The Houston Cougars walked their way into the Sweet 16 with two dominant 31-point victories in the opening rounds of the NCAA Tournament. Kelvin Sampson’s team will now return home to play just over two miles away from their home arena at the Toyota Center in downtown Houston for the South Regional.
How they stay home
Prior to the tournament, Houston chose not to be the host program for this site, which meant they would have an opportunity to play there if placed in the South Region. That’s exactly how things played out and now the Cougars will be playing to reach back-to-back Final Fours in a familiar setting just down the road and in close proximity to their strong fan base.
While this initially looked like a massive advantage coming into the tournament that came to fruition, the Cougars have been dealt with a less than ideal scenario. Joining them in the South Regional are three teams all from the Big Ten, which could set up a more challenging environment than expected.
Big Ten comes to town
Houston’s Sweet 16 opponent will be No. 3 seed Illinois, who was also dominant in the opening rounds and is making just their second Sweet 16 appearance in the last 20 years. The winner of that matchup will take on the winner of an unexpected Big Ten rivalry meeting in the tournament between Nebraska and Iowa.
The Iowa Hawkeyes pulled off the most shocking outcome of the tournament, knocking off the defending national champions and No. 1 seeded Florida. Ben McCollum has his Hawkeyes in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1999 in his first season in Iowa City. They’ll face the No. 4 seed Nebraska Cornhuskers, who entered this tournament without a single NCAA Tournament win in program history but made it to this point after a dramatic victory over Vanderbilt in the Round of 32.
With all three of these teams coming from the Big Ten with strong bases and in unfamiliar territory this deep in the tournament, the question becomes how much of a true home-court advantage will Houston actually have in Houston, especially when it comes to the crowd.
We have already seen Cornhusker fans take over a tournament site during the first two rounds in Oklahoma City where they made it look and feel like a true Nebraska home game. Both Iowa and Illinois also have fan bases that love their basketball programs and should travel well, especially for the situation at hand.
With Nebraska and Iowa playing the first game Thursday night at the Toyota Center, it’s likely that a large portion of those fans would stick around for the Houston–Illinois matchup that follows. If that happens it could create a very interesting atmosphere, with many Big Ten supporters likely choosing to back the Illini, both out of conference loyalty and based on which opponent they would prefer to face next.
Neither Nebraska nor Iowa has an extremely strong rivalry with Illinois, and it’s reasonable to assume both would favor a potential Elite Eight matchup with the Illini over facing a No. 2 seed Houston team playing close to home. As a result, what was expected to be a massive home-court advantage for Houston may not be as strong.
Wild time coming to HTown.
At the end of the day, what happens on the court is what matters most and I’m sure Kelvin Sampson would play these games anytime, anywhere. Still, you can’t deny that Houston will have a major advantage when it comes to not having to travel and being in a familiar close to home setting. They’ve played at the Toyota Center once this season back in December when they beat Florida State by 15. When it comes to the crowd inside the arena though, Houston certainly did not get the perfect draw with three Big Ten teams now coming to town.