NEWARK, N.J. — How do you make it to within one shot of winning a national title, bring back three key pieces from that team, start 10-1 and still float along the outskirts of the national radar?
Only one way: You’re the perpetually under-discussed Houston Cougars.
I’m not saying it’s right, I’m just saying it’s how it is. Far too often.
“Don’t sleep on Houston,” Kelvin Sampson famously said on CBS last April after the Cougars stunned much of the college hoops world by ending Cooper Flagg’s college career with the Coogs’ epic come-from-behind 70-67 upset of top-seeded Duke in the Final Four.
It’s time to remind the world to wake up again.
Maybe it’s because Houston loves to win ugly. Maybe it’s because its schedule hasn’t been flashy so far. Maybe it’s because the Cougars don’t produce one-and-done talent (though, read on, because that’s now no longer the case).
But here we are again, amid another season, and Houston is one of the best teams in the country.
Don’t sleep on Houston.
It’s time to start paying game-by-game attention to the Cougars once more, as they are the most reliably successful team in college basketball and proved the notion true furthermore on Saturday with another physically authoritative, Houston-style win against overmatched Arkansas in the Never Forget Tribute Classic at the Prudential Center.
The Cougars defeated the Razorbacks 94-85 to improve to 11-1, getting there behind 22 points from senior guard Emanuel Sharp and 21 more from freshman guard Kingston Flemings Jr.
Houston entered the game with a No. 8 ranking; Arkansas had a 14 next to its name. The two teams didn’t look as close as those numbers would suggest. Arkansas was within breathing distance for the entire second half, but never threatened after Houston broke the game open by ripping off a 15-0 run to get the score to 41-19 in the first half. The game teetered there. The only reason it wasn’t a blowout was thanks to the play of Arkansas freshman point Darius Acuff Jr., who kept the gap from becoming a chasm.
Acuff, who may well be a lottery pick in next June’s NBA Draft, finished with 27 points and seven assists, both game-highs.
“We were up 49-41, and it seemed like we played our worst basketball the last three minutes (of the first half),” Sampson said. “But we had some cards to play because we could space the floor.”
John Calipari and Kelvin Sampson have 70 Seasons and 1,600-plus wins between them, but this was just the second time they’d ever matched wits (Calipari got the better of Sampson in the 2018 NCAA Tournament). For Arkansas, Saturday was a missed opportunity. The Hogs are 9-3, but a victory here would have surely bumped their reputation up a tier. Instead, they’re one of six or seven teams with talent that are jumbled near the top of the SEC, which will start league play in two weeks.
Houston’s in a much rosier position. The Big 12 is stacked with the likes of Arizona, Iowa State, BYU and even Kansas. It hasn’t dropped a bit from its perch in this sport.
The answer as to why Houston wasn’t getting more attention is their schedule. Saturday’s win logs as just the second Quad 1 victory for UH through 12 games, joining the Nov. 16 73-72 defeat of Auburn in Birmingham, Alabama. Beating Arkansas also improved the Coogs to 7-1 in their last eight games in top-15 matchups.
This is what Sampson’s teams do. Win way more than they lose, and when they win, they hurt you and tend not to make it close.
You might’ve forgotten it amid the crunch of incredible November games, but Houston’s only loss came by three at Players Era in Vegas. I was there; Tennessee might not play a better overall game this season. And the Vols are obviously of good quality. That in mind, Houston having a lone single-possession loss against a team that might be a top-four seed shouldn’t displace them from the conversation of who’s elite in this terrific season.
Houston’s adaptability Saturday was also admirable. Arkansas came into the game averaging 89.9 points, and it got close to that, but Houston had no problem making it a track meet. The game had 73 possessions, the most Houston’s played in regulation since the start of the 2024-25 season. I know Sampson abhors seeing another team hit 80-plus on his guys, but having this kind of win will serve Houston well in the next three months.
“It speaks to Arkansas’ talent that they scored 85 points,” Sampson said. “They’re good enough to do that, and thank goodness we were good enough to score 94.”
Houston’s 94 points were the program’s most against a ranked team in regulation in 15 years.
The Cougars stymied the run-happy Hogs, who came into the game ranked No. 2 in fast break points at 22.7 per night. On this night, a mere seven — which is a half-point more than Houston gives up per game.
“I think that was the first time we played zone since I was at Montana Tech,” Sampson said, following with some admitted facetiousness. “We went 1-2-2, back to 3-2, bought us some possessions. It’ll never be our fastball, but it’s nice to know you’ve got a curveball.”
Houston knew it would have its moments on the offensive glass — Arkansas allows 16 per game in second-chance opportunities — and voila: Cougars got 16 on the board after securing 12 offensive rebounds.
No matter the cut-off you want to use, Houston leads all teams in college basketball in win total in the past five, six, seven, eight years. It’s no surprise the Cougars are this formidable once more. While they don’t rate top-five in efficiency just yet, their DNA puts them in a deep pool of teams that includes undefeateds such as Arizona, Michigan and Iowa State. Then the one-loss bullies are Houston, Duke, UConn, Gonzaga, Purdue, Michigan State and North Carolina. (Undefeated Vanderbilt may well be in that class as well, but it’s yet to beat a top-30 team.)
Getting Sharp, Uzan and Tugler back, with that Final Four experience, is huge. But the addition of Flemings is what changes the dynamics in play. He’s a rangy lead guard who was ranked 20th in his high school class and has already outplayed that projection. He’s putting up better than 15 points, five assists and shooting almost 60%.
Houston’s always been good/great under Sampson. Always been tough. Always been opportunistic. Always had a swagger.
Kingston makes them dangerous. Uzan and Sharp are capable of taking and making the big shot, but Flemings is the guy who is the key to keeping Houston just as good this season as it was last season, and the one before that, and the one before that.
But even more? He’s talented enough to make Houston believe that getting back to a national championship game should be the expectation, not the hope.
“How good can we be? I never think about that. I just know that we can get better,” Sampson said.
This is Houston merely at its good. We know Houston when it’s great, and this group has the stuff to be great. The Cougars’ most impressive personality trait is how they reliably get stronger the more games they play. We’re one-third of the way through the college basketball season and Houston might be 60% or 70% of its potential. Keep your eyes on these guys because they’ve clearly got their eyes on the prize: Sampson has himself a national title contender yet again.
