Head coach James Dickey Assistant coach Johnny Estelle | Assistant coach Alvin Brooks Assistant coach Ronnie Hamilton | |
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Conference American Athletic Conference 2013–14 record 17–16 (8–10 The American) | ||
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.
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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 Cougars' 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.
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.