Finally back at the HoopDirt headquarters! After a long trip to Houston here are some thoughts….

Houston – nice city to spend a few days, but wouldn’t want to live there! Way bigger than I thought it would be. Also, very spread out. Kind of makes you wish for Indianapolis again.

The lobby of the Hilton was a great spot all week. Lots of guys coming and going. The $7 beers were a bad hit, but definitely a fun place to hang out. Also, crazy watching Christian Laettner walking around trying to find a job.

Everyday, people kept telling me to go to Lucky’s on St. Emmanuel Street. Everytime I went, I stayed for a few minutes and left – total sausage fest.

Best fast food down there – Whataburger. Anything on Texas Toast is great! They don’t have those where I’m from.

Lastly, one of our readers was breaking my balls when I blogged from 39,000 feet. He said planes don’t go that high. Well, I did some research and found out that they do fly that high(http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_high_do_airplanes_fly…). AND…on my way home we topped out at 37,000 feet (I personally asked the pilot on the way off the plane). You learn something new every day, eh?

Anyway, here’s the dirt……

All signs point to Pat Knight to be the choice at Lamar. Expect a press conference today.

USC associate head coach Bob Cantu interviewed for the UC-Davis job on Saturday in Houston. He has not interviewed yet at Fresno State.

Montana head coach is no longer involved with the Fresno State job. He met with Fresno officials last week in San Francisco. He has since withdrawn from consideration.

Hot name at Miami right now is Kansas State head coach Frank Martin. He is a Miami native who coaches HS basketball in Miami for 15 years. I’ve also heard Florida Atlantic head coach Mike Jarvis’ name floated around the Miami job.

Midwestern State will name Nelson Haggerty as their new head coach at a 3:30pm press conference this afternoon. Haggerty has been an assistant at Midwestern for the past two seasons and will replace Grant McCasland, who accepted the head coaching position at Abilene Christian University last week.

I’ve heard that Nebraska assistant Tracy Webster is close to joining Cuonzo Martin’s staff at Tennessee. Webster has been an assistant at Kentucky, Illinois, DePaul, and Purdue (I guess he has high major experience).

Oklahoma City University has a 1:00pm press conference scheduled today to name their new coach. As I’ve mentioned before, I have heard the choice here is Oklahoma assistant Dionne Phelps.