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The University of Houston (UH) men’s basketball team’s upset loss to the University of Memphis on Sunday in the title game of its final American Athletic Conference (AAC) tournament was mitigated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) awarding the Cougars one of the top four seeds in the upcoming Big Dance.
UH earned the No. 1 spot in the Midwest Region and will begin the journey to its second Final Four appearance in less than five years on Thursday in a first-round matchup against 16th-seeded Northern Kentucky University (NKU) in Birmingham, Alabama, according to the program’s Twitter account.
“Coogs' fifth-straight NCAA Tournament appearance,” read the tweet.
UH joins intracity rivals Rice University and Texas Southern University (TSU) in hosting this year’s Final Four, which will be held at NRG Stadium from Friday, March 31 to Monday, April 3.
The Kelvin Sampson-led team, which enters the tournament with a 31-3 overall record, is the first since the vaunted 1983 Phi Slama Jama squad to win more than 30 games and land the top seed during the same season, but the former is aiming for a happier outcome than the latter, which fell victim to a last-second putback dunk in that year’s national championship game against North Carolina State University.
Houston ABC affiliate KTRK reported that the Cougars, minus AAC Player of the Year Marcus Sasser, fell 75-65 to Memphis in the battle for the conference tournament crown.
Sasser, who returned to the Third Ward for his final campaign, suffered a groin injury in UH’s AAC semifinal win over the University of Louisville on Saturday, KTRK reported.
UH, which officially joins the Big 12 Conference later this year, had ridden an 11-game winning streak before Sunday.
It’s purportedly unclear as to when Sasser is cleared to play for the Cougars again, though KTRK reported that the senior guard was dressed against Memphis.