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Tom Penders

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Tom Penders
Biographical details
Born (1945-05-23) May 23, 1945 (age 79)
Stratford, Connecticut
Playing career
Position(s)Point guard
Head coaching record
Overall648-438 (.596)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
MAAC Tournament Championship (1983)
SWC Regular Season Championship (1992, 1994, 1995)
C-USA Tournament Championship (2010)
Awards
New York Metropolitan Area Coach of the Year (1981)
A-10 Coach of the Year (1987)

Tom Penders (born May 23, 1945) is a retired college basketball head coach, who last coached from 2004 through 2010 at the University of Houston. He is from Stratford, Connecticut[1] and has a 648-438 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.

Prior to his last job as Houston's head coach, Penders was a sports analyst for ESPN and Westwood One Radio. He also has been the head coach for Tufts, Columbia, Fordham, Rhode Island, Texas, and George Washington.

Coaching career

High school

Penders posted a 59-10 record as a high school coach at Bullard-Havens Tech and Bridgeport Central High School in Connecticut. He led Bullard-Havens to a 14-6 record in his first season as a head coach. The next year he guided Bridgeport Central to a 23-2 record and a number two ranking in the state. The following year, he was named the New York Daily News Coach of the Year after leading Bridgeport to a 20-1 mark and Number one ranking.

Tufts, Columbia, Fordham

Penders began his collegiate coaching career at Tufts University in 1971, and compiled a 54-18 record in three seasons. On October 6, 2006, Penders and his 1972-73 Tufts team were inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame.

Next Penders coached for four seasons at Columbia University. In his final two years there, Penders led the school to back-to-back winning seasons.

After Columbia, Penders moved to Fordham University where he remained for eight years and compiled a 125-114 record. In 1980-81, Penders was named the New York Metropolitan Area Coach of the Year after leading Fordham to a 19-9 record. On January 26, 2013, Penders was inducted into the Fordham Athletic Hall of Fame. [2]

Rhode Island

Penders took over Rhode Island’s program on October 4, 1986, two weeks before the regular season began. He was named the Atlantic 10 Conference Co-Coach of the Year after guiding the Rams to a 20-10 record and a berth into the NIT his first year.

In 1988, Penders led the Rams to the 1988 NCAA Sweet 16 with wins over Missouri and Syracuse before eventually losing to Duke.

Texas

In his 10 seasons at the University of Texas, Penders compiled a 208-110 record. During his time there, he became the "winningest" basketball coach in school history (although now passed by former Texas and now Tennessee coach Rick Barnes). He led the Longhorns to three Southwest Conference championships and eight NCAA Tournament appearances, including an "Elite Eight" in 1990, and the "Sweet 16" in 1997. His teams at Texas averaged 20.8 wins per season, 87.2 points per game, and forced 19 turnovers per contest.

When Penders was hired in 1988, he inherited a team that won 16 games the year before; the Erwin Center (the Longhorns' home court) averaged 4,028 fans per game (in a 16,231-seat arena). Immediately after his arrival, Penders switched to a more uptempo offense, and called his team the "Runnin' Horns." His first team finished second in the Southwest Conference and earned a bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Longhorns also set 22 school and SWC records while more than doubling their attendance average to 10,011 per game, the largest increase in NCAA Division I.

In his final year at Texas, Penders underwent heart surgery and was unable to coach the first few games of what would end up being a tumultuous season. The beginning of the end for his tenure began on March 9, when four players went to the home of athletic director DeLoss Dodds and told him they were dissatisfied with Penders. On March 18, the academic records of one of the players who attended the meeting, Luke Axtell, were leaked to KVET, the radio flagship of the Longhorns, in violation of student privacy laws. School officials held Penders responsible for the incident and forced him to resign on April 2.[3] One of Penders' assistants, Eddie Oran, initially took responsibility for releasing the grades, but later claimed Penders ordered their release. He sued Penders for defamation in 2002, claiming that statements Penders made when the scandal broke wrecked his career. However, a jury sided with Penders.[4]

His time at Texas was the subject of a book, Burned Orange by Kyle Dalton.[5]

George Washington

Penders served as head coach at the George Washington University from 1998–2001, where he compiled a 49–42 record and led the Colonials to the NCAA Tournament. Penders' only winning season while directing the Colonials was his first, where he inherited a talented team composed mostly of recruits of former Colonial head coach Mike Jarvis. Off-court issues with players followed and Penders ultimately resigned in 2001, due to stress and his congenital heart condition.

Houston

In his first season at the University of Houston, Penders guided the Cougars to the nation’s fourth-best turnaround with an 18–14 overall record and Houston led the nation in turnover margin and set both team and individual school records for most three-point field goals made in a season.

In his second season, Penders led the Cougars to their first 20-win season, first back-to-back winning seasons and first back-to-back postseason tournament appearances since 1992–93. He also led Houston to back-to-back wins over nationally ranked teams for the first time since the 1984 NCAA Midwest Regional Tournament and their first postseason tournament victory since 1988 in his first two years at the school, in the NIT.

Houston finished the 2005-06 campaign with a 2–2 record against nationally ranked teams after beating No. 25 LSU on November 29 and 13th-ranked Arizona December 3 in a nationally-televised game on ESPN2.

Houston’s postseason tournament victory was against BYU in the first round of the 2006 NIT. It also was Penders’ first career victory in the NIT.

Houston led the nation in steals with a 12.4 average, and the Cougars finished second in turnover margin with an average margin of +7.5.

Penders came to Houston after spending three years as an analyst for ESPN and Westwood One Radio.

Penders led the Houston Cougars to the Conference USA championship game in 2010 where they defeated UTEP for their first NCAA Tournament berth in 18 years. This made him only the 8th coach to take 4 different schools to the NCAA tournament.

Penders resigned as coach of Houston on March 22, 2010 following a first round loss to Maryland in the NCAA tournament.

College playing career

Penders played both baseball and basketball at the University of Connecticut, where he starred as a center fielder for the baseball team and a point guard for the basketball team from 1964-67.

In his time at Connecticut, Penders also joined the Alpha Pi chapter of Theta Xi.

Family

In addition to Tom and Tommy, Jr. serving as basketball coaches, his father was a longtime baseball coach at Stratford High School from 1931–68, and led the school to four state championships. His brother, Jim, is the baseball coach at East Catholic High School, and was named the national high school Coach of the Year in 1996. Just like his father, Jim won four state championships.

His two nephews also are collegiate baseball coaches. Jim was named the head coach at Connecticut in 2003 after serving seven years as an assistant coach and playing four years for the Huskies. Rob serves as the head baseball coach at St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas.

Head coaching record

Statistics overview
Season Team Overall Conference Standing Postseason
Tufts (NESCAC) (1971–1974)
1971–72 Tufts 12-8
1972–73 Tufts 22-4
1973–74 Tufts 20-6
Tufts: 54-18 (.750)
Columbia (Ivy League) (1974–1978)
1974–75 Columbia 4-22 2-12 T-7th
1975–76 Columbia 8-17 6-8 T-4th
1976–77 Columbia 16-10 8-6 3rd
1977–78 Columbia 15-11 11-3 T-2nd
Columbia: 43-60 (.417) 27-29
Fordham (Independent) (1978–1981)
1978–79 Fordham 7-22
1979–80 Fordham 11-17
1980–81 Fordham 19-9 NIT 1st Round
Fordham: 34-48
Fordham (MAAC) (1981–1986)
1981–82 Fordham 18-11 8-2 2nd NIT 1st Round
1982–83 Fordham 19-11 7-3 T-2nd NIT 1st Round
1983–84 Fordham 19-15 7-7 4th NIT 1st Round
1984–85 Fordham 19-12 9-5 2nd NIT 1st Round
1985–86 Fordham 13-17 7-7 T-4th
Fordham: 125-114 (.523) 38-24
Rhode Island (A-10) (1986–1988)
1986–87 Rhode Island 20-10 12-6 3rd NIT 1st Round
1987–88 Rhode Island 28-7 14-4 2nd NCAA Sweet 16
Rhode Island: 48-17 (.739) 26-10
Texas (SWC) (1988–1996)
1988–89 Texas 25-9 12-4 2nd NCAA 2nd Round
1989–90 Texas 24-9 12-4 3rd NCAA Elite Eight
1990–91 Texas 23-9 13-3 2nd NCAA 2nd Round
1991–92 Texas 23-12 11-3 T-1st NCAA 1st Round
1992–93 Texas 11-17 4-10 7th
1993–94 Texas 26-8 12-2 1st NCAA 2nd Round
1994–95 Texas 23-7 11-3 T-1st NCAA 2nd Round
1995–96 Texas 21-10 10-4 3rd NCAA 2nd Round
Texas: 176-81 85-33
Texas (Big 12) (1996–1998)
1996–97 Texas 18-12 11-6 T-3rd NCAA Sweet 16
1997–98 Texas 14-17 6-10 9th
Texas: 32-29 17-16
Texas: 208-110 (.654) 102-49
George Washington (A-10) (1998–2001)
1998–99 George Washington 20-9 13-3 1st (West) NCAA 1st Round
1999–00 George Washington 15-15 9-7 T-2nd (West)
2000–01 George Washington 14-18 6-10 7th
George Washington: 49-42 (.538) 28-20
Houston (C-USA) (2004–present)
2004–05 Houston 18-14 9-7 T-4th NIT 1st Round
2005–06 Houston 21-10 9-5 4th NIT 2nd Round
2006–07 Houston 18-15 10-6 3rd
2007–08 Houston 24-10 11-5 3rd CBI Semifinals
2008–09 Houston 21-12 10-6 T-4th CBI 1st Round
2009–10 Houston 19-16 7-9 7th NCAA 1st Round
Houston: 121-77 (.611) 56-38
Total: 648-438 (.596)

      National champion         Postseason invitational champion  
      Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion
      Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion
      Conference tournament champion

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.townofstratford.com/content/1296/396/7913/15558/18550.aspx
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ Holtr, David. The Best Little Scandal in Texas. The GW Hatchet, 1999-08-23.
  4. ^ Jury clears former Texas coach in defamation suit. Associated Press, 2002-08-13.
  5. ^ Amazon.com

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