More than a few Cougar basketball fans are wondering today if they’ve been April fooled.

Word leaked Wednesday afternoon that the University of Houston would name James Dickey its next men’s head basketball coach.  Not Billy Gillispie.  Not Bob Marlin.  Not John Lucas.  James Dickey.

If Cougar fans were hoping for a new coach who would bring a buzz back to campus (and they were), they were sorely disappointed in Houston Athletic Director Mack Rhoades’ selection.  Dickey, 56, has not held a head coaching job since being fired from Texas Tech in 2001, and last coached a team to the NCAA tournament before the breakup of the Southwest Conference.  He spent 2002 to 2008 as an assistant at Oklahoma State under his mentor, Eddie Sutton.

On blogs and message boards across the Net on Wednesday, Houston fans reacted to the news of Dickey’s hiring in much the same fashion as they might to a wet fart.  After Tom Penders stepped aside following the Cougars’ exit from the 2010 NCAA Tournament, hopes were high that Rhoades would work out a deal with Gillispie, a coach who has recruited and won big in the state of Texas in recent years.  Even if Rhoades had failed to come to terms with Gillispie, expectations were that he might give a shot to an up and coming assistant coach such as Villanova’s Chris Walker. 

Though UH administrators may not have been comfortable with Gillispie’s history of driving under the influence or his boorish reputation, Dickey is not without his own baggage.  An academic scandal involving several Texas Tech players broke shortly before the 1997 Big 12 tournament.  Though Dickey was never sanctioned, the NCAA took away nine scholarships from the Red Raiders over the next four seasons.  Dickey failed to win under such dire circumstances, and was swept aside in favor of Bobby Knight.

That’s not to say Dickie has no credits to his name.  He went 119-58 in his first six seasons in Lubbock, leading his 1995-96 team to a 30-2 record and the Sweet 16.  But that was 14 years ago.  Dickey may be well regarded by his peers in the coaching profession, but there is little to indicate he has retained any meaningful recruiting pipelines over the years. 

Were Cougar fans overly optimistic about the school’s coaching prospects?  Was Dickie truly the best UH could afford?  Or did Houston’s new AD simply panic after talks with Gillispie went nowhere and botch the first major hire of his tenure?

Only time will tell.  But Rhoades’ brief honeymoon with boosters has come to a bitter end.  The AD’s goal of drumming up funds for capital improvements hasn’t been made any easier—at least until Kevin Sumlin and Case Keenum retake the gridiron in the fall.