Houston is ranked No. 1 this early in the season for the first time in program history.
Oakland comes calling on Wednesday knowing all too well what facing the top-ranked team in the nation takes out of a team.
Three years ago, the Cougars climbed to No. 1 on Nov. 28, 2022.
But Houston (2-0) catapulted past Purdue, last week’s top-ranked team, which still received 36 first-place votes this week compared to 18 for the Cougars.
Houston coach Kelvin Sampson’s team claimed the top spot because it had more No. 2 selections by pollsters than the Boilermakers.
Oakland (0-2) will play a different No. 1 team in consecutive games.
The Golden Grizzlies lost at Purdue 87-77 on Friday night. They fell at then-No. 7 Michigan 121-78 in the season opener on Nov. 3.
“I think we play the Pistons after that,” Oakland coach Greg Kampe joked of the early-season gauntlet, including Wednesday’s game at Houston.
The Cougars are coming off a 65-48 win Saturday against Towson at home behind freshman guard Kingston Flemings’ 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field.
Sampson commented on Houston’s shortcomings in the game, including missing 24 of 32 shots from 3-point range.
“We had a lot of guys do some good things, but we’re missing so many shots,” Sampson said. “It’s hard to get separation.”
Joseph Tugler had 15 points, eight rebounds and five steals, but Sampson was critical of the overall play of the junior forward.
Tugler had three turnovers and tied for the team lead with 14 shots attempted, making half of them.
“Just about any possession Jo’s involved in, he’s going to make somebody happy,” Sampson said. “It’s either me or the other (opponent) coach. Somebody’s going to be happy.
“He’s going to do something to help them, or he’s going to do something to help us. The good news is, most of the time, he does it to help us.”
Oakland was tied at halftime with Purdue, which pulled away behind 13 buckets from 3-point distance.
Ziare Wells led the Golden Grizzlies with 21 points and 12 rebounds.
His performance on the boards helped Oakland outrebound Purdue 39-37.
“It was a high level, intense, powerful, physical basketball game that was played by two really good teams,” Kampe said. “We had our chances and we should really be proud … we took it right in the chest (regarding Purdue’s 3-point shooting) and we kept on going.”
Sampson mentioned he is not concerned about Houston’s rebounding ability despite Towson tying the Cougars with 35 boards. Chris Cenac finished with a game-high 13 rebounds for Houston.
“That might be the most insignificant stat of the night — who gets more rebounds or not, in the second game of the year,” Sampson said. “I’m more interested in the offensive rebounds.”
Houston had 12 offensive rebounds, including four each by Cenac and Tugler.
Oakland relies heavily on its starting lineup.
Wells, Nassim Mashhour, Tuburu Naivalurua, Brody Robinson and Isaac Garrett each played at least 33 minutes against Purdue and only two reserves played more than one minute.
All five starters scored in double figures with Mashour contributing 15 points and five rebounds and Naivalurua 11 points and seven rebounds.
–Field Level Media
