57°
Looking to build upon last year’s Final Four appearance, the University of Houston (UH) released its regular season schedule this week.
"Houston will play host to 17 regular-season games, including a Nov. 6 exhibition against Montana Tech, inside the Fertitta Center, with nine American Athletic Conference contests," the team said in a press release.
The team is returning seven lettermen and two starters and hopes to make another deep run in the postseason. The 2020-2021 club finished with a 28-4 record, clinching the American Athletic Conference Tournament championship, along with the sixth Final Four berth in the history of the program.
Kelvin Sampson is entering his eighth season coaching the team. Sampson has 32-years of coaching experience and has compiled a 667-334 record. He is one of only 15 coaches in NCAA history to lead four or more schools to the NCAA Tournament.
The Cougars are led by guard Taze Moore who earned First Team All-Big West honors last year and played in 23 games, starting 14 times. Moore led the team in scoring (12.2), free throw percentage (82.8), and steals (30). He tallied double-digit points 16 times, including a 10-game stretch in the middle of season.
Forward/Center Josh Carlton, a transfer from the University of Connecticut where he was a three-year starter, is also a player to watch. Carlton played in 115 games with 82 starts with the Huskies and had streaks of 97 consecutive games played and 66 consecutive games started with career averages of 6.5 points and 5.1 rebounds per game with a .53.7 goal percentage.
The Cougars were undefeated at the Fertitta Center last year. The school’s men’s and women’s basketball programs began play at the arena during the 2018-19 season when the Fertitta Center officially opened with a 65-61 win over the University of Oregon on Dec. 1, 2018, in front of a sellout crowd of 7,039.