After a 4-3 start, No. 4 Houston has won 20 of its last 21 games to regain its preseason ranking and re-enter the conversation for one of the four top seeds in the NCAA Tournament.
With a win Saturday at home against Cincinnati (17-11, 7-10 Big 12), the Cougars (24-4, 16-1) can add to their resume and capture their second straight outright conference regular-season title.
Houston is in rare form as it avenged its lone league loss on Monday night with a 69-61 victory at No. 10 Texas Tech. Milos Uzan scored a career-high 22 points to pace the Cougars to their seventh straight victory.
The win came with a caveat however, as the short-handed Red Raiders used just six players. Out of the lineup were two of Texas Tech’s top three scorers — Chance McMillian and Darrion Williams.
“For us to do what we did tonight was great, but there’s also an asterisk,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said.
At the same time, Sampson pointed out that the Cougars had to play well to win. They used their signature defense to hold the Red Raiders to 29.8 percent shooting from the floor and 6-of-30 accuracy from 3-point range (20 percent).
“It’s not easy to win in this league,” Sampson said of Houston’s 13-game road winning streak. “It’s hard to win on the road.”
In addition to their vaunted defense, the Cougars rank second in Division I in 3-point shooting (40.2 percent), led by their backcourt trio of LJ Cryer, Emanuel Sharp and Uzan. Each has made at least 41.5 percent of his attempts from deep.
This has been a disappointing season for Cincinnati, which was ranked as high as No. 14 in early December and ahead of then-No. 17 Houston.
After a 10-1 start, the Bearcats have struggled in conference play. Recent results have been more encouraging, however, with an offensive uptick helping the Bearcats rebuild their resume in hopes of gaining an NCAA Tournament at-large bid.
In losing eight of their first 10 league games, the Bearcats averaged 59.4 points. But in winning five of their last seven, they’ve averaged 76.4.
Cincinnati has mirrored the improvement of Jizzle James. After averaging 8.4 points in the Bearcats’ first 10 Big 12 games, James has scored at a 19.3 clip over the last seven.
“Jizzle’s kind of found his confidence and rhythm again as an offensive player,” Cincinnati coach Wes Miller said. “When he’s got the ball in space, we have a lot of confidence in him to go make the play.”
The emergence of James, (12.6 points a game) has allowed him to take over the team scoring lead from Simas Lukosius (11.2), who returned Tuesday in a 69-67 win over Baylor and scored seven points in 17 minutes. The 6-foot-8 senior was sidelined for two games with a shoulder injury.
A win at Houston likely would wrap up an NCAA berth for Cincinnati, which checks in at No. 47 in the NET ratings.
“What an awesome opportunity to go down there and compete against a team that’s already clinched a championship,” Miller said.
Houston has won its last eight games against Cincinnati but still trails in the series 13-12.
The Bearcats won the first eight meetings.
–Field Level Media
