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...
believe discovered shoot since starting
Oliver has discovered that he can do other things (than shoot 3s), which is something we've been on him about since Christmas. I think he's starting to believe it.
condition episodes fast heart morning several stand walk
I have a heart condition and I've had several episodes where I stand up too fast and get lightheaded. I did a three-mile fast walk this morning and probably didn't get enough fluids before the game.
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.
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.
happen injuries
We've had more injuries than I could remember. It's like, What's going to happen next?
deserves team teams
This team deserves it. This team right now, doing what we just did, not too many teams can do that.
build create easy force regular run style teams trying
That's our game. Pressure. Try to create some easy buckets. That's what we're trying to build here first. That's the foundation. It's a different style and it is not conservative. We try to force teams not to run their regular stuff.
beat everybody points win
Everybody points to us every game. They know it's a big win if they beat us.
chance fans good meet players
It's a good chance for fans to come and meet the players and get to know them a little bit. And it's also a chance for the players to meet the fans, which is always a good thing.
given happy shown team
We've shown a lot of resiliency. I've been real happy with this team because we haven't given up on the season.
decided pace playing quick reasonably shoot small
We decided to go small and quick and get them playing at a pace that they were uncomfortable with. Of course, you have to shoot reasonably well to set up our press.
good missed opportunity seven six
When we were up by 10-0, we missed six or seven pretty good looks. We just didn't put them away when we had the opportunity to.
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.
coaching control defensive game ran team until
I thought we were in control of the game until we ran out of bodies. I've been coaching for 32 years, and I've never had a better defensive team than this.