Penders Said Out at Texas

Tom Penders, who led Texas to the NCAA tournament in eight of his 10 seasons, is out as Longhorns coach, the Associated Press learned Wednesday night.

Penders, under fire since last week’s release of a player’s grades to a local radio station, is considering a job outside of coaching or being reassigned at Texas, a source close the Longhorn basketball program said.

An Austin TV station, KEYE, also reported Wednesday that Penders would be fired or reassigned as early as Friday.

Penders, the winningest coach in Texas history with a 208-110 record, said that if he’s out, he hasn’t heard about it.

“I have not had one phone call from Mr. Dodds, who is my boss,” Penders said, referring to Texas Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds. “I haven’t heard anything about my job status changing.”

Penders has four years remaining on a five-year contract extension he received last year at roughly $550,000 per year.

Dodds said he won’t comment until the completion of an investigation by the school into the release of Texas player Luke Axtell’s confidential academic progress report to an Austin radio station.