Office of Internal Communications
|
November 18, 2004
It’s rare to spot Tom Penders not wearing a splash of Cougar red when he’s on campus. The
new University of Houston men’s head basketball coach
proudly wears his team’s new colors whether he’s running
practice or simply tending to office matters. The sight might be
strange to those who were used to seeing Penders coach the University
of Texas at Austin’s (UT) burnt orange Longhorn teams. Still,
Penders admits that he’s been a big time Cougar fan long before
he was hired in March. Q Other universities were probably interested in you. Why did you choose UH? A
I played for the University
of Connecticut and graduated from there in 1967. The University
of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), Duke University and the UH
were the three most prominent programs of that era. The style of
play at UH caught my eye. I loved the way they played here. Later,
I coached Fordham University in the 1980s and UH was on television
all the time. In the late 1980s, I was coaching the University of
Texas at Austin and began competing against UH. I saw a team that
should be a big time player in college basketball. When I had left
coaching, I noticed UH’s scores and that the attendance had
dropped. During my career, I have fixed weakened programs. It’s
like taking on a business that’s failing and turning it around.
There are so many similarities between struggling businesses and
basketball programs. This was a struggling program and it happened
to be in a part of the country I am very fond of. My son loved it
so much he moved here to become a high school coach, so I was already
spending a lot of time in Houston. Everything just kind of clicked. Q What will be your biggest challenge during your first season coaching the Cougars? A
The biggest challenge
is making the players who were losing feel good about themselves
and building confidence within the team. I was lucky enough to recruit
some new students. In a lot of places, I was unable to do that because
scholarships were already awarded and teams were at full capacity.
It’s quicker to turn a program around when you can hand pick
your players. I have a strong belief that if you bring in quality,
highly motivated people who have had a degree of success, then that
will speed up the process. Q You mentioned restoring the confidence of your players. How important is it to regain the campus community’s confidence in the team? A
It’s critical
to have support from within. We have amazing unity in our athletics
department, perhaps more so than any other university where I have
coached. I credit Dave Maggard (director of athletics) for that.
He’s everywhere. He knows all of our players and our coaches.
Everyone in this department is pulling together. I’d like
to spread this feeling throughout the university, but we have to
win. It’s so competitive to get the attention of students
and basketball fans. There are so many things going on in Houston.
We’re trying to reach out to everyone including those at the
other UH System campuses. It won’t happen overnight, but we’re
working on that. We want to urge everyone to come to Hofheinz and
see the team play because this is a special group. A
I think we’re
going to be extremely competitive. We’ll have ups and downs.
We’re competing against teams with long histories of success.
We’ll win some of these games, and we’ll lose some.
That always happens when you’re building a program. We can
build on short-term failures and successes. I believe it’s
how you bounce back and react to adversity that tells what kind
of person you are. Q How do you emphasize the importance of academics to your players? A I have a long record of success with student-athletes, mentoring and creating an environment where they can succeed. We want players to have time to study. When the season is over, many teams are in the weight room. I arrived here in March, but I didn’t care if they even picked up a basketball before the semester was over. I wanted them to focus on academics. It was a great semester for the team. Some individuals really turned it around in the classroom. As a coach, I have to talk about academics with my players, as well as their individual successes. It’s like raising a family. If you’re a parent and never show an interest in what’s going on with your children at school, they’re likely to slip. Not too many young people are born self-motivated. The usually identify with someone like a parent, teacher or coach. For more details on the UH men’s basketball team or other Cougar sports, visit the Athletics Web site. Mike Emery
|
||||||
