Houston to Rome, nonstop

Si, per favore!

ITA Airways is expanding its transatlantic route network by introducing new flights from Rome Fiumicino International Airport (FCO) to Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), marking the first-ever direct route between the two cities. With the addition of Houston, the airline’s network will expand to nine North American destinations.

The Italian flag carrier has already opened ticket sales, with the inaugural flight set for May 1, 2026. The aircraft operating this route will be the carrier’s youngest widebody type, the Airbus A330-900 from the A330neo family.

The seasonal service will begin with three nonstops per week, ramping up to five nonstops per week on June 1st - just in time for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The service will operate through at least October 24th. 

Simple Flying, which first reported that this service was a possibility last June, explains the logic behind it:

The new FCO-IAH route will improve connectivity not only for passengers traveling directly to Houston, but also for those connecting onward to destinations across the US or Canada. To support these connections, ITA has recently launched codeshare agreements with United Airlines and Air Canada, which are both members of the  Star Alliance. It is also worth noting that the Italian flag carrier is in the process of joining Star Alliance, following its integration into the Lufthansa Group.

I'm always happy when Houston adds more nonstop flights to international destinations, and as somebody who spent a few days in Rome three years ago and wants to go back, I can see myself making use of this service. Hopefully it will be successful enough to warrant year-round, rather than seasonal, service.

One Mile at a Time and KHOU have more.

Houston 31, Baylor 24

The Cougars end the regular season with a road win against an in-state foe. 

The Good: QB Connor Weigman accounted for 322 of Houston's 417 total yards of offense and 21 of their 31 points, passing for 201 yards and a touchdown (a beautiful 27-yard strike to Amare Thomas on the game's first series) and rushing for another 121 yards and two scores. RB Dean Connors added another 51 yards and a score: a 1-yard run with 1:57 left to put the Coogs up for good. Houston DB Mark Stampley II intercepted a tipped Baylor pass in the endzone, and the Cougar defense forced a Baylor fumble late in the 1st.

The Bad: Houston took a 24-9 lead in the 3rd quarter, but Baylor quickly scored 15 unanswered points in the fourth quarter (including a 31-yard touchdown pass from QB Sawyer Robertson to Josh Cameron on - ugh! - 4th and 9) to tie things up. 

The Scary: Baylor RB Caden Knighten had to be carted off the field after a nasty on-field collision. For what seemed like an eternity he lay on the field, apparently unable to move, but he was later reported to be alert and able to move all his extremities at the hospital.

What It Means: The Cougars end the 2025 regular season with a 9-3 record, including a perfect 6-0 record in road games. One wonders where this team would be now if they hadn't blown winnable home games against West Virginia and TCU. 

The Cougars now wait to find out which bowl they're going to and who they'll be playing.

Brad Towns discusses how the Cougars took a huge step forward in 2025.

#25 Houston 14, TCU 17

For the second time in as many home games, the Cougars play bad, boring football and lose to a team they probably should have beaten.

The Good: The Houston defense forced four TCU turnovers, three of which (two interceptions and a forced fumble) were caused by defensive back Will James. Late in the fourth quarter, the Horned Frogs had an opportunity to put the game away but were stopped cold by UH linebacker Latreveon McCutchin on 4th-and-1. If you had told me before the game that the Cougars would hold TCU to 17 points and end up +3 in turnover margin, I would have expected a win. However...

The Bad: ...the UH offense sputtered the entire game and only managed to put 14 points of their own the board. QB Connor Weigman was a mediocre 15 of 29 for 161 yards, two touchdowns and an interception, and the offense only converted four third downs in 17 tries (five UH drives ended in three-and-outs). The playcalling was unimaginative and at times baffling. TE Tanner Koziol, who has been one of Houston's most effective offensive weapons this season, was absent for much of the game.

The Ugly: Kicker Ethan Sanchez has been pretty reliable this season, but he was 0 for 2 on field goal attempts last Saturday, including a 38-yarder late in the fourth quarter that would have likely sent the game into overtime.

What It Means: Any remote hopes the Cougars had of making the Big XII Conference Championship Game ended with this loss. I still have faith in Willie Fritz and I want him to succeed, but I'm beginning to have some questions. Why does his team come out so flat after bye weeks? Why is his offense so conservative? Why has Connor Weigman appeared to have taken a step backwards over the last several weeks?

This game was such a disappointment that afterwards I had to go over to Rice Stadium to watch North Texas beat the Owls just to get the shit taste out of my mouth.

The Cougars end the regular season with a trip to Waco to play Baylor this Saturday. 

The Cougars: two steps forward, one step back

Between a convention in Portland, Oregon, a visit from my brother, the Veteran's Day holiday (I took some time off to make a long weekend out of it) and other obligations, I haven't gotten around to writing about UH football for the last few weeks. Hence, another three-in-one update:

Houston 24, #24 Arizona State 16: A rather delightful upset of a ranked team on the road! UH quarterback Connor Weigman rushed for 111 yards and two touchdowns, and passed for 201 yards and another score. The Houston defense, meanwhile, recovered the game's only turnover and kept Arizona State out of the endzone for three quarters. The end of the game got kind of sloppy, as the Sun Devils rallied from a 0-24 deficit to score 16 unanswered points and were threatening to tie the game, but the Houston defense stepped up to stop the late threat.

The Sun Devils didn't look like they were mentally prepared for this game. They were playing without star receiver Jordyn Tyson, but that doesn't excuse them having a player ejected for targeting, missing two field goal attempts, or being flagged for 12 penalties.

Sadly, after the game, it was announced that Houston Strength and Conditioning Coach Kurt Hester had lost his battle with cancer. 

#22 Houston 35, West Virginia 45: Speaking of teams not being mentally prepared for games, Houston came out flat against a 2-6 West Virginia squad and suffered an embarrassing loss. Fortunately, not a lot of people were on hand to see it. (I knew attendance for this game was going to be lousy because it was an 11 am kick - the second one in a row - on the morning after Halloween. There's also the gameday experience at TDECU Stadium, which Ryan (correctly) says is "not good.")

Connor Weigman had his worst game in a UH uniform. He was responsible for four turnovers, including a pick-six everybody in the stadium (except him, apparently) could see coming. Houston's defense, meanwhile, simply could not stop the Mountaineers' ground game, surrendering 15 first downs on rushes and 246 total yards rushing. The most pathetic moment came when WVU QB Scotty Fox, Jr scored on a 34-yard scramble on 4th and 4 because the Houston defense was clearly confused but didn't think to call timeout.

All in all, a game that was supposed to be dedicated to Coach Hester's memory turned out to be a dud that ended Houston's weeklong stint in the top 25. 

Houston 30, Central Florida 27: This was only the Cougars' second win at Central Florida all-time, and they certainly made it more difficult than it needed to be. Weigman's struggles continued, as he threw three interceptions including another pick-six. However, he also threw two touchdowns, including a 64-yard bomb to Amare Thomas. The Cougar rushing attack rolled up 210 yards against UCF's defense, and Ethan Sanchez was a perfect 3-for-3 on field goal tries. 

Houston's defense did their part with some interceptions of their own: linebacker Latreveon McCutchin had a pick-six, and the Golden Knights' late attempt to win the game ended when defensive back Kentrell Webb intercepted their desperation pass in the endzone with 11 seconds left to play.

What it Means: The Cougars are now 8-2 and again ranked in the top 25. I'm not sure they're really worthy of a top 25 ranking at this point, but this season has otherwise exceeded all expectations. 

The Coogs were off last week; they host TCU at TDECU Stadium on Saturday for their final home game of the season. Luckily, it will not be another 11 am kickoff.

The end of the penny

Last Friday, the one-cent coin, better known as the penny, met its end. After 232 years of production, the final penny coins were struck at the US Mint in Philadelphia.

In its prime, the penny wielded outsize influence: Tossed into fountains, it could answer unrealized wishes. A penny saved was a penny earned; it was pinched, pressed into loafers and placed on graves as a way of honoring the dead. Offered for one’s thoughts, it could elicit two cents, doubling its return.

Caroline Turco, assistant curator of the American Numismatic Association’s Money Museum in Colorado Springs, Colorado, said that whenever she spies a penny on the street, she still thinks of the rhyme, “Find a penny, pick it up, all day long you’ll have good luck.”

So mighty was the penny’s sway that legions of sales pitches would rely on marketing psychology built upon its mere absence. Why shell out 10 dollars when you can pay $9.99?

The penny had remade itself multiple times over the years, succeeding a one-cent predecessor authorized by the Continental Congress in 1787 and designed by Benjamin Franklin until the mint's creation in 1792. Made of pure copper, it featured a woman with flowing hair, symbolizing liberty.

Its name reflected the country’s colonial roots, a derivation of the British word “pence,” which the American founding fathers disposed of along with the English monarchy. 

The one-cent coin is the oldest coin minted in the United States, having been in circulation since 1793.  But they've increasingly become worthless over time. Nowadays, you can't buy anything with less than a heavy sackful of them, and if you show up at McDonalds with said sackful to pay for your Big Mac you're likely to be kicked out of the restaurant. Given that fact, as well as it cost almost four cents to mint each one-cent coin, it was well past time for its demise.

This isn't to say I don't understand the nostalgia involved; I'm old enough to remember penny gumball machines, which is to say I'm pretty old. But I can't say I've had any use for the coin since my childhood. For as long as I can remember, any pennies I've come across during the course of the day - received as change, or found lying about - would end up in a big jar that would later be dumped into the Coinstar machine at the local grocery store. These days, I hardly come across pennies at all, simply because I rarely engage in cash transactions anymore. A friend of mine said on Facebook better than I could: "bye bye, coin I have not used in decades."

The penny is not going to disappear - there are still something like 300 billion of them currently in circulation. The problem is, most of them are in coin jars, under couch cushions, or in your car's cupholder - not in your local retailer's cash register, which is where they need to be. One-cent coins, in fact, continued to be manufactured for as long as they did because of what The Atlantic's Caity Weaver calls the "Perpetual Penny Paradox:"

Most pennies produced by the U.S. Mint are given out as change but never spent; this creates an incessant demand for new pennies to replace them, so that cash transactions that necessitate pennies (i.e., any concluding with a sum whose final digit is 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 or 9) can be settled. Because these replacement pennies will themselves not be spent, they will need to be replaced with new pennies that will also not be spent, and so will have to be replaced with new pennies that will not be spent, which will have to be replaced by new pennies (that will not be spent, and so will have to be replaced). In other words, we keep minting pennies because no one uses the pennies we mint.

It wouldn't surprise me if, over the course of a given year, millions of dollars worth of pennies are cumulatively thrown in the trash by people who simply don't want to deal with them. Which, if true, is just another reason to stop producing them. 

Kuff has more, as does the NPR's L. Carol Ritchie. 

Half a cookie

Walking around the bakery at my local H-E-B, I noticed these delicious-looking oatmeal raisin walnut cookies:

I love oatmeal raisin cookies, and at 150 calories per serving, these didn't seem too fattening. Should I buy them?

Then I took a closer look at the serving size:

Seriously? Who only eats half a cookie at a time?

Weak, H-E-B. Very weak.

Houston 31, Arizona 28

Ethan Sanchez kicked a field goal as time expired and the Cougars notched a homecoming win over the Arizona Wildcats to become bowl-eligible.

The Good: Houston's ground game. The Cougars gained 232 rushing yards, 100 of which were courtesy of RB Dean Connors and another 98 of which came from QB Conner Weigman. The UH offensive line's ability to open running lanes against Arizona's defense was good enough for them to be named the Big XII's Offensive Line of the Week. Who had that on their bingo card this season?!

The Better: In addition to his 98 yards rushing, Conner Weigman passed for 163 yards and 3 touchdowns. Amare Thomas, who led the Cougars in receiving yards, caught two of those scoring passes. Weigman also had no interceptions and was not sacked once.

The Best: Houston's game-winning drive. After the Wildcats had scored 14 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to tie the game, the Cougars put together a calm and methodical 13-play, 4:48, 52-yard drive to get well into Sanchez's field goal range. A textbook way to win a football game!

The Bad: As good as Houston's defense has been this season, they gave up 381 total yards to the Wildcats, 269 of which came through the air. Arizona QB Noah Fifita was amazingly accurate, completing 24 of 26 passing attempts with no INTs. To the UH defense's credit, he was also sacked four times.

The Ugly: The 11 am kickoff.  The heat and humidity were brutal (Houston hasn't had much in the way of autumn weather so far), and I'm not sure half of the announced attendance of 28,535 ever actually made it into the stadium. Additionally, 11 am kickoffs ruin homecoming festivities.

What It Means: This was a good game between two evenly-matched teams, and the fact that Houston was able to pull ahead at the end means that they will finish the season with no worse than a .500 record and go to a bowl for the first time since the 2022 season. The Coogs need to win just one more game to secure a winning season.

Next up for the Cougars is a trip to Tempe, Arizona to face Arizona State.

Behold, the Southeasternwest Conference!

As seen on social media:

You could even add former SWC school Rice and former SEC school Tulane to get to an even 24 teams. Doing so would have the added effect of raising the conference's academic profile...

On coffee

The Atlantic's Ellen Cushing explains why, in spite of its ever-increasing cost and the availability of any number of caffeine-delivering alternatives, coffee is "the drink that Americans won't give up without a fight:"

Coffee is fixed in our culture, our economy, our rituals, and our brain chemistry. It is the country’s most consumed beverage aside from water, and its psychoactive ingredient, caffeine, is by far the most popular drug on Earth. On any given day, an American is likelier to drink coffee than they are to exercise, pray, or read for pleasure. The U.S. has more Starbucks locations than public libraries. Coffee gave us the Enlightenment, and insurance, and the most puissant bop of summer 2024. It is so crucial to the machinery of capitalism that many employers give it away, like pens or any other essential office supply. It is the only consumable I can think of that people regularly joke about dying without (which is funny because, again, it provides nothing our bodies actually need to live). It is the thing in a big carafe at every meeting, and on the menu at nearly every restaurant, and built into our language as a widely understood shorthand for “having a conversation with another person.”

Due to a variety of factors - chief among them, the Trump administration's tariffs on coffee-producing countries such as Brazil and Vietnam - American coffee drinkers are paying about 40 percent more for their cup of joe than they were a year ago. Congress recently introduced a bill to exempt coffee from Trump's tariffs, but it remains to be seen if it will go anywhere, even if and when the current government shutdown ends. 

It is also a fascinating symbol of the interdependence, and the limitations, of an internationalized food system and the free-trading global order. “Coffee is a good way to think about how the world works,” the author and food historian Augustine Sedgewick told me when I called him to chat about it. Aside from on a few comparatively tiny farms in Hawaii, California, and Puerto Rico, coffee doesn’t grow in the United States: We cannot make the drink that we cannot live without. And though we expect coffee to be cheaply and abundantly available, its production is tremendously costly and difficult, even before tariffs.

Coffee is a strange crop because it only grows in particular altitudes and soils, and is rather complicated to procure and prepare. Its harvesting, cleaning and roasting requires a great deal of manual labor - and that all happens before the barista grinds the beans and makes your latte. Honestly, it seems weird that we drink it at all. 

Yet we can't seem to live without it, and we intimately feel the pain when we have to pay more for it.

The Coogs at midseason 2025

I got kinda busy over the last few weeks and haven't had a chance to write about Cougar football. Here's a quick rundown of their last three games:

Houston 27, Oregon State 24 (OT): It's not how you start, it's how you finish. Houston played unprepared and uninspired football for most of this game, and at one point trailed the winless Beavers by two touchdowns. However, in the final six minutes of regulation the Cougars scored 14 points and blocked what would have been a game-winning field goal attempt by Oregon State for force overtime. Then, in the extra period, UH stuffed the Beavers on fourth down and kicked a field goal of their own to escape Corvallis with a win they really didn't deserve. 

To be fair, this game had "trap" written all over it: that the Coogs were able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat reflects well on their character. "I mean, nothing brings a team closer than a game like this,” Tight end Tanner Koziol said after the game. “Now we've looked at each other in the face of a loss, and we brought it out to a win." Of course, the Cougars were also beneficiaries of Oregon State's uncanny ability to find ways to lose; a few weeks after this game, their head coach was fired. 

Houston 11, #11 Texas Tech 35: All good things must come to an end, and such it was for Houston's four-game winning streak to start the season at the hands of a physically superior Texas Tech squad. Houston just couldn't get anything going on offense, as they turned the ball over three times and were held to only 12 first downs the entire game. QB Conner Weigman was replaced by Zeion Chriss late in the first half, after suffering a head injury. It's a credit to the Cougar defense that this score wasn't worse than it was. The Red Raiders were held to field goal attempts on seven of their drives (and two of those FG kicks were missed). 

The announced attendance of 42,806 was the fourth-largest crowd in TDECU Stadium history. Unfortunately, a lot of those attendees were Texas Tech fans.

Houston 39, Oklahoma State 17: The Cowboys are in a bit of a freefall, having fired longtime coach Mike Gundy a few weeks ago. They simply weren't much of a match for the Coogs, who rolled up 487 total yards of offense. Conner Weigman threw for two touchdowns and ran for another, and Dean Connor's one-handed touchdown catch may end up being Houston's top highlight of 2025. The Houston defense made things difficult for Oklahoma State's converted wide receiver QB, Sam Jackson V, who completed 7 of 16 passes for 84 yards with an interception and was sacked twice.

What It Means: At the halfway point of the season, the Cougars are 5-1, which already exceeds their win total from all of last year, and are just one win away from bowl eligibility. The offense has made definite improvement compared to last year, and the defense has remained solid in spite of fears it would take a step backwards this season. The program is definitely on a positive trajectory, and Ryan credits this improvement to the Coogs' success in the transfer portal.

However, this is not to say the Cougars are a great team by any means. With the exception of FCS Stephen F. Austin, none of the teams the Cougars have beaten currently have a winning record. They were completely outclassed by Texas Tech, and their sluggish starts in games like Rice and Oregon State are cause for concern. That's why, in spite of their record, the Coogs aren't even receiving votes in the AP top 25 poll. The remaining schedule is formidable and ESPN's FPI only clearly favors Houston in one remaining game (West Virginia). A winning season isn't assured.

The Cougars host the Arizona Wildcats at TDECU Stadium this weekend.

Has Iceland's tourist bubble burst?

A couple of weeks ago, an Iceland-based budget carrier suddenly ceased operations, stranding thousands of travelers:

In an unfortunate turn of events, low-cost Icelandic airline PLAY ceased operations without warning on Monday, September 29, 2025, leaving nearly 1,750 passengers stranded across Europe and North America. The airline, known for its budget-friendly transatlantic routes, issued a brief but jarring message on their website:

“Dear passenger, Fly PLAY hf. has ceased operations, and all flights have been cancelled. We kindly advise you to check flights with other airlines. Some carriers may offer special ‘rescue fares’ considering the circumstances.”

For travelers caught mid-itinerary, the announcement was both confusing and infuriating. With no prior warning, flights bound for cities like Baltimore, Barcelona, Lisbon, Paris, London, and Copenhagen were canceled, and inbound planes to Reykjavik never took off. Many travelers were left scrambling for last-minute alternatives at their own expense.

This isn't the first time an ultra-low-cost carrier based out of Iceland has folded without warning: WOW Air collapsed in 2019. Both WOW and PLAY were centered around a similar business model: connecting budget travelers in Europe and North America through Icelandic capital of Reykjavik, effectively making that city's airport a transatlantic hub. However, as both the demise of WOW and PLAY indicate, this business model is fraught with risk.

PLAY’s shutdown is a reminder of the fragility of ultra-low-cost carriers, especially in smaller markets like Iceland where operational margins are razor-thin. For travelers, it’s also a cautionary tale about the risks of booking with new or financially unstable airlines.

The Telegraph claims that PLAY's demise is proof that Iceland's tourist bubble has burst:

While Iceland’s tourism numbers boomed in the 2010s, things have slowed significantly in recent years. The country’s tourism bureau says international visitors have dropped 6 per cent in the last year. And it wasn’t like they were thriving before then: visitor numbers in 2023 were still lower than they were before the pandemic.

As for what’s causing the slump, analysts point to a drop-off in demand from Iceland’s two largest tourism markets, namely visitors from Britain and the United States. The two English-speaking countries usually account for almost half of all international visitors to Iceland – but it looks like travellers are increasingly getting cold feet.

The data doesn’t shine any light on what might be causing that reticence. But it seems sensible to assume that the ongoing cost-of-living squeeze – particularly on this side of the pond – may have played a part. After all, Iceland is frequently named as one of the world’s most expensive destinations, with a pint of beer often costing well over £10 in Reykjavík.

The Telegraph's claim drew the ire of Icelandic media, which claims that "data from the Icelandic Tourist Board shows that the number of visitors rose by 2.2% in 2024 compared with 2023, with further growth forecast this year." Left uncontested is the observation that fewer visitors are visiting Iceland than before the pandemic, or the likelihood that the sudden collapse of PLAY will have at least some negative effect on tourism to (and through) the country. 

From a purely anecdotal standpoint, I'm no longer being flooded with advertisements for Iceland like I was back in 2018, when the volcanic island was at the peak of its tourist popularity. It's also worth noting that some airlines that were flying to Iceland during that boom, such as American Airlines, are no longer doing so.

For those who still want to travel to Iceland, Icelandair remains operational and serves multiple North American and European destinations from Keflavik Airport. It also offers stopover packages for travelers who want to spend a few days exploring on their way between continents. As for me, my attitude regarding using Iceland as a stopover to Europe remains the same as it was in 2018: until there are direct flights between Houston and Reykjavik, there's no point in me doing so.

The Great College Crunch

Get ready to see a lot of colleges close their doors in the coming years:

A dwindling number of prospective students will drive as many as 370 private colleges in the US to shutter or merge with another institution in the next decade, according to a major higher-education consulting firm. 

Huron Consulting Group’s prediction is more than triple the total amount of private, nonprofit two- and four-year college closures that the National Center for Education Statistics calculated in the 10 years leading up to 2020.

The shrinking supply of students stems from a falling national birth rate that started in 2007 and hasn’t recovered. The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education estimates that the graduating class of 2041 will be about 13% smaller than the 2025 cohort. 

“Essentially the problem is we have too many seats in too many classrooms and not enough prospective students to fill them,” said Peter Stokes, a managing director at Huron. “Over the next decade, we’re going through a very painful but necessary re-balancing in supply and demand.” 

Since March 2020, at least 83 public or nonprofit colleges have either closed or merged, or have announced plans to do so. A lot of these are smaller religiously-affiliated colleges with enrollments in the hundreds. Some were founded as recently as the 1990s; others, such as Limestone College in South Carolina- my cousin's alma mater - were established back in the mid-1800s. Earlier today, in fact, two universities in North Carolina - Elon University and Queens University - announced their merger. 

As noted in the quote text above, birthrates in the United States peaked in 2007 and have steadily declined since. There are many reasons for this, but the end result is that fewer babies today means fewer college students tomorrow. 

There's an enormous crisis looming for US colleges. pic.twitter.com/xAB7XtyPug

— Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban) September 2, 2025

This decline in native-born enrollment will, furthermore, be accompanied by a decline in international enrollment. The current administration's growing restrictions on international students are already making American schools less attractive (and in many cases completely off limits) to college students abroad. Even if they are reversed by a future administration, they will nevertheless create a chilling effect on international enrollment that may well be permanent. 

Stokes said that schools need to come up with an early game plan to meet enrollment challenges. Colleges can consider diversifying their student populations by growing graduate, professional and part-time programs, for example. 

“If you aren’t thinking five years ahead, you’re at a significant disadvantage,” he said. “If you only have three years of runway, your chances of survival are less than 50%. If you call us when you’ve got nine months of cash, you’re dead in the water and it’s too late.” 

Some schools think that they can attract more students, especially young men, by adding sports programs:

Roanoke is one of about a dozen schools that have added football programs in the last two years, with several more set to do so in 2026. Administrators hope that having a team will increase enrollment, especially of men, whose ranks in college have been falling.

Yet research consistently finds that while enrollment may spike initially, adding football does not produce long-term enrollment gains.

Roanoke's president, Frank Shushok Jr., nonetheless believes that bringing back football — and the various spirit-raising activities that go with it — will attract more students, especially male students.

The small liberal arts college lost nearly 300 students between 2019 and 2022. And things were likely to get worse; the country's population of 18-year-olds is about to decline and colleges everywhere are competing for students from a smaller pool. 

"Do I think adding sports strategically is helping the college maintain its enrollment base? It absolutely has for us," said Shushok.  "And it has in a time when men in particular aren't going to college."

I'm a bit skeptical of this strategy. A lot of those 83 schools I mentioned did have athletics programs, even if at the Division III or NAIA level. Birmingham-Southern University's baseball team famously played in the Division III College World Series after their school had officially shut down. 

A 2024 University of Georgia study examined the effects of adding football on a school's enrollment. It found modest early enrollment spikes compared with comparable colleges that didn't.

"What you see is basically a one-year spike in male enrollment around guys who come to that school to help be part of starting up a team," said Welch Suggs, an associate professor there and the study's lead author. "But then that effect fades out over the next couple of years."

After two years, the researchers found "statistically indistinguishable" differences.

I don't think there's any easy fix to the problem that the nation's colleges and universities are facing because the demographic trends behind it are probably permanent. Administrators simply need to maintain their focus on providing a quality experience (e.g. safe campus, knowledgable faculty, marketable degrees) to their students, ensure that their schools' financials are sound, and accept that not every school is going to make it.

Houston 36, Colorado 20

Last Friday evening, the Cougars notched a dominating win over Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes before 37,899 fans at TDECU Stadium. 

The Good: Kicker Ethan Sanchez was the game MVP, accounting for half of the Coogs' 36 points. Sanchez was 5 of 6 on field goal attempts, hitting from 35, 43, 47, 49 and 52 yards and providing the Houston offense with much-needed morale boosts when their drives didn't quite reach the endzone. Sanchez was also 3 for 3 on extra point attempts. 

The Better: The Coogs ran the ball effectively, rolling up 209 yards against the Buffalo defense. QB Conor Weigman picked up 83 yards and two touchdowns on 17 carries, RB Dean Conners added another 89 yards and a touchdown on 2 carries, and RB Stacy Sneed chipped in for 35 yards of his own. Add the ground yardage to the 222 yards the Cougars accumulated through the air, and the result was the Houston's first game with more than 400 total yards in total offense in over two years. 

The Best: UH's defense continues to be outstanding. It stymied Colorado's offense, forcing five Buffalo 3-and-outs as well as a turnover on downs, intercepting CU QB Ryan Staub twice, sacking him three times, and tallying seven tackles for loss. 

What It Means: Houston sits at a perfect 3-0 though the first quarter of the season, and the UH faithful can't help but feel good about where this team is headed. Meanwhile, CBS Sports's Shehan Jeyarajah wonders if Colorado's "Prime Time" has come to an abrupt end.

The Cougars get a well-timed week off before traveling to Corvallis, Oregon to face the Oregon State Beavers.

Houston 35, Rice 9

After a sluggish start, the Cougars rallied to win the latest (and last, for a while) edition of the Bayou Bucket. 

The Good, Part I: Rice students were upset that RB Dean Connors transferred from their school to Houston over the summer, so they chanted "FUCK DEAN CONNORS" every time he touched the ball. The chant continued until about forty seconds before halftime, when Connors broke through the Rice defense to score on a 54-yard touchdown run. The Rice student section became very quiet from then on. Connors would add another touchdown to his total in the second half and ended the evening with 132 yards on 13 carries.

The Good, Part II: The Houston defense continues to impress, limiting the Owls' re-vamped option offense to 205 yards and a lone touchdown. The defense tallied three sacks and eight tackles for loss, and Will James intercepted a Rice pass and ran it back 37 yards for a pick six. Through two games, the Cougar D has given up a total of nine points - something no UH team has done since the late '80s.

The Bad: The UH offense looked awful in the first half. The Cougars could get nothing going offensively, gaining a meager 64 yards before Connors' touchdown right before halftime gave them the spark they needed. The Cougars looked better in the second half, but Houston's passing game continues to underwhelm. Take way his 74-yard touchdown pass to Boogie Johnson in the fourth quarter, and Weigman was a mediocre 14-of-21 for 114 yards on the night; he was also sacked three times.

What It Means: The Cougars are now 2-0 for the first time since the 2018 season. They also lead the overall series with Rice, 35-12, as it enters a period of hiatus. It's unclear at this time when, or even if, the series will resume. 

Ryan thinks that the Bayou Bucket needs to end because it's not a "real" rivalry; the schools have little in common other than the fact that they are close to each other. I'm not sure I agree, but I do accept his premise that, now that they are in the Big 12, the Cougars need to schedule as many home games as possible, and giving a game away to Rice every other year is not in the financial best interests of the UH program. 

Next up for the Coogs is an interesting Friday night game at TDECU Stadium, as Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes come to town.

Houston 27, Stephen F. Austin 0

The Houston Cougars start the year with a shutout.

The Good: For all the concern that the defense would take a step backwards after losing defensive coordinator Shiel Wood and several key players from last year's team, they were dominant against SFA. They held the Lumberjacks to 144 total yards of offense, intercepted them twice (and dropped at least two additional picks) and, most importantly, kept SFA from putting any points on the board. You can't ask your defense to do more than that, even against an FCS program.

On the offensive side of the ball, transfer TE Tanner Koziol was as good as advertised, leading all receivers with seven catches for 63 yards and a touchdown. QB Conner Weigman performed acceptably in his first start for the Coogs, completing 15 of 24 passes for 159 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions.

The Bad: The offensive line. In spite of being completely overhauled during the offseason, the O-line's struggles continued, especially in run blocking situations. They allowed eight tackles for loss, and one Houston possession ended in a turnover on downs because the Cougars couldn't gain one measly yard on either 3rd or 4th down.... against an FCS defense. 

Between poor O-line play and receivers who failed to get open or otherwise weren't on the same page as Weigman, the offense sputtered for much of the night. Seven Cougar drives ended in punts (five of which were 3-and-outs).

The Horrible: Although originally expected to start, RB Re'Shaun Sanford did not take the field last Thursday. After the game it was discovered that he had undergone knee surgery the day before the game, ending his season before it even began. With his loss, the Cougars are without a key piece of their ground attack.

What It Means: Should UH faithful be concerned that the offense only managed to score 27 points against an FCS opponent? Or should they remember that an offense with so many new faces (coordinator included) is going to be a work in progress at the beginning of the season? Both things can be true, and I expect improvement from here.

Next up for the Cougars is a short trip west to play Rice, in what might be the last edition of the Bayou Bucket for a while.

Underdog Dynasty has more on the Coogs' season opener.

Conspiracy theorists upset that serial killer doesn't exist

Even though I don't live in Austin, I'm in regular contact with a large number of people who do. So I'm surprised I hadn't heard about the "Rainy Street Ripper" before I read this article:

After years of speculation and international headlines, a new study by Texas State University criminologists and the Austin Police Department has concluded the “Rainey Street Ripper” — a purported serial killer targeting Austin men on the edges of Lady Bird Lake — isn’t real.

Since 2018, at least 21 bodies have been pulled from Lady Bird Lake, which was still known as "Town Lake" when I lived in Austin and is basically a wide part of the Colorado River near downtown. A certain segment of the population believes these drownings are the result of a serial killer; naturally, they've used social media to express and promote this supposition.

Despite the spread of the theory online, Austin police have for years remained consistent that there was no evidence of a serial killer. Now, Texas State’s study has concluded the same — that there is “neither direct evidence nor indirect warning signs of a serial murderer.” 

Texas State’s Center for Geospatial Intelligence and Investigation analyzed 189 drowning cases from 2004 to 2025, and the report found they match historical patterns and the average risk of drowning in a growing city the size of Austin.

“The theory that a serial killer is drowning men from Austin’s Rainey Street District has been advanced by social and mainstream media for over two years now,” the study’s authors wrote. “Much of this coverage has criticized the failure of authorities to recognize the threat of a violent offender. But while police must properly respond to the risk of a predator, it is also important they not waste limited resources pursuing a criminal who does not exist.”

To nobody's surprise, Rainy Street Ripper true believers weren't having it:

In the comments section for the Statesman’s story on Instagram, dozens of people remained unconvinced. In fact, the majority of the nearly 100 comments expressed an unwillingness to believe the new study — and a reassertion of the conspiracy that police might themselves be involved.

“That’s because it’s a cop,” wrote @lamandamb. In just five hours, more than 200 people had liked her comment.

“We have investigated ourselves and determined we’ve done nothing wrong,” wrote @3lucyd. 

“That’s because the call is coming from inside the house,” wrote @justbaugh. 

On X, @BaronVnOttomatc wrote, “Of course, that’s what they want you to believe.”

Others wrote “Sure, Jan…” or posted the meme from “The Brady Bunch.”

In KXAN’s Instagram comments, the tone was much the same.

“I’m not saying this doesn’t make sense, but I am saying that throughout history, police and city officials have deliberately lied about a serial killer in order to not cause a panic,” wrote @mr.silveira98.

“I’m not buying what you’re sellin sir,” wrote @csnively. Others referenced the show “Dexter,” the series about a blood splatter expert who solves murders — and also commits them.

These commenters didn't just direct their ire at the Austin Police Department; they also accused the Texas State researchers of a cover-up or, worse yet, being in on the murders:

As @JeffOnVacation wrote on Blue Sky, “So, the ‘Rainey Street Ripper’ works at Texas State.” That same sentiment was shared by @wise_sarcasm on Threads, who wrote, “Murderer must have just started classes at Texas state this fall.”

It's impossible to know how many of these comments were made by Rainy Street Ripper true believers and how many came from trolls and bots; in fact, I'm not sure it even matters. It's just more evidence of the jaw-droppingly stupid era we currently live in, where mistrust in institutions such as law enforcement and academia is at an all-time low, and misinformation and public anxiety can be effortlessly spread by social media. It also doesn't help that tabloids and propaganda networks help spread this nonsense:

The authors also noted that news reporting on the story, particularly by Fox News and The Daily Mail, had been both sensational and reliant upon “the opinions of unqualified experts and others who ignored due diligence,” with too little attention paid “to the dangers of revictimization of family members” of the people killed in the drownings.

“These fabrications have costs in the real world, wasting valuable resources that could be deployed to help solve actual crimes,” said the study. “To provide perspective, the cost of a serial murder investigation is typically in the tens of millions of dollars. Currently, Texas has 23,000 cold case homicides — actual crimes that have not been solved.”

The cost of this conspiracy theory isn't only in the law enforcement resources being dedicated to investigate it; it's also the very real possibility that a Rainy Street Ripper true believer might decide to become a vigilante, harassing anybody around Lady Bird Lake they think might be the murderer (and potentially causing violence, à la the Comet Ping Pong shooter, in the process) or, worse yet, that a lonely, mentally disturbed person sitting in their apartment might consume this bullshit and be inspired to become the Rainy Street Ripper themselves.

But none of these potential consequences matter to conspiracy theorists; they cling to their delusions because they think it's what makes them different than the rest of us "sheeple." Which is why the Rainy Street Ripper will continue to be invoked every time some dumbass gets drunk on Sixth Street, decides to go for a swim in the wee hours of the morning, and drowns.

Remembering Lee Corso's F-Bomb

This weekend will be legendary college football coach and commentator Lee Corso's last appearance on ESPN College Gameday. To commemorate the end of the unpredictable 90-year-old analyst's career, ESPN put together a documentary that included this tidbit on one of the most unforgettable moments in College Gameday history, which occurred on the University of Houston campus:

Of course, I was present when it happened, although at the time I didn't hear the actual word.

The University of Houston is currently renovating the plaza in front of the E. Cullen building, where the College Gameday stage was set up. I think as part of the remodeling they should install a commemorative plaque:

Here marks the spot where, on November 19, 2011, during a live broadcast of ESPN College Gameday, Lee Corso said "AW, FUCK IT!" 

Video of our trip to Japan

Last month Corinne and I spent a week and a half in Japan. It was my first trip to the country in two decades; she had never before been. 

We stayed in Osaka, spending time exploring that city and making day trips to places like Kyoto, Kobe and Hiroshima. We also attended Expo 2025 - the world's fair - because Corinne has good memories of attending the 1984 World's Fair in New Orleans as child (her father was involved in its organization) and has always wanted to attend another one.

Below is a video I created of our trip:

If I ever have the time and motivation, I might write some additional posts about the trip: what we saw, how we got around, and (most importantly!) what we ate. 

As is usually the case when we travel, this trip simply makes us want to go back and see more of Japan in the future. But we're not going to make any more trips to Japan in the summer - it was just as hot in Osaka as it is in Houston!

2025 Houston Cougar Football Preview

Another college football season is upon us, which means that it's time for me to resume blogging.

Looking Back: There were some bright spots to Willie Fritz's first year at the helm of the Cougar program, including victories over TCU on the road and a ranked Kansas State at home, but the overall result was a 4-8 record for the second straight season. The UH football program has traditionally been known for its offense, but last year that was not the case as Houston finished 133 (out of 134 FBS teams) in scoring, and 128th in total offense.

The Big Story for 2025: Fritz is bringing in new coordinators on both sides of the ball. The ineffective Kevin Barbay has been replaced by Slade Nagle, who worked with Fritz at Tulane, as Offensive Coordinator. Defensively, the Cougars were forced to make a change at the coordinator position when Texas Tech hired Shiel Wood away from Cullen Boulevard. Austin Armstrong, previously DC at Florida, takes over.

Reasons for Optimism: Aside from Nagle, the offense itself is seeing an influx of transfer portal talent including highly-ranked QB Conner Weigman (previously at Texas A&M) and TE Tanner Koziol (previously at Ball State), who was the highest-rated tight end in the portal. These and other newcomers join standouts from last season, such as RB Re'Shaun Sanford II and WR Stephon Johnson. Defensive playmakers such as DT Carlos Allen, Jr and LB Brandon Mack return as well.

The schedule also seems a bit more favorable than the one the Cougars faced last season. The Coogs only face two of the five Big 12 teams ranked in either the preseason AP or Coaches poll. UH also gets an opportunity to work out some kinks against an FCS opponent to start the season, a luxury they did not have to start last season.

Reasons for Pessimism: The transfer portal giveth, and the transfer portal taketh away. The defense was Houston's one bright spot in the 2024 season, ending the season 25th in the nation in yards allowed per game, but key defensive players from last year, including safety A.J. Haulcy and cornerback Jeremiah Wilson, transferred out. Their losses will hurt just as much as Wood's departure to Lubbock.

Disastrously poor offensive line play was one of the reasons for the Coogs' struggles on that side of the ball last season. While Fritz and his staff have brought in some transfers to fortify that struggling unit, it remains to be seen if they will be able to effectively protect Weigman or open holes for the ground game.

What the Computers Think: The Cougars are ranked 70th (out of 136 FBS schools*) in ESPN's preseason Football Power Index and their game-by-game matchup predictor gives the Cougars more than a 50% chance of winning only four games (although a fifth game is almost a toss-up). A separate ESPN rating, the SP+, ranks the Cougars #63 and projects 5.8 wins for the Cougars. "After fielding their worst team in 22 years, the Cougs [sic] are natural rebound candidates, especially with top-20 returning production," the article states.

Sagarin's beginning-of-season ratings predict a 6-6 campaign when home field advantage is taken into consideration. Congrove foresees a 6-6 campaign for the Coogs as well. Massey's algorithm is more pessimistic, only giving the Cougars a 50% chance of winning three games this fall. 

What the Humans Think: Chronicle UH beatwriter Joseph Duarte is predicting a 7-5 season for Houston, as are USA Today's Paul Myerberg and Jim Sergent. CollegeFootballNews foresees a 6-6 record for the Cougars (their full preview of the team is here). James Parks of College Football HQ foresees a 6-6 campaign as well. CBSports.com has the Coogs ranked #53 going into the season and thinks they're on track for a Frisco Bowl appearance, which means they foresee at least six victories.

What I think: I think this fall's offense will be better (after all, it can't get much worse than last season), but I think the defense will take a step backward. The schedule is easier than it was a year ago, but is still formidable. There are a lot of new faces on the program - athletes and coordinators alike - so getting everybody to quickly coalesce as a team will be of utmost importance. 

I want to believe that the Cougars can achieve at least six wins and go to a bowl game this fall - that, after all, should be the minimum expectation of Willie Fritz's second season - and will therefore predict a 6-6 regular season for UH. 

But I do so with a bit of trepidation, because the Coogs don't have much margin for error this fall. In order to get to six wins, the Cougars will need to do at least three of the following four things: not suffer any dreaded "Coog It" games at home, overcome a very long road trip to beat Oregon State in Eugene, do what only one other UH team has done in history and beat UCF in Orlando, and/or pull off a significant upset against the likes of Baylor or Texas Tech. None of those things will be easy. Also, of course, the team must stay healthy; Weigman had injury issues at Texas A&M and if he goes down here as well then all bets are off. 

It was obvious that it would take Willie Fritz more than just one season to repair the damage done to the program by Dana Holgorsen. The good news is that Fritz's teams seem to have a history of taking leaps forward during his second season as head coach; hopefully that trend holds up this fall. 

Underdog Dynasty has a thorough preview of the Cougars that is worth a read.

*Missouri State and Delaware are joining the FBS party this fall.

Dorothy Ella Johnston 1922-2025

Nobody is immortal. Not even my aunt Dorothy, who died on April 1st, just a few months shy of her 103rd birthday. She was laid to rest in Temple, Texas yesterday. Her obituary was carried by the Temple Daily Telegram and can also be accessed on her funeral home's website (along with a bunch of pictures of her over the years if you click on "gallery"). As is my tradition, I am also posting it here (especially because I wrote it!):

Dorothy Ella Johnston, of Temple, departed this earth on April 1, 2025.

Dorothy was born in Osage County, Oklahoma on July 22, 1922 and graduated from Bowlegs High School in Bowlegs, Oklahoma in 1940. In 1941, she entered the Sisters of St. Francis in Maryville, Missouri. She graduated from the St. Anthony School of Nursing in Oklahoma City as a Registered Nurse in 1948, Benedictine Heights College in Tulsa, Oklahoma with a Bachelor of Science in 1956, and St. Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri with a Masters of Education in 1962. She spent most of her career as a medical records administrator but also served as principal of Mount Alverno Academy in Maryville, Missouri in the 1960s. Dorothy left the Sisters of St. Francis in 1968.

In 1973 she settled in Temple, where she would spend the rest of her life. She worked in the medical information section of the Olin E. Teague Veterans Administration Hospital until 1984 and then taught in the Medical Records Technology Program at Temple College until 1987. Whether as a nurse, a teacher, an administrator, or an aunt, and in hospitals, schools, convents and so many other places, Dorothy touched an uncountable number of lives during her 102 years on this planet.

Dorothy will be remembered for her independence, her wisdom, and her enthusiasm for imparting it upon others (whether they wanted it or not!). Dorothy did not realize she was a dog person until later in life, when she met her two best friends, Penny and Daisy.

She is preceded in death by her parents, Henry William Johnston and Ruth Ella Mitchem Johnston, and her brothers James Orrin Johnston and Glen Edwin Johnston. She is survived by her brother Joseph Henry Johnston of Austin, sister Rosemary Teresa Johnston Gray of Houston, sister-in-law Carolyn Johnston of Beaverton, Oregon, and innumerable cousins, nieces, and nephews living all over the world. She also leaves behind many friends and neighbors who provided her support, comfort and companionship.

A mass funeral will be held at 11 am on Monday, April 14, 2025 at St. Luke’s Catholic Church, where she was a parishioner for over half a century. A rosary will precede the service at 10:30, and her ashes will be interred in St. Luke’s columbarium afterwards. In lieu of flowers, her family requests donations be made to Feed My Sheep (116 W Avenue G, Temple, TX 76504).

And now, time for some pictures... 

Dorothy and a very young me, March 1974

Dorothy, along with my grandmother, moved to Temple the same year I was born. Given that Temple is only about three hours away from Houston, I saw her on a regular basis. Most holidays and even some vacations were spent with her and she was always there for the big events of my life, such as graduations and my first wedding. It felt weird being in Temple for her funeral yesterday, knowing that it might have been the last time I would ever be there. 

Dorothy and me in Tucson, Arizona, where we were attending my cousin's wedding, June 2004

Dorothy, having no spouse or children of her own, definitely lived an independent life. I will never forget how she, in her mid-60s, decided to travel down to Ecuador by herself to visit us (and take an excursion into the Amazonian rainforest with us!) when we were spending the summer there. 

The five of us in a hotel in the Ecuadorian rainforest, July 1988

After my grandmother passed away in 2000, Dorothy lived alone. When my uncle and her younger brother Glen, who also lived in Temple, died back in 2007, I wrote that Dorothy's "days of living independently are probably numbered." She proved me wrong by herself for another fifteen years, only having to move out of her house a few months short of her 100th birthday when her eyesight had deteriorated to the point where she could no longer get around her own home. She spent the next two-and-a-half years in assisted living and was only transferred to full nursing care a couple of months ago, when her body finally gave out. Her mental abilities never diminished.

Family, friends and neighbors gathered for Dorothy's 95th birthday, July 2017

This does not mean that Dorothy lived in isolation. She had a number of friends and neighbors who checked on her on a regular basis when she lived in her house, providing her with much-needed support and conversation. Those same people continued to visit her in assisted living. She also had the companionship of Daisy, her dog. Sometimes I'd even make the trip to check in on her.  

Corinne and myself visiting Dorothy and Daisy, June 2021

As for "her wisdom, and her enthusiasm for imparting it upon others (whether they wanted it or not!)," that's a gentle way of saying that Dorothy had very strong opinions and didn't hesitate to share them with others. Sometimes it was humorous, but at other times it could be awkward. She especially loved to nag my brother and me, imploring us to be more obedient to our parents or do better in school. I know it was because she had our best interests in mind, but when we were teenagers it got to the point that we started referring to the street in Temple on which she lived, Lancelot Lane, as "Nag-a-lot Street."

Dorothy spent a lot of time in the kitchen, but her tastes were fairly basic.

Dorothy Johnston led a long and remarkable life, so much of it spent in service of others. She will definitely be missed. After being on this earth for almost 103 years, it will definitely feel strange for Dorothy not to be here anymore.

Dorothy and me shortly after her transfer to a nursing facility, January 2025. This is the last picture of us together.

The San Luis Pass Bridge

I've caught some very nice fish underneath this bridge. It's good to know I won't need to scrounge up spare change to go over it anymore.

The days of fishing in the console for stray quarters when crossing the San Luis Pass bridge are numbered. Galveston County commissioners voted Monday to phase out the required $2 toll over the bridge, the Galveston County Daily News reported.

The motion passed 5-0 after Commissioner Joe Giusti, who put it on the agenda, reportedly said the toll's purpose of paying for the bridge had been fulfilled years ago. He added that the county could absorb the roughly $500,000 collected yearly from the tolls, more than half of which goes toward staffing the booth.

I always knew that the bridge's construction cost had long been paid off; I somehow assumed that tolls were being collected for the bridge's ongoing maintenance. I had no idea that the majority of those proceeds went to the collection staff itself. That doesn't sound like a particularly efficient use of those revenues, but the cash-only bridge was never a model of efficiency. In fact, it was a bit of a pain.

Notwithstanding the Bolivar ferry—of little use when heading back to Houston or Austin—the San Luis Pass bridge is the only land route off the island besides the I-45 causeway. Linking Galveston Island and Brazoria County, it draws extra attention from time to time when construction around the causeway causes horrific backups, like the one in February that had fuming drivers reportedly waiting up to five hours to get back on the mainland.

It probably should be pointed out that this bridge connects Galveston Island to another island - Follett's Island - and it's still another fifteen miles from this bridge to the State Highway 332 bridge in Surfside that connects Follett's Island to the Brazoria County mainland. This is something to keep in mind when using this bridge for, say, hurricane evacuations. 

Built in the 1960s after Hurricane Carla destroyed the previous one, the bridge may not be long for this world either way, according to the Daily News. In 2023, the Texas Department of Transportation rated it in poor condition, noting its deteriorating beams and cracked concrete.

The county is in the embryonic stages of raising the money necessary for a new bridge. Commissioners in February authorized Galveston County Judge Mark Henry to apply for federal grants that would cover most of the cost, the Daily News reported.

Sounds good to me, as long as the new bridge isn't tolled, and I can still catch nice reds and sheepshead underneath it.

Cougars fall short of national title

I was hoping that, in terms of making it to the national championship game, the third time would be a charm for the Houston Cougars and they would claim their first national title. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be.

Nearly an hour after Houston coach Kelvin Sampson walked off the court amid flurries of Florida-colored orange and blue confetti, he stood in front of a black curtain in a hallway at the Alamodome.

Sampson, 69, faced a phalanx of television lights that illuminated him at his most crushing professional low. The lights shined on his close-cropped hair, which is more salt than pepper, as midnight quickly approached.

With his arms folded across his chest and an NCAA National Final pin adjacent to the UH logo on his gray polo, Sampson distilled the disappointment of Houston squandering a 12-point lead in the second half and ending the national title game with four consecutive turnovers in a 65-63 loss to Florida.

"There's a lot of teams that are not built for six straight wins," Sampson said, referring to the number needed to win the NCAA tournament. "This team was, this team was built, this team had the character and the toughness and the leadership. This team was built to win this tournament, and that's why it's so disappointing. We got here and had a chance and just didn't get it done."

The Cougars led for most of the game but faded down the stretch and lost in a manner eerily reminiscent of their stunning upset at the hands of North Carolina State in the 1983 national championship game. Houston's last shot attempt of the game occurred with 1:25 left up 63-62, and they turned it over four times on their last four possessions, including the ill-fated final possession:

After Florida's Denzel Aberdeen made one of two free throws, Houston had the ball down two with 19 seconds left. Florida's defense stymied Houston's early offensive action, then [UH guard Emanuel] Sharp caught the ball nearly 6 feet behind the 3-point line with five seconds remaining.

Sharp went straight up to attempt a long 3-pointer, but what would have been a 28-footer never got off. Walter Clayton Jr. sniffed out his desperation and lunged at him midair with an outstretched left hand, and it put Sharp in the unenviable position of getting his shot blocked or letting the ball drop.

Sharp shielded Clayton as the ball hit the floor, and Florida's Alex Condon made the hustle play to seal the game by snagging his fourth steal of the night. Sharp slumped down a few feet from his final turnover, his elbows perched atop his knees and fists covering his face as he looked toward the floor.

To be fair to Emanuel, the game should not have come down to him. The Cougars missed easy shots all evening, hitting less than 35% of their field goals and going a lousy 6-25 from beyond the three-point line. They also missed 5 out of 14 free throws. The officiating didn't help either, with the referees missing a obvious Florida goaltending late in the first half and piling up ticky-tack fouls on the Coogs in the second half. But that's no excuse. The Cougars were up by 12 at one point in the second half. They should have won. 

They didn't.

I have to keep my perspective. The fact that the Cougars made the championship game at all is amazing, given their miraculous comeback win over Duke in the semifinal. There are hundreds of college basketball programs out there who would love to be able to claim seven final four appearances and three national championship game appearances, like Houston can. I also need to appreciate the fact that the University of Houston basketball program is nationally prominent today, after spending three decades after the Phi Slama Jama era in utter irrelevance. This game was by no means the end of the road for the Cougars under Kelvin Sampson.

But that doesn't make this loss feel any better. "Best men's basketball program to never have won a championship" isn't a particularly comforting title. This is going to sting for awhile. Assistant coach Kellen Sampson said it best:

"It's a brutal, cruel guillotine," he said, "and when you get here, every team is so good and you don't get here without a team that's connected, resilient, tough. The margins are so razor-thin. We certainly did enough tonight to win. Florida did, as well, and they won."

Let's just hope it's not another 42 years before the Houston Cougars get another bite at the national championship apple.

How far we've come

I've known Greg Propes for for at least 25 years, so it's very cool to see him get a few minutes of fame from the Chronicle based on a picture he took back in December 2013:

Greg Propes, via the Houston Chronicle

Greg Propes arrived inside Hofheinz Pavilion just as the starting lineups were being announced for a non-conference game against Alcorn State in 2013.

“My jaw dropped,” Propes said. “Even by the poor standards that had been set at UH, my jaw dropped when I saw literally nobody there. It blew my mind.”

Propes took photos of Hofheinz from different angles, each showing completely empty sections of red seats for an early December game in coach James Dickey’s final season.

Once again, the photos surfaced on social media this week, showing just how far the University of Houston men’s basketball program has come since the arrival of coach Kelvin Sampson a year later.

That night, Propes posted the photos on the fan website CoogFans.com. He counted 43 fans sitting in the section behind the scorer’s table. He counted 15 students. The announced attendance for UH’s 31-point win was 2,833.

“I’m embarrassed to be here. I’m embarrassed for the players. I’m embarrassed,” Propes wrote on the website’s message board.

UH message boards were referring to Hofheinz as "the Tomb" at the time, because people simply weren't going to the games. It didn't matter that the game Greg attended was on a Monday night during finals week against an uninteresting opponent; the Coogs could have been playing North Carolina on Saturday and the crowd probably wouldn't have been much larger. The program was simply not relevant nationally nor of interest to local sports fans, UH alums included. About six weeks after Greg took this picture, I wrote:

I freely admit that I'm part of the problem; I rarely attend UH basketball games these days because, well, the games just aren't much fun for me anymore. Sure, I should be a good alumnus and support my school's hoops program through thick and thin. But when the team plays one of the weakest non-conference schedules in the nation but still only manages an 8-5 record, when the program has made exactly one NCAA Tournament appearance in the last twenty-two years, when the head coach is an aging retread who was coaching middle school girl's basketball when he was hired, when attending Cougar basketball games feels less like entertainment and more like a chore... Well, I guess I've just reached "that point of apathy" that [former Houston Press writer John] Royal writes about. There was a time when I really cared about UH basketball. Now I couldn't even tell you when the next home game is.

After the 2013-14 season was over, the University of Houston fired James Dickey (who never should have been hired to begin with), and tapped Kelvin Sampson to lead the program out of the abyss.  

Today, things are completely different. The Coogs play in front of packed crowds at the renovated Fertitta Center. The program won the Big XII conference for the second year in a row. The team is heading to their seventh Final Four in program history this weekend. UH basketball is no longer merely relevant; it is one of the nation's best. 

It's amazing to see just how much things have changed in a dozen years.

“Kelvin Sampson is a miracle worker,” Propes said. “What has happened to UH — and I don’t use the word lightly — is a miracle what happened here.”

Monarch population rebounds

This story is a month old at this point, but these days I'll share any good news I can get:

In encouraging news, the eastern monarch butterfly population nearly doubled in 2025, according to a new report announced in Mexico. The population wintering in central Mexico's forests occupied 4.42 acres, up from 2.22 acres during the previous winter. While monarchs occupied nearly twice as much forest habitat as last year, populations remain far below the long-term average.

The survey, Forest Area Occupied by Monarch Butterflies Colonies in Mexico During the 2024-2025 Hibernation Season is conducted annually by WWF-Mexico and Mexico's National Commission of Protected Natural Areas in collaboration with local communities, and it serves as an important indicator of the butterfly's overall population health. 

“We recognize the key role of local communities, as well as the support of the government of Mexico in conserving the forest and providing this iconic species with the opportunity to thrive,” said Jorge Rickards, director general of WWF Mexico. "It’s now time to turn this year’s increase into a lasting trend with an all-hands approach where governments, landowners, conservationists, and citizens continue to safeguard critical habitats along the monarch’s North American migratory route.”

Scientists attribute much of this year’s population growth to better weather conditions in 2024—with less severe drought than in previous years—along the butterflies' migration route from the United States and Canada to Mexico.

Improvements have also been made in protecting the overwintering forests in Mexico from threats such as illegal logging. Here's this year's graph from monarchwatch.org:

monarchwatch.org

One season does not a trend make, and as the graph above shows, the migrating monarch butterfly population is tis just a fraction of what it's historically been. But given last year's particularly grim report, this is good. Monarchs are resilient - how many other species can double their population in the span of a single year? - but they still need our help:

Monarchs still face several threats. For example, climatic variations in the monarch’s breeding areas in Canada and the United States can impact the abundance of milkweed, the only plant in which the butterflies lay their eggs, and from which monarch caterpillars feed. Land-use changes in the United States, combined with the widespread use of herbicides and insecticides, have also contributed to the loss of milkweed and other nectar plants adult monarchs need to feed from. And while high levels of illegal logging in the monarch butterfly reserve have been halted, forest degradation in the overwintering sites in Mexico could be a threat if left unchecked.

Remember, folks: 80% of our agricultural production depends on pollinating insects such as monarchs, and other pollinators are having population crises of their own. Protecting the monarch isn't just good for them; it's good for us.

So plant that milkweed.