Howland Won’t Take Penders’ Bait

Houston Coach Tom Penders would love to schedule a game with UCLA. He’d love to have a “commemoration” of the 1968 Game of the Century, when the Cougars of coach Guy Lewis and Elvin Hayes beat Lew Alcindor’s Bruins, 71-69, in front of 52,693 at the Astrodome to end UCLA’s 47-game winning streak.

“But I can’t get Ben to return my calls,” Penders said Tuesday. “Maybe he wrote me a letter. Maybe I should wait by the mailbox. Or maybe not.”

Penders was speaking of UCLA Coach Ben Howland, whose Bruins have recently hosted Delaware State, Albany and Coppin State in front of plenty of empty seats at Pauley Pavilion.

Penders, 60, is feeling feisty these days. Houston, a woebegone program that had sunk into mediocrity for nearly two decades, beat nationally ranked Louisiana State and Pacific 10 Conference favorite Arizona in the space of a week.

The NCAA troubles Penders left at Texas and George Washington earned him a three-year exile into television as an analyst. His coaching skills earned him another chance at Houston two years ago.

Nicknamed “Turnaround Tom” because he built winners at Columbia, Fordham, Rhode Island, Texas and George Washington, Penders’ reputation was badly tarnished when he left Texas after the 1997-98 season amid accusations he anonymously released the grades of Longhorn player Luke Axtell after Axtell announced he was transferring to Kansas.

Three years later, Penders resigned at George Washington as the NCAA investigated misuse of telephone cards by players.

Houston took heat when it hired Penders, but now it’s all happiness. The Cougars play fast-paced, aggressive basketball. They beat Arizona Coach Lute Olson at his own game.

“I thought our style of play meshed with their style of play,” Penders said. “Lute likes to get up and down the floor, so do we. I thought our guards were better. We pressured them full court, turned them over 22 times, we had 17 steals in the game. We’re very aggressive.”

So is Penders.

He congratulated Olson on scheduling a four-game home-and-home series with Houston. And then he mentioned UCLA.

“Everybody has been dodging us,” Penders said. “I’ve been trying to get UCLA and Ben won’t even answer the phone. We’re trying to become a national program again. Lute has a national program. Some want to be a local program.

“Lute schedules a four-year series with us, it gets on national TV, it helps both teams recruit nationally. With UCLA, we had the Game of the Century in 1968 and there’s never been an anniversary or a commemoration. Reliant Stadium [which will host the Final Four in 2011] wants to host the game. It would be a huge money game and it would be great to have it while Coach [John] Wooden could attend. So many people just want to protect their own little nests and have a fool-the-fan mentality.”

Howland confirmed that he didn’t speak to Penders over the phone. “We talked in person two different times,” Howland said. “Tom asked to play us. Lute plays because Houston is one of his main recruiting areas. We don’t feel the need to play the University of Houston. Nothing personal against Tom, it’s just strictly business.”

Penders also wants to showcase his program on the West Coast. Lamar Roberson, a 6-foot-8 freshman for the Cougars, played one year at Compton Dominguez High and was a Southern Section co-player of the year.

“When the Los Angeles AAU teams come to Houston for tournaments, guys are telling me all the time how they love the style we play,” Penders said. “They love how we go up and down the court.”

That seemed another shot at Howland, whose reputation is of a man who prefers a more disciplined, half-court style.

Sonny Vaccaro, Reebok’s director of grass-roots basketball, said that Penders is smart to schedule games with national powers such as Arizona and to recruit in California.

“His coaching style is popular,” Vaccaro said. “That’s what the summer leagues have begotten. That’s the world we’re living in. Everybody wants to play up-tempo and that’s why Tom will succeed. Kids want to play that style.”

Pac-10 Struggle

Watching Lorenzo Romar’s young Washington team withstand Adam Morrison’s All-America offensive performance Sunday was a small pleasure in what has been mostly pedestrian preseason performances by Pac-10 teams.

Morrison scored 43 points, but the Huskies upset Gonzaga, 99-95, at Washington. The Huskies are 7-0 and the game was nearly as entertaining as Gonzaga’s 109-106 triple-overtime win over Michigan State.

But it’s tough to read Washington. The Huskies, who were picked to finish behind Arizona, Stanford and UCLA in the conference, haven’t left home or played anyone very good except Gonzaga.

The read on Arizona isn’t good so far. The Wildcats haven’t shot better than 40% from the field and Olson benched veteran leaders Hassan Adams and Chris Rodgers for showing up late to the pregame meal before the Wildcats lost to Houston.

And Stanford (2-3) is now 0-2 against the Big West Conference. Having already lost to UC Irvine at Maples Pavilion, the Cardinal was stunned by UC Davis on Sunday, 64-58. That came two days after an 88-69 loss at Montana.

Davis, which also defeated Stanford in football and soccer this year, is going through a four-year transition from NCAA Division II to Division I and won’t achieve Division I status until the 2007-08 season.

Though the Aggies are playing a full Big West schedule, they can’t compete in the conference or NCAA tournaments. Coach Gary Stewart said, “We’re still making the transition so I’m not quite sure of the gravity of it all. I just know it’s a significant win.”

Oregon has three players -- Malik Hairston, Bryce Taylor and Aaron Brooks -- who Vaccaro says will play professionally. Yet the Ducks (4-2) have desultory losses to Vanderbilt and Georgetown.

Besides Washington, the bright spot in the conference might be California.

Sophomore forward Leon Powe, who missed his sophomore season because of a knee injury after being chosen Pac-10 freshman of the year two years ago, is being mentioned as the nation’s top power forward after returning to the court last week.

Powe, who missed 629 days because of knee surgery and a stress fracture in his right foot, had 27 points and 10 rebounds against UC Irvine and 26 points and 10 rebounds against Akron last week. Bigger tests come this week against Kansas and St. Joseph’s. Also rounding into form after an injury is Jordan Wilkes, a 6-10 freshman who has been hobbled by a sprained ankle.

Omar Wilkes, Jordan’s older brother, is also eligible for the Bears this year after transferring from Kansas. The brothers are sons of former UCLA great Jamaal Wilkes.

Worth Watching

After hanging with Duke and nearly upsetting UCLA at the NIT Season Tip-Off tournament, Drexel went back to Philadelphia and lost to LaSalle. The Dragons lost because the Explorers have perhaps the best little-known player in the country -- forward Steven Smith, a 6-9, 225-pound senior who is averaging 23.5 points and 11 rebounds a game. Smith is on the Wooden Award watch list.