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 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.
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.
beat everybody points win
Everybody points to us every game. They know it's a big win if they beat us.
belong concerned deserve saying soapbox
I'm not saying we belong in the tournament, and I'm not going to get on a soapbox and say we deserve a bid. But I am concerned about where (college basketball) is going.
deserves team teams
This team deserves it. This team right now, doing what we just did, not too many teams can do that.
happen injuries
We've had more injuries than I could remember. It's like, What's going to happen next?
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.
free shoot
We don't want to shoot a free throw.
absolutely ahead anybody ball beat best focus lose playing
We should be playing our best ball in February. We have to go out and focus on each game. We can't look ahead ? we can beat absolutely anybody and we can lose to absolutely anybody.
coached disrespect fire game lecture win
There's no fire-and-brimstone lecture (for tonight's game). It's a game we want to win because we want to win our 19th game, and we want to play in the postseason. Not because it's Rice. And that's no disrespect to Rice. I've never coached that way.
defensive hard team
I've never had a better defensive team in all the years I've coached. They get after it and play hard every possession.
ball beginning caliber early edgar good guard hitting injuries inside players playing point rough season shame start stride strong team top
They are an outstanding ball club. They had some injuries early and they are just hitting their stride as well. Doc Sadler has got his team playing really, really well. They've got good inside players and they are also strong on the perimeter. And they have an experienced point guard in Edgar Moreno. They are an outstanding club. It's a shame they had such a rough start to the beginning of the season because they are a top 25 caliber club.
hard letters received telephone
I've received so many letters and telephone calls, it's hard to keep up. I appreciated it so much. But I'm fine.
good surface sweet
This can be a Sweet 16 team. We're going to be really good in February. We're just scratching the surface right now.