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Ramon Dyer led Houston against SMU with 25 points and 9 rebounds. According to the DMN, when Dyer was asked to pick his game highlight, he said "probably posterizing their whole team". No respect and deservedly so!

I think this is what he's talking about...

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How big is that dude? Looks like he just got through dunking a grapefruit.

Hymie Weiss wrote:I think this is what he's talking about...

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And this one.

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The headline says it all.


Houston wins with style
[b]Fans witness five slams in 69-57 victory over SMU[/b
]By MICHAEL MURPHY
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Suddenly the Houston Cougars are a nonstop highlight reel.

And they can't lose.

On Saturday the Cougars were misfiring against the Mustangs, struggling to find any sort of flow offensively. And then Ramon Dyer made the highlights again, soaring over 6-11 SMU center Donatas Rackauskas to slam a missed runner by Oliver Lafayette, sending the 4,306 at Hofheinz into pandemonium and launching the Cougars to a 69-57 victory over the Mustangs and their sixth straight win.

"We should be playing our best ball in February," said Cougars coach Tom Penders with a shrug. "We have to go out and focus on each game. We can't look ahead — we can beat absolutely anybody and we can lose to absolutely anybody."

For awhile that seemed to be the case in this game, which was up in the air until "Higher Flier" Dyer, well, got up in the air.

Dyer's dunk — the first of four consecutive slams by the 6-7 senior forward, who finished with a career-high 25 points — was the key play in an 8-0 run by the Cougars to close the first half.

They kept pouring it on in the second half, when a Dyer dunk, followed by a slam by Jahmar Thorpe, started the Cougars on a 23-12 run over the first eight minutes to turn the game into little more than aerobic exercise the rest of the way.

"(The dunk) is up there in my all-time top five," said Dyer, who knocked down 11 of his 15 field-goal attempts and grabbed nine rebounds. "That felt good. That felt really good."

It's all warm and fuzzy in Cougarland since the win put them at 16-6 overall (6-3 in Conference USA), the first time they've been 10 games over .500 since the 1992-93 season. But it wasn't all that long ago that 10 games over .500 didn't seem remotely possible after the Cougars lost three of four games fell to 10-6.

And then Penders got an idea — why not use walk-on Sam "Bam" Anderson, a former football player, to supply some grit and muscle in the paint? Six games later, the Cougars are still rolling.

Anderson banged with SMU's twin towers of 7-1 Bamba Fall and Rackauskas, finishing with nine points and nine rebounds in 21 minutes, the biggest reason the Cougars were able to outrebound the Mustangs 45-38.

Aiding the win was the Cougars' decision to step away from the 3-point line — ahead 16-11 in the first half, they scored 32 consecutive points on either two-point shots or free throws. Included in the run were 11 field goals on either layups or dunks.

"That's been the trend pretty much throughout this win streak we've been having — we wanted to be more aggressive attacking the basket instead of settling for so many 3s," said Smith, who finished with 11 points. "It's opening up a lot of different things for us."

SMU (11-11, 3-6) was led by 6-6 forward Devon Pearson, who had 11 points and 12 rebounds, and Houstonian Derrick Roberts (Nimitz), who had 17 points. For the Cougars, Brian Latham matched his career high with nine assists.

Next up for the Cougars is a visit to Central Florida, which knocked off the Cougars by 10 points back during the dark period in mid-January.

"We have to look at this as a payback game," Penders said. "They came into our house — and granted, it was an empty house — and beat us. Maybe I'll go down there and rent some fans."

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Penders is one of only a handful of coaches who would foster an environment in which players would think comments like that are acceptable. You'd think John Jenkins had switched sports and returned to his old stomping grounds.

WildHorse wrote:Penders is one of only a handful of coaches who would foster an environment in which players would think comments like that are acceptable. You'd think John Jenkins had switched sports and returned to his old stomping grounds.

I love the way Penders coached teams play. Athletic run n' gun teams.

I think UH AD Dave Maggard (former Miami AD) is trying to bring that Miami type of swagger to UH's athletic department and that's why he hired a guy like Penders.

I wish and I hope the new SMU AD will come from the same mold as Maggard.

The way his teams play is entertaining, that's true. And there's nothing wrong with swagger. But comments like this also reflect class, or a lack thereof.

WildHorse wrote:The way his teams play is entertaining, that's true. And there's nothing wrong with swagger. But comments like this also reflect class, or a lack thereof.

I agree.

The only class I see is how they beat us like a second class or second rate program. UofH just dominated us in all regards. Lets not be sore losers by picking out a comment by a kid who just had a great game against us. He is a college kid. He won't always say the most humble and politically correct things. I wish we were more angry about the whipping we just took than the comment from a player on the opposing team.

WildHorse wrote:The way his teams play is entertaining, that's true. And there's nothing wrong with swagger. But comments like this also reflect class, or a lack thereof.

Oh please. He's right, they kicked our @sses. And that's the truth, whether he says it in the paper or not.

Maybe so, but I agree that there's more than one way to act when you win. The San Antonio Spurs, for instance, always seem genuinely gracious when they win, and still respectful of their opponents. I have never heard Tim Duncan talk smack about how he abused a lesser opponent, and honestly there are very few opponents about whom he could not do so.

I guess my point is it is no cause for a bunch of message board posters getting up on their soapboxes. If it ticks off the players, fine, then hang it on a real bulliten board and let them do somethjing about it next time.

UH has a huge basketball tradition. They've been to quite a few final fours. Guy Lewis was a titan in the basketball realm. They don't have to reach too far back to show that tradition off. Akim the dream. Phi Slamma Jamma and before them Elvin Hayes one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history. We have only a handful of players that ever sampled the NBA air and really none of them had that kind of success. Before UH joined the SWC, it was like watching baskeball at its worst. Fights were common place. We actually had a back-up center drafted by the Oakland Raiders (Clayton Koerver). When it was announced that UH was coming into the league, Arkansas hired Eddie Sutton, UT hired Abe Lemons, SMU hired Sonny Allen all from successful programs. So, UH has a lot to sell recruits and probably has some help from Akim the dream and others. All we have to sell right now, is that Tubbs is a good coach who will prepare you for the pros and by the way, you get to play Memphis once a year.

Agreed on all accounts EastStang. Throw that in with the fact that Penders is a coach players like to play for and being in a basketball hotbed (much like SMU is in a basketball hotbed) and they have a pretty good outlook for the future of their hoops program. I definitely think their basketball tradition plays a role in their ability to recruit. Now something to debate about....

Do you think UofH's perceived "street cred" gives them an advantage in recruiting inner city highschool athletes? No matter how we slice it, SMU has a prissy white collar image to a lot of people in Dallas and elsewhere. I think that might play as much of a role as the basketball tradition U of H has. Anyone have thoughts oln the subject?