Competition level is the obvious concern with Houston. That doesn’t mean it’s not a reasonable element to discuss.
Yes, the Cougars have defeated Oregon, LSU, Utah State and Cincinnati. That’s an impressive group of victories for an American Athletic Conference team. It’s notable all four matchups were at home. Houston won’t have that luxury during March Madness.
Seven of Houston’s 13 AAC games have featured margins of 10 points or fewer, and four were on the road. The typical drop in offensive efficiency on road/neutral courts is emerging as a glaring issue for a program with an average strength of schedule.
Houston has obvious upside with stifling defense and tremendous rebounding, but the Cougars are short of a championship-caliber team.
I can’t argue with his analysis, I see the same issue away from home court. Is it just the poor home cooked aac officiating or is it more?
I think my verdict on the coogs as possible real final 4 contender holds until UC game…a true champ contender goes in there and wins by 10.
And of course the conf tourney all played away from home will show more as well…as much as I would like to believe in this team…they still lack a an end to end intensity…they get big leads and relax…they are better in the second half, can’t pull away in the first half, even from tulane…they have improved first half play in that they are not falling behind like they did in the beginning of the year…but they need to get into killer mode now…no mercy, no let off th gas for a full 40 min. They have the depth…time to show it.
Well regardless, we are a lock (when was the last time we were a lock, 1984?) to go to the Dance. I just want us to win the first game, then we will see.
Agree with your take on the team, and the offensive consistency with the Coogs has bothered me all year. I see way too many drives to the basket that are missed or the ball comes out resulting in a turnover. The big man is very inconsistent under the basket, and free throws are hit and miss. They are a great rebounding team and when they are on…a good 3-point shooting team. Free throws in the tournament are going to be huge, so they have to get better. I think Sampson may cut his rotation down to 7-8 players unless someone gets into early foul trouble.
And we’ve been a lock for a while…I just don’t know what to think as a fan sometimes this year because the unbelievably consistent success the team has had isn’t something I’m accustomed too!
I definitely could get used it that’s for sure…
…but I find myself having evil thoughts like ‘I hope someone doesn’t do something stupid’ or ‘Geez, I hope the admin knows to fly them home the same day from ECU…nothing good can happen around there’.
We shut down the #25 team in the country for 6+ minutes. If that doesn’t say championship caliber, I don’t know what does!
But just because we can play with the “big boys” doesn’t mean we make the final four or even the regional championship. It’s called “March Madness” for a reason. Go Coogs!!
To be fair we have had a lead of atleast 16 points in the second half of each road game with the exception of temple. Our ball controll offense is what has allowed teams to chip away a bit. Could it get better? Absolutley!
Coach has also said we just need to do a better job of putting our foot on their necks.
This! The @ UCF game was over in the first half, but we “only” won by 9. In fact, we also beat UConn, Tulsa, SMU and USF at their places by 8-9 points. Our defense, ball control and free throw percentage make small late leads a mountain to overcome. You could easily rewrite that paragraph with a different bias like this;
“Of Houston’s 7 road AAC contests, they’ve beat all opponents by at least 3 possessions, save a loss at Temple, their only blemish on the season.”
I don’t have time to go research all likely tourney teams, but isn’t this statement true of pretty much every team ever? I would think 99.99% of teams are better at home, especially offensively. What makes this team so special is that defense travels very well. I couldn’t care less if we’re beating teams by 8 or 18 every night, as long as we’re winning. In fact, I like that we’ve had to pull out close games as that experience will come in very handy in March. I’ll buy what Bleacher Report is selling.
Hard to get that worked up about it. They are only buying like 4 teams anyhow. Surprised Nevada is one. They really haven’t been tested anywhere near as much as even UH has. But ok.
If nothing people talking this kind of trash should help prepare the Coogs for the Dance. I am sure guys like this would rather not invite us at all…bottom line is that we have plenty to prove.
It would help if our teams, both in football and hoops, would win some big games against ranked teams OOC…
We won’t have luxury of playing at home in the tourney but the opposing team will will? I don’t get his point. If we start in Tulsa, I think it won’t feel like Fertitta Center but won’t be like UH is visiting Allen Fieldhouse every game either.
