Houston men’s basketball team’s reaction to the team placement during the 2025 NCAA selection Sunday, on Sunday, March 16, 2025 in Houston, Texas. | Gillian Wisniewski/The Cougar
Before the season even tipped off, Houston men’s basketball coach Kelvin Sampson made one thing clear: “The journey has always been more important than the destination.”
Now, months later, Houston sits atop the Midwest Region, a No. 1 seed for the third straight season and for the first time in program history, both the Big 12 regular-season and tournament champion.
The team’s work behind closed doors made the moments even sweeter.
“Nobody knows how much time we spend in this gym. It’s great to see that pay off,” redshirt junior guard Emanuel Sharp said.
A 4-3 start to the season and two overtime losses at the Players Era Festival in Vegas were enough to drop Houston to No. 17 in the rankings.
It was Houston’s first time outside the AP top 10 in over two years, but Sampson and his crew saw it as a chance to learn and grow.
“There’s nothing to panic about that,” Sharp said.
After all, the grueling practices that followed molded Houston into the battle-tested powerhouse it is today.
A month later, the Cougars began their Big 12 climb, securing their first win against Oklahoma State on Dec. 30. They endured the fatigue of a grueling 20-game conference schedule, often playing Saturday-to-Monday turnarounds, which prepared them for the one-day breaks between some rounds of the NCAA Tournament.
“You tell yourself you’re tired, ‘I can’t go anymore,’ but you’re not playing for yourself, you’ve got four other guys on the floor with you,” graduate forward J’Wan Roberts said. “I feel like when you’re tired, you have to push through that adversity and break through it.”
They began home conference play in January, blowing BYU out by 31 points. It was not a fluke, as the teams later met in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 tournament and Houston passed them by with a 20-point victory.
Later that month, Houston snagged a historic double overtime win over Kansas inside Allen Fieldhouse.
There were plenty of other close calls along the way, like Houston’s narrow one-point win over UCF. The Cougars rarely found themselves on the wrong side, with their only conference loss coming in the form of a one-point overtime loss to Texas Tech.
“We shouldn’t walk around here thinking we own the basketball universe and we’re never going to lose a game,” Sampson said after the game. “If you play in the Big 12 and you play 20 games, you’re going to get nicked.”
It was Houston’s only blemish to its otherwise perfect 19-1 record in league play, which included a historic 10-0 road record. Still, they never lost the humility that Sampson instills in the program.
“Those things come as a result of how we do things. It’s not that we have the greatest team ever, because obviously we don’t,” Sampson said. “I think being humble as a program gives you the opportunity to learn each game.”
Houston hopes those lessons translate as it begins its march to the finish. The Cougars need six more wins to bring home their first elusive national title.
Houston opens the tournament against SIU-Edwardsville on Thursday at 1 p.m. A win would set up a second-round matchup against either No. 8 seed Gonzaga or No. 9 seed Georgia on Saturday.
Houston has advanced to the Sweet 16 in five consecutive NCAA Tournaments, but injuries have often kept it from reaching its ultimate goal. For Roberts, who is planning to return from a sprained ankle in time for Thursday’s game, this tournament is his final opportunity to deliver a championship to Houston after spending six years with the program.
“I’ve been to the tournament every year I’ve been in college, and this one feels different,” he said. “I don’t want to jinx it, but I really believe this might be the one.”
Houston guards Milos Uzan, Emanuel Sharp and Ramon Walker Jr. laughing while waiting for the team placement during the 2025 NCAA selection Sunday, on Sunday, March 16, 2025, in Houston, Texas, | Gillian Wisniewski/The Cougar
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“Houston men’s basketball’s journey to third straight No. 1 seed” was originally posted on The Cougar