HOUSTON EARNS NO.1 SEED
Here are the keys to another Cougar's conference championship
Mar 10, 2022, 12:57 pm
The Coogs are back in action this Friday at noon. Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images.
Sampson: A lot of coaches are scared of confrontation, I’m not
After finishing the regular season with a 26-5 (15-3 conference) record, the Houston Cougars look to earn their second consecutive American Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Tournament championship.
Last year, this team won their conference tournament, earned a #2 seed in the NCAA tournament and finished with a Final Four appearance. This squad looks to continue that trend as the #18 ranked Cougars obtained a number one seed in the AAC.
Although Houston finished with a better record last season, this year’s team had to overcome injury issues in addition to losing four of their five starters from last year's Final Four squad.
Coach Kelvin Sampson and his staff wasted no time during the offseason as they added three key players from the transfer portal in Josh Carlton from Connecticut, Taze Moore by way of CSU Bakersfield and Kyler Edwards via Texas Tech.
The trio started in almost every game and developed instant chemistry in coach Sampson’s system.
Junior guard Marcus Sasser finished last season as the team’s second leading scorer (13.7 PPG) and was in position to take over as the number one offensive option, but suffered a season ending toe injury in December.
A similar fate happened to sophomore guard Tramon Mark who played in seven games before missing the remainder of the season due to shoulder surgery.
Without their two best guards, coach Sampson inserted sophomore Jamel Shed into the starting lineup. The Texas native was no stranger to the court, as he played a significant amount of minutes last season off the bench during their Final Four run. It was a seamless transition to have Shed take Mark’s spot in the lineup and become the floor general Houston needed.
Replacing the high scoring Sasser would be accomplished by committee and not one particular individual stepping up. The aforementioned transfer trio of Carlton, Edwards and Moore all had their spectacular performances throughout the season and proved why they were perfect fits for Sampson's system.
The stellar showcases of the transfer trio and the improved play of fifth-year senior Fabian White Jr. put Houston over the top most games.
The 6’8” forward is the longest tenured Cougar on this squad and averaged a career high 13.2 points per game this season.
White came off the bench last season as he was recovering from a torn ACL and proved to be an integral part of Houston’s depth during their Final Four run.
This season saw White return to the starting lineup and showcase why he continues to be a threat on offense and defense, as he averaged a team best 1.6 blocks per game.
It took no time for this new group of starters to develop chemistry in coach Sampson’s defensive first style of play.
"These guys have worked hard," Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said. "They've listened. They've followed instructions. They believe in the culture of our program. They've embraced it."
Houston outscored their opponents by double digits in 22 of their 26 victories this season, and reached as high as the number six ranked team in the country. This massive success put Houston atop the AAC early on and led to a regular season conference championship.
The AAC Tournament will begin on Thursday at Dickies Arena in Ft. Worth and will conclude on Sunday.
Houston’s first game will be Friday at noon as they await the winner between East Carolina and Cincinnati.
The Cougars won all but three of their conference games this season as they lost on the road against SMU, and suffered a season sweep at the hands of the Memphis Tigers.
For some reason, coach Penny Hardaway’s team seems to play their best ball against Houston year after year. This season Memphis won at the Fertitta Center by 10 points on February 12th, and defeated the Cougars again on Sunday at home by 14 points, Houston’s worst loss this season.
The latter could be explained due to the fact the Cougars locked up their regular season conference championship earlier in the week, but a coach Sampson led team wouldn’t just throw away a meaningless game at the hands of their rival to end the season.
Memphis possesses the biggest threat for Houston to win back-to-back AAC tournament championships, but the Cougars haven't lost to a conference opponent three consecutive times in a season since coach Sampson’s first year as the head coach in 2015 against Tulsa.
As long as Houston doesn't overlook any of their conference foes (especially Memphis) it's safe to say that the Cougars should leave Ft. Worth on Sunday as conference champions once again and earn a spot to their 4th NCAA Tournament in five seasons.
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Houston spent time this week practicing an inbound play that coach Kelvin Sampson thought his team might need against Purdue.
Milos Uzan, the third option, ran it to perfection.
He tossed the ball to Joseph Tugler, who threw a bounce pass right back to Uzan, and the 6-foot-4 guard soared to the rim for an uncontested layup with 0.9 seconds left, giving the top-seeded Cougars a 62-60 victory — and a matchup with second-seeded Tennessee in Sunday's Elite Eight.
“Great execution at a time we needed that,” said Sampson, who is a win away from making his third Final Four and his second with Houston in five years. “You never know when you’re going to need it.”
The Cougars (33-4) made only one other basket over the final eight minutes, wasted a 10-point lead and then missed two more shots in the final 5 seconds. A replay review with 2.2 seconds left confirmed Houston would keep the ball when it rolled out of bounds after the second miss.
Uzan took over from there.
“I was trying to hit (L.J. Cryer) and then JoJo just made a great read,” Uzan said. “He was able to draw two (defenders) and he just made a great play to hit me back.”
Houston advanced to the Elite Eight for the third time in five years after falling in the Sweet 16 as a top seed in the previous two editions of March Madness. It will take the nation's longest winning streak, 16 games, into Sunday’s Midwest Region final.
The Cougars joined the other three No. 1 seeds in this year's Elite Eight and did it at Lucas Oil Stadium, where their 2021 tourney run ended with a loss in the Final Four to eventual national champion Baylor.
They haven't lost since Feb. 1.
Uzan scored 22 points and Emanuel Sharp had 17 as Houston survived an off night from leading scorer Cryer, who finished with five points on 2-of-13 shooting.
Houston still had to sweat out a half-court heave at the buzzer, but Braden Smith's shot was well off the mark.
Fletcher Loyer scored 16 points, Trey Kaufman-Renn had 14 and Smith, the Big Ten player of the year, added seven points and 15 assists for fourth-seeded Purdue (24-12). Smith assisted on all 11 second-half baskets for last year’s national runner-up, which played in front of a friendly crowd about an hour’s drive from its campus in West Lafayette.
“I thought we fought really hard and we dug down defensively to get those stops to come back,” Smith said. “We did everything we could and we just had a little miscommunication at the end and they converted. Props to them.”
Houston appeared on the verge of disaster when Kaufman-Renn scored on a dunk and then blocked Cryer’s shot with 1:17 to go, leading to Camden Heide’s 3 that tied the score at 60 with 35 seconds left.
Sampson called timeout to set up the final play, but Uzan missed a turnaround jumper and Tugler’s tip-in rolled off the rim and out of bounds. The Cougars got one more chance after the replay review.
Sharp's scoring flurry early in the second half finally gave Houston some separation after a back-and-forth first half. His 3-pointer at the 16:14 mark made it 40-32. After Purdue trimmed the deficit to four, Uzan made two 3s to give Houston a 10-point lead in a tough, physical game that set up a rare dramatic finish in this year's tourney.
“Smith was guarding the inbounder, so he had to take JoJo,” Sampson said. “That means there was no one there to take Milos. That's why you work on that stuff day after day.”
Takeaways
Purdue: Coach Matt Painter's Boilermakers stumbled into March Madness with six losses in their final nine games but proved themselves a worthy competitor by fighting their way into the Sweet 16 and nearly taking down a No. 1 seed.
Houston: The Cougars lead the nation in 3-point percentage and scoring defense, an enviable combination.
Scary fall
Houston guard Mylik Wilson gave the Cougars a brief scare with 13:23 left in the game. He leapt high into the air to grab a rebound and drew a foul on Kaufman-Renn.
As the play continued, Wilson was undercut and his body twisted around before he landed on his head. Wilson stayed down momentarily, rubbing his head, but eventually got up and remained in the game.