Houston stumbles into tournament on heels of big loss
Cougars given top seed despite blowout
Houston has a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year but will have to navigate the likes of Duke, Kentucky and Marquette in the South Region if the Cougars are to make their first Final Four since 2021.
The Cougars (30-4) were rewarded Sunday after winning the Big 12 regular-season title and reached the conference tournament title game before losing to Iowa State. They will face No. 16 seed Longwood, the Big South champion, in Memphis, Tennessee, in the first round Thursday.
Houston is a No. 1 seed for the third time in school history, joining the 1983 team that reached the national championship game and last season when the Cougars were bounced by Miami in the Sweet 16. Should the Cougars advance past the first weekend — a Longwood win would bring a matchup with either Nebraska or Texas A&M — they’ll need only to head up Interstate 45 to Dallas for the regional.
The Cougars will be trying to rebound after getting blown out by the Cyclones in the Big 12 title game. It was the largest margin of defeat for a No. 1 team since UCLA beat Houston by 32 in the 1968 Final Four. Houston was riding an 11-game win streak before the loss.
“We’ll pick ourselves up. We’ve had a great year,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said after the Iowa State loss. “Obviously 40 minutes is not going to define three months, but we’ll get some guys treatment and healthy and get back at it.”
The South Region also features
No. 2 seed Marquette, which will get standout Tyler Kolek back after he missed the Big East tournament because of an oblique injury. The Golden Eagles (25-9) reached the
Big East title game before falling to Connecticut.
Kentucky (23-9) is the No. 3 seed in the region and will open against No. 14 seed Oakland. Duke (24-8) rounds out the top four seeds in the region and will face No. 13 seed Vermont in the first round in Brooklyn, New York, on Friday.
Kolek concern
Marquette coach Shaka Smart expressed cautious optimism Sunday that Kolek, the 2023 Big East player of the year, would play in the NCAA opener. Kolek has missed Marquette’s past six games with an oblique injury. The Golden Eagles will face No. 15 seed Western Kentucky (22-11) on Friday in Indianapolis.
“The plan is for him to play, but he’s got to go through a progression this week,” Smart said Sunday.
Smart relayed a story that after the team returned from New York following the Big East title game, Kolek was already going back into the gym to do some ball handling.
“So he has a level of excitement and passion because he feels like he’s going to play. Now we’ve just got to check the boxes we need to check so he can,” Smart said.
Marquette went 3-3 in Kolek’s absence, with two of the losses coming to Uconn and the other coming at Creighton.
The Golden Eagles have other injury issues as well. Oso Ighodaro sat out the last seven minutes of the Big East championship game loss after he appeared to hurt his knee, and Stevie Mitchell was wearing a brace on his right shoulder during that game.
Smart expects both to play Friday.
Power champion
The South Region features only one team from a power conference that won its conference tournament title. And it’s a team that wasn’t going to make the NCAAS if not for its tournament run.
North Carolina State is the No. 11 seed in the region after its stunning run to the ACC tournament title, winning five games in five days, including upset wins over rivals Duke and North Carolina in the semifinals and championship game, respectively. It was N.C. State’s first ACC title since 1987.
The Wolfpack will face No. 6 seed Texas Tech in Pittsburgh.
30 club
Four teams enter the NCAAS with at least 30 victories. Two of them reside in the South Region.
Houston is one of them. The other is James Madison, the champion of the Sun Belt Conference tournament and the hottest team in the country entering the NCAAS. James Madison is the No. 12 seed and will face No. 5 seed Wisconsin on Friday in Brooklyn.
The Dukes went 31-3, knocked off Arkansas State in the Sun Belt championship game and are riding a 13-game win streak. James Madison started the season with a 14-game win streak before its first setback.
It’s the sixth NCAA appearance for James Madison and the first since 2013. And the Dukes can score — they average 84.4 points per game, good for ninth nationally.