Penders
Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2004 11:01 am--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: Sports
March 23, 2004, 1:02AM
Best man for job? Probably not
By JOHN P. LOPEZ
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
RESOURCES
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COUGARS:
• Conference USA standings
• UH roster
• UH results
• Individual stats
• Conference stats
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• C-USA »
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHRONICLE COVERAGE:
• UH Notebook: Flattered Curl has no designs on men's job
SPORTS POLL
What do you make of UH's expected hiring of Tom Penders?
Excellent move
Bad move. He has too much baggage
It's too early to tell
With Tom Penders and the Houston Cougars only hours away from consummating their nuptials, it seems the Bob Knight Talk To The Hand Rule is already being invoked.
That is to say, if UH athletic director Dave Maggard and Coogs fans can take the criticism and ignore the baggage that will come with Penders' hiring, then this gamble just might be worth it.
I don't like this hire. Many others don't like it, either.
But the clear and obvious theme to this courtship of Penders is that public sentiment doesn't matter to Maggard, as long as the Cougars are dancing again come next March or, at worst, the one after that.
Look to the west, goes the popular defense of hiring Penders. West Texas, to be exact.
Look to how Texas Tech AD Gerald Myers thumbed his nose at prevailing national public sentiment and in Knight wound up with a winner, albeit one whose stripes have not changed and who appears to have this power struggle thing with the school president.
But perceptions and baggage are not why I don't like this hire.
Is it a flaky personality, which Penders has been accused of having? Thin skin? Making scapegoats of his players for the sake of saving his own reputation?
Nah. It's none of that. Neither is it because Maggard and the Cougars could have done better.
It's because, appearances aside, they didn't even really try.
This hire smacks of Penders' having been targeted and decided upon as the big-splash name to take over the program long before the AD went through the motions of taking calls from other candidates.
In fact, after just one afternoon spent bouncing Penders' name off a number of NCAA coaches who scouted a tournament packed with Houston prospects over the weekend, it became clear. If we could condense the consensus opinion of Penders' peers into just one sentence, it would be something like, "What is Maggard thinking?"
One college coach, with apparently no conflict of interest or ax to grind since he was not angling for the UH job, theorized that Maggard and Penders must be golfing buddies.
"He'll work on his tan for a couple of years down here," the coach said of Penders, "but he won't turn that program around."
Another coach listed no less than a half dozen other candidates he believed would be a better fit. But, he added, "they never really had a chance."
Another laughed at Maggard's stated goal of hiring someone who will outwork everyone else. Penders, you see, might have been able to get the job done at several stops throughout his career, but never has he been accused of outworking anyone. He's a sort of Steve Spurrier of the basketball circuit, with a similar Fun-N-Gun style but only half the success, no national championship and probably a higher handicap on the links.
On the way to Penders' imminent hiring, Maggard interviewed Brigham Young assistant David Rose, Arizona assistant Josh Pastner, former NBA coach and Rockets star John Lucas and possibly a couple others, including former Iowa State boy toy Larry Eustachy. Maggard also took calls from dozens of others inquiring about the job.
Didn't matter.
And while Penders has proved he can recruit, Rose, Pastner and Lucas all have developed better ready-made inroads to the local pipeline than Penders. In support of Lucas, one local high school coach apparently went so far as to prepare a list of top area players who immediately would have included Houston on their recruiting lists if Lucas were hired.
Didn't matter.
Sources close to Rose and Pastner indicated they left their interviews with Maggard with the impression the UH athletic director was cordial and helpful but not interested. He wanted someone with more experience. Someone older. Proven.
Maggard even mentioned to some candidates his lightning-in-a-bottle Art Briles football hire. His message: Pay your dues, and maybe we'll get back to you.
Penders could well prove all the critics wrong. He could be the answer and do here what he has done elsewhere. For sure, the pace will be fast, the defense porous and the games and quotes interesting.
But it's not about answering critics or putting a spin on this choice. It's about Maggard wanting a big splash and getting it.
What should bug Cougars fans is that courtesy calls aside, he didn't really test all the waters.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: Sports
This article is: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/sports/2462640
HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: Sports
March 23, 2004, 1:02AM
Best man for job? Probably not
By JOHN P. LOPEZ
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
RESOURCES
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COUGARS:
• Conference USA standings
• UH roster
• UH results
• Individual stats
• Conference stats
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• C-USA »
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHRONICLE COVERAGE:
• UH Notebook: Flattered Curl has no designs on men's job
SPORTS POLL
What do you make of UH's expected hiring of Tom Penders?
Excellent move
Bad move. He has too much baggage
It's too early to tell
With Tom Penders and the Houston Cougars only hours away from consummating their nuptials, it seems the Bob Knight Talk To The Hand Rule is already being invoked.
That is to say, if UH athletic director Dave Maggard and Coogs fans can take the criticism and ignore the baggage that will come with Penders' hiring, then this gamble just might be worth it.
I don't like this hire. Many others don't like it, either.
But the clear and obvious theme to this courtship of Penders is that public sentiment doesn't matter to Maggard, as long as the Cougars are dancing again come next March or, at worst, the one after that.
Look to the west, goes the popular defense of hiring Penders. West Texas, to be exact.
Look to how Texas Tech AD Gerald Myers thumbed his nose at prevailing national public sentiment and in Knight wound up with a winner, albeit one whose stripes have not changed and who appears to have this power struggle thing with the school president.
But perceptions and baggage are not why I don't like this hire.
Is it a flaky personality, which Penders has been accused of having? Thin skin? Making scapegoats of his players for the sake of saving his own reputation?
Nah. It's none of that. Neither is it because Maggard and the Cougars could have done better.
It's because, appearances aside, they didn't even really try.
This hire smacks of Penders' having been targeted and decided upon as the big-splash name to take over the program long before the AD went through the motions of taking calls from other candidates.
In fact, after just one afternoon spent bouncing Penders' name off a number of NCAA coaches who scouted a tournament packed with Houston prospects over the weekend, it became clear. If we could condense the consensus opinion of Penders' peers into just one sentence, it would be something like, "What is Maggard thinking?"
One college coach, with apparently no conflict of interest or ax to grind since he was not angling for the UH job, theorized that Maggard and Penders must be golfing buddies.
"He'll work on his tan for a couple of years down here," the coach said of Penders, "but he won't turn that program around."
Another coach listed no less than a half dozen other candidates he believed would be a better fit. But, he added, "they never really had a chance."
Another laughed at Maggard's stated goal of hiring someone who will outwork everyone else. Penders, you see, might have been able to get the job done at several stops throughout his career, but never has he been accused of outworking anyone. He's a sort of Steve Spurrier of the basketball circuit, with a similar Fun-N-Gun style but only half the success, no national championship and probably a higher handicap on the links.
On the way to Penders' imminent hiring, Maggard interviewed Brigham Young assistant David Rose, Arizona assistant Josh Pastner, former NBA coach and Rockets star John Lucas and possibly a couple others, including former Iowa State boy toy Larry Eustachy. Maggard also took calls from dozens of others inquiring about the job.
Didn't matter.
And while Penders has proved he can recruit, Rose, Pastner and Lucas all have developed better ready-made inroads to the local pipeline than Penders. In support of Lucas, one local high school coach apparently went so far as to prepare a list of top area players who immediately would have included Houston on their recruiting lists if Lucas were hired.
Didn't matter.
Sources close to Rose and Pastner indicated they left their interviews with Maggard with the impression the UH athletic director was cordial and helpful but not interested. He wanted someone with more experience. Someone older. Proven.
Maggard even mentioned to some candidates his lightning-in-a-bottle Art Briles football hire. His message: Pay your dues, and maybe we'll get back to you.
Penders could well prove all the critics wrong. He could be the answer and do here what he has done elsewhere. For sure, the pace will be fast, the defense porous and the games and quotes interesting.
But it's not about answering critics or putting a spin on this choice. It's about Maggard wanting a big splash and getting it.
What should bug Cougars fans is that courtesy calls aside, he didn't really test all the waters.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: Sports
This article is: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/sports/2462640