Houston went 17-1 in American Athletic Conference league play a season ago, but the Big 12 is proving to be an entirely different deal.
The No. 5 Cougars (15-2, 2-2 Big 12) set out to win consecutive games for the first time in their new conference when they host UCF on Saturday afternoon.
Houston lost two of its first three Big 12 games before notching a 77-54 home win over No. 25 Texas Tech on Wednesday night.
The Cougars dropped three or fewer regular-season conference games in four of their final five seasons in the AAC. The step up in competition is making victories much harder to come by.
“We’re still on a learning curve,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said after the victory over the Red Raiders. “This league is brutal, man, and that was the No. 25 team in the nation, and I’m sure people are going to overreact at their place like, ‘What happened to you guys? Why do you struggle on the road?’
“It’s a road game in the Big 12. Teams lose. Good teams lose on the road in the Big 12, and good teams win at home in the Big 12, and we’re no different than anybody else. We haven’t lost our last game on the road. We’ll lose some more games, and we haven’t won our last home games. When you’re a coach like me, you learn not to overreact to anything, and I will never do.”
Jamal Shead led the charge for the Cougars on Wednesday with a career-best 29 points on 12-of-16 shooting. He also had 10 assists.
Shead hadn’t scored more than 16 points in a game this season before breaking out against Texas Tech.
“I missed probably my first three shots,” Shead said. “Coach told me that those were good shots and to keep taking them. The opportunity kept presenting itself, so I just kept taking them. I wasn’t really taking it upon myself. The opportunity was there.”
Shead ranks third on the Cougars in scoring at 11.2 points per game and leads in assists (6.2 per game) and steals (38). L.J. Cryer averages a team-best 15.2 points, and Emanuel Sharp scores 13.1 per outing.
UCF (11-5, 2-2) also made the jump from the AAC with Houston and will be hoping to change its fortunes against the Cougars. The Knights have lost the past seven meetings and 11 of the past 12.
UCF recovered from 16-point deficits in both its Big 12 victories. The first was the historic 65-60 upset of No. 3 Kansas on Jan. 10 in Orlando, and the other was a 77-71 road victory over Texas on Wednesday.
“It was a hard-fought game against a very good Texas team,” Knights coach Johnny Dawkins said. “I’m just really proud of our guys for our effort because Texas did a great job of building a lead, and our guys just kept fighting and kept believing and made an incredible comeback. Proud of our guys for the fight we showed for 40 minutes that allowed us to have a chance to win.”
UCF’s Jaylin Sellers came off the bench for the first time this season and scored 24 points. It was the fifth 20-point effort of the season for Sellers, who leads the team with a 17.9 scoring average.
Shemarri Allen added season bests of 17 points and seven assists for the Knights. Big 12 blocks leader Ibrahima Diallo had three rejections to increase his season count to 34.
–Field Level Media
