When Houston and Arizona met nearly three years ago in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, the top-seeded Wildcats were sent home with a 72-60 defeat.
The two schools now are both members of the Big 12 and will meet for the first time since that 2022 March Madness matchup on Saturday when the No. 6 Cougars visit No. 13 Arizona at Tucson, Ariz.
Houston (20-4, 12-1) leads the Big 12 by one game ahead of the Wildcats (17-7, 11-2).
The clubs could have been tied, but Arizona lost 73-70 at Kansas State on Tuesday when it was 2-of-22 from 3-point range and committed 17 turnovers. The setback ended the Wildcats’ six-game winning streak.
One night earlier, Houston knocked off visiting Baylor 76-65 to win its third straight contest.
Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson quickly turned his club’s focus on to Arizona, which is 105-27 in Tommy Lloyd’s four seasons as coach.
“In the coaching profession, you know who the real ones are, and Tommy’s a real one,” Sampson said. “He’s got a great staff. And having that structure and having that culture, but the most important thing is talent. Tommy’s always been a great recruiter, especially international kids, so all his teams will have a good balance of kids from different places, but he knows how to coach.”
The Wildcats started slowly with a 4-5 record before getting hot and winning 13 of their next 14 games.
But poor shooting derailed them against Kansas State as inconsistent star Caleb Love had just six points on 3-of-15 shooting, including misses on all seven 3-point attempts.
“He didn’t play great. We’ll have to go back and look why,” Lloyd said of Love. “I thought he had some good opportunities. I thought he had a few of those threes, kind of towards the end of that game, the second half, I thought looked really good. We’re going to hang with it just like we always do and hope for a better outcome next time.”
Love has shot under 40 percent from the field in nine of the past 12 games. He is shooting 37.8 percent overall and 30.9 percent from 3-point range while averaging a team-leading 15.8 points per game.
Jaden Bradley (11.9) and KJ Lewis (10.5) also average in double digits for Arizona. Lewis had a team-leading 15 points against Kansas State.
The Cougars led by as many as 25 in the wire-to-wire 11-point victory over Baylor.
Baylor shot 57.9 percent from the field and was 9-of-15 from 3-point range and committed 15 turnovers compared to Houston’s seven.
L.J. Cryer scored a team-high 14 points as one of five Cougars in double digits. Cryer averages a team-best 14.3 points.
Emanuel Sharp (ankle) returned from a two-game absence to score 10 points in 25 minutes. He’s Houston’s second-leading scorer at 12.3.
“It is good for (Sharp) to get out there and get going,” Sampson said afterward. “I think his second, third or fourth time going will be good. Regardless of how he played, he’s got two days off. Our kids need to rest. This league is unforgiving.”
Houston’s lone Big 12 setback came on Feb. 1 when it dropped an 82-81 overtime home decision to then-No. 22 Texas Tech.
Lloyd said his club can’t have more turnover issues if it expects to beat the Cougars.
“We had some problems early with that in the season, and I think we’ve done a good job addressing it,” Lloyd said of the turnovers. “We kind of reverted a little bit, but Kansas State gets a lot of credit because they were the one making the plays.”
Overall, the Cougars and Wildcats have split 12 all-time meetings.
–Field Level Media
