What an environment at Fertitta Center. When opposing coaches and writers covering other teams praise your fans and the homecourt advantage, you know things are going well. Kelvin Sampson praised UH fans in his postgame interview. He said the story is no longer about how it used to be but how fans respond today. And he’s right.
But the easy part is over for fans – now the schedule changes, and Cougar fans have to continue to do their part.
the daily #177 | 1/28/2024 | Archives
So much happened in a single afternoon in the Big 12, but that will be every Saturday, it appears.
Texas loses at BYU, #7 Kansas loses at Iowa State, Texas Tech steals a win at #11 OU, and TCU wins at #15 Baylor in three overtimes. Home teams went 5-2 Saturday and 3-3 midweek this week.
As the season goes on, I think it will get easier to pick off road wins midweek and harder on weekends. As of today, home teams are 20-8 on Saturday (71.4%) and 13-7 in midweek (65.0%). That’s a small sample size, but I think it will continue to trend that way. Bigger, rowdier crowds on the weekends and more fESPN/CBS games will feed home teams.
The problem is that, with six weeks left in the season (11 games), UH only has two home Saturday games left: Texas and Kansas. Four others are on the road: at Kansas, Cincinnati, Baylor, and OU. With Kansas on the last weekend, five of your next six Saturdays are on the road.
That’s a gauntlet. This UH team will get the best shot from some of the top teams in the country on their home courts in Saturday games.
Houston has three home weekday games remaining (Oklahoma State, Iowa State, Cincinnati), each beginning at 6 p.m. UH must pick off a few road wins to win the league but needs to sweep the home games. If fans are a vital part of the homecourt advantage, and midweek games are easier for road teams to pick off, Cougar fans must be different.
Inside the numbers: In four home Big 12 games, the Houston defense has tortured teams early. The four opponents – WVU, Texas Tech, UCF, and Kansas State – are 29 for 105 in the first half of games (27.6%). Big 12 teams are hitting some threes against UH (16/50 in the first halves of home games), but inside the arc, they’re 13/55 (23.6%).
After going 14/21 (66.7%) against Houston on two-point shots, BYU was 25/33 (75.8%) inside the arc against Texas yesterday. The same BYU team that took 38 threes against UH only attempted 17 vs. Texas.
