He has had to adjust from controlling the ball and the offense to playing off the ball and deferring to Kingston. He plays great defense and he’s another excellent ball handler with length on the court. He can shoot too. His shooting has suffered the most this year as he seems to struggle picking his spots. He has had some good games and I hope he finally figures it out by tourney time. Uzan led this team to the national championship game last year. He’s a stud.
The Cougar defense totally ruined Richie Saunders last night. Dude is a scoring machine with a beautiful shot. Coogs took him completely out of the game. Sure, AJ still got his numbers (what a player!) but shutting down Saunders is why the Coogs cruised to victory.
Cenac has definitely gained confidence and become more assertive on offense, but I’m also impressed with Sakho’s improvement over the season. In the first few games in Nov/Dec, I was wondering why they wanted him. I think Tucker’s constant foul trouble has actually helped Sakho.
USA Today Coaches Poll is out and we're up to 3. https://sportsdata.usatoday.com/basketball/ncaab/coaches-poll/2025/2026-02-09 Our SOR metrics are similar to Duke and UConn. A 1-seed or 2-seed is fine as long as we can get that Houston region. The week after Valentine's Day is going to be tough - hoping for a 2-1 or at least 1-2 in that crazy 3 game stretch.
On second thought, it's probably better for Kansas to pile as many losses as possible to keep them on the 2 or 3 line. Their SOS is so good that they're a candidate to leap us and push is down more than Arizona is to fall behind us. I just really like where we're at under Lunardi's current bracket: OKC for rounds 1 and 2, and Houston for the potential sweet 16 and elite 8.
Hope for an Arizona win tonight. The prospect of a potential 1 vs 2 at home on a Saturday home game on ABC. Would be epic
I am not objective, or maybe I am, but I think UH is better than both Arizona and Kansas. I was surprised that Kansas won tonight without their best player.
I think a lot is going to depend on if Tugler can stay out of foul trouble and how he and Sahko can contain Krivas or Bidunga. Don't recall much from Krivas last year but as a freshman Bidunga gave us fits in our double OT win in Kansas scoring 19 points. That was against Tugler, Jwan, and Javier. Guy is a beast. Hope we can avoid silly fouls or have an officiating crew that has a deep understanding of our style of defense. IMO a lot of the fouls called on Tugler are just pure BS. It is as if all the refs got together and have decided there is no way he is that good and they are going to knock him down a peg or two and in many cases so far this year have taken him completely out of the game. Thankfully Sahko is coming on and I am sure we will need him. Can't look past the next 2 games but beginning with next Mon's game at ISU, followed by Sat home against Arizona, then on the road Monday at Kansas, we have some incredible basketball to look forward to. I would like to win all 3 but would be happy to win 2 of the 3. Whoever made up this schedule, in particular Arizona on a Saturday followed by on the road on Monday against Kansas has absolutely no mercy for us.
