I was the Memphis beat writer for The Commercial Appeal newspaper from 2002 to 2006, point being I made multiple trips to Houston for Conference USA matchups between the Tigers and Cougars. In my four full seasons on the beat, this is how Houston finished in C-USA:
- 2003: 11th
- 2004: 13th
- 2005: T-6th
- 2006: 4th
While watching the Cougars late Monday secure at least a share of the Big 12 title for the second straight year with a 69-62 victory at Texas Tech, I couldn’t help but think about how improbable all of this is given where the program was before Kelvin Sampson took over in April 2014. Houston made exactly one NCAA Tournament appearance in the 21 years before Sampson was hired and had not won a conference championship — not even a C-USA championship! — since 1992. I remember Hofheinz Pavilion, their out-dated home at the time, being dark and empty each game I visited. This is where Phi Slama Jama played? It was all kinda sad to see up close.
But Sampson has flipped things completely.
He guided Houston to an American Athletic Conference championship in 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2023 — and he would’ve also done it in 2021 if not for imbalanced schedules caused by COVID cancellations. (Undeniably, he had the best team in the AAC that season too.) Then, in advance of last season, Houston moved to the Big 12, a conference that had consistently rated as the sport’s best, and immediately started running through it like it’s the AAC.
Houston went 15-3 in the Big 12 last season and won the conference by multiple games. Now the Cougars are 16-1 in the Big 12 this season and in possession of a three-game lead in the loss column of the league standings over second-place Arizona, meaning Houston is about to win a second straight outright Big 12 title by multiple games. It really is incredible stuff that’s helped lift the Cougars to No. 3 in Tuesday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings, which caused Florida and Alabama to be pushed down one spot each, no fault of their own.
For what it’s worth, at 24-4 overall, including 8-4 in Quadrant 1, Houston is now the sport’s only team besides top-ranked Auburn with at least eight Q1 wins and fewer than five total losses. The Cougars will enter Saturday’s matchup with Cincinnati on a seven-game winning streak. A victory there will secure Sampson’s fourth consecutive outright conference championship
Top 25 And 1 rankings
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