Bracketology 2021: Houston, Marquette and Texas among biggest winners

Winner – Houston Cougars

After Memphis went 1-2 in the Crossover Classic, the American Athletic Conference was in big need of some of its other top-tier program to make some noise in the non-conference. There was some success, including SMU beating Dayton on Saturday and UCF beating SEC program Auburn earlier in the week.

Yet the team who did the most in a positive way had to be Houston. Last Sunday, they got out to a giant lead in the first half against a ranked Texas Tech team on the road and holding off a late surge to get a massive win for both them and the conference as a whole.

The Cougars had to face off against South Carolina this weekend without head coach Kelvin Sampson, who was out due to Covid-19 related reasons. That put them on upset alert against a desperate South Carolina squad who could’ve used a massive of their own. Yet despite being down at the half, the AAC program outscored the Gamecocks, 46-32 to win the game, 77-67.

Led by 41 combined points by Quentin Grimes and Tramon Mark, the Cougars perimeter continues to be one of the best in the country. They now have a pair of relatively easy non-conference matchups before starting AAC play, likely as a top-10 team in the country. Houston is putting themselves in a strong position individually, regardless of what the rest of the conference is doing.