After a tumultuous regular season, it looked as if coach Tom Penders’ time at the University of Houston was drawing to a close.

Turned out there was a little magic left in Tournament Tom’s dancing shoes, after all.

After a magical run through the Conference USA tournament, the Houston Cougars are returning to the Big Dance for the first time in 18 years. It was a miraculous turn for a team entering the tournament with a losing conference record under heavy speculation that a coaching change was imminent, the kind of story only possible during March Madness.

The last time the Cougars made the NCAA tournament, Slash still played guitar for Guns ‘N’ Roses. After losing their last regular season game to miserable Tulane, giving Houston a 7-9 record in the conference, it didn’t look likely to happen in 2010, either. Even after securing an opening round victory over ECU, knocking off Memphis in the quarterfinals, and taking down Southern Miss in the semis, few gave the Cougars much chance of winning the CUSA crown.

Top seed UTEP had won 16 straight games since the Cougars defeated them early in the regular season. The Miners, though, had no answer for Houston guard Kelvin Lewis, who scored 28 points and hit six three-pointers to lead the Cougars past the tournament’s favorite to the championship.

After a season full of doubt and scorn, Penders will return to the NCAA tournament at the age of 64 with his fourth school.

“The whole year, it was he said, she said about coach Penders being fired," said Houston guard Aubrey Coleman, the nation’s leading scorer, after the game. “What are they going to say now?”

Coleman and the Cougars will learn their opponent, game date, and time for the first round on the NCAA Tournament Selection Show at 5 p.m., Sunday, on CBS.