With football season over, attention turns to March Madness as the field of 68 takes shape. ESPN’s Jay Bilas, in his latest “Bilas Index,” highlights Houston as a national contender, describing the Cougars as a revamped Kelvin Sampson team now driven more by offense than defense. But as the saying goes, defense wins championships.
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“The Cougars have a high ceiling and can get significantly better. The interesting difference from past Houston teams is this group needs to get better on the defensive end to match what so many take for granted: that Houston is better defensively than offensively. Right now, Houston is actually a better offensive team, and freshman Kingston Flemings is the Cougars’ best player. That 42-point outburst he had at Texas Tech was simply magnificent.” Bilas wrote in his Index feature.
It should come as both a compliment and a warning label for Houston. Essentially, the Cougars are ranked in the same field as Michigan, Arizona, and Duke, but are almost making it very clear that their weakness point lies in the defensive unit playing catch-up.
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Michigan is described as the most complete team in the country, top‑five nationally in both offensive and defensive efficiency, and loaded with size, depth, and rim protection. Arizona sits right behind with a paint‑dominant, physical identity and a defense that protects the lane as well as anyone, even if the Wildcats aren’t as dangerous from 3. Duke rounds out the trio in front of Houston, powered by Cameron Boozer’s national player of the year campaign and a roster Bilas believes is “still legit” despite a couple of blown leads in marquee games.
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Houston has five regular-season games left before postseason play. Here’s what’s still on the schedule: the Cougars fell short of Iowa State last night, and they’ll look to Arizona on Saturday. Beyond that, four more games until the regular season closes out, then the Big 12 tournament.