Coming fresh from a rout against Cincinnati in the AAC Tournament title game, Houston Basketball kicked off the NCAA Tournament with a warmup game against No. 15 seed Cleveland State.
Entering the game as a 20+ point favorite and the nation’s second-best scoring defense (allowing 57 points per game), playing a small school with limited scoring options (ranking 167th in the nation at 71.5 points per game) the Cougars got plenty of fight early.
After jumping out to a 7-0 start, the Cougars slowed down after DeJon Jarreau left the game due to a hip injury. Once the team got a feel without Jarreau, the rest of the first half was fairly back-and-forth before pulling away and dominating in the second half.
Drive to the hoop
As we’ve seen in the past, Houston can be a bit streaky when shooting, and even with a few deep catch and shoot threes, the team went just 3-14 (21%) from deep in the first half. A few ugly airballs and rim grazers early on helped Cleveland State stay around. The lack of success from deep didn’t stop them from trying but saw much more success from up close.
Shooting 13-17 (76%) from two and 8-of-9 from the free-throw line in the first half. Against a much smaller and less physical team, the Cougars saw tons of success by driving to the hoop and getting to the line which helped them pull away in the second.
Utilize the bench
After Tramon Mark came off the bench to replace Jarreau, he went for 15 points, on 50% shooting and 5-6 from the free-throw line. The three key bench players of Mark, Fabian White Jr., and Brison Gresham went a near-perfect 11-12 from the charity stripe, and contributed 37 of the team’s 39 bench points. Adding on to the 32 points from starters Marcus Sasser and Quentin Grimes, and the Cougars have multiple threats to use going forward in the tournament.
Get physical
There’s a reason Houston is one of the best defensive scoring teams in the country. They rank in the top 35 for both steals and blocks per game (seven for both categories tonight) and outrebounded the smaller Vikings 38-24. If Jarreau is able to come back and play at a physical level the No. 2 Cougars should be able to advance if they can minimize their opponent’s second-chance opportunities and control the turnover/takeaway game.
Up next
Depending on the health of Jarreau’s hip injury, Justin Gorham’s ankle injury, and Grimes’ tweaked backed, the Cougars will need to get healthy quick for their next matchup against either No. 7 Clemson or No. 10 Rutgers.
While neither team will dominate offensively (both are ranked 200+ in the nation for points per game) having three key players under 100% could be trouble. They’ll play Sunday night and look to get back to the Sweet 16 for the second time in Kelvin Sampson’s tenure.