This past season was truly remarkable as Houston marched all the way to the national title game, Kelvin Sampson’s second Final Four appearance with the Cougars. This program has truly exploded onto the scene with six straight Sweet Sixteen’s and Big 12 regular season titles in each of their first two seasons in the conference. These Cougars built potent lineups and elite defense and Sampson’s no stranger to building championship-caliber rotations.
Recent runs were led by phenomenal guard play and that certainly was the case last season. LJ Cryer, the former national champion at Baylor, averaged nearly 16 points per game and has now exhausted his eligibility. Fortunately, Houston got insanely good news with the return of Milos Uzan, who had flirted with the NBA Draft process, while talented guard Emanuel Sharp is also back for his senior season. Defensive phenom Joseph Tugler is also back, though there’s a few other holes left behind by departures like J’Wan Roberts.
Fittingly enough, Houston’s expectations remain sky high for next season not just from those returns but from an elite freshman recruiting class. Three Top 20 athletes join the Cougars, headlined by Chris Cenac Jr., a 5-star power forward who slides into a prominent role from the jump. Kingston Flemings and Isiah Harwell also join a lineup full of raw talent and experience and should provide important roles even as true freshmen.
Between the returning stars and the incoming freshmen, Houston only added one name through the transfer portal this offseason, making our choice much easier today. Kalifa Sakho is a 6-11 forward originally from France now landing at his fourth American college. He had two years at the junior college level then was a backup on a good Utah State team before spending last season at Sam Houston State. Sakho was a starting forward in Conference USA, putting up 7.9 points and 6.3 rebounds per game while making 66% of his field goal attempts.
Sakho was high on the CUSA leaderboards in rebounds and blocked shots last season and that’s exactly the kind of athlete that Sampson and company love adding in. You likely won’t see those same numbers now in the Big 12, but Sakho is a veteran presence who can grab boards and be a force in the frontcourt and fits well with a defensive-minded scheme like Houston runs.
All things considered, Sakho is far from the big news of the offseason in Houston but he’s legitimately a good addition that helps off weigh some of those departures from the national title run. Many eyes will be on those three elite freshmen and how they mesh in the college game, while the expectation is that Uzan’s game will further expand, now as the leader of this team. There will be people ranking Houston at or near the top of the preseason polls and there’s a lot to like about this roster.