A high-stakes rematch on tap
Cougars have AAC title hopes as Bearcats visit
After all the early offseason workouts, 28 games, schedule and travel headaches, the University of Houston’s hopes for a repeat conference title comes down to three games in seven days.
Toss aside any talk that Sunday’s matchup against Cincinnati at Fertitta Center is just another game.
The calendar officially has turned to March.
“We’re down the stretch,” guard Nate Hinton said. “We’re not treating it like any other game. We know what’s at stake.”
Heading into the final week of the regular season, the American Athletic Conference race is a three-team race. Tulsa (20-9, 12-4 AAC) moved a half-game ahead of Houston and Cincinnati with Saturday’s 65-54 win over Central Florida. By Sunday afternoon, the Houston-Cincinnati winner — both 11-4 in league play — will join Tulsa in first place as the mad dash to the finish line begins.
Hinton says Sunday’s game has a ‘championshiptype’ feel.
“This game can mean a lot for both programs,” guard DeJon Jarreau added.
Even coach Kelvin Sampson, not known to look ahead, took a moment during the week to outline the importance of the Cougars’ biggest game to date.
“We control our own destiny,” Sampson said as the Cougars battle for a possible second straight AAC regular-season title.
With the race destined to go down to the final day, the Cougars can take a big step Sunday. Along with the inside track on the title, the Cougars are in position for one of the four first-round byes in the AAC tournament, which will be held March 12-15 at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth.
Most projections have UH safely in the 68-team NCAA Tournament field as a No. 7 or 8 seed. Cincinnati is a No. 11 seed, according to ESPN, but among the “First Four Out” in the USA Today bracket projections. CBS Sports lists the Bearcats as a bubble team currently not in the field.
Based on current projections outcome of the conference tournament — the winner receives the automatic NCAA bid — the AAC is likely to send two or three teams to the tournament.
“We’re competing for the conference championship,” Sampson said of a back-toback feat that has not been accomplished by the Cougars since the “Phi Slama Jama” teams of the early-tomid 1980s. “There are 12 teams in this league. Those things are hard to win, especially two in a row. “Whether it’s us or Cincinnati, Tulsa, Wichita State, Memphis, SMU, all great programs, we’re all fighting for something this time of year.
“Your fight may be to finish in the top four for the conference tournament so you can have a bye that first day. That might be what you are playing for. You might be playing to position yourself to get into the NIT. Maybe you’re on the bubble and you’re trying to get off the bubble. Maybe you think you may be in, and you want to move up. Everybody is playing for something this time of year. For us, we are competing for the conference championship. That would be a hell of a feat for this team.”
For the first time since the start of AAC play in early January, the Cougars are coming off an extended break of seven days between games that has allowed players to rest, get healthy and work on things for the stretch run. UH’s last game was a 60-59 loss at Memphis on Feb. 2. All four AAC losses have come on the road and decided by a combined six points.
“(The break) allowed us to get our legs back fresh, our minds fresh and go over things we need to work on as a team to get ready for the last stretch of the season,” Jarreau said.
To get to this point, UH has been able to avoid any serious injuries (guard Quentin Grimes is questionable with a hip pointer that kept him out the last game), a youthful roster that often has two freshmen in Caleb Mills and Marcus Sasser on the court in crunch time and unbalanced schedule with quick turnarounds for road games. This year’s schedule has included the commandment “Thou shall not play home games on Saturdays” — but apparently Sundays are OK.
“To win two (titles) in a row for this program and reward us how hard we work all season and offseason would be a big thing,” Jarreau said.
In the first meeting Feb. 1, the Cougars built a 15-point lead with 13 minutes left in the game. From that point, UH went nearly 11 minutes without a field goal and Jarreau was ejected for biting Cincinnati forward Mamoudou Diarra during a scramble for a loose ball with about six minutes remaining.
Hinton said a bulk of practice this week was spent on watching film, cleaning up things and working on mistakes.
“If we get on a run, just need to keep putting the foot on the gas and not take a seat back and try and play conservative,” he said. “We’re no good when we play conservative. The key thing is to play smart.”