The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Tom Penders selected to National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2021
11.29.2020 | Men's Basketball, T-Association
Former Men’s Basketball head coach to be enshrined this weekend in Kansas City.
KANSAS CITY — Former University of Texas Men's Basketball head coach Tom Penders has been selected to the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2021. Penders will be enshrined this weekend in Kansas City at the 2021 National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame Induction Celebration presented by Nike.
In addition to Penders, the eight-person Class of 2021 includes Maryland's late Len Bias, David Greenwood of UCLA, Bradley's Hersey Hawkins, Jim Jackson of Ohio State, North Carolina's Antawn Jamison, Paul Pierce of Kansas and former coach Rick Byrd.
Penders, who was selected to the next class of the Texas Athletics Hall of Honor in August, served as Men's Basketball head coach at UT for 10 seasons (1988-98). He restored a lost luster to Texas Basketball when he brought his "Runnin' 'Horns" style to Austin for the 1988-89 season. Following three losing seasons in the previous six years at Texas, Penders' up-tempo style not only won games, it captured the excitement of the UT fan base.
In his 10 seasons, the Longhorns won 208 games, made eight NCAA tournament appearances, advanced to the Elite Eight in 1990, and claimed three Southwest Conference regular-season titles and two SWC tourney crowns. The success was immediate as in his first season, the Longhorns went 25-9 and Erwin Center crowds swelled to over 12,000 per game. That team averaged a SWC single-season record 94.3 points per game, eclipsing a mark set by Houston in 1977.
His early postseason success earned him the nickname of "Mr. March." His first team shocked Georgia Tech in the Round of 64 in the NCAA Tournament. The 1990 squad, led by the "Texas BMW" guard trio of Travis Mays, Lance Blanks and Joey Wright, finished 24-9 and advanced all the way to the Elite Eight before losing by a basket in a game that would have earned UT an appearance in the Final Four for the first time in over 40 years.
Over the next eight seasons, Texas captured three SWC regular-season championships, a pair of SWC Tournament titles and advanced to the NCAA tournament six times. His 1996 team narrowly missed advancing to the Sweet Sixteen, falling 65-62 to Tim Duncan and Wake Forest. The 1997 team made it to the Sweet Sixteen before losing to No. 25 Louisville.
Penders' teams scored at least 100 points in 60 games during his 10 years in Austin, and seven of his players went on to the NBA. He left Texas following the 1998 season with a mark of 208-110, good for a winning percentage of .654, which at the time was the most victories and the second-best winning percentage (minimum five seasons) in UT basketball history.
Success followed Penders throughout his four decades of coaching. He won 649 career games as the head coach at seven programs, ranking him in the top 40 of the NCAA record book. Penders took four different schools – Rhode Island, Texas, George Washington and Houston – to the NCAA Tournament and won three regular-season conference titles and four league tournament crowns. He was named the 1987 Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year after leading Rhode Island to 20 wins in his first season at the school.
The National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame is located inside The College Basketball Experience (CBE), a world-class experiential entertainment facility adjacent to Kansas City's T-Mobile Center. The Class of 2021 will be the 16th induction class in the Hall of Fame's history.