The Houston Cougars are a college basketball powerhouse, and how nobody noticed

The Houston men’s basketball team are ranked top 5 in the nation. A statement that has been true for the better part of this entire college basketball season. The Cougars entered the year ranked third in the preseason polls, and since that time, they are the only team from that original top 25 that to this point has held on in the top 5. Yet Houston still seems to give off the heir of an underdog, because they represent the American conference, which is just not viewed on par with the Power 5. But Houston made the Elite 8 last year, and the Final Four the year before that, and their only non-conference loss is to Alabama. It is about time we recognize them for who they really are. Which is a college basketball powerhouse that has a legitimate shot at being the last team standing in this year’s big dance.

Real recruiters move in silence

Houston is a great college basketball team, but they also appear to be one without a face. The University of Houston is just not thought of as a a perennial basketball powerhouse, but they have recruited much better than people give them credit for. Their best player this season is Jarace Walker, a 6 foot 8 inch forward who is known more for his defense than anything else. Players who don’t light it up on the offensive end often don’t get much attention, but his raw talent, combined with Houston’s success has made him a potential lottery pick with NBA scouts. Even though he was ranked the 10th best recruit in his recruiting class, since he has represented the Cougars there is perhaps only 1 freshman in the nation who has outplayed him.

And signing Walker is the culmination of Houston’s rise in the recruitment rankings. He is the top ranked recruit they’ve seen for the better part of the past decade, but in 2022 they were the 29th ranked recruiting class overall. Following up their 32nd ranked class from 2021. Things are not slowing down at all as Houston is currently ranked 16th looking ahead to 2023. Houston is now recruiting like a legitimate power 5 program but they still play in the American conference.

The college game has changed

The truth is that the landscape of college basketball has changed, parting the red seas for teams like Houston to be more effective. In recent history, the only thing that matters when you are making a deep run in March is that you have enough talent to matchup with high level opponents, and a string of top 50 recruiting classes should take care of that. But you generally need a blue chip talent on top of that to tip the scales. Jarace Walker is that player for Houston, and the results speak for themselves.

However, Houston’s rise is also due to the shifts in what good recruiting looks like. Prior to the transfer portal era, most of a top 10 recruiting class would stay on campus for years. But that rarely happens now. Houston may not have recruited top 10 but most of their roster are players who have only played for Houston. Amongst their 3 transfers 1 is a senior now, and the other 2 are graduate transfers, which means they have a lot of college basketball experience to draw from. And their leading scorer Marcus Sasser is a senior, who played his entire college career in one uniform. Considering that many of the big name programs are playing with a combination of freshmen and transfer players, Houston is now a more established college basketball team than almost anyone in the country. 

In reality the way that programs like Kentucky dominated the early 2010s was with truly NBA ready talent enrolling as freshmen. Remember John Wall, Demarcus Cousins, and Eric Bledsoe starting as freshmen? Thanks to the addition of the G League Ignite program and Overtime Elite some of those players don’t even suit up in the NCAA. Which means are fewer NBA lottery talents in college basketball to break the game open for any program.

The Bottom Line

Houston has weathered the storm that is the new wave of college basketball. They have stayed the course, not only recruiting but retaining their players. And with the addition of Jarace Walker they now have the precocious NBA ready talent that they have lacked for years. They may not play in the ACC or even in the SEC, but the Houston Cougars are forreal. In fact they are better than ever, and now all of college basketball knows it. With their only non-conference loss to the recently top ranked Alabama, it appears that nobody can stop them from getting back where they belong, in the final four.

KNOW THE GAME. WIN THE GAME.

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