2013–14 Houston Cougars men's basketball team

2013–14 Houston Cougars men's basketball
Conference	American Athletic Conference
2013–14 record	17–16 (8–10 The American)
Head coach	James Dickey
Assistant coach	Alvin Brooks
Assistant coach	Johnny Estelle
Assistant coach	Ronnie Hamilton
Home arena	Hofheinz Pavilion

2013–14 American Athletic Conference men's basketball standings
	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
#5 Louisville †	15	–	3		.833			31	–	6		.838
#15 Cincinnati	15	–	3		.833			27	–	7		.794
#18 Connecticut	12	–	6		.667			32	–	8		.800
SMU	12	–	6		.667			27	–	10		.730
Memphis	12	–	6		.667			24	–	10		.706
Houston	8	–	10		.444			17	–	16		.515
Rutgers	5	–	13		.278			12	–	21		.364
UCF	4	–	14		.222			13	–	18		.419
Temple	4	–	14		.222			9	–	22		.290
South Florida	3	–	15		.167			12	–	20		.375
† The American Tournament winner Rankings from AP Poll

The 2013–14 Houston Cougars men's basketball team represented the University of Houston during the 2013–14 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The season marked the first for the Cougars as members of the American Athletic Conference. The team, coached by James Dickey in his fourth year, played their home games at Hofheinz Pavilion. They finished the season 17–16, 8–10 in conference play to finish in sixth place. They advanced to the semifinals of the The American Tournament where they lost to Louisville.

After the season, head coach James Dickey stepped down for personal reasons. He was 64–62 in four seasons. He was replaced by Kelvin Sampson.

Pre-season

Unfortunately, the Cougars’ off-season was defined primarily by the amount of departures from the program. On May 14, it was announced that the school granted permission to sophomore point guard J.J. Thompson to transfer to another school. No reason was given as to his desire to leave the Cougars. Ten days later, the school announced that four-star 2012 class recruit Valentine Izundu was also granted release from the program. Like Thompson, no reason why given for Izundu’s departure, but it was noted that the freshman saw very limited playing time in his only season with the team. However, one month after announcing his leave, Valentine decided to return to the program. In his statement, he apologized to Coach Dickey and teammates and mentioned that he made a mistake in leaving the team. On June 1, the program announced that Michael Young, former Cougar player and Phi Slama Jama member during the 1980-84 seasons, would not be retained as Director of Basketball Operations. Young was offered a reassignment in the program, but refused it and decided to leave the school. As a result, Michael’s son Joseph Young, the Cougar’s leading scorer during the 2012-13 season decided to leave the program as well and transfer to Oregon.

Despite the number of departures from the program, the Cougars were still able to build on the team by signing Ohio Player of the Year and three-star recruit Jaaron Simmons. The point guard out of Archbishop Alter High School signed a National Letter of Intent on April 18, choosing the Cougars over offers from Butler and Dayton, among others. Simmons mentioned that the opportunity to play with standout players Danuel House, Joseph Young, and TaShawn Thomas helped in his decision to sign with Houston. Former Baylor guard L.J. Rose announced in June that he would transfer to Houston to be closer to his mother who was diagnosed with lupus. Rose was ranked 63rd in the ESPN100 Class of 2012 and the 9th ranked guard. The Cougars applied for a waiver to the NCAA to allow L.J. to play for the team immediately. It was announced on August 20 that the waiver had been granted. The third offseason addition to the Cougars came in the form of 6'9" Egyptian-born post player Ahmed Hamdy. Ahmed's resume features international experience at the 2010 FIBA Under-17 World Championship with the Egyptian national team.

Departures

Name	Number	Pos.	Height	Weight	Year	Hometown	Notes
Joseph Young	0	G	6'3"	185	Sophomore	Houston, Texas	Left program when father Michael was not retained as Director of Basketball Operations; transferred to Oregon
J.J. Thompson	3	G	6'0"	185	Sophomore	Irving, Texas	Granted release to transfer to another school
Leon Gibson	15	F	6'9"	245	Senior	Los Angeles, California	Graduated

Incoming transfers

Name	Number	Pos.	Height	Weight	Year	Hometown	Notes
L.J. Rose		G	6'4"	190	Sophomore	Houston, Texas	Transferred from Baylor

Class of 2013 signees

Name	Home town	High school / college	Height	Weight	Commit date
Jaaron Simmons PG	Kettering, OH	Archbishop Alter HS	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)	175 lb (79 kg)	Mar 31, 2013
	Scout:   Rivals:   247Sports: N/A    ESPN grade: 78
Ahmed Hamdy C	Alexandria, Egypt	Trent Internationale (Sugar Land, TX)	6 ft 9 in (2.06 m)	255 lb (116 kg)	Jun 20, 2013
	Scout: N/A   Rivals: N/A   247Sports: N/A    ESPN grade: NR
Overall recruiting rankings: Scout: NR   Rivals: NR  ESPN: NR
Note: In many cases, Scout, Rivals, 247Sports, and ESPN may conflict in their listings of height and weight. In these cases, the average was taken. ESPN grades are on a 100-point scale. Sources:

Roster

2013–14 Houston Cougars men's basketball team
Players	Coaches
Pos. # Name Height Weight Year Home town F 0 Danrad Knowles 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) 190 lb (86 kg) RS So Houston, Texas F 1 Mikhail McLean 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 205 lb (93 kg) RS Jr Houston, Texas G 2 Brandon Morris 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) 185 lb (84 kg) Sr Alexandria, Louisiana G 3 Jaaron Simmons 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) 175 lb (79 kg) Fr Dayton, Ohio G 4 LeRon Barnes 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 195 lb (88 kg) RS So Stonewall, Louisiana G 5 L.J. Rose 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 190 lb (86 kg) So Houston, Texas G 12 Jimmy Jones 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) 160 lb (73 kg) RS Sr Plano, Texas G 14 Tione Womack 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) 170 lb (77 kg) Sr Baltimore, Maryland F 20 Adam Drexler 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 205 lb (93 kg) So Houston, Texas G 21 Jherrod Stiggers 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 210 lb (95 kg) RS So Terrell, Texas G 23 Danuel House 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 195 lb (88 kg) So Sugar Land, Texas G 24 Lawrence Paye 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) 185 lb (84 kg) Sr Houston, Texas C 25 Ahmed Hamdy 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 255 lb (116 kg) Fr Alexandria, Egypt F 35 TaShawn Thomas 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 215 lb (98 kg) Jr Killeen, Texas C 45 Valentine Izundu 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) 215 lb (98 kg) So Houston, Texas F 55 J.J. Richardson 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 245 lb (111 kg) RS Sr Missouri City, Texas	Head coach James Dickey (Central Arkansas) Assistant coach(es) Alvin Brooks (Lamar) Johnny Estelle (Texas A&M-Kingsville) Ronnie Hamilton (Duke) Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible (W) Walk-on Injured Current redshirt Roster Last update: 2013-11-17

Schedule and results

On May 21 it was announced that the Cougars would participate as one of the four hosts in the 2013 Legends Classic alongside Pittsburgh, Stanford, and Texas Tech. Houston hosted a pair of regional round games between November 17–21, and then traveled to Brooklyn to participate in the championship round with the other four hosts on November 25–26 at the Barclays Center.

The Cougars' complete 2013-14 schedule was announced on August 21 featuring 17 home games. The schedule's highlights included round-robin play against the other nine American Athletic Conference members, the 4 previously-announced Legends Classic games, a road game against former Southwest Conference rival Texas A&M, and a neutral site matchup against crosstown rival Rice at the Toyota Center. All of Houston's 18 conference games and the two final games of the Legends Classic tournament were televised on the ESPN family of networks or CBS Sports Network.

Date Time, TV	Opponent	Result	Record	Site (Attendance) City, State
Exhibition
Nov 5* 7:00 pm	St. Thomas	W 81–63		Hofheinz Pavilion (2,435) Houston, TX
Non-conference regular season
Nov 8* 8:00 pm, ESPN3	Texas State	W 76–70	1–0	Hofheinz Pavilion (3,123) Houston, TX
Nov 11* 7:00 pm	at Texas–Pan American	W 77–65	2–0	UTPA Fieldhouse (1,432) Edinburg, TX
Nov 14* 7:00 pm, ESPN3	UTSA	W 80–62	3–0	Hofheinz Pavilion (2,800) Houston, TX
Nov 17* 1:00 pm, ESPN3	Lehigh Legends Classic - Houston Regional Game 1	W 80–66	4–0	Hofheinz Pavilion (2,635) Houston, TX
Nov 21* 7:00 pm, ESPN3	Howard Legends Classic - Houston Regional Game 2	W 75–62	5–0	Hofheinz Pavilion (2,815) Houston, TX
Nov 25* 8:30 pm, ESPN2	vs. Stanford Legends Classic - Semifinals	L 76–86	5–1	Barclays Center (4,142) Brooklyn, NY
Nov 26* 6:00 pm, ESPN3	vs. Texas Tech Legends Classic - Consolation Game	L 64–76	5–2	Barclays Center (3,514) Brooklyn, NY
Nov 30* 7:00 pm, ESPN3	Texas A&M–Corpus Christi	W 78–67	6–2	Hofheinz Pavilion (3,015) Houston, TX
Dec 4* 7:00 pm, ESPN3/FSN	at Texas A&M	L 57–74	6–3	Reed Arena (4,850) College Station, TX
Dec 7* 5:00 pm, ESPN3	San Jose State	L 68–72	6–4	Hofheinz Pavilion (3,105) Houston, TX
Dec 9* 6:30 pm, ESPN3	Alcorn State	W 89–58	7–4	Hofheinz Pavilion (2,833) Houston, TX
Dec 14* 7:05 pm	at Louisiana–Lafayette	L 76–79 OT	7–5	Cajundome (3,069) Lafayette, LA
Dec 21* 3:30 pm, CSS/CSNH	vs. Rice Lone Star Showcase	W 54–52	8–5	Toyota Center (5,907) Houston, TX
American Athletic Conference regular season
Dec 31 8:00 pm, ESPN2	#17 Connecticut	W 75–71	9–5 (1–0)	Hofheinz Pavilion (4,035) Houston, TX
Jan 4 3:00 pm, CBSSN	at South Florida	W 67–58	10–5 (2–0)	USF Sun Dome (3,921) Tampa, FL
Jan 7 8:00 pm, CBSSN	Cincinnati	L 60–61	10–6 (2–1)	Hofheinz Pavilion (3,804) Houston, TX
Jan 16 6:00 pm, CBSSN	at #18 Louisville	L 52–91	10–7 (2–2)	KFC Yum! Center (21,132) Louisville, KY
Jan 19 12:00 pm, CBSSN	Rutgers	W 77–55	11–7 (3–2)	Hofheinz Pavilion (3,115) Houston, TX
Jan 23 7:00 pm, ESPNews	at #23 Memphis	L 59–82	11–8 (3–3)	FedEx Forum (15,702) Memphis, TN
Jan 26 2:00 pm, ESPNews	SMU	L 68–75	11–9 (3–4)	Hofheinz Pavilion (4,567) Houston, TX
Jan 30 8:00 pm, CBSSN	at Connecticut	L 43–80	11–10 (3–5)	Gampel Pavilion (9,312) Storrs, CT
Feb 1 3:30 pm, ESPNews	at Rutgers	L 70–93	11–11 (3–6)	The RAC (5,616) Piscataway, NJ
Feb 5 8:00 pm, ESPNU	#14 Louisville	L 62–77	11–12 (3–7)	Hofheinz Pavilion (7,247) Houston, TX
Feb 9 1:00 pm, ESPNews	Temple	W 88–74	12–12 (4–7)	Hofheinz Pavilion (3,535) Houston, TX
Feb 15 2:00 pm, ESPNU	at #10 Cincinnati	L 62–73	12–13 (4–8)	Fifth Third Arena (13,176) Cincinnati, OH
Feb 19 7:00 pm, ESPNews	at SMU	L 64–68	12–14 (4–9)	Moody Coliseum (6,991) Dallas, TX
Feb 22 1:00 pm, ESPNews	UCF	W 88–84	13–14 (5–9)	Hofheinz Pavilion (7,028) Houston, TX
Feb 27 8:00 pm, CBSSN	#21 Memphis	W 77–68	14–14 (6–9)	Hofheinz Pavilion (3,628) Houston, TX
Mar 1 8:00 pm, ESPNU	at Temple	W 89–79	15–14 (7–9)	Liacouras Center (3,978) Philadelphia, PA
Mar 4 7:30 pm, ESPNews	South Florida	W 79–68	16–14 (8–9)	Hofheinz Pavilion (3,235) Houston, TX
Mar 7 6:00 pm, CBSSN	at UCF	L 83–104	16–15 (8–10)	CFE Arena (5,471) Orlando, FL
American Athletic Conference Tournament
Mar 13 12:00 pm, ESPNU	vs. #25 SMU Quarterfinals	W 68–64	17–15	FedEx Forum (13,011) Memphis, TN
Mar 14 6:00 pm, ESPN2	vs. #5 Louisville Semifinals	L 65–94	17–16	FedEx Forum (11,888) Memphis, TN
*Non-conference game. #Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Central Time.

External links

• Official website