Crystal Ball Part Deux: Looking Ahead to 2013 Houston Sports, Astros/Dynamo/UH/Rice Edition

Photo by Marco Torres

The story of the Dynamo is quite different from the Astros. The team had another great season that fell short as they lost in the MLS Cup to the LA Galaxy. The Dynamo have consistently been one of the best teams in MLS and they added a beautiful new stadium on the east side of downtown to complement their success.

But 2013 brings a new year and new challenges. Our own Danny Lopez, who covers the team, sums it up.

The Dynamo should be a contender again in 2013. The core of the team is returning next year. If they want to win MLS Cup, they'll need Boniek Garcia and Will Bruin to continue to improve from an already phenomenal 2012.

CONCACAF Champions League will be interesting. They start the knockout round in March against Mexico's Santos Laguna, which will be the toughest opponent in the tournament. If they can get past them, there's no reason to believe they can't win the tournament.

BBVA Compass stadium should be rocking again this year.

UH and Rice

Both of the major local colleges suffered really up-and-down years for their football programs and it doesn't seem like it will be getting much better in basketball. For UH, they closed the books on Robertson Stadium with a terrible down year after the one-loss season in 2011. The goal will be to improve before moving into their new digs in 2014. Unfortunately, they will need to figure out where they will land because the Big East is evaporating rapidly.

Rice went from an awful start to a bowl victory in the Armed Forces Bowl and their baseball team continues to excel. As John Royal points out, there could be more on the horizon for Owls baseball:

Rice baseball will be bolstered by the full time addition of hitting coach Lance Berkman who will officially retire, return to Rice for his degree, and become a student coach. The football team will compete with Tulsa for the C-USA title and a shot at the Liberty Bowl.

As for UH, Royal believes conference alignment is the most pressing issue for the school:

UH will either rejoin Conference USA or will accept an invitation to join the Mountain West Conference after the Big East implodes into nothingness. The basketball team, playing it's last season in C-USA will fall just short of the NCAA Tourney when it is unable to get past Memphis in the conference tournament.