KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Houston Cougars defeated the Arizona Wildcats, 72-64, in the Big 12 Tournament championship game on Saturday at T-Mobile Center.
While the Cougars and the Wildcats prepare to get their draw for the NCAA Tournament on Sunday, here are three things I noticed while covering the game here in KC, including Arizona’s key defensive adjustment, Houston’s patience and the growth of Milos Uzan on display in the final minutes.
ARIZONA’S DEFENSIVE ADJUSTMENT
I wouldn’t call Arizona an elite defense for 40 minutes. But the Wildcats are capable of elite stretches, and they put one of those together after the under-12 timeout with one key adjustment.
Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd did something he had pretty much resisted doing most of the tournament — he put forwards Tobe Awaka and Henri Veesaar on the floor at the same time. I don’t think this is an adjustment he would have made had Houston forward J’Wan Roberts played. But he was out with an injury.
With either Joseph Tugler or Ja’Vier Francis on the floor, the Cougars didn’t have a forward that could create their own offense.
After that under-12, Lloyd had Awaka play down low around the paint and Veesaar set up in the high key area. He also had Veesaar defending the forward, which was key when Houston opted to run high screen-and-roll to initiate offense. Houston used either forward to initiate the screen and Veesaar popped out to help with the ball handler.
That’s a simple help-and-recover technique on defense. But Veesaar tracked the ball handler for a second or two longer for two reasons. First, the screener wasn’t a threat to score. Second, if the ball handler made the pass to the screener on the roll, Awaka would pick him up. He knew he had help.
At that time, the Wildcats were behind. By extending their defense and committing Veesaar to helping more on those screens, the Wildcats turned the tide, took the lead by halftime and Lloyd took his hands out of his pockets for perhaps the first time all week.
When Arizona came out for the second half, Lloyd started with Awaka and Veesaar on the floor together and used Awaka as a double teamer, as he came all the way out of the paint to try and help pin a Cougars guard. Shortly after, Awaka drew his third foul. That was the only thing keeping him from making more of an impact.
Then, Veesaar got his third foul and the use of the pair at the same time went out the window.
HOUSTON’S PATIENCE
The Cougars didn’t have the best first half. But when they started the second half, I didn’t see them make appreciable adjustments. Why? They really don’t need to.
What Houston does on offense and defense works so well all the Cougars must do is, well, wait for it to work. It rarely fails. Their mix of physical, man-to-man defense, quality 3-point shooting and dribble penetration plays well against just about every opponent.
So, Houston stuck with it. And, eventually, it paid off.
At the media timeout with 15:45 left the game was tied 40-40.
When Arizona took a timeout with 13:08 left Houston was up 49-44.
When the game stopped for the under-12 timeout the Cougars were up 56-48.
Houston outscored Arizona, 28-15, in the first nine minutes and did nothing more than be itself.
There is value in having a team completely bought into what its coach wants to do, in this case Kelvin Sampson. He knows what he has. Many of these players have been with him multiple years. LJ Cryer is a national champion. They’ve seen everything. Little fazes them.
So, it will continue in the NCAA Tournament. Roberts was in a walking boot on Saturday, but he insisted to the local Houston beats that he’ll be ready next week.
A full-strength, patient Houston team in the NCAA Tournament will be downright dangerous.
UZAN’S GROWTH
When Houston signed Milos Uzan out of the transfer portal last year I liked the move. He didn’t need to be anything more than what he was at Oklahoma. He ran a good point, got players organized, played good defense and the Cougars didn’t need him to be an offensive force. He just had to be himself.
Well, if you’ve watched him play this season, you know he’s grown into so much more than what he was. He’s become a clutch performer this season, and down the stretch it was clear he WANTED the ball in his hands.
With 5:28 left Arizona had gone on a 12-2 run and take a 62-61 lead with 5:28 left. Houston took a timeout. Uzan called his own number. On the possession out of the timeout, he drained a contested 3-pointer to give Houston a lead it wouldn’t give up.
Arizona had an empty possession at the other end and Uzan went to work again. He didn’t take the initial shot this time. But Mylik Wilson tapped out the rebound to Uzan, who held the ball. He knew taking time off the clock was important, so he milked it. As the shot clocked ticked down, he drove to his left and put up a beautiful floater off the glass to put Houston up by four points with 3:53 left.
As it turned out, that was the game-winning sequence. Arizona got it down to two points one time, but a well-time dunk by Francis pushed the lead back to four points for good.
By game’s end both LJ Cryer and Emanuel Sharp had gone cold. Had Uzan just been the player he was a year ago at OU, the Cougars probably would have lost. But because he accepted the challenge to get better — and it’s well-documented how much Sampson has pushed his junior guard — he finished with 25 points.
On Saturday night Uzan was the most important player on the floor.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
