The Houston Cougars have been one of the best teams in the country all season long. The expectations were high in the preseason. Many writers, including myself, picked the Cougars to cut down the nets after the National Championship game. Houston and coach Kelvin Sampson play a brand of basketball that is hard to prepare for. It is almost impossible to score on them, and they run a ball-control style of offense that results in a ton of open threes and easy looks in the post. It also doesn’t hurt that the Cougars have a potential lottery pick in the frontcourt and a first-team All-American in the backcourt.
The Cougars begin their quest for the Championship tonight. Just a reminder the final four and the finals are in Houston so the Cougars would be playing in front of their home crowd if they make it that far. The NCAA tournament is always unique because everyone must be on top of their game even in the first round against a 16 seed. The Cougars do not want a repeat of UMBC over Virginia. Northern Kentucky is the opponent that stands in the way of Houston advancing to Saturday and while the Cougars should have no problem advancing the committee did them no favors and did match them up with the best 16 seed in the tournament.
All-American guard Marcus Sasser is a game-time decision tonight as he recovers from an injury, he suffered in the Semi-Finals of the American conference tournament. Houston will need Sasser in the later rounds of this tournament to advance but should be okay without him tonight. If Sasser does decide to play, he may be limited so as to not risk further injury. Either way, Houston should still win this game but there are some things they can do to ensure victory over Northern Kentucky.