Another word about Houston Cougar basketball

It's been almost three years since I last said a word about Cougar basketball, and with the team currently ranked #1 in the nation (for the first time since the Phi Slama Jamma era of the early '80s) I thought it would be a good opportunity to note their success on this otherwise football-centric blog.

I rarely make it out to basketball games, but a friend of mine was unable to attend last week's game against South Florida so he transferred his tickets to me. Corinne and I got to see the nation's top-ranked team in action: 

The Cougars host South Florida at the Fertitta Center on January 11, 2023. 

The Cougars, playing without one of their key players, had to face a very focused South Florida team as well as poor officiating and for awhile appeared to be in danger of losing for only the second time this season. But between the Cougar defense stepping up to stifle the Bulls in the second half as well as Marcus Sasser scoring a career-high 31 points, Houston was able to tough it out and avoid the upset. Which is what good teams do, even when they're not having a good night.

Although the Coogs are currently #1 in the AP poll (as well as the coaches poll, as well as Sagarin, as well as Pomeroy, as well as NET, and are predicted to be #1 seeds in both Fox Sports's and Joe Lunardi's March Madness brackets), if you go on message boards or social media you'll find no shortage of haters who think that the Cougars do not deserve to be ranked #1 and that Kansas or Purdue or Alabama (the only the to have beaten UH so far this year) should be the top-ranked team instead. 

And maybe they're right. This team is not perfect. They sometimes have the tendency to go on long scoring droughts, and they need to improve their free-throw percentage. 

With that said, it really doesn't matter who is ranked #1 right now anyway. All that matters is who's number one at the end of the NCAA Tournament. 

Could it be the Coogs? There's a lot of basketball left to be played, but consider for a moment that the 2023 Final Four will be here in Houston at NRG Stadium, and that it will be UH alum Jim Nantz's last gig announcing for CBS before he retires. Wouldn't it be the perfect opportunity for the Cougars to finally win the national championship that has eluded this program for so long?

It may be too much of a fairy tale to come true. But the 2022-2023 Houston Cougars are well equipped to get there. And I'm enjoying every minute of it.