Houston Travels to Face Memphis Thursday (L 91-85)

One thing about this team Ray is that the Coogs play hard every night. Tonight we hustled but missed too many inside shots and were victims of a great shooting night by the hosts. Just finish strong and then give 'em heck in tourney. If we can keep our bigs out of foul trouble, especially White, I think we can make some noise in the tourney this year…

4 Likes

And since I’ve been so negative in posts, here are some positives. I love watching this team. Exciting to watch. I like the improvement that Sampson has brought. Yes I’m still leery of post season collapse like the last 2 years, but I’ve been given a reason to watch regular season ball again

2 Likes

I hate to tell you this NTXcoog but there are not a lot of good ref groups in the AAC. There have been some but there are a lot who miss a lot of calls. Because Fabian was really hacked late in the game in front of a ref who didn’t call it but call a similar call for Memphis. And just to be clear I have been watching the coogs since 1967. I figure bigmccoog may be one of the few still around who have been watching us since then.

1 Like

Yes there are, but do you think there’s a conspiracy against UH? Or is there another reason our players get called for more fouls than any other team in the conference?

Statements like these are just ridiculous. You don’t build a fan base by winning one game or having one good season. You need continued success. When we have that we will have a large fan base at the basketball game. When I came to Uh the avg football attendance was 15K (which was probably inflated). Now we draw from 32 to 40k. We got there by having many winning seasons over 14 years. The basketball team is only a couple of successful seasons into their run.

3 Likes

thats basically what he said.

Now to get a decent seed in the NCAA tournament, we will need to win rest games of the season, and most likely make the conference tournament finals.

Being ranked 1 week and losing is not continued success. Losing every post season game is not continued success. I hope I’m proven wrong.

I hope you are wrong too NTX…but one loss on the road is not the end of the world. Even if we had won I was not expecting a big crowd here against ECU, because that is the way our fanbase rolls.
That said, we foul a lot because we are normally over matched around the basket. And with Memphis hitting their outside shots it opened up the middle for their bigs late…
I believe Fabian White, when he learns to stay out of foul trouble, is going to be an all conference player. We need for him to continue to improve right now because we are going to need our bigs to play over their heads in the conference tourney.
I just want to see the Coogs make it to the dance and see what happens.

1 Like

Agreed, but it is another missed opportunity to go to the next level. Too many missed opportunities that could have moved us ahead. Losing 1st rounds of the AAC tournament as a higher seed. Losing 1st rounds of NIT when favored. At some point you have to take advantage of those opportunities. Wins against WSU and Cincy might be a start, but losing immediately after getting ranked is a big step back. If no post season success, those 2 wins and ranking steps are completely negated

We have not been relevant, apart from a lucky season or two, since the 80’s. Look at what the color guys on broadcasts always bring up. It’s Phi Slama Jama, the dudes that played on those teams have retired from there pro gigs so long ago that no one under 30 knows who they are. We started 4 years ago with 7 players that could play and probably only two would start on any of the other teams we played. From that to NIT and possibly NCAA tourney this year is a success in my book. If we keep making post season appearances in multiple years it will drive the fan base up. Just like it did in football. Win and they will come.

2 Likes

Our shorter guys were in their faces, but they were just shooting over us and nailing 3’s. They were just on one of those rolls. Our guys were in foul trouble early on and played like it. I think Devin was kept on the bench too long. I would rather have had him in sooner and gotten the most our of him before he would foul out. All those minutes with him on the bench hurt.

If it weren’t for Gray’s 30, things could have gotten really ugly.

2 Likes

I think the basketball bar is much higher than football. A winning season and a bowl appearance was enough to start the needle moving.

What do you think it is for basketball? 21 wins and an NIT appearance last year didnt move it so regular season winning isn’t enough. 21 wins so far this season hasn’t. I’m not sure a 1st round NCAA loss moves it. Will it require a Sweet 16? Im afraid so, but i dont see that in the forseeable future.

Good group of fans ready for SMU game next Wednesday!

One season will not do it. Many seasons with a healthy mix of NIT and NCAA will. This years attendance is the way it is bc we are not on campus. If this season was on campus it would be much better. You can take that to the bank. You will see next season.

And for those who dont think this is a bad loss that will hurt us, Memphis is 116th in RPI, right behind Lipscomb, Canisius, Hofstra, Furman, and Wright St and one spot ahead of Northern Colorado

New facility would almost guarantee that. Not really going out on a limb there

Maybe the first few games but not the entire season.

1 Like

Let’s win these next three and go deep in the conference tournament. If you told me we’d finish 24-6 and 14-4 in conference I’d be ecstatic! That’s an excellent season in my book! We’re improving each year and I have no doubt in Sampson’s abilities to get us there!!

5 Likes

If your statement was true, then we wouldn’t survive in the Big East or any other conference with multiple competitive, highly ranked teams. We have a scrappy, undersized, well coached, over achieving team that tends to depend on the three point shot. We have quickness, play good defense, create turnovers and rebound well for a team of our size. We’re good enough to win most games, but even some of the best teams in the country will have an off night. A 25-5 record was my hope, but a 24-6 record would be excellent for a team of our caliber.

6 Likes