Heart has Houston dancing

TULSA, Okla.—"They refused to die."

That is how Houston head coach Tom Penders described his team after the Cougars upset No. 1 seed UTEP in the Conference USA Tournament to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

Houston, playing its fourth game in four days, came back from a nine-point deficit in the second half to over-take the Miners, who had won 16 games in a row.

Beating the Miners and earning a NCAA berth is a big deal, but it's what Penders and the Houston program has been through to earn it that made it worthwhile.

This will be the first time Penders has been to the tournament since he was head coach at George Washington in 1999. It will also be the Cougars first appearance in the Big Dance since 1992.

Penders credits his team's heart to getting past the nearly impossible task of winning the C-USA Tournament.

"This is the most gratifying because in many ways when I came to Houston, it was almost considered mission impossible," Penders said. "And we came so close a couple of times maybe with some more talented kids, but not as gutsy a group."

And the heart was ever present after the game. Senior guard Aubrey Coleman fell to the court with tears in his eyes.

Coleman, the nation's leading scorer, was held to 13 points in the game, but he filled the stat sheet with nine rebounds, six assists and four steals.

While Coleman's shots weren't falling, he knew he had to make the hustle plays to help his team compete.

"I wanted to do the little things, the things that I did when I first started playing," Coleman said. "I was a hustle man, so that's what I did - got rebounds, loose balls, hit the open guy. I got some layups and big steals, but everybody came through. That is making me emotional right now."

Coleman wasn't the only emotional one.

Fellow senior Kelvin Lewis lit up the Miners for 28 points and earned C-USA Tournament MVP honors.

Lewis sat the entire 17 minutes of the postgame press conference with a smile on his face. He had a lot to be happy about. He fulfilled a life long dream. He gets to dance in March.

"It's an incredible feeling," Lewis said. "This is everyone's dream. I don't even know what to say. I'm just so excited and happy. It feels good to finally be where we need to be."

And where they are is where the team's heart has led them. Houston was 15-15 entering the C-USA tournament. But when March Madness was looking for a dancing partner, it wasn't looking at numbers.

It was looking for the team with enough heart to handle the madness. And Penders said he and his team will be ready with their dancing shoes.

"That's really great because we're really proud of our program and our kids, and it's so nice to see some of those young guys step up because they're the future of our program," Pender said. "So anyway we're dancing. We're dancing. I may be dancing a little slower than the last time I went, but we're dancing."

Kyle Hobstetter can be contacted at hobstetter@marshall.edu.