Tom Penders
Tom Penders
Thomas Vincent "Tom" Pendersis a retired college basketball head coach, who last coached from 2004 through 2010 at the University of Houston. He is from Stratford, Connecticut and has a 649-437 career record. As a college athlete, Penders played both basketball and baseball for the University of Connecticut, and is one of the few players to have competed in both the NCAA Tournament as well as the College World Series...
coaching defensive difficult great job open team
I thought we did a great job defensively. We really made it difficult for UCF to get open looks. I've said that I've been coaching for 32 years and I've had some great defensive teams, but I've never had a team that was better defensively than this team.
almost build great jump maybe program trying
Yeah, it was disappointing. You want to be in. I'm not about to jump off a building, though. We've had a great year. It was almost one of those years, and maybe that will make us hungrier for the future. We're trying to build a program here.
crowd goodbye great seniors streak
We just have to get another streak going. We also need to have a great crowd to come out and say goodbye to our seniors on Wednesday. That's a very important night.
deeper defense floor foul great offensive pound walked
If we didn't do that (go small), we lose. Had we walked up and down the floor with them and let them pound it inside, we would have been in much deeper foul trouble, and we would have had nothing on the offensive end. I'll always give up rebounding for defense and great quickness.
beat coming empty good great kept shoot teams
We just kept coming up empty and empty and empty. You can't beat good teams when you shoot 25 percent. To beat a great team like Memphis, you have to shoot at least 40 (percent) and play great defense.
beat great played shot
That (shot by Henderson) hurt. We played great defense, and then he just kind of flung it up there to beat the shot clock.
basketball exciting fans floor help home putting team tournament winning
I think we're doing our job, putting an exciting basketball team on the floor, a winning basketball team on the floor -- a tournament contender. It would help if we had at least 6,000 fans at every home game, but I'm not going to chastise those who haven't been here.
basketball chance fall guys inside nice north shoot texas unless warriors win
I think that North Texas is a very nice basketball team. They can shoot it, their big guys are like warriors inside and they are a cohesive team. ... Unless they fall apart, I think they have a chance to win their conference.
conference missouri ncaa six talking valley
I think the Missouri Valley Conference is good, but I don't know who's talking about (five or six NCAA bids) and in what bar.
bad boo cities depends easy market people team
It all depends on what market you're in, as to how easy it is. In some cities and towns, a team can be bad and all the people will show up to boo the coach. In Houston, they just don't show up.
excited feels honored nice potential university
I'm honored and pleased. I'm more excited about the potential of this program, so it's nice that the university feels the same way.
against blowing guys huge quality road smoke win
This was a huge win for us. We're on the road against a quality team, and I'm not blowing smoke ? these guys would win many conferences in this country.
broke caught couple early glad hit kids marshall shots
We got them (the Marshall players) to play fast. I told the kids early on that we just had to come out and hit a couple of (early) shots because then they get caught up in our tempo, going up and down. We broke away from them, and I'm glad we did.
came coach embraced fall hated hoping people slowly
We started slowly with attendance. Because I was a hated coach from another school, some people came hoping I would fall on my face. There were other people that embraced me.