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UH to battle Mean Green

When the Cougars host North Texas at 7 p.m. Saturday at Hofheinz Pavilion, they should be a well rested and more efficient team on the court.

Houston head coach Tom Penders and his staff have used the entirety of the 11-day break between games to fine-tune the offense and improve as a unit defensively.

"We’re working on game situations and out-of-bounds plays. We’re trying to get better at all of the little things," Penders said. "The normal preseason before the first game is four to five weeks, but we played our first game of the season this year three weeks into practice. So we didn’t have all that I would have liked to have in."

Penders said the plan is to use the gap between games to reevaluate his personnel by going over game footage and possibly making a few changes.

"We’ve got a lot of teaching going on right now and a lot of trying to get the offense into a groove," Penders said. "We’re trying to get better defensive(ly). We’ve got a chance to break down our own tapes and look at the four games we’ve played and evaluate what we need to work on."

The 3-1 Cougars will need to be in top form to take on a highly capable North Texas team.

The Mean Green hold a 3-1 record as of Tuesday, and, unlike the Cougars, have been to the NCAA Tournament once in the last three years.

"This team was in the NCAA Tournament two years ago," Penders said. "They’ve got outstanding talent. They’ve got good guards and very athletic and talented big men. This is a very good team from a league that put two teams in the NCAA Tournament last year."

North Texas gets its strongest scoring contributions from sophomore guard Josh White, who averages 17.5 points per game, and junior Dominique Johnson, a combo guard who has proven to produce as a starter and off the bench.

Houston freshman point guard Desmond Wade and junior shooting guard Kelvin Lewis will be two men responsible for keeping the duo in check for the night. Lewis and Wade have emerged as leaders of different sorts, but both are critical in keeping the Cougars running smoothly.

"Kelvin’s one of our leaders. I’m not putting it all on him, but he’s a leader by example. He’s a leader by his work ethic," Penders said. "And he’s improved in all aspects of his game."

Lewis is the second-leading scorer behind junior guard Aubrey Coleman with 16.5 points per game, and he also has shown he knows where to be on defense, averaging 2.25 steals per game.

Wade, who in his short collegiate career has come to epitomize the true point guard, averages 11 points and six assists per game with a miniscule turnover ratio. Those stats, however, are only part of the reason he has been on the floor in the last three games more than any other player on the team.

"He’s been a leader his whole life. Little guys in this game have to be leaders," Penders said. "The point guard is like the quarterback in football; they’re responsible for winning. They make most of the decisions in the flow of the game. He has to adjust to my system and my style, but he does a great job on defense, which keeps him on the floor."

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