Preview Paw Prints: Houston Cougars

Did Cincinnati find the right lineup plan on Thursday night?

The insertion of Ody Oguama (second career UC start) for Jeremiah Davenport into the lineup gave UC needed size to start the game, rebound well early, and build a lead.

It resulted in UC trailing roughly 90 seconds all night and a season-best outing from Davenport (22 points, 3 rebounds, 8-of-12 FGs).

"It was real fun," Davenport said about the performance. "It all comes down to confidence. Confidence in myself. You keep pushing. I was in a slump and found my rhythm tonight. I'm going to keep pushing moving forward."

The 22 points marked UC's highest from a bench player since 2017 and a far cry from the total points scored off the pine against Temple. Miller made note that J.D. took no issue with the decision to bring him off of the bench for the first time in two years. That's not surprising, given how tight-knit this team is.

"It comes down to my team," the guard said. "Do whatever it takes to win. To give my team a chance to win, I'd do anything for my team."

They are veteran-laden, they want to win, and they believe in Miller when he offers these tweaks. The head coach cut Jarrett Hensley out of Thursday's rotation and the eight-man lineup worked well. No player finished with a negative +/-.

Expect this plan to get another test drive against astronomically more difficult competition in Houston. Funny enough, the best two-man lineup this season is Oguama/Davenport (+23.1 adjusted efficiency margin).

Houston has a clear identity: slow games down, defend, and rebound.

It's hard to find anything they do poorly on the defensive end. The Cougars rank top-five nationally in field goals allowed (17.1, 1st), FG% (33.1% 1st), two-point FGs (27.8, 4th), two-point FG% (41.6%, 5th), three-point FG% (2nd, 23.2%), and points allowed (1st, 51 PPG).

It's amazing how consistent they are up and down the roster. No player that's logged at least 152 minutes has a defensive rating over 84.8.

Sampson squeezes every bit of effort out of his team in terms of rotations and physicality with an assembly line of long wings to throw at teams. Sophomore Ja'Vier Francis (7.1 Pts, 5.1 Reb, 0.1 Ast) fits that exact mold as he averages 1.8 blocks per game this season and an astounding 8.2 per 100 possessions. 

The 6-foot-8, 225-pound bruiser complements the play of the near carbon copy 6-foot-7, 220-pound J'Wan Roberts (9.6 Pts, 7.2 Reb, 1.1 Ast, 1.1 Blk). Those two are black holes defensively and will give UC's wing/guard strength all it can handle.

Viktor Lakhin needs to stay efficient in this game and make sure the paint stays somewhat accessible. If Cincinnati (8.9 made triples per game, 53rd nationally) has no interior presence, it'll that much harder to hit threes on an elite outside defense.

Dictating the tempo is very hard to pull off against Houston, but Cincinnati has to find a way to speed this team up. The Bearcats rank 98th in pace, while Houston's 340th.

Junior guard Jamal Shead (7.6 Pts, 3.2 Reb, 5.3 Ast) and senior guard Marcus Sasser (15.8 Pts, 2.7 Reb, 3.0 Ast) are the targets on Sunday afternoon. If UC can't force them into uncharacteristic turnovers to get out in transition it could be a long afternoon.

The duo combines for 8.4 assists per game to just 3.4 turnovers, mirroring a highly-disciplined team overall. Houston is 13th nationally with just 10.2 turnovers per game, and that's fallen to 8.3 over the past three games.

Another key to increasing the pace is defensive rebounding discipline while forcing Houston to shoot threes. The Cougars rank eighth nationally with 14 (!!) offensive rebounds per game, and 75th in two-point FG% (54.1%).

That last number drops to 169th from outside (34.2%). Unfortunately for opponents, Houston has that suffocating three-point defense mentioned above.

Knocking the Cougars out of their comfort zone, upping the tempo, and hitting threes should all be huge factors if Cincinnati pulls an upset.