To many, it came as a big surprise. It shouldn't have. After all, Tom Penders has done it before -- five times before.

In spite of his penchant for turning L's into W's, Conference USA coaches picked the University of Houston to finish 13th out of 14 teams during the 2004-05 season. Surprise! Penders proved those forecasts wrong as he confidently guided the Cougars to an 18-14 overall record and a record-setting season.

Houston's 18 wins were more than the Cougars garnered in the two previous seasons combined. The Cougars also tied a school record with nine Conference USA wins and a sixth-place finish in the C-USA regular season standings. In addition, Houston led the nation in turnover margin and set both team and individual school records for most three-point field goals made in a season.

The Cougars captivated a national television audience on January 5, when ESPN aired the final minutes of their 70-66 upset over then 16th-ranked and eventual NCAA Final Four participant Louisville. The next month, ESPN televised the Cougars 66-53 victory over NIT semifinalist Memphis, Houston's 1,000th win in school history.

Following the season, Penders signed one of the nation's top 13 recruiting classes according to Hoopscoop and has the Cougars poised to turn surprise into expectation.

Athletics director Dave Maggard named Penders Houston's head coach on March 23, 2004. When he did, Maggard not only selected the best man available, he selected the best man for the job.

The Cougars averaged just 10 wins and played in only one postseason tournament the previous 11 years. Undaunted, Penders accepted the challenge because after all, he transformed programs in the states of Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island and Texas. The metamorphosis at Houston didn't take long either.

Entering his second season at Houston with a 545-375 career record, Penders not only turned Houston L's into W's, he did it while embracing Houston's storied tradition.

"When I was playing in college, Elvin Hayes, Ken Spain and Don Chaney were playing here," Penders said. "Even before that, Jack Thompson, a former player from New York, had led the Cougars to the NIT in 1962."

Later, as a high school coach, he met Houston's legendary coach Guy V. Lewis when he took his high school team to watch the Cougars play Long Island University in New York's Madison Square Garden on February 4, 1971. Over the years, he watched Lewis turn the Cougars into a perennial national power and patterned his teams' style of play after the style the Cougars played under Lewis. Last season, Penders invited Lewis to talk to his team before the Cougars beat Memphis. Following the school's 1,000th victory, he presented the game ball to Lewis, simultaneously honoring the man and his place in Cougar history.

A year after his first meeting with Lewis, Penders began his collegiate coaching career as the head coach at Tufts, and later coached at Columbia, Fordham, Rhode Island, Texas, George Washington and Houston. At each stop, his teams not only won, they captured a national audience with their record-setting styles of play. His teams at Texas and George Washington set school records for most points in a season, and renewed fan interest at each school.

It was at Texas where Penders helped rebuild an intense rivalry between the Longhorns and Houston. Each game between the two schools was important in the Southwest Conference standings and often produced sellout crowds. The memory of that rivalry helped persuade Penders to accept Maggard's offer to become Houston's head coach.

"When I coached against the Cougars in the Southwest Conference, I liked the atmosphere when we played here, and enjoyed visiting a major city," Penders said. "When they called, it clicked right away. I said this is the perfect job for me."

Penders came to Houston after spending three years as an analyst for ESPN and Westwood One Radio. He started this new career after spending three years as head coach at George Washington (1998-2001). There, Penders compiled a 49-42 record and led the Colonials to the 1999 NCAA Tournament. He also guided George Washington to an Atlantic 10 West Division title his first year. In his second year, George Washington finished second in the A-10 standings, and the Colonials set a school record for points scored in a season. His third team at GW advanced to the semifinals of the A-10 Tournament before losing to eventual champion Temple.

Penders went to George Washington after gaining national fame by leading highly successful programs at Texas and Rhode Island. He spent 10 seasons as the head coach at Texas and set a school record with 208 victories while leading the Longhorns to three Southwest Conference Championships and eight NCAA Tournament appearances. In the NCAA Tournament, Penders led the Longhorns to the Elite Eight in 1990 and to the Sweet 16 in 1997.

While averaging 20.8 wins per season at Texas, his Longhorn teams averaged 87.2 points per game and forced over 19 turnovers per contest. Penders ended his tenure at Texas with a 208-110 record in 10 seasons. When Penders took over the Texas program in 1988, he inherited a team that won 16 games the year before and averaged 4,028 fans in a 16,231-seat arena.

In the four-year span before Penders' arrival, Texas was 64-55 and had not won over 20 games in a season in nine years.

Penders immediately put his brand on the program. He called his team the "Runnin' Horns" and spoke to every alumnus and booster group in the state. His first team finished second in the Southwest Conference and earned a bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Longhorns also set 22 school and SWC records while more than doubling their attendance average to 10,011 per game, the largest increase in NCAA Division I.

In 1990, Texas surprised most college basketball fans across the nation by advancing to the Elite Eight as a number 10 seed in the NCAA's Midwest Regional and was just three points shy of advancing to the Final Four, losing to the fourth seeded and SWC rival, Arkansas, 88-85. The 1990-91 season saw Texas finish second in the SWC, advance to the second round of the NCAA and finish 23rd in the AP rankings. Penders led the Longhorns to SWC championships in 1992, 1994 and 1995. The Runnin' Horns also reached the NCAA Sweet 16 in 1997.

Penders went to Texas after leading Rhode Island to the 1988 NCAA Sweet 16 after beating Missouri and Syracuse in the first two rounds. Rhode Island lost, 73-72, to Duke in the Sweet 16 game.

Penders took over Rhode Island's program on October 4, 1986. With only two weeks to prepare for preseason practice, he and Temple's John Chaney were named the Atlantic 10 Co-Coaches of the Year after Penders took the Rams to a 20-10 record and a berth into the NIT in his first year.

He went to Rhode Island after heading the basketball program at Fordham for eight years and compiling a 125-114 record. There, he took over a program that was 8-18, and within three years, guided it to the first of a school-record five straight NIT appearances. In his eight seasons, he led the Rams to 19 wins four times and 18 victories once. In the process, 51 of his 53 players earned degrees (the other two transferred and eventually graduated). In 1981, Penders was named the New York Metropolitan Area Coach of the Year after leading Fordham to a 19-9 record.

Before his stint at Fordham, Penders coached at Columbia for four seasons. The Lions were 5-20 the year before his arrival and his first recruiting class couldn't play for a year because the Ivy League did not allow freshmen to play.

After two years, Penders led the school to back-to-back winning seasons. Columbia finished the 1976-77 campaign with a 16-10 record. The following year, the Lions were 15-11 and finished second in the Ivy League standings. At the time, it was Columbia's best Ivy League finish in school history.

Penders began his collegiate coaching career at Tufts in 1971, taking over a 1-17 team and turning it around with 12-8, 22-4 and 20-6 records in each of the next three seasons.

One of his players, Willie Young, also set a school record for most points in a season and ranks second among the school's all-time scoring leaders. In the Fall of 2004, Tufts awarded Penders the school's "Outstanding Achievement Award".

Penders went to Tufts after a highly successful high school coaching career in Connecticut at Bullard Havens Tech and Bridgeport Central High School. He posted a 59-10 record in his three seasons as a high school coach.

In his first year as a head coach, Penders took a Bullard Havens Tech team that had only one player over six feet tall and a record of 4-14 the year before and guided the team to a 14-6 record. The next year, he inherited a 7-13 team at Bridgeport and led the team to a 23-2 record and a number two ranking in the state. The following year, he was named the New York Daily News Coach of the Year after leading Bridgeport to a 20-1 mark and Number One ranking.

A native of Stratford, Conn., Penders established himself as one of his high school's greatest athletes. At Stratford High School, he led the state in scoring and the All-MBIAC All-Star team after averaging nearly 15 points per game as a junior and serving as a valuable sixth man as a sophomore. In baseball, Penders started for three years as a pitcher, shortstop and center fielder. He also was the Student Council President as a senior after serving as Vice President during his junior year and President of his sophomore class in 1960-61. Penders went on to the University of Connecticut, where he starred as a center fielder for the baseball team and a point guard for the basketball team. He served as team captain for both teams as a senior and quarterbacked the Husky basketball team to a combined 59-16 record during his career. Penders is one of a select group of student-athletes who participated in both the NCAA Tournament (1965 and 1967) and the College World Series (1965).

He was considered for the school's All-Century team in 2001 after leading the Huskies to two Yankee Conference championships. In 2001, he received the highest honor given by UConn Athletics when the school presented him the Red O'Neill Award for Lifetime Achievement. The Hartford Courant also named him as one of the three greatest athletes in the 21st Century from the Town of Stratford.

Upon graduation, the Cleveland Indians drafted Penders in the ninth round of the 1968 Major League Draft. In his one season as a professional baseball player, he played for the Indians' Class A team at Rock Hill and was selected a Western Carolina League All-Star third baseman after hitting .343. Following the All-Star game, he finished the year hitting .302 at Rock Hill before being promoted to Cleveland's Class AA affiliate at Waterbury.

Penders retired from baseball after the season and began his career as a basketball coach in 1969. He also played fast-pitch softball during his early years as a coach and was a member of five ASA National Championship teams in 1969, 1970, 1972, 1976 and 1983. He was also named a First-Team All-American center fielder in 1975 and 1976. He also played for the USA Team that finished in a three-way tie for first place at the 1983 World University Games before being inducted into the Connecticut Softball Hall of Fame in 1989.

Penders and his wife, Susie, have three children-- Wendy, Tommy, Jr., a current basketball coach at Angleton High School in Angleton, Texas, and daughter, Karli, who attends UH.

Penders also comes from quite a coaching family. In addition to Tom and Tommy, Jr. serving as basketball coaches, his father was a longtime baseball coach at Stratford High School from 1931-68, and led the school to four state championships. His brother, Jim, is the baseball coach at East Catholic High School, was named the national high school Coach of the Year in 1996, and won four state championships just like his father.

His two nephews also are collegiate baseball coaches. Jim was named the head coach at Connecticut in 2003 after serving seven years as an assistant coach and playing four years for the Huskies. Rob serves as an assistant coach at San Jacinto College North in Houston.