Phi Slama Jama rebooted? UH Cougars men's basketball team tops AP Top 25 and coaches' polls

ByGreg Bailey KTRK logo

Tuesday, November 29, 2022

UH campus buzzing after Coogs men's hoops top national poll

Whose house? More like whose poll? The Houston Cougars sit atop the college basketball world, and that has students on campus fired up.

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The last time the University of Houston sat atop the Associated Press Top 25 men's college basketball poll, the school competed in a season that gave the Cougars their second-straight NCAA tournament final appearance.

UH, which earned its first top ranking Monday in nearly four decades, wants nothing more than to use that momentum towards a Final Four run that may end with the Coogs lifting up a championship trophy inside NRG Stadium next April.

Coach Kelvin Sampson's team, which also earned the top ranking in the Coaches' Poll and the Men's College Basketball Power Index, moved up from last week's No. 2 despite playing in just one game between rankings.

The lone matchup was a toughly-contested 49-44 victory over Kent State last Saturday night.

The 6-0 Cougars also benefited from moves beyond their control. The previously unbeaten North Carolina Tar Heels, who were No. 1 last week, received their first defeats of the season, including in a quadruple overtime thriller against Alabama.

Houston wasn't the only team to move up the polls. The Texas Longhorns are No. 2 after moving up two spots from last week. In fact, the Coogs, the Longhorns, and the Baylor Bears are the three teams currently representing the Lone Star State in the top 10 of both AP and coaches' rankings.

Houston hosts Norfolk State on Tuesday night, before heading up to Fort Worth to face St. Mary's in a neutral-court matchup on Dec. 3.

The Cougars still have a couple of non-conference tests to pass: a Dec. 10 home matchup against No. 11 Alabama and a road game at No. 3 Virginia on Dec. 13. You can watch the UH-Alabama game on ABC13 at 2 p.m.