Continuing march to top seed
The University of Houston continued its dominance of the American Athletic Conference on Wednesday night.
All that’s left is to cut down the nets.
J’Wan Roberts scored a career-high 26 points as the top-ranked Cougars clobbered Tulane 89-59 to clinch at least a share of the AAC regular-season title.
UH (26-2, 14-1 AAC) can win the title outright — its fourth in a five-year span — by beating East Carolina on Saturday.
“It’s hard for me to talk about that. I don’t know where to start, what to say,” said UH coach Kelvin Sampson, whose team won its eighth straight game and 17th in the past 18 overall.
“I just think staying humbled. I do the best I can to coach these kids, put them in the best position to win and for them to be successful.
“I’ve got a great staff. We all work in conjunction with each other. We’ve been winning around here for a long time.”
During the past five years, UH has won 33, 23 (in the COVID-19 shortened season), 28, 32 and 26 games. The 142 wins are the second-most in Division I behind Gonzaga (146).
“Just the consistency, I think, is what I’m most proud of,” Sampson said.
Marcus Sasser added 22 points for the Cougars, who seized control with a 22-5 run midway through the first half.
“I still feel like we haven’t reached our ceiling,” said Sasser, who had 11 points during the gameturning run. “That’s always a positive heading into March. We want to be playing our best basketball in March.”
There has been little resistance in AAC play. The Cougars’ average margin of victory in 14 games has been 18 points. Four of the wins have been by 30 or more points.
“We just ran into a buzz saw,” said Tulane coach Ron Hunter, whose team lost by a combined 50 points in two meetings. “They wanted to win the league. They want that No. 1 seed in the (NCAA) Tournament.”
A record crowd of 7,763 at Fertitta Center — the second straight game UH set an attendance mark —
watched as the Cougars did what they do best: play suffocating defense and rebound.
Tulane (17-8, 10-4 AAC) went more than six minutes without a field goal in the first half. After making their first three shots, the Green Wave closed the half by missing 20 of 25 attempts.
“Just playing Cougar defense,” Sampson said.
The Green Wave was held 23 points below its AAC-leading 82.3 points per game. Tulane committed a season-high 19 turnovers, which led to 22 points for the Cougars.
After a 1-for-10 shooting start, Tulane’s Jalen Cook scored 21 of his 23 points in the second half.
“Our effort is getting better,” said UH point guard Jamal Shead, who had 10 points and six rebounds. “A lot of people are playing a lot harder for a longer amount of time. That’s just one thing that we’ve been harping on.”
Roberts, a 6-7 redshirt junior forward, played 89 career games before his first 20-point game in Sunday’s 72-64 win over Memphis. The wait for his second was considerably shorter.
Roberts was 9-of-10 shooting, including backto-back two-handed dunks in a 30-second span that gave the Cougars an 80-53 lead, and 8-of-9 from the free-throw line.
“J’Wan has really, really improved,” Sampson said. “He is a byproduct of our player development.”
Tramon Mark added 13
points, including three 3pointers, and Jarace Walker shook off a slow start to finish with nine points and a career-high 13 rebounds.
Sasser continued his hot streak with a fourth straight 20-point performance. During that stretch, Sasser, a 6-2 senior guard who is a projected first-round NBA draft pick, has averaged 21.7 points and made 15 3s.
Sampson is equally impressed with his showing on the defensive end.
“To me, the (conference) player of the year in this league has been Marcus Sasser,” Sampson said. “He’s the best player in this league. Don’t base it on stats. Marcus’ stats could be a lot better if he took a lot more shots. He impacts winning in so many ways. That’s why I think the player of the year should be the best twoway player.
“Is Marcus the best offensive guard? Maybe not. But I don’t think there’s a better two-way player in this conference than Marcus Sasser.”