Bracketology 2022: Marquette, Seton Hall, BYU among early big winners

Houston

It’s been hard to ignore the rampant rumors and announcements associated with the recent run of conference realignment. There have already been a slew of moves announced, moves that won’t take effect for a year or two down the line. One of the initial conferences most affected was the AAC, which will look completely different a few years from now, and see itself as a weaker basketball league. For now, Memphis has emerged as the best team in the AAC, but let’s not forget which team has the best program.

A Final Four team last season, Houston seemed to be slipping a little this year, as they mightily struggled on opening night, needing overtime to take care of Hofstra at home. However, what the Cougars managed this last week will go a long way settling down the program. In their only game of the week, Houston welcomed Virginia to town and promptly kicked them out with a solid 67-47 victory. These Cavaliers don’t look like the dominant Virginia teams of recent seasons, but the win was still impressive nonetheless.

Three games and three wins for the Cougars, who might have quite the fight atop the AAC with the Tigers, but certainly won’t go down easy. Barring some sort of collapse, Houston is going to be an NCAA Tournament team once again, and wins like this one will certainly have great value down the stretch. The defense looks inspired and the offense rates pretty highly as well. Marcus Sasser and Texas Tech transfer Kyler Edwards could lead this program to something special once more.