UH pulls off huge upset
The Cougars’ gritty win over Wichita State makes them a team worth watching when calendar turns to March
The Cougars whip No. 7 Wichita St. on a day they honored 1968 team.
Jenny Dial Creech thinks Houston’s upset of Wichita State merits NCAA talk.
The University of Houston men’s basketball team showed up around 6 a.m. Saturday at the H&PE Arena on Texas Southern’s campus. It had been a long week. The winter storm created a travel nightmare Wednesday when the Cougars headed to New Orleans, where they lost to Tulane in a game that many — including coach Kelvin Sampson — think should have been canceled.
With No. 7 Wichita State coming to town on the 50th anniversary of the Game of the Century, UH was determined to get back on track.
And that’s what the Cougars did. It wasn’t Game of the Century level. It was a Saturday morning affair in front of 5,700 fans on their temporary home court down the street from their campus.
In the conversation
But their 73-59 upset of the Shockers means something.
It means the chatter about UH basketball over the past month is warranted. This is a team worth paying attention to.
After all, the 15-4 Cougars have gained momentum lately and have started popping up in bracketology specials as a fringe team.
After shocking Wichita State on Saturday afternoon, any doubts as to whether the Cougars belong in the NCAA Tournament conversation should be erased. Saturday’s victory proved two things. • UH has a team good enough to go dancing in March.
• The American Athletic Conference is a pretty good basketball league.
“We are a good basketball team,” Sampson said. “We know that and we came in here knowing that we could win this game.”
Sampson and his squad knew they had been written off by many after their first outing against Wichita State this month. They lost to the Shockers in Wichita 81-63 on Jan. 4.
“In these games, teams are not always as good as they look and they aren’t always as bad as they look,” Sampson said. “We weren’t as bad as we looked that night.”
Change in strategy
Last week, Sampson and his staff studied that game closely, examining each shot.
This time around, UH didn’t rely as heavily on 3-pointers. Corey Davis Jr. and Rob Gray started driving more. Davis, who finished with 17 points, went 6-of-6 from the foul line. Gray finished with 24 points.
Both made big contributions on offense, but their defense made the biggest difference Saturday.
And it’s the Cougars’ defense that will make the biggest difference for them if they get a chance in the NCAA Tournament.
They are pesky. They make their opponents work.
On Saturday, they forced Wichita State to take uncomfortable shots and make the wrong pass on multiple occasions. The Shockers finished the game with 18 turnovers.
One of the more impressive parts of UH’s game is its grittiness.
Wichita State was the bigger team, and probably more athletic.
But it didn’t matter because the Cougars were tougher. They made more hustle plays. They defended on every play, made the extra pass on every offensive position and were smart with adjustments and decisions.
Wichita State’s Gregg Marshall has coached against a lot of teams — several of which have ended up in the NCAA Tournament. After his team lost to the Cougars, he said UH belonged in the mix.
“If they play like that, they are,” he said when asked if UH was a Tournament team. Sampson agrees. He understands his team has a long way to go. He also can easily see how far it has come.
A top-10 win
The victory Saturday was the team’s first over a top-10 team since UH beat Memphis in 1996.
“I can see where we came from,” Sampson said. “And I can see where we can be.”
Sampson likely means where they can be next year or the year after.
But if the Cougars can repeat what they did Saturday a few more times this season, it’s easy to see where they could end up in the next couple of months.
UH showed it belongs in the conversation — the one the experts will have from now until the middle of March. Bubble team, fringe team, whatever you want to call it.
The Cougars are a team that should be playing with the best of them come March.