference USA) and, absent a bad streak at the end of the regular season, appear to be a good bet to make their first NCAA Tournament appearance since the 1991-92 season. The Coogs' RPI has settled at 50 for the time being, which should be good enough to qualify for the NCAA tournament so long as the team maintains that RPI for the remainder of the season. Remarkably, it has now been almost a quarter century since the storied University of Houston basketball program last won an NCAA Tournament game.

Meanwhile, down on South Main, Chronicle columnist Jerome Solomon agrees with me regarding Rice basketball coach Willis Wilson. As noted in my earlier post, if Rice fires Wilson before he has had an opportunity to recruit players to -- and have his teams compete in -- a reasonably modern facility, then Rice will make the hypocrisy of former Rice football coach Todd Graham look benign in comparison. Besides, does the Rice Administration really want the Marching Owl Band to have an opportunity to comment on such an unfair firing?

Posted by Tom at February 18, 2008 12:00 AM

Comments

That UH-SMU game was something to see.

I don't really know what Matt Doherty was thinking. He apparently decided to "take away" Fluff McKiver, and just left the Coogs as many open three pointers as they wanted to take.

This year's team has more players who can drive, so I'd normally like to see them try that a little more, but it was unbelievable how SMU was just giving them open looks from long range. And the Coogs made 'em pay for it.

Posted by: Kevin Whited [TypeKey Profile Page] at February 17, 2008 11:15 PM

Post a comment

Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)


Remember me?