COOGS ADVANCE!
No. 1 seed Houston romps past SIU Edwardsville in NCAA Tournament opener
Mar 21, 2025, 1:10 pm
COOGS ADVANCE!
Milos Uzan scored 16 points, LJ Cryer added 15 and No. 1 seed Houston was able to rest up for the rest of the NCAA Tournament while romping past No. 16 seed SIU Edwardsville 78-40 on Thursday in the first round of the Midwest Region.
Ja’Vier Francis added 13 points and eight rebounds for Houston (31-4), which now gets a tough second-round matchup with No. 8 seed Gonzaga on Saturday. The Bulldogs blitzed ninth-seeded Georgia, 89-68, in their tournament opener.
“I thought our defense and our rebounding, two of the things we really emphasize, was good today,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said. “Shot selection was really good to start the game — knocked some shots down, got off to a good start.”
The Cougars finished well, too. The final margin was the biggest of the game.
Ray’Sean Taylor had 10 points for SIUE (22-12), which was just 2 of 24 from the 3-point arc in its first NCAA appearance.
“It’s definitely a gut-punch because I feel like we had more to give for sure,” said Taylor, breaking down in tears. “When I look back at it, I’m not going to be mad about the game. I don’t like to lose, but I’m never going to hold my head down ever. I never let anyone see me with my head down. They played better than us today.
“Good luck to them. They have a team to win it all.”
It’s never a good formula for springing an NCAA upset to let what is arguably the best defensive team in the country also shoot better than 60% from the field and only turn it over twice during the first 20 minutes of a game.
That’s exactly what SIUE did against Houston.
The Cougars probably knew they were in for a tough afternoon against a bigger, more athletic bunch of Cougars in the first few minutes, when Houston scored on nine straight offensive possessions. At the other end, SIUE struggled just to get shots off — at one point, guard Brian Taylor II was trapped so quickly that he genuinely looked perplexed.
The whole affair may have been summed up by the last 3 seconds of the first half: SIUE forward Myles Thompson was trapped near midcourt, turned the ball over, and Cryer promptly drilled a 3 from the wing to give Houston a 52-24 lead.
Sampson’s bunch kept extending the lead all the way to the finish.
“They were physical, made some shots early when we had a couple breakdowns, and then they hit some really hard shots as well,” SIUE coach Brian Barone said. “We weren’t able to dig out of that hole.”
SIU Edwardsville may have had more fans — or at least louder ones — than Houston for its NCAA tourney debut. They cheered all the way to the finish, too, when Barone took his starters out of the game.
Houston was no doubt pleased to see J’Wan Roberts moving around fine on the ankle he sprained in the Big 12 Tournament. He was able to spend much of the second half resting with the rest of the Cougars’ starters on the bench.
Houston advanced to the second round for the seventh consecutive NCAA Tournament.
Winning consecutive series over last place teams does not mean all is well again in Astroworld, but taking five of seven games from the Orioles and Rockies stopped the bleeding which saw the Astros stumble through an awful 14-23 stretch. The regular season is now in its final month, the Astros are in the middle of three different playoff races. The high-end goal is finishing with one of the two best records in the American League to secure a bye past the two out of three lightning round Major League Baseball calls the Wild Card Series. Entering the holiday weekend the Astros sit four games behind the Toronto Blue Jays, three and a half back of the Detroit Tigers. If the Astros can’t overtake either the Jays or Tigers, they at least want to hold off Seattle to win the American League West. Winning the division for an eighth consecutive full season would be its own accomplishment, for the postseason it would at least assure the Astros of homefield advantage in a best-of-three. The race the Astros hope to need to pay little attention to is holding off Kansas City for the final wild card spot. That would be necessary should the Astros lose out on the division title to the Mariners, and finish behind both the second and third place finishers in the AL East in the wild card race, presently the Red Sox and Yankees. The M’s, Bosox, and Yanks all finishing ahead of the Astros is a clear possibility. The good news on that front is the Astros holding a five game lead over the Royals with 28 games to go, though Kansas City does win the tiebreaker should it come to that. The Astros have a significantly easier closing schedule than do the Royals. The Astros have just six games left against teams that would currently qualify for the postseason. The Royals have 12. So to miss the playoffs entirely the Astros basically have to fold, and/or the Royals need to play four weeks of spectacular baseball.
Yordan Alvarez’s looooong awaited return is a big boost to the lineup. Even if he isn't peak Yordan, his presence matters. His missile of a home run to centerfield was the wow moment of his return series, but Alvarez drawing five walks in nine plate appearances speaks to what opponents think of him. Still, offense remains an Astro struggle all too often. The Rockies have the worst pitching staff in MLB. The Astros managed nine runs in three games against it. At least that was enough to win two out of three. 67 times this season the Astros have scored three or fewer runs, equaling their three or fewer total of the entire 2024 season. For a good while this year the Astros were winning an amazing percentage of their games where the offense did little. At one point the Astros were 19-27 when scoring three or fewer, which was stunning success and as I wrote at the time, wholly unsustainable. Since then, the Astros have lost 20 of the last 21 games in which they failed to score four.
Christian Walker’s power surge has been a boon, of late helping offset Jose Altuve’s slump (just 10 hits in his last 60 at bats heading into the Angels series) and Carlos Correa’s lack of thump (just two extra base hits and a sub-.700 OPS over his last 15 games). Over 46 games played from July 1 through Thursday, Walker has been very good hitting .279 with an .859 OPS. That doesn't undo his being wretched through June, but credit where credit is due.
Alvarez is the big bopper (remember the ex-Astro who had that nickname?) addition to Joe Espada's lineup cards, but Jake Meyers could be a lower key big return as well next week. To call Chas McCormick and Jacob Melton poor offensive players this season would be an understatement along the lines of saying Yao Ming is above average in height. When Meyers blew out his right calf it short-circuited what was his breakout big league season. Even if Meyers can't regain that form, by accident he'll still be better than what McCormick and Melton have provided.
After finishing up with the Angels on Labor Day, the Astros get the Yankees for three big games at Daikin Park starting Tuesday. Hunter Brown starting Sunday means he will not pitch against the Yankees. That's not a mistake, it's just how the rotation falls. It will be a mistake if the Astros' brain trust doesn't properly map out starting pitching ahead of the massive matchups against the Mariners September 19, 20, 21 and make sure both Brown and Framber Valdez start games in that series. After this homestand wraps, the Astro have only six home games remaining versus 15 on the road.
Oh yeah. Glenn Davis was "The Big Bopper."
For Astro-centric conversation, join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!
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