[whistleone]

Coach learns hard way: Some refs show no mercy
We know officials and coaches sometimes don’t get along, but this is ridiculous.

Conference USA said Monday that officials “exercised poor judgment” when they upheld a technical foul on Houston coach Tom Penders after he collapsed during a game against UAB last Saturday.

Penders, a former Texas coach, passed out on the sideline late in the first half of Houston’s 82-79 loss and was carried off the court on a stretcher and given oxygen. He returned to coach the second half.

Penders dropped to his knees, then fell face down. Officials called a technical foul on Penders, apparently thinking he was reacting to a foul call.

Penders, 60, has cardiomyopathy, a congenital heart condition, and had a defibrillator implanted in his chest in 1997.

The officials refused to reverse the technical after Penders received medical attention, and UAB’s Carldell Johnson made both free throws.

Penders did not realize he had been called for a technical until after the game. When he found out, he said the call was “extremely poor judgment on the officials’ part.”