Houston makes 100-year-old history with second consecutive Big 12 regular season conference title
No. 4 Houston captured its second consecutive Big 12 regular season title Monday with a 69-61 win over No. 10 Texas Tech on the road. The Cougars extended their nation-leading 13-game road winning streak by avenging their lone loss in Big 12 play, which came earlier this month at home in overtime against the Red Raiders.
The Cougars, with the win, become the first team in over a century to join an existing major conference and win back-to-back regular season titles in their first two seasons as a league member. The last team to accomplish the feat was Idaho in the Pacific Coast Conference during the 1921-22 and 1922-23 seasons.
Houston star guard Milos Uzan scored a career-high 22 points, and veteran big man J'Wan Robers added 16. The Cougars held the Red Raiders to their worst team field goal percentage (29.8) since a Dec. 2020 win over Abilene Christian. Texas Tech finished just 6 of 30 from beyond the arc (20%), which marked its worst shooting performance from beyond the arc since a loss to UCF on New Year's Eve.
The heart and soul of this Houston team under Kelvin Sampson is the defense. The Cougars entered the week ranked No. 1 in the country in scoring defense (57.7 ppg). Houston limited Texas Tech to its lowest point total (61) of the season and held the home team without a field goal for over eight minutes in the second half after taking a slim 33-30 lead into the intermission.
How Houston got back on track under SampsonWhen Houston hired Sampson to lead its basketball program in 2014, the Cougars had reached the NCAA Tournament only four times since losing back-to-back national title games in 1983 and 1984. Sampson took on the challenge of rebuilding a once-proud program and has turned Houston into one of the most consistent teams in the sport for the better part of the last decade.
Before Houston joined the Big 12 conference ahead of the 2023-24 season, Kansas had won the regular season league title 16 of the last 18 years. By winning back-to-back conference titles, Houston has established itself as the new team to beat in the Big 12, with Kansas heading toward its worst winning percentage in conference play in over three decades.
Houston had the luxury of returning most of its production from last season's team that reached the Sweet 16 before losing to Duke. The Cougars lost All-American guard Jamal Shead to the NBA Draft (Shead was hurt against Duke, neutering Houston's chances) but returned four starters from a team that won 32 games. The commitment out of the transfer portal that helped raise the ceiling of this team was Uzan. The former Oklahoma guard has started all 28 games this season and has served as a replacement for Shead.
Houston lost All-American guard Marcus Sasser following the 2022-23 season and Shead the following year. Despite losing two of the best players in program history in back-to-back seasons, Houston has remained elite defensively while also seeing an uptick in production from beyond the arc. Houston ranks No. 3 in adjusted defensive efficiency, per KenPom.com, while the offense ranks 7th in adjusted offensive efficiency.
The Cougars are No. 4 in team 3-point field goal percentage (40.0). Houston finished 6 of 12 beyond the arc in the win over the Red Raiders, which marked the fifth time Sampson's team finished 50% or better from three in a game this season.
Although Houston has won 20 of its last 21 game, the start to the season was uncharctrisic for a Sampson-led team. The Cougars started just 4-3, with losses to Auburn, Alabama and San Diego State during the first month of the season.
The season-defining win came in Lawrence, Kansas last month. Houston rallied to secure an unlikely win over the team that has dominated the Big 12 for the better part of two decades. The Cougars trailed by six points with 69 seconds remaining in regulation before forcing overtime, then trailed again by six points with eight seconds remaining beyond regulation. H
Houston went on to win that game 92-86 in double-overtime and has been the frontrunner in the Big 12 ever since.
Houston's instant success in a new league is unprecedentedOver the last two years, the Big 12, Big Ten, SEC and ACC have all been impacted by realignment. The Big 12 was the first power league to introduce mass changes when Houston, BYU, Cincinnati and UCF joined in 2023. Texas and Oklahoma spent one year in the expanded Big 12 before departing for the SEC.
Houston has adjusted better than any power conference team in its new league. Since joining the Big 12 last season, the Cougars have put together a 31-4 record (.886 win percentage) against conference competition. For context, Houston finished its last two seasons in the AAC with a 32-4 record.
Here's a look at how every power conference team has fared in their new respective league, with records as of Monday.
- Houston: 56-9 (31-4 Big 12)
- BYU: 42-19 (20-14 Big 12)
- Cincinnati: (38-26, 13-21 Big 12)
- UCF: 31-29 (12-22 Big 12)
- Cal: (12-15, 5-11 ACC)
- Stanford: (17-10, 9-7 ACC)
- SMU: (20-7, 11-5 ACC)
- Arizona: (18-9, 12-4 Big 12)
- Arizona State (13-13, 4-12 Big 12)
- Colorado (11-17, 2-15 Big 12)
- Utah (15-12, 7-9 Big 12)
- UCLA: (20-8, 11-6 Big Ten)
- Oregon: (20-8, 9-8 Big Ten)
- USC: (14-13, 6-10 Big Ten)
- Washington (13-14, 4-12 Big Ten)
- Texas: (16-11, 5-9 SEC)
- Oklahoma: (17-10, 4-10 SEC)
Even with the additions of Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah from the Pac-12, Houston is on track to finish with an even better record in conference play this season and sit at 16-1 with three games remaining before the Big 12 Tournament begins. You have to go back to the 2020-21 COVID-19 shortened season to find the last time a team from the conference finished with just one loss against Big 12 competition. Kansas also finished with one loss (17-1) the season before.
Houston has etched its name into the national title conversion and also as the team to beat in the Big 12 now and going forward. Until someone other than the Cougars claims the title as regular season champions in the newly expanded league, Houston will stand alone as the new kings of the Big 12.
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