This season might be completely different.
After years of falling quick on the massive stage, Houston has its finest likelihood of successful the lads’s NCAA Match.
Have doubts? Simply have a look at how the Cougars defeated Arizona (22-12, 14-6 in Massive 12), 72-64, to win its first Massive 12 Match championship in its second season as a convention member.
Related Press No. 2 Houston (30-4, 19-1 in Massive 12) is not simply a superb defensive group anymore. Whereas it is nonetheless the nation’s finest on that aspect of the court docket, Houston’s large strides on offense have given it its finest likelihood of successful the primary nationwide title in program historical past.
The Cougars have been 9-of-23 (39.1 %) on three-point discipline objective makes an attempt, maintaining with the wonderful tempo they set by way of their first 33 video games. Getting into Saturday, Houston was No. 4 within the nation in three-point discipline objective proportion (39.8 %), up from a No. 132 end in 2023 (34.8 %).
Houston is extensively anticipated to be a No. 1 seed for the third consecutive season when the lads’s NCAA Match bracket is revealed on Sunday. It misplaced within the Candy 16 through the previous two tournaments.
In 2021, the Cougars reached the Last 4, dropping within the nationwide semifinal to eventual nationwide champion Baylor.
Houston has blossomed into the nation’s finest defensive group underneath head coach Kelvin Sampson, who was hired in 2014. The Cougars have ranked No. 1 in scoring protection the previous two seasons, together with permitting 58.5 factors per recreation in 2024-25.
They have been staunch defensively in opposition to Arizona within the Massive 12 title recreation, holding the Wildcats 18.3 factors beneath their season common (82.3 factors per recreation) coming into Saturday. Arizona did not rating a discipline objective within the recreation’s ultimate 5 minutes and 32 seconds.
The protection hasn’t been the issue throughout Houston’s latest NCAA Tourney losses. However the offense has.
In Houston’s final 4 March Insanity losses, it has shot 23.1 % from past the arc (18-of-78) and averaged 57.3 factors per recreation. In an Elite Eight loss to Villanova in 2022, Houston shot 1-of-20 from distance and scored 44 factors.
In last year’s Sweet 16 loss to Duke, the Cougars solely tried eight threes (making two) in a 54-51 loss.
Houston’s improved three-point capturing provides it a sensible likelihood to chop down the nets in San Antonio, the host web site for this 12 months’s Last 4 and nationwide championship recreation.
The Cougars have three excellent long-range shooters: fifth-year senior guard LJ Cryer, junior guard Emanuel Sharp, and junior switch guard Milos Uzan.
Cryer was a freshman on Baylor’s 2021 nationwide championship group and transferred to Houston in 2023. Getting into Saturday, he led the Massive 12 in three-point proportion (42.5 %) amongst qualifying gamers, averaging three makes on 7.1 makes an attempt per recreation.
Sharp is 74-of-173 (42.7 %) from distance, whereas Uzan is 52-of-122 (42.6 %), and the 2 mixed for seven of Houston’s 9 makes in opposition to Arizona.
Houston has been the winningest men’s college basketball program since 2018, with 4 consecutive 30-win seasons since 2021-22. It has been ranked No. 1 within the AP ballot 10 occasions since 2022 and earned two (quickly to be three) No. 1 seeds within the NCAA Match.
It is received back-to-back Massive 12 common season championships and a convention match championship.
As embellished as Houston has been underneath Sampson, it is lacking one factor: a nationwide title. Possibly not for lengthy.
