Houston Cougars Archives

March Mad Odds: Houston, Alabama, Kansas favored to win the NCAA Tournament

March 13, 2023 mohmad free

Alabama is the No. 1 seed going into the 2023 NCAA Tournament, but the Crimson Tide aren’t the favorites to cut corners. The Houston Cougars finished the regular season 31-3 and are the big favorites (+550) on BetMGM. On Sunday, Memphis beat the Cougars 75-65 in the American Collegiate Athletic Conference title game. Kansas (+800), Alabama (+800), Purdue (+1100) and UCLA (+1200) are the other teams close to the top spot. The 2023 Final Four will take place on Saturday, April 1, and the championship game will be played on…

Houston’s Marcus Sasser doubts returning to the AFC Championship semi-finals due to a thigh injury

March 11, 2023 mohmad free

Houston guard Marcus Sasser is in doubt about returning to the team’s AAC Championship semifinal game against Cincinnati after a groin strain in the first half. Here’s what you need to know: Sasser walked into the locker room for treatment after slipping while dribbling and falling to the ground with an apparent non-contact injury with about seven minutes left in the first half. He returned to the bench in the second half but did not make it through the warm-up in the first half. The Cougars led 38-23 after the…

AAC Commissioner Mike Aresco again wants to eliminate the Power 5/Group of 5 split

March 10, 2023 mohmad free

Fort Worth, Texas — American Athletic Conference Commissioner Mike Aresco marked the start of the AAC men’s basketball tournament Thursday by issuing a statement once again opposing what Aresco believes is an unhealthy division between the Power 5 and Group of 5 conferences at the FBS level. “In recent weeks, I’ve seen references to the ‘Powerful Five’ in interviews and public conversations suggesting that the P5 is an almost exclusive focus in college athletics, Aresco wrote in the statement. “This is very misleading, especially in the current environment.” Aresco spoke…

NCAA Tournament Bracket Watch: Can Gonzaga snatch the second seed?

March 8, 2023 mohmad free

The big questions Tuesday night revolved around three of the mid-majors. Can St. Mary’s score an impressive win over Gonzaga in the Football World Cup championship game, confirming that the Gaels’ strong computer numbers deserve a correspondingly high rating? And will Oral Roberts and/or Charleston win their respective conference championships, or will they go to Selection Sunday in hopes of getting a big bid? Consider answering these questions definitively. Charleston outlasted UNC Wilmington in the CAA title game for their 30th win against a Division One. Meanwhile, Oral Roberts completed…

Big 12 looking west, Pac-12 looking for TV deal: What we’re hearing about the realignment

March 3, 2023 mohmad free

This past July, weeks after the stunning Big Ten announcement of USC and UCLA, Pac-12 Commissioner George Klyafkov made a bold realignment prediction: “No Pac-12 school is going to the Big 12.” After eight months, we may finally learn whether his confidence was warranted or a feigned bravado. Kliavkoff is under pressure to offer its members a new media rights deal by the end of the month. If the dollar numbers or the details disappoint, March could be the moment when the Big 12 finally hits. Sources familiar with the…

Adult Round Table: Duane Jones et al excelled on day one

February 1, 2023 mohmad free

MOBILE, Ala. Despite the increased pressure from the Shrine Game, the Senior Bowl is still the top all-star game for NFL Draft prospects. With this year’s edition of the event kicking off on Tuesday, the athlete Draft experts Dane Brugler and Nick Baumgardner vetted their first impressions. Which recruiting hopefuls made the biggest early impressions, and which ones need to bounce back for the rest of the week? 1. Down Jones’ measurements were predictably ridiculous. The two of you were in the second round of your most recent model, but…

No. 1 Houston upset by Temple at home: How this could hurt the Cougars in March

January 22, 2023 mohmad free

Houston, the nation’s top team, fell to unranked Temple 56-55 in Houston on Sunday. Here’s what you need to know: The Owls stopped Houston’s attempt at the last second, out of bounds. Houston only scored three points in the final five minutes. Houston’s only other loss of the season, on December 10 against Alabama, came amid the Cougars’ first stint as a first team. With No. 2 Kansas losing to TCU at home Saturday, this weekend marks the first time in history that the top two teams have lost at…

NCAA Tournament Bracket Watch: Alabama is the top seed. Northwestern and Clemson

January 13, 2023 mohmad free

“They can’t imagine it… that someone like me would walk into their house, walk on their land…” – Cassian Andor When compiling this week’s segment, we were astounded by the inclusion of teams we’d never expected to have considered as recently as a few weeks ago. North-west? Pittsburgh? Clemson? UCF? wait … Is that true? It also got us thinking about another story focusing on underdogs who took the power structure by surprise: “Andor,” our favorite TV series of 2022. After the train wreck that was “The Book of Boba…

College basketball rankings: Illinois out, Miami in. And hey, New Mexico!

December 26, 2022 mohmad free

Merry Christmas after Christmas! I trust that the holiday treated everyone well, though there were a few precious college basketball games that caught our eye. As a result, there wasn’t much movement on top of the polls. The good news is that there are plenty of great matches to be shown this week, which top the list for Saturday’s packed New Year’s Eve. In the meantime, allow me to spread my usual holiday cheer by presenting the correct ranking of the top 25 college basketball teams, as presented to the…

Rats, cats and the birth of a new era of Houston basketball

December 15, 2022 mohmad free

It was early in the 2014 school year and the Houston Cougars needed somewhere to practice. The main court inside Hofheinz Pavilion was being resurfaced and the athletic department’s only available practice courts were reserved by other sports. Of course, no one told first-year coach Kelvin Sampson any of this. He scrambled to find a gym for the week’s preseason practices. Sampson booked a two-hour block for the courts at the university’s student rec center. Not ideal, but they’d do. All he needed was 94 feet and two hoops; it’s…