Houston is a Basketball School
Despite the recent success in football, Houston is still a basketball school. That is where the history lies. The days of Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler were not that long ago. Yet, in recent years, the talk has been about Case Keenum and the football program. The football team has their own style of Phi Slama Jama going with their seemingly frenetic style of play, but Houston’s history is built on basketball.
And to basketball it may once again return. When Keenum finishes up his senior season in December (or maybe January…and I’m counting the Ticket City Bowl and the BBVA Compass Bowl, not a BCS bowl), the focus will return to the basketball team. Keenum will garner plenty of national attention as he shatters passing records and receives plenty of well-deserved Heisman buzz. But life after Keenum may not be pretty. The Cougars struggled last year when Keenum went down with an injury. The football program will not fall to the basement of Conference USA, but they may not be contenders year in and year out either.
That is where basketball coach James Dickey takes over. Dickey has been around the block a few times and has been coaching ever since he wrapped up his playing career at Central Arkansas in 1976. Those days include a ten year stint as the head coach at Texas Tech. Thus far Dickey only has one unsuccessful season at the helm of Houston under his belt, but he can build the legacy of Cougar basketball. This year’s team should be much, much better and the 2012-2013 season will be even more impressive. Coach Dickey is already recruiting Texas extremely well and is bringing in a nice mixture of freshmen with potential and more proven junior college talent. That is how he will have to rebuild for now, but in a year or two those junior college transfers will be off of Houston’s radar if Coach Dickey can keep the talented Houston prep products close to home. That will lead to long term success and Houston could emerge as Memphis’ main competition in Conference USA for a long time to come…or until the Big East breaks up and those teams are picked away to a better conference. Either way, the Houston basketball program has a very promising future.
Read the in-depth men's basketball preview for this team
