Houston Basketball: Takeaways from Cougars first three games of 2019-20

TULSA, OKLAHOMA - MARCH 22: Fabian White Jr. #35, Galen Robinson Jr. #25 and Breaon Brady #24 of the Houston Cougars celebrate from the bench against the Georgia State Panthers during the second half in the first round game of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at BOK Center on March 22, 2019 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) /

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KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI – MARCH 29: Nate Hinton #11 celebrates with Breaon Brady #24 of the Houston Cougars against the Kentucky Wildcats during the 2019 NCAA Basketball Tournament Midwest Regional at Sprint Center on March 29, 2019 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) /

Three-Point Shooting Ups and Downs

Houston shot the ball well against Alabama State and Rice and couldn’t hit the broad side of the barn against BYU. When Houston is shooting the ball well the Cougars can hang with anyone. Even with just four three against BYU, they still should have won that game which is really encouraging.

Sasser has been excellent from beyond the arc in his first few games for Houston, he didn’t get a lot of action against BYU but he was crucial in their win against Rice knocking down five threes. Grimes added four threes himself. Houston is going to need these two to stay hot this season.

Houston needs to continue their hot shooting touch for the next game against Oregon, they have to move the ball and drive and kick rather than take iso threes. Ball movement down the stretch against Rice was really good and freed up the shooters when Houston was finally able to string a few together things took off.

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Teams are only shooting 23% from three against Oregon so far this season, take them if they’re open but can’t be forcing shots as they did in the first half against Rice. Houston has the potential, we’ve seen some flashes but they’ll need a complete performance if they want to knock off Oregon.