The fourth-ranked Houston Cougars have played such exceptional defense this season that, at first look, the points they surrendered at No. 21 BYU on Tuesday seemed an aberration.
The Cougars (17-2, 4-2 Big 12) rallied to defeat BYU 75-68 and stretch their winning streak to three games in advance of hosting Kansas State on Saturday at Fertitta Center.
Ranked first in adjusted defensive efficiency on kenpom.com, the Cougars are allowing 51.9 points per game.
BYU blew past that total but a more apt comparison is required. Houston held BYU 17 points below its scoring average, extending what’s been a season-long string of defensive domination.
“At some point when you’re trying to define winning for your team, you’re not going to take everything away,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said. “You’ve got to decide what is it you’re willing to give up and what is it you want to take away.”
For the Cougars, that meant occasionally sacrificing prime post positioning to stifle BYU from the perimeter. That proved an effective strategy as BYU missed 27 of 38 attempts from behind the arc, fueling Houston to its first road victory in the Big 12.
The win was especially important after two close losses against Iowa State and TCU during the Cougars’ first week on the road.
“That’s why it’s so hard to win on the road in this league,” Sampson said, referencing in part the raucous atmosphere at BYU. “These fans support their teams.
“We hadn’t won a Big 12 game on the road. And at some point, if you’re going to make noise, you’ve got to break through and do that.”
Kansas State (14-5, 4-2 Big 12) opened a challenging week on the road with a 78-67 loss at No. 23 Iowa State on Wednesday, the Wildcats’ second consecutive road defeat in conference play.
Still, with four conference victories already in hand, the Wildcats are trending in a positive direction relative to preseason expectations. Kansas State lost its top two scorers, Markquis Nowell and Keyontae Johnson, from last season’s 26-win NCAA Tournament quarterfinalist.
Among three double-digit scorers this season, juniors Cam Carter and Arthur Kaluma and fifth-year guard Tylor Perry, only Carter ranked among the Wildcats’ top five scorers last season.
Kansas State coach Jerome Tang set a nine-win baseline in conference play entering the season, and the Wildcats are almost halfway to that goal with a bulk of the Big 12 schedule left to play.
Despite the roster turnover, Kansas State appears poised for another postseason bid.
“There was never a disbelief in what we were going to accomplish at the end of the year, but there was also the reality of what needed to take place,” Tang said.
“But in our league, if any team goes 9-9 and they have a decent nonconference, they should go (to) the NCAA Tournament. I mean, we are like, far and away, the best league. … So you win nine games in this league — and I wasn’t saying nine was the pinnacle for us — I was just saying you get there and any team in our league that does that should be in the NCAA Tournament.”
–Field Level Media