They are just recruiting and probably not with us on their mind. Now if we keep beating maybe they start looking at what we are doing it with.
Memphis is recruiting to win a national championship. And UH is just one of many other programs that might stand in their way.
Sure but lets see them win this league before anyone talks about their marginal chances of winning a natty.
I’m hoping to see both Memphis & Houston together in a Final Four real soon.
UH vs Memphis BB History:
#1 - UH’s all-time record vs Memphis is 20-33 - .377 win % (per wikipedia)
#2 - In C-USA - Memphis won 11 regular season championships to UH’s 0
#3 - In the AAC - UH has won 2 regular season championships to Memphis’ 0
We’ve got a long ways to go if we are ever able to catch up to Memphis in conference play. Then again, I hope we move to the PAC so can work on improving our head-to-head record vs UCLA.
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Tournament History Comparison
NCAAT appearances: 22 UH - 20 Memphis (6 vacated)
S16 Appearances: 12 UH - 6 Memphis (5 vacated)
Final Fours: 6 UH - 1 Memphis (2 vacated)
National Championships: 0 UH - 0 Memphis (0 vacated)
Worth noting that 6 of those regular season titles came because C-USA used to award championships to division winners (so 2-3 champs every year min.). Their first six titles were all co-championships. Sometimes being shared by as many as 5 teams. Without the division dynamic only 2 of those championships ('96 and '04) would’ve qualified as traditional co-championships, as those were the only years they actually had a share of the best record. The other four years they won their division (or in some cases were tied for the lead in their division) but didn’t actually have the best record in the league.
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But what you seem to be ignoring is the fact that most of UH’s NCAAT appearances, S16, Final Fours happened before the current players parents were even born. To kids today, that’s ancient history. [NOTE: It’s kind of like talking about Rice competing for FB national championships - which they did back in the mid '50’s - not too long before the Elvin Hayes era in UH Hoops.]
Penny Hardaway just turned 50 years old a few weeks ago. Most kid’s and their parents still know or remember who he is.
By comparison, Elvin Hayes is now 75 years old and Hakeem Olajuwon is approaching 60 years old.
Why does that matter. It was a comparison of history and UH had far more success at the top as Memphis
Because the only history that’s relevant to the kids of today is the more recent history - that either their parents or themselves are familiar with. That’s why our time together in a league with Memphis (in C-USA and the AAC) is much more relevant to them. And so during the past 20 to 25 years while we’ve been in the same conference, truthfully Memphis has been much more successful than has UH.
You really didn’t need to explain. Point is no matter what history you show Memphis was not all that successful at the highest level. Even when they made their runs these players weren’t following much basketball.
Everyone here knows our struggles A few more winning seasons and the HS Sr will have known us as a winner since grade school.
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Says you. How do you know that recruits don’t care about guys like Hakeem and Clyde Drexler? Are you basing that on anything other than conjecture? Have you polled any sizeable number of high school recruits to find out how they view a programs historical success? Furthermore where do we draw the line at what is and isn’t recent? Memphis hasn’t made the 2nd weekend of the tournament since 2009. That’s twelve years ago. The average high school recruit would’ve been between the ages of 4-6. In other words most recruits don’t remember a time when Memphis hoops was consistently good on the national stage. And for all the talk of how ancient our success is, you have to go back to 1973 for Memphis’ lone final four appearance. We’ve made the final four four times since then. Reality is this, regardless of whether you’re looking at ancient history, recent history, or the totality of our respective programs histories, UH has enjoyed more tournament success than Memphis.
Clyde Drexler left the NBA in 1998 (~23 years ago)
Hakeem Olajuwon left the NBA in 2002 (~19 years ago)
This year’s H.S. Seniors were born in 2004 or 2005
Penny Hardaway left the NBA in 2007 (~14 years ago) - so they did see him play
Since the average age of a birth mother in America is ~25 years old, the typical mother of this year’s H.S. Seniors were born around 1980. If so, they were finishing up H.S. when Clyde Drexler retired and finishing up college (if they attended) when Hakeem Olajuwon retired. By comparison, Penny Hardaway was still playing in the NBA until they were ~27 years old - well into their normal working career years.
So are you a Memphis fan or are you just a Penny fan? Reality is all three of those guys are probably considered dinosaurs. Penny’s last all-star year was '97-98. Clyde and Hakeem’s was '96-97. No recruits remember watching Penny live. Now they can go on youtube and watch his highlights but they can do that for any old timer including Clyde and Hakeem. If you’re actually trying to argue that Clyde and Hakeem are so ancient that todays recruits don’t know who they are, you’re completely wrong. Penny was a decent pro. Clyde and Hakeem were the greatest players in their respective NBA franchises history. Both were NBA champions, both still continue to show up in people’s Top 50 NBA players list of all-time.
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I’m not a Memphis fan or a Penny fan, I’m a UH fan. At the same time, all I’m saying is that those referenced “long, long time ago” NCAA tournament appearances by UH with guys like Elvin & Don Chaney as well as with Clyde & Hakeem occurred long before any of the current kids were even born so that’s pretty irrelevant to them.
In the current era (ie: the past 20+ years as conference mates), Memphis has been much better than UH until CKS has gotten us revived. Presently, Memphis has better talent but now UH has better coaching - giving a slight edge to UH. However, that balance could change again soon.
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Memphis had success in recentish memory under Cal. That is the key point for their institutional success, not how recent they saw Penny Hardaway play any relevant level of basketball. Where Penny’s persona plays into the equation is his success at building up he’s notoriety on the AAU circuit. If you ask any unbiased fan of basketball, Penny is a story of “what might have been”, but the fact that he has been visible to the young elite players and building up his image in that manner (plus his shoes making a run back into popularity in the last several years) is where he has made strides to captivate hearts and minds of teenagers.
Idk man we’ve been playing in the American now for 8 going on 9 years. I don’t think recruits are really digging much further than that into our respective histories. These whose history is better debates matter much more to the fans. As a UH fan, with full knowledge of our programs history, there just isn’t any reason to think we’re looking up at Memphis.
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With full knowledge of our program’s head-to-head history, tell me how you think that our poor 20-33 or only a 37.7% win percentage vs Memphis doesn’t leave us looking up at them! It seems to me that we’d have to dominate them for nearly the entire next decade in order to simply draw even with them.
The Rockets won titles in 1994 and 1995 making those mothers 14 and 15 years old. Are you saying high school students do not follow the NBA?
Geez we played them a lot during the years we were really struggling and they were at their highest point.
But it really makes no difference. At the present time we are really good and Memphis has a window to turn things around.
6 Final Fours to 1. 12 Sweet Sixteen’s to 6. Memphis hasn’t made the 2nd weekend of the tournament since '09. We’ve been there in consecutive tournaments. We have a better record in American play than Memphis. More league championships, both regular season and tournament. More NCAA tournament appearances, both all-time and as a member of the American. We’ve also finished higher than them 6 straight years in conference. So we certainly aren’t looking up at them in the standings.
And the only H2H that really matters rn is the series record between the current HC’s. Which currently sits at 5-1 in Sampson’s favor.