There was an e-mail waiting for me when I arrived at my hotel last night from the PR staff at Conference USA with the subject line "Houston's Robert McKiver."

I was really hoping that somehow, there was a name spelled incorrectly and there would be a chance to read about MacGyver, who showed us all in the 1980s that all you needed was the ability to turn a few pipe cleaners, some lime juice and a toaster into a jet-fueled rocket --- not to mention a giant mullet --- to be really cool. Or at least be a decent lead-in to Monday Night Football, back when, you know, the "football" part of "Monday Night Football" was the emphasis of the broadcast.

No such luck, but this McKiver did rather well for himself. He had 52 points in a victory over Southern Mississippi, the largest output of any Division I player. It was a Conference USA record, broke an arena record set by Larry Bird in 1977 and was the best game by a Houston player since Elvin Hayes dropped 55 on Southwestern in 1966.

Houston (21-6) might not have the profile of an NCAA tournament team even with that pile of victories. But the Cougars sure were part of one of the season's highlights last night.

--- Patrick Stevens