OKLAHOMA CITY – This time of year is 2X speed for fans. It’s a sprint from the end of the regular season to the national title game. It’s 3X speed if you’re traveling, game-planning, coaching, and prepping for portal season like the coaching staff.
It was just eight days ago that UH played Arizona in the Big 12 title game. A week ago, fans gathered at Fertitta Center for the selection show. The Coogs were the 67th team called, placed on the two line, and in the South Region in Houston.
Six days ago, Kelvin Sampson did his media Zoom, the team practiced at the Guy V. Lewis Development Facility and had media availability, and Kelvin did his final radio show. Five days ago, the Cougars watched film before flying to OKC.
That night, the team bussed down to Norman to work out in OU’s practice facility. At some point around that practice, just 48 hours before Tournament tip-off, things started to click—a collective Aha! moment. The parallel individual pieces that had been trending upward all collided.
It feels ridiculous to write this, but the team that won 28 games, finished second in the hardest conference in the country, ranked 5th in the final regular-season AP Poll, and earned a No. 2 seed never seemed to put it all together. The Houston standard is so imposing that the near-consensus view is that this team had not scratched its potential.
But in that 122-hour gap between the end of the Arizona game and the first round tip, UH reached that next gear. Over the first two rounds, everyone stepped up:
Emanuel Sharp’s 18 points were his final payment, and he now owns A&M outright, having scored 69 points in his 3-0 career against the Aggies (all in NBA arenas). He also scored 16 on 6/7 shooting vs. the Vandals.
Kingston Flemings went for 27, 11, and 8 this weekend, which sounds kind of quaint based on his big games on the biggest stages. Kingston had just one turnover against the vaunted BuckyBall press.
JoJo Tugler played 50 in-control minutes and had just 3 fouls while causing chaos and wrecking three Aggie layups. Repetition helps retention: JoJo played like a beast in two NCAA Tournament games and was never close to foul trouble.
Chris Cenac had 27 boards, including a massive 18-rebound night. Combined, the UH starting bigs had two turnovers over the weekend.
The M&Ms staked a further claim to the future of this program: Mercy Miller continued his confidence climb, playing significant minutes and scoring in double digits twice. And Chase McCarty, the ‘freshman’ who has become UH’s hard-ass culture creator, dove across a scrum and saved a ball, injuring a court-side table along the way.
And Kalifa Sakho, in games straddling the end of Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr, was instrumental, giving UH a rock-solid post presence and one of the biggest dunks of the entire Tournament.
In all, Houston shot 47% (61/130), had 93 rebounds (27 offensive), and just 14 turnovers in a twin set of 31-point blowouts.
Seemingly a lifetime ago, Cougar fans walked out of Fertitta Center last Sunday feeling cautiously optimistic. They saw the puzzle pieces and hoped Kelvin Sampson would figure out how they fit. A week later, his program has all the momentum.
This is the team that fans pictured when KingFish and Big Snacks signed 16 months ago. This is what they imagined when Milos Uzan came back. Now, the dream of playing the second weekend in Houston has come true.
Not just #ForTheCity, but #InTheCity, too.
