The Houston Cougars and BYU Cougars met on Friday night in the Big 12 basketball tournament semifinals. The two programs were two of the newcomers during the 2023-24 season and found themselves competing for a spot in the Big 12 Tournament Championship Game. Houston had taken care of Colorado’s mini-Cinderella run on Thursday in the quarterfinals, while BYU was fresh off a high-scoring affair against Iowa State.
On Friday night, it was Houston from start to finish in a 74-54 win over BYU. Here are three things I noticed being at the game.
The Sluggish Start
It was impossible to ignore the incredibly slow start for the BYU Cougars, who had a barnburner of a game against Iowa State on Thursday in a 96-92 victory over the Cyclones. BYU did not score its first bucket of the game until the 13:17 mark in the first half, and that made it a 15-2 game in favor of Houston.
BYU looked tired after their barnburner on Thursday afternoon. BYU shot a mere 20% from the field in the first half (6-30) and only 19% from three-point range (3-16). Houston more than doubled up BYU from the floor, hitting 45% in the first half of the game.
BYU struggled in the turnover department, too, giving up nine to Houston’s five. While the Cougars also dominated in the paint 14-6 in the first 20 minutes.
Where are the Houston Fans?
I wrote a lengthy piece during the game about the absence of the Houston basketball fans at the Big 12 semifinals.
Here are the cliff notes: This team is the No. 1 seed in the Big 12 Tournament and just went 19-1 in the league. They were absolutely expected to be here and there’s no excuse for their fan base to not show up for them in this spot.
The crowd filled in a bit during the game, and by the midway point of the second half the scene at T-Mobile was vastly improved.
But I still believe that for a Houston team that spent 30 years trying to get back into a power conference there should be far better support for this program in its conference tournament.
No J’Wan, No Problem
J’Wan Roberts was out for the Houston Cougars due to a sprained ankle, but the team didn’t miss a beat.
The rest of the team picked up the slack for Kelvin Sampson’s program. Emanuel Sharp led the way with 26 points on 7-13 shooting and 5-7 from three-point range, while LJ Cryer added 20 and Milos Uzan had 14 points.
With Roberts out, hopefully he has the time to recover by the time the Cougars play next week in the NCAA Tournament. But regardless, Houston has the talent and depth to reach a Final Four even without him. However, a National Championship? They will want Roberts back for that.
