Preseason MVP: The naturally talented Miya Crump is a three-level scorer who can shoot the 3, the pull-up and get to the basket as well as handle the ball. She averaged more than 20 points per game at Lamar.

The Ceiling: Should the four players who redshirted last year play as well as advertised, and Dymond Gladney and Tatyana Hill continue their progression as double-digit scorers, Houston would then break from the pack in the lower tier of the AAC standings and have a legitimate chance of a winning record in the league.

The Floor: The Cougars plan to use a rotation of around 10-12 players. If players aren’t happy with sharing minutes and abandon the team concept, chemistry issues will pose a problem and hopes of a winning record would fade. In a re-tooling season where margins of error are slim, that could spell disaster.

Game of the Year: SMU

Projected Starting Five: 

Dymond Gladney
G | 5-5 | Jr. | Los Angeles, Calif.

Miya Crump
G | 5-10 | R-So. | Houston, Texas

Julia Blackshell-Fair
G | 5-7 | Sr. | Fairfield, Calif.

Bria Patterson
F | 5-11 | So. | DeSoto, Texas

Tatyana Hill
F | 6-1 | Jr. | Houston, Texas

RONALD HUGHEY
Head Coach

Impact First-Year Player: Laila Blair.

Season Preview

Under coach Ronald Hughey the Houston women will always be guard-oriented. Their game is pressing, space in transition, and wreaking havoc on opponents defensively. 

An added dimension this season is the Cougars have more size than in the past. Hughey has added 6-foot-4 Daphane White, a former five-star recruit, to join 6-foot-3 sophomore Jazmaine Lewis, who played sparingly during last season’s 12-19 campaign. 

“We have a bigger team than we’ve ever had in the post,” said Hughey. “Only one of them is going to play at a time.”

Last year’s top rebounder and third-leading scorer Tatyana Hill more than doubled her scoring from 5.0 points per game as a freshman to last year’s 10.9 average as a sophomore. The 6-foot-1 Hill was not the only Cougar to show a dramatic scoring increase. Guard Dymond Gladney went from averaging 1.8 points her freshman year to 11.7.

The 2019-20 season was a difficult one for the Cougars, another year of not playing up to the hype. Houston won only one game away from the Fertitta Center and finished 5-11 in the American Athletic Conference.

But buoying the hope of a turnaround are four gifted transfers who are eligible after redshirting. That group is spearheaded by Miya Crump, and includes fellow guards Eryka Sidney, Britney Onyeje and Paris Netherly.

Crump (5-foot-10) is a difference maker. She sat out 2019-20 after transferring from Lamar, where she was Southland Conference Freshman of the Year and second-team All-SLC. 

Of the newcomers, freshman combo guard Laila Blair is an outstanding passer and scorer, who scored more than 2,000 points in high school. Ca’Leyah Burrell eclipsed 30 points on five occasions at Jacksonville Junior College. Sidney, who transferred from Texas Tech, is a point guard that can score.  She has one year to play at Houston.

“We’re going to get battled tested,” Hughey said. “When you have a large team (numbers wise) everybody wants to play so you have to have that buy in.”

Returnees include Julia Blackshell-Fair, who was second on the team in minutes and rebounds (6.4) while averaging 10.1 points and topping the squad with 122 assists, and Bria Patterson, who averaged 6.4 points and 4.4 rebounds, while making 23 starts as a freshman.

“We will have plenty of depth that can shoot and get to the basket,” Hughey said. “We’re going to play 10 or 11 people. It gives us a true look of our run and jump.”

In practice, the Cougars play with a 14-second shot clock.

“We want to get down the floor on offense and score in seven seconds,” Hughey said. “Defensively, we want to turn around and hurry you up as well. And to play at that pace requires more depth. That’s why we struggled last year because we didn’t have the depth to play the way we normally would.”

Hughey said this is his most talented at Houston. He acknowledged it’s his job to find the right chemistry.