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Posted: Thursday October 31, 2002 5:14 PM Updated: Monday November 04, 2002 12:03 PM Houston Cougars
The following preview is provided by Blue Ribbon. For the most thorough preview available of the upcoming season, order the 2002-03 Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, on sale now at 1-800-775-2518. Team Preview | Blue Ribbon Analysis
When Houston administrators looked at Ray McCallum’s handiwork in his seven seasons as Ball State coach, they believed he was the man to clean up the mess that had become Cougar basketball. They were right. After a 9-20 debut season in 2000-01, McCallum took his revitalization project to another level last year. In one of the best coaching jobs in the conference, if not the country, McCallum guided Houston to an 18-15 record. That included a 9-7 conference record, a second-place finish in the National Division of Conference USA and a trip to the semifinals of the C-USA Tournament for the first time in school history. The Cougars were subsequently rewarded with a berth in the NIT -- their first postseason tournament in nine years -- and though it was short-lived trip (ending with a first-round loss at Vanderbilt), McCallum had more than proven his worth.
This season, McCallum gets to prove himself all over again. He’ll have some work to do after the loss to graduation of leading scorer Dominic Smith (15.1 ppg, 2.8 rpg) and third-leading scorer Patrick Okafor (12.8 ppg, 6.3 rpg). But at least those losses were expected. The losses of George Williams and Marcus Oliver weren’t. Williams (10.2 ppg, 7.3 rpg), a three-year starter and two-year team captain, declared for the NBA draft but wasn’t selected. Then, 6-foot-3 senior guard Oliver (6.6 ppg, 2.0 rpg), tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in a June pickup game. His status remains uncertain. The possible loss of Oliver hurts. Last season, he was chosen to the Conference USA All-Tournament team after averaging 18.7 points in three games. He set a tournament record for 3-point field-goal percentage (.714), making 10-of-14 behind the arc. He scored a career-high 26 points against Memphis in the quarterfinals, 19 against 10th-ranked Marquette in the semifinals and 11 points against East Carolina. Houston will press on with just a handful of returning veterans, a transfer from Indiana, a junior college transfer and three freshmen. The Cougars clearly will have to rely on different people, but McCallum won’t change the way he does business. "We have some talented players who will make us a fun team to watch because of their ability to run the floor and score," McCallum said. "We just don’t have much experience and depth." Heading the list of returning players is third-team All-Conference USA forward Louis Truscott (13.4 ppg, 9.3 rpg), a 6-6 senior who became eligible last season after transferring from Nebraska. Truscott made a major impact in Conference USA, leading the league in field-goal percentage at .574 (162-for-282). Truscott reached double figures in 24 games, scoring a career-high 27 points against South Florida. He also came up with 26 against TCU and 20 against Marquette in a semifinal of the Conference USA Tournament. Truscott averaged 16.3 points in Houston’s three C-USA Tournament games. For his size, Truscott does some damage on the boards. He was fifth in the league in rebounding and second in offensive rebounds per game (4.1). He grabbed a career-high 20 boards to go along with 18 points against Tulane in his best overall game. Truscott also had a 16-rebound night against Prairie View A&M. He was one of three C-USA players to pile up 13 double-doubles. "[Truscott] has a lot of experience, and we will really need him to be a strong leader this year," McCallum said. "He was a strong inside player last season and is working hard to develop a consistent mid-range jump shot." Also returning are 6-4 sophomore Bryan Shelton (3.2 ppg, 0.9 rpg) and 6-10 senior Jeremee McGuire (5.1 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 1.3 bpg). Shelton led Houston in 3-point shooting (.467) and gave a glimpse of the future by averaging 8.5 points in the Cougars’ last six games. He started three times in that stretch and scored a career-high 15 points at South Florida. He scored nine points against Memphis and eight points against Marquette in the Conference USA Tournament. "I am looking for Bryan to build off of a solid freshman year," McCallum said. "He really peaked for us around the Conference USA Tournament and should contend for a starting position this year." McGuire -- who was ninth in C-USA in blocked shots (43) -- was Houston’s top reserve in the post last season, but he also earned two starts. And if the stats he compiled in those two starts are any indication, he’s more than capable of elevating his contributions markedly. McGuire’s best game came in his hometown of San Diego when he scored 18 points and grabbed 11 rebounds against San Diego State. McGuire also blocked three shots and had two steals against the Aztecs. In his other start, Maguire came up with 10 points and a team-high eight rebounds at South Florida. "Jeremee will need to be more consistent this year after having some big games for us last year," McCallum said. "We also need him to develop some leadership on the floor." Another experienced hand returning is 6-1 junior Jarrett Sidney (1.0 ppg, 0.7 rpg), who was a medical red-shirt in 2001-02. Sidney tore the ACL in his left knee after playing six games. His best game of the season came in the second round of the Maui Invitational when he scored three points and handed out two assists against third-ranked Kansas. Foremost among Houston’s five newcomers is sophomore Andre Owens, a 6-4 transfer from Indiana. Owens should take over the starting point guard job for the Cougars. Two seasons ago, he averaged 4.7 points and 1.4 rebounds for Indiana. Owens started four times and scored in double figures five times, including 22 points against Western Michigan, 20 against Northeastern and 16 versus Temple. "Andre is the leading candidate for the point guard position, but could see action at both guard spots," McCallum said. "He is a hard worker who can score inside the paint or on the perimeter. He also gives us some experience after playing one season in the Big 10 Conference." Houston’s other new players are junior college transfer Anwar Ferguson and freshmen Cedric Hensley, Dwight Jones II and Cedric Fears. Ferguson is a 7-0 junior center from Lee College in Baytown, Texas, where he averaged 6.2 points, 6.7 rebounds and 4.8 blocked shots as a sophomore. Ferguson wasn’t called on to score much --he’s a defensive intimidator who blocked 10 or more shots in three games. He did manage to score in double figures seven times. Ferguson’s best games of the season came against Pensacola (Fla.) Junior College and Panola (Texas) Junior College. He scored a career-high 20 points and grabbed 13 rebounds against Pensacola, and had career highs of 14 rebounds and 11 blocked shots against Panola. "Anwar gives us an inside presence because of his height and ability to block shots," McCallum said. "He also should help our rebounding and he runs the floor well." The 6-4 Hensley and the 6-2 Jones were two of the top high school guards in Texas a year ago, and McCallum hopes they will give his backcourt some much-needed scoring punch. Hensley, from Heritage Christian High School in Cleveland, Texas, is a big-time scorer who once racked up 100 points in a high school game. He averaged more than 20 points as a senior and was rated as one of the top 100 players in the country by one major recruiting service. Jones is the son of former Houston star and USA Olympian Dwight Jones, who forged a decade-long career as an NBA center. Last season, the younger Jones averaged 22.7 points at Klein High School. "Cedric and Dwight will give us some immediate help in the backcourt," McCallum said. "They both are natural scorers and could be as good as any freshmen that Houston has had in a long time." McCallum is also hoping for some production from Fears, who signed with the Cougars in late June. Fears helped Hightower High School reach a semifinal in the state tournament in 2001-02, averaging 12 points, eight rebounds and 2.4 blocked shots. Fears, 6-8 and 220 pounds, is also the son of a former Cougar. His father, Cedric, played for Houston from 1976-79 and was a member of Houston’s NIT Finalist team in 1976-77 and NCAA Tournament team in 1977-78. A late addition to the roster was 6-7 freshman Ramon Dyer, who played just eight games last season for Jackson High School in Wilson, La. because he was involved in a car accident. Several schools that were recruiting Dyer backed off after that, but after a solid summer, he once again drew some Division I attention. He eventually chose the Cougars from among Arkansas, Oklahoma and San Jose State. McCallum has things going in a positive direction at Houston after leading the Cougars to a trip to the NIT last season, their first postseason tournament bid in nine years. Houston could well have been the most surprising team in C-USA a year ago as it doubled its win total. The Cougars will have to replace a lot of firepower from the NIT team after the loss of Smith, Okafor and Williams and an injury to guard Oliver. Truscott will have to assume an even larger share of the scoring load than he did a year ago, and senior forward McGuire needs to elevate his game and produce the kinds of numbers he did in his two starting assignments a year ago. If junior college center Ferguson can make a quick adjustment to Division I basketball, Houston should have a solid front line. In the backcourt, much depends on Oliver’s status, but if Indiana transfer Owens can come in and provide the kind of contributions McCallum hopes he can, the Cougars will be OK. Freshmen Hensley and Jones also will be asked to shoulder a larger burden than they might have otherwise. If the Cougars don’t win 18 games this season, that shouldn’t be seen as a letdown. The program, after struggling for several seasons, is in good hands with McCallum.
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