Tom Penders is out as head basketball coach at the University of Houston.
A college basketball source told me that in a meeting with UH Athletic Director Mack Rhoades today, the 64-year-old Penders was given the option of being reassigned within the athletic department, resign or be fired. Penders has chosen to resign.
A press conference has been scheduled for Monday to make the announcement.
Rhoades has hired Laurie Wilder of Parker Executive Search to reach out to potential candidates for the job. That process is currently underway. Perhaps not coincidentally, Parker Executive Search is the same firm that placed Rhoades at Houston.
Penders recently completed his sixth season as Houston coach with a 121-77 record. This year he lead the Cougars to a Conference USA conference tournament championship and a NCAA Tournament berth. Houston, appearing in the NCAA tourney for the first time in 18 years, was beaten in the first round by Maryland 89-77.
Penders is 615-411 overall as a college hoops coach. Besides Houston, Penders has served as head basketball coach at Tufts, Columbia, Forham, Rhode Island, Texas and George Washington.
A source tells me former Kentucky and Texas A&M coach Billy Gillispie is considered a likely candidate for the job. Gillispie was hired by at UTEP as head basketball coach in 2002, when Rhoades was associate athletic director at the El Paso school.
Gillispie parlayed the job with the Miners into the head coaching position at Texas A&M. Following remarkable success with the Aggies, Gillispie was hired at Kentucky in 2007, lasting just two seasons in Lexington.
Other likely candidates for Houston job are Sam Houston State head coach Bobby Marlin and Texas assistant coach Rodney Terry.
I’ve also been told that Tim Floyd has made it known that he’s interested in the Houston job. Whether he’ll be considered by Rhoades isn’t known.
UPDATE: The HOUSTON CHRONICLE has confirmed the SbB report that Penders is out.
2:52 pm on March 21st, 2010
haha this a joke, he led them back to the NCAA tournament for the first time in 18 years
3:03 pm on March 21st, 2010
Get your “facts” straight- Rhoades was not the AD at UTEP.
3:12 pm on March 21st, 2010
billy got fired at kentucky for taking it up the butt. i wonder how houston fans will like that
4:55 pm on March 21st, 2010
Speaking for the UH fans we would dislike it very much taking it up the butt.
4:59 pm on March 21st, 2010
If Gillespie can coach, recruit, and graduate players, I couldn’t care less whether he takes it up the butt.
5:31 pm on March 21st, 2010
He should be fired. He took over a program that had it all and turned it into pig manure right out of the gate.
5:58 pm on March 21st, 2010
Stop whining, Rhoades as an assistant athletic director. His facts are close enough idiot.
6:21 pm on March 21st, 2010
It is a great decision to hire Billy but we all know he will leave the second a big-time program comes sniffing for him
Also, he has a bit of a drinking problem
6:22 pm on March 21st, 2010
I would love it
7:03 pm on March 21st, 2010
I DARE you to call Bob Marlin ‘Bobby’ to his face! I DARE YOU! It’s BOB MARLIN, not Bobby. Kinda like that former coach at Texas Tech.
9:45 pm on March 21st, 2010
It is irrelevant who they hire. Their ability to recruit quality athletes has been diminished for years. Short of getting paid well under the table, why would someone want to come to a commuter school with little stability in the coaching & AD positions. Penders was let go because Rhodes wanted his own person. It had nothing to do with merit.
10:32 pm on March 21st, 2010
It’s not likely that a bigger program will be sniffing around Billy Gillispie for a LONG time regardless of what UH does.
He’d have to win for 10 years straight to get considered elsewhere.
1:23 am on March 22nd, 2010
Fireant, some of our biggest Fans regularly take it up the butt.
7:00 am on March 22nd, 2010
dumb decision.UH,with the wealth of talent in the area has not done a good job of keeping locals at home,letting them go elsewhere.gillespie–HELL NO,need a coach with strong local ties to talent pool,any UH alums out there–what was so wrong with drexler??????coogs basketball should be among the elite year in,year out–hofheinz isnt being utilized as a huge homecourt advantage.
10:08 am on March 22nd, 2010
Rhoades is only at UH a few months. UH is getting a new athletic facility. A plan for the new facility will be announced in May. Rhoades inherited a mess to clean and is beginning with the basketball program.
Tom Penders won while at UH. He finished with a strong run through the Conference USA tournement and the NCAA game vrs Maryland. His future is still bright!
11:29 am on March 22nd, 2010
Hofheinz is rarely ever more than 1/4 full at games anyways, but of course winning would take care of that. I think Gillespie or Tim Floyd are both quality coaches. It was no accident the way Gillispie turned around the programs at UTEP and A&M, he knows the game, drinking problem or not.
1:42 pm on March 22nd, 2010
Not a Gillispie fan, but know he can coach/recruit. Kentucky was a terrible fit for the guy, but he proved his worth at UTEP and A&M. Houston won’t do better than getting this guy. He’ll be back in the tourney in a couple of years. Conf USA might move up a couple of notches in the next couple of years if Barbee continues at UTEP, Gillispie at Houston and Memphis reloaded! UAB too.
7:58 pm on March 22nd, 2010
The best person for the job is Michael Young. The next coach had better be able to recruit the Houston area. Because with Mark Turgeon and Rick Barnes in the NCAAs, the over state as a whole is gone. As Dave Maggert once told me, “Phi Slamma Jamma is history. Nobody cares anymore.” With a good mix of Houston area prospects, addeed to JuCo guys and transfers, UH should be highly competetive in CUSA for years to come and get in the tournament as an automatic bid. Gillispie is not a Houston area guy and would have a difficult time recruiting the area. Mike is the answer.