After wrapping up a relatively comfortable Big 12 championship in the regular season, Houston basketball is looking to back that up and cement a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament with a conference tournament title in Kansas City.
On Friday night, the Cougars were dominant on the defensive end of the floor from the opening tip. BYU, coming off of a game where it scored 96 points in a quarterfinal win against Iowa State, wasn’t able to score for over six minutes against Houston. Kevin Young’s squad eventually got its offense off the ground just a little bit, but Houston overwhelmed it all night in a masterful 74-54 win.
If that final score isn’t impressive enough, Houston did it all without star big man J’Wan Roberts. The senior played in the quarterfinals against Colorado, but sat out on Friday night with an ankle injury. Kelvin Sampson and the Cougars will have to do it again on Saturday in the title game against either Arizona or Texas Tech, according to college basketball insider Jon Rothstein.
“Kelvin Sampson told reporters postgame that Houston’s J’Wan Roberts (ankle) is expected to sit out Saturday’s Big 12 Tournament title game,” Rothstein reported on X, formerly Twitter.
Roberts is the heart and soul of this Houston team and has been to battle with Sampson and company in many postseason games. The Cougars are hoping that he can make it back for the NCAA Tournament to make one last deep run and cement his legacy as a Houston basketball legend.
Roberts is Houston’s fourth-leading scorer at 10.8 points per game this season. He also leads the team in rebounds with 6.3 a night and has become a go-to option for the Cougars late in games in the half court. He has become adept at finishing with his left hand in the post, making this Houston team very hard to defend in addition to what it can do defensively.
With Roberts unable to go on Saturday, expect forward Joseph Tugler to have a much bigger role in the offense. Reserve forward Terrance Arceneaux got the start in place of Roberts against BYU and should do so again considering Houston’s strong performance on Friday night.
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