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Houston Tops Florida A&M in First True Division 1 Game

Houston's TaShawn Thomas pulled down 20 rebounds as the Cougars win the first true Division 1 game of the year.

Troy Taormina-US PRESSWIRE

Sure Eastern Michigan was running over a non-Divison 1 school a little earlier than this, but the Houston Cougars scored the first top flight win of the day, coming back to beat Florida A&M 81-76.

It wasn't exactly the showing that head coach James Dickey probably hoped for when he woke up this morning. Going against FAMU isn't exactly going up against Kentucky, and yet the Cougars definitely struggled through the first half. They finally took the lead for good with about nine minutes left.

But the real story of the game has to be sophomore TaShawn Thomas, who put up the stat line of the day (then again, it is the only game so far). Thomas, one of our Mid-Major Top 50, scored 11 points and pulled in 20 rebounds for Houston.

His wasn't the only double-double either. Leon Gibson finished as the top scorer with 20 points and 10 rebounds in the win.

So it may not have been pretty (other than a couple of nice stat lines), but it got the job done. Houston is 1-0, but I wouldn't want to be them in practice over the next couple of days as they prepare for San Jose State on Tuesday.