COUGARS REPORT
Cougars respond with a win despite a rough week for the program
Jan 4, 2021, 4:45 pm
Caleb Mills will be stepping away from the program.Photo by Getty Images
5 thoughts on the Cougars' loss to Kentucky in the Sweet 16
It was an eventful week for the Houston Cougars to say the least. They suffered their first defeat and potentially lost one of their key players due to non-basketball related reasons for the remainder of the season.
Tulsa looked to play spoiler and upset the heavily favored Cougars at the Donald W. Reynolds Center on Tuesday, December 29th.
It was a back-and-fourth contest between Houston and the Golden Hurricanes that came down to the last shot.
Tulsa held a lead for the final 13 minutes of the game until Caleb Mills made a 7-foot floater with six seconds left to go. (More on Mills later)
The Cougars just had to stop Tulsa one more time to secure a victory and remain undefeated. Easier said than done.
Tulsa guard Brandon Rachal was driving down the court and got fouled by Houston center Brison Gresham at the rim.
The Cougars were well over the foul limit by this point in the game, so this sent him to the charity stripe. With one tenth of a second remaining Rachal calmly made both free throws to secure Tulsa's 65-64 victory.
This win lifted Tulsa's conference record to 2-1 and 5-3 overall. Houston (2-1, 7-1) won their first seven games handily with the closest win being a 9 point victory against UCF
The Cougars lost this game due to poor shooting on their part. Houston shot just 35% from the field, and three-pointers were hard to come by as they only made 4 of 21 total attempts as a team. Quentin Grimes and Marcus Sasser's poor shooting was apparent as they shot a combined 3-17 from beyond the arc.
This was the first time Houston was defeated this season on the court, but they may have suffered a bigger loss off the court.
Shorty before Sunday's game against SMU Head Coach Kelvin Sampson announced Caleb Mills will be stepping away from the program for personal reasons. No further details were given as to why the sophomore would be away for the team and even Sampson wasn't sure as to why his star player wouldn't be lacing up for the Cougars anytime soon.
"I don't know," Sampson said. "That's a very fair question. I talked to his father (Saturday). I care more about Caleb than whether he plays or not. Whether he plays or not is irrelevant to me in the big picture. I just want him to be comfortable. Between COVID and his injuries, he's just had a lot of stuff going on. Whatever they think is best for him, I fully support."
Mills averaged 9.8 points and 1.3 rebounds in four games this season and was the American Athletic Conference's preseason player of the year. He missed time with an ankle injury as well as missing time when the program paused due to COVID-19 concerns.
All is not doom and gloom for the Cougars; they were able to come back to beat their in-state rivals SMU 74-60 on Sunday.
The Mustangs got off to a fast start and took a 33-32 lead into halftime. SMU looked as if they were beating the Cougars at their own game with lockdown defense and out-rebounding Houston for the first 20 minutes of the contest.
Coach Sampson must have given his team a Michael Jordan-like speech in the locker room as they took off in the second half. Quentin Grimes got the second half party started by hitting a 3-pointer to ignite a 10-0 Cougar run and never trailed again.
"The second half, I just liked our execution, I liked the ball movement and I liked our rebounding," Sampson said. "We looked like a Houston basketball team."
Grimes had a better outing in Dallas than he did in Tulsa and finished with 11 points. Marcus Sasser led the team with 17 points and DeJon Jarreau added 15 points as well.
Beating SMU was a good return to form for the Cougars, but that loss to Tulsa hurt them in the polls. When Houston moved up to No. 5 last week, it was their highest ranking since the Phi Slama Jama days with Hakeem Olajuwon. Their lost to Tulsa moved them from No. 5 to the 11th ranked team in the country.
Up Next: The Cougars will enjoy some home cooking with five of their next six games at home, starting Wednesday night against Wichita State, both of whom are in a three-way tie for first place with Tulsa in the AAC.
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With the Astros now officially ten games under .500 for the season, manager Joe Espada is taking a lot of heat from the fanbase for the team's struggles.
While we don't agree with the sentiment, we even hear fans clamoring for the return of Dusty Baker and Martin Maldonado, thinking the Astros wouldn't be in this mess if they were still here.
Which is ridiculous. First of all, Maldonado has been awful for the White Sox, hitting .048 (even worse than Jose Abreu's .065). And for those of you that think his work with the pitching staff justifies his pathetic offense. Let me say this: Where was Maldy's game calling genius for Hunter Brown, Cristian Javier, and Framber Valdez last year? All of them regressed significantly.
And as far as Baker is concerned, we have no idea how much a difference he would make, we can only speculate. Baker would also be dealing with a pitching staff ravaged with injuries. And let's not forget, Baker was the guy that refused to move Jose Abreu down in the batting order, even though he would finish the regular season with the ninth-worst OPS in baseball.
The reality of the situation is managers can only do so much in baseball. Which leads us to something else that needs to be considered. Is Espada being handcuffed by the front office? Espada and GM Dana Brown both said recently that Jon Singleton was going to get more at-bats while they give Abreu time off to try to figure things out. Yet, there Abreu was in the lineup again in the opening game of the Cubs series.
It makes us wonder how much power does Espada truly have? The Astros have some other options at first base. Yainer Diaz may only have eight games played at the position, but how much worse could he be than Abreu defensively? Abreu already has four errors, and Diaz is obviously a way better hitter. Victor Caratini isn't considered a plus offensive player, but his .276 batting average makes him look like Babe Ruth compared to Abreu. Let him catch more often and play Diaz at first. Starting Diaz at first more often could also lengthen his career long-term.
Maybe that's too wild of a move. Okay, fine. How about playing Mauricio Dubon at first base? I understand he doesn't have much experience at that position, but what's the downside of trying him there? If he can play shortstop, he can play first base. He's driving in runs at a higher rate (11 RBIs) than everyone on the team outside of Kyle Tucker and Yordan Alvarez. And he's producing like that as part-time player right now.
The other criticism we see of Espada is his use of Jon Singleton to pinch hit late in games. Let's be real, though, who else does Espada have on the roster to go to? Batting Abreu late in games in which you're trailing should be considered malpractice. Espada can only use who he has to work with. This all really stems from the Astros poor farm system.
They don't have anyone else to turn to. The draft picks the club lost from the sign-stealing scandal are really hurting them right now. First and second rounders from 2020 and 2021 should be helping you in 2024 at the big league level.
Maybe they go to Astros prospect Joey Loperfido soon, but after a hot start he has only two hits in his last six games.
Finally, we have to talk about what seems like a committee making baseball decisions. Lost in a committee is accountability. Who gets the blame for making poor decisions?
As time continues to pass it looks like moving on from former GM James Click was a massive mistake. He's the guy that didn't sign Abreu, but did trade Myles Straw (recently DFA'd) for Yainer Diaz and Phil Maton. He also built an elite bullpen without breaking the bank, and helped the club win a World Series in 2022.
The reality of the situation is Dusty Baker and James Click are not walking back through that door. And all good runs come to an end at some point. Is this what we're witnessing?
Don't miss the video above as we hit on all the points discussed and much more!
Catch Stone Cold 'Stros (an Astros podcast) with Charlie Pallilo, Brandon Strange, and Josh Jordan. We drop two episodes every week on SportsMapHouston's YouTube channel. You can also listen on Apple Podcast, Spotifyor wherever you get your podcasts.