COOGS WIN IN OT!
Top-seeded Houston needs OT to avoid March Madness exit, gets by No. 9 Texas A&M
Mar 25, 2024, 9:43 am
Cougars win in OT. Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images.
The Houston Cougars breathed a sigh of relief celebrating their latest Sweet 16 berth.
What looked like a victory in hand turned into an overtime thriller in the span of two minutes.
Emanuel Sharp started overtime with a 3-pointer that put Houston ahead to stay as the top-seeded Cougars advanced to the Sweet 16 back in Texas by topping No. 9 seed Texas A&M 100-95 on Sunday night.
Houston coach Kelvin Sampson credited playing this debut season in the Big 12, filled with lots of close games, with having his Cougars ready for this game.
“We're very fortunate tonight to win. Texas A&M could’ve won that game,” Sampson said. "But only one team can advance. I've learned not to autopsy wins at this time of the year. So we move on."
The Aggies forced overtime with a furious rally, outscoring Houston 17-5 in the final two minutes of regulation. Andersson Garcia beat the buzzer with his ninth 3-pointer of the season, and then was mobbed by his teammates.
“Obviously, it's a shot that will go down in Texas A&M lore,” Aggies coach Buzz Williams said. “It was to tie. It wasn't to win, you know?”
Sampson called the final two minutes of regulation “Murphy's Law," with missed free throws and the ball bouncing everywhere.
“They didn’t miss a 3,” Sampson said. "And they didn’t make an easy one. They were all hard 3’s.”
Sharp fouled out after his 3, finishing with 30 points. His teammates outscored Texas A&M 7-1 to start the extra session and close it out.
The win by Houston (32-4) means all eight teams seeded 1 and 2 advanced to the Sweet 16 for the fifth time since the NCAA tourney started seeding in 1979. The top eight seeds also advanced in 2019, 2009, 1995 and 1989.
The Cougars will play Duke, a 93-55 winner over James Madison, on Friday in Dallas in the South Region semifinals. This will be Houston's fifth straight Sweet 16 and 16th all-time.
They are playing in part for Reggie Chaney, a forward who was part of Houston’s Final Four team in 2021, who died in August at the age of 23. Chaney's No. 32 is on a patch on Houston jerseys, and Sampson said at halftime he asked his Cougars what would Chaney do in this game.
“That was for big Reg,” Sampson said.
Jamal Shead had 21 points and 10 assists for Houston. He was one of four Cougars who fouled out.
Shead mentioned how Sampson talked about how hard Chaney would have played, pointing to the 32 on his jersey.
“We’re built for this,” Shead said. "I just miss my dog. On to the Sweet 16.”
Texas A&M (21-15) was trying to make the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2018 in its second straight NCAA Tournament under coach Buzz Williams. The Aggies had been 6-1 in March only to revert to the team that struggled offensively much of the season.
The Cougars represented the Big 12 in their first season in the conference by adding to the Southeastern Conference’s misery. Only Tennessee and Alabama advanced to the Sweet 16 out of the SEC’s eight teams in the tournament.
L.J. Cryer added 20 points, and J’Wan Roberts fought through a knee issue with 13.
Wade Taylor had been on a scoring tear and hit a career-high seven 3s in the Aggies’ win over Nebraska. The guard missed his first seven shots and finished with 21 points on 5-of-26 shooting, including 3 of 13 beyond the arc.
Tyrece Radford, who missed the December loss to Houston, had 27 points and 15 rebounds. Manny Obaseki added 15 before fouling out, and Garcia had 12.
Houston led 43-38 after a fast-paced first half.
BIG PICTURE
Texas A&M: The Aggies at least go home with a big win in the first round after leaving this tournament empty-handed a year ago. ... They set several program records in this event in the opening win, including making 13 3s. In this game, the Aggies wound up 8 of 23 outside the arc and shot 29 of 45 at the free-throw line.
Houston: The Cougars became the first team to win a tournament game with four players fouling out since 1987. ... They improved to 8-2 as a No. 1 seed. ... They now have won at least 32 games for the fifth time. Shead and fellow seniors Roberts and Ryan Elvin can try to add to their mark as the winningest four-year class in Cougars history already at 125-18. ... Coach Kelvin Sampson now is 22-1 against the Aggies, including 21-1 with the Cougars.
UP NEXT
The Cougars will have the home-court advantage against Duke on Friday night, even with Dallas a 245-mile drive from Houston.
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After finishing up with the Guardians the Astros have a rather important series for early May with the Seattle Mariners heading to town for the weekend. While it’s still too early to be an absolute must-win series for the Astros, losing the series to drop seven or nine games off the division lead would make successfully defending their American League West title that much more unlikely.
Since their own stumble out of the gate to a 6-10 record the Mariners have been racking up series wins, including one this week over the Atlanta Braves. The M’s offense is largely Mmm Mmm Bad, but their pitching is sensational. In 18 games after a 4-8 start, the Mariners gave up five runs in a game once. In the other 17 games they only gave up four runs once. Over the 18 games their starting pitchers gave up 18 earned runs total with a 1.44 earned run average. That’s absurd. Coming into the season Seattle’s starting rotation was clearly better on paper than those of the Astros and Texas Rangers, and it has crystal clearly played out as such into the second month of the schedule.
While it’s natural to focus on and fret over one’s own team's woes when they are plentiful as they have been for the Astros, a reminder that not all grass is greener elsewhere. Alex Bregman has been awful so far. So has young Mariners’ superstar Julio Rodriguez (though not Breggy Bad). A meager four extra base hits over his first 30 games were all Julio produced down at the ballyard. That the Mariners are well ahead of the Astros with J-Rod significantly underperforming is good news for Seattle.
Caratini comes through!
So it turns out the Astros are allowed to have a Puerto Rican-born catcher who can hit a little bit. Victor Caratini’s pedigree is not that of a quality offensive player, but he has swung the bat well thus far in his limited playing time and provided the most exciting moment of the Astros’ season with his two-out two-run 10th inning game winning home run Tuesday night. I grant that one could certainly say “Hey! Ronel Blanco finishing off his no-hitter has been the most exciting moment.” I opt for the suddenness of Caratini’s blow turning near defeat into instant victory for a team that has been lousy overall to this point. Frittering away a game the Astros had led 8-3 would have been another blow. Instead, to the Victor belong the spoils.
Pudge Rodriguez is the greatest native Puerto Rican catcher, but he was no longer a good hitter when with the Astros for the majority of the 2009 season. Then there’s Martin Maldonado.
Maldonado’s hitting stats with the Astros look Mike Piazza-ian compared to what Jose Abreu was doing this season. Finally, mercifully for all, Abreu is off the roster as he accepts a stint at rookie-level ball in Florida to see if he can perform baseball-CPR on his swing and career. Until or unless he proves otherwise, Abreu is washed up and at some point the Astros will have to accept it and swallow whatever is left on his contract that runs through next season. For now Abreu makes over $120,000 per game to not be on the roster. At his level of performance, that’s a better deal than paying him that money to be on the roster.
Abreu’s seven hits in 71 at bats for an .099 batting average with a .269 OPS is a humiliating stat line. In 2018 George Springer went to sleep the night of June 13 batting .293 after going hitless in his last four at bats in a 13-5 Astros’ win over Oakland. At the time no one could have ever envisioned that Springer had started a deep, deep funk which would have him endure a nightmarish six for 78 stretch at the plate (.077 batting average). Springer then hit .293 the rest of the season.
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Over his first three minor league seasons Leon flashed tools but definitely underwhelmed. He has been substantially better so far this year. He turns 26 May 28. Just maybe the Astros offense could be the cause of fewer Ls with Loperfido at first and Leon in center field.
Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and I discuss varied Astros topics. The first post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon (second part released Tuesday) via YouTube: stone cold stros - YouTube with the complete audio available via Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.