INDIANAPOLIS — In a battle of two of college basketball’s best defenses, Houston put together one of the most impressive defensive performances in NCAA Tournament history in a 69-50 win over Tennessee to send Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson to the third Final Four of his career (2021 at Houston, 2002 at Oklahoma).
Houston’s one worry coming into the Elite Eight was that the Vols were not a high ball screen-usage team and didn’t post up often, which took away its two schematic disrupters: its two-on-the-ball attack of pick-and-rolls and its “Monster” double-teams on post-ups.
The theme was “Chest and heart, not scheme.” The Cougars, turns out, have plenty.
Tennessee could not find any airspace for most of the afternoon. Their drives to the basket were continually met by one of those Houston chests, followed by the long arms of the UH frontcourt. The Vols shot just 28.8 percent from the field, missed their first 14 3-point attempts and ended the first half with 15 points, the fewest scored in a first half by a No. 1 or No. 2 seed in NCAA Tournament history.
At the other end, Houston executed exactly what it wanted offensively in the first half, feeding J’Wan Roberts in the post early and going to work in the pick-and-roll when Roberts went to the bench with a second foul a little more than five minutes into the game.
With Roberts out, the Coogs went to their small lineup that Sampson gained confidence in during this month’s Big 12 tournament title run, when Roberts missed the final two games with a sprained ankle. Terrance Arceneaux, Roberts’ replacement, caught fire for eight points in the first half. And when the Coogs missed, they dominated the offensive glass, finishing with 14 offensive rebounds and 19 second-chance points.
The Vols were so overwhelmed that once they eventually did get some good looks, their shooters seemed spooked and didn’t come close to making them.
Tennessee did finally start making some shots in the second half. A rare sequence of back-to-back 3s from Chaz Lanier and Jordan Gainey at one point got the heavily pro-Tennessee crowd back into the action.
Houston basically played two road games in Indianapolis, dispatching nearby Purdue in a 62-60 Sweet 16 thriller on Friday night. But there’s a reason this team hasn’t lost a road game all season. The program’s holy trinity of defense, rebounding and taking care of the ball (UH had just five turnovers on this day) always travels.
Houston is the first 1 seed since North Carolina in 2017 to take the hardest possible seed path to the Final Four, beating the 16, 8, 4 and 2 seeds to win its regional.
— David Worlock (@DavidWorlock) March 30, 2025
And whenever it felt like the Vols were about to creep back in, the Cougars would answer with a run-stopper every time, the final push stiff-armed by back-to-back-to-back-to-back 3s from Emanuel Sharp (who made three of them) and Mylik Wilson. Tennessee was never able to get it to single-digits in the second half. Cryer led the Cougars with 17 points, and Sharp (16 points) was the only other Houston player in double figures.
These programs have been two of the best defensive teams in the country over the last five years, and Sunday’s game was set up to almost see which one truly is best. There’s no question now. Houston moves on to the Final Four, where it will face what many consider the best team in the country in Duke. The Coogs will be underdogs for the first time in a long while. But this is a team that has now won a ridiculous 30 of its last 31 games and is motivated to win Sampson his first national title.
Sampson has been knocking on the door each of the last four years, but in the last three his March runs have ended short of the national semifinals, in part due to key injuries. This time, the Cougars are at full strength and will bring to San Antonio the one defense that might be able to give the Blue Devils problems.
(Photo: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)
