NCAA Basketball top 25 power rankings: Texas Tech rises, Baylor and Providence fall
By Joey Loose
17. Houston (21-4)
Before the calendar turned to February, Houston was a team in a very enviable shape. They had run through all of their AAC conference games, owned only a pair of respectable, close losses, and were even in pretty shape in the metrics. Last week, losses to SMU and Memphis certainly muddied the look of a Houston squad still playing without a pair of their valuable contributors, but this week was a new chance for the Cougars.
Starting anew, Houston perhaps got another winning streak started with a 70-52 home win over UCF back on Thursday night. Albeit a close game late, Houston pulled away in the final eight minutes and had a great defensive effort against the Knights. Taze Moore had 14 points and 7 rebounds in the win, while Kyler Edwards had 10 points, 9 rebounds, and 7 assists.
When the NCAA Tournaments comes around, the Cougars are clearly going to have to deal with better teams than UCF, but this effort at least got Houston trending in the right direction again. There have been some fantastic efforts from these Cougars, especially on the defensive end, and they still do have a number of challenging conference games to improve their standing with the Selection Committee. Next week that challenge includes road games at Wichita State and Tulane, with a rematch with Memphis looming a few weeks ahead.