Well…Eric had me excited for a moment.
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17. Houston Cougars
Previous: 17
It didn’t come as much of a surprise, but Marcus Sasser and Fabian White officially withdrawing their names from the NBA draft and returning to the Cougars was still great news for Kelvin Sampson’s program. As was Houston finalizing an agreement with Virginia to play a home-and-home series for the next two seasons. The Cougars are unlikely to be in a position where a poor nonconference schedule can be held against them, but we’ve seen countless AAC teams sweat on Selection Sunday due to a lack of quality wins on a résumé. Wichita State, last season’s regular-season champion, was a First Four team because its best win besides Houston came against Ole Miss. Houston played Texas Tech on a neutral site last season and will now face Virginia the next two seasons, in addition to the Maui Invitational this season. That tends to be looked upon fondly by the committee. And Houston has the talent and coaching to pick up quality wins against marquee opponents – the Cougars will undoubtedly be favored against Virginia.
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“undoubtedly be favored against Virginia”, love to see it!
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Undisputedly!
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ESPN had Texas going to the Final Four last year too.
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They are predicting UH to be a Sweet Sixteen team +1. I can live with that, if it happens, but I’m confident that many of us expect us to be Elite 8 or better.
my expectations will be based on how some of the younger guys develop.
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My only expectations are we make the tournament and be in a solid position to come out of the first weekend. If that happens it is already a great season and we can take our best shot to advance.
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UT at #10???
Barf.
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Nope. Until I see the team play I’m just expecting us to compete for a conference championship and I guess make the tourney. Depending on how the non-conference goes maybe that’ll change but its hard to expect a trip to the elite eight when we’ve only been there once in the last 35 years.
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I’m more optimistic. During the past four years there has been steady improvement. We’ve been to two Sweet 16s and missed out on a third due to a Michigan prayer shot.
We had one of our better teams miss a Tournament due to the virus. We made the Final Four. The trajectory is UP.
Our recruiting continues to improve. The team is experienced and confident because we’ve been to the Final Four while navigating through the Tournament gauntlet. The coaching continues to improve. Sampson is among the BEST basketball coaches in the NCAA.
We can’t compare this era of UH basketball to that of the past 35 years. We’ve been successful for the past four, which is an entire rotation of players. There may be a few among us that believe our recent success won’t continue, but I’m not one of them. Success breeds better recruiting thus leading to continued success.
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Dilly Dilly!!!
We will regularly make AND advance in the playoffs for the foreseeable future.
We will NOT be a one hit wonder under Sampson.
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Yep…I grew two inches too. 
Not saying we can’t make a deep run or hell, win the whole thing next year. I’m just not going to set my expectations at making a certain round in the tourney. We’ve got a lot of new pieces coming in next year so we’ll need to see how they mesh. If we come out hot and win the Maui then yah maybe I’ll raise my expectations but for now I think its best to temper them somewhat.
But just to clarify i agree with everything you’re saying about the overall trajectory of the program. We’re definitely on the up and up even if next year we don’t advance as far in the tourney.
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We will be a Final Four Team again.
Cause I say so!
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Exactly where we were last year, I’ll take that all day. So looks like we going to the final 4 again 
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I am positive we will make it to the NCAA tourney and at least win the first round. I think we can go really deep, maybe even win the thing. But the thing about the tourney is that you never know who you will catch hot while you may be cold. There are just no guarantees.
However, what boosts my confidence is the fact that we have been steadily improving and have earned those deep runs, they were no flukes. While bringing in new talent, we still have a base of returning talent that can keep the culture solid. Sampson has not only built good teams, he has built a solid program that can maintain a high level of success.
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The program is to a second weekend level. If we make it to the second weekend we have had a good year.
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12. Houston: Kelvin Sampson has the Cougars now as the dominant team in the American and a threat for a deep run every season.
Memphis - 14
Wichita st - 20
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Wow that is way different from Jon’s top 45
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