Cougars come undone by ice-cold offense
For the past few years, during a run of success not seen in three decades, the University of Houston men’s basketball team has built a foundation on certain principles.
Veteran leadership. Toughness. Defense. Rebounding. A will to win, sometimes in the most extreme circumstances.
“Fortunately, I haven’t been able to say this a lot, but very rarely do you see a team come in here and out-compete us,” coach Kelvin Sampson said after Sunday’s 61-55 non-conference loss to Oklahoma State before an announced sellout crowd of 7,035 at Fertitta Center. “I think that’s the thing that bothers me the most.”
UH’s starting five — DeJon Jarreau, Nate Hinton, Quentin Grimes, Fabian White Jr. and Chris Harris Jr. — combined for 17 points. Grimes never found his rhythm, going 0-for-7 in 33 minutes and going scoreless for just the second time in 45 collegiate games. Jarreau was 0-for-4 from the floor. After making three straight 3-pointers to put the Cougars ahead early, Hinton was 0-for-7 the rest of the game.
Things were so bad that UH (6-3) missed the final 10 shots of the first half and went nearly 10 minutes without scoring a point to end the first half and begin the second half.
At one point, Oklahoma State led by 18.
“The game started at 2 o’clock. We played like the game started at 3,” Sampson said. “Oklahoma State started playing at 2.”
Caleb Mills, a redshirt freshman guard, nearly single-handedly pulled off a comeback, scoring 20 of his career-high 23 points in the second half as his pair of free throws tied the game at 50 with 3:40 remaining. Mills was 8-of-18 shooting; the UH starting lineup was 6-for-30.
After the Cougars fell behind 37-19 to begin the second half, Mills scored 13 of UH’s next 15 points.
“Caleb Mills shouldn’t have to be our best player,” Sampson said. “Because nobody could make a basket, we were kind of putting too much on his plate and asking him to do too much. That wasn’t fair to him.”
UH had no answer for Yor Anei, Oklahoma State’s 6-10 sophomore forward. Anei had 18 points on 5-of-10 shooting, was 8of-9 from the free-throw line and had eight rebounds. He put the game away with a layup and pair of free throws in the final minute as the Cowboys (8-2) rebounded from losses to Georgetown and Wichita State.
The loss was just UH’s third in 21 games since Fertitta Center opened last December. All three losses have been by six or fewer points.
Sampson called the no-show from his starters “a head scratcher,” particularly after what he called “spirited practices” Thursday and Friday. In search of a spark, Sampson made substitutions throughout Sunday’s game, with Mills, Marcus Sasser (nine points), Cedrick Alley Jr. and Brison Gresham seeing extended minutes.
Oklahoma State held a 29-23 edge in defensive rebounds, usually a strength for the Cougars.
Aside from the scoreboard, the Cougars’ shortcomings continue to be evident with an experience-on-the-fly roster that includes just one senior (Harris) and six players who are either freshmen or sophomores. That’s a change from the past two seasons, in which the Cougars were a veteran team during a pair of NCAA Tournament runs.
“We had three seniors last year that got it,” Sampson said. “They were leaders to their core and exhibited tremendous leadership. We really missed that. On a day like today, you could tell.”
Even with a youthful roster, Sampson added, “you shouldn’t have to lose a game to learn a lesson.”
After falling behind 9-2 to begin the game, the Cougars rode the hot 3-point shooting of Hinton and an inside basket from White to take a 16-15 lead. Later, Mills hit a 3-pointer to get UH within 21-19.
Oklahoma State closed with a 14-0 run as the Cougars went scoreless over the final 7:29 of the first half. UH missed its last 10 shots and 15 of the last 16 before halftime to shoot 23.3 percent. The 31.1 percent shooting performance for the game was UH’s lowest since it made 30.6 percent against Cincinnati in the American Athletic Conference tournament championship game last March.
“Today we disrespected our program,” Sampson said. “We disrespected a lot of the kids that have come through here over the years. That’s disappointing.”