No. 5 Houston made a quick Big 12 impact last season, winning the conference tournament in its second year in the league.
Now, the second seed begins its run at a repeat Thursday against 10th-seeded BYU in a battle of the Cougars in the Big 12 tournament quarterfinals in Kansas City, Mo.
The victor will face the winner of the quarterfinal between third-seeded Kansas and TCU, the sixth seed, in the second semifinal Friday night.
Houston (26-5) appears to have gotten some of its mojo back entering the postseason. After a three-game losing streak against top-15 opponents, Houston won its final three games to close out the regular season.
That included a closer-than-expected 82-75 win at Oklahoma State on Saturday. Houston led the Cowboys, who finished 14th in the Big 12, 74-73 with 1:50 left before finishing on an 8-2 run.
BYU (23-10) faded down the stretch of the regular season, falling out of the Associated Press Top 25 poll for the first time this season in early March as it lost four of five games before upsetting No. 10 Texas Tech 82-76 in its regular-season finale on Saturday.
That seems to have carried over into this week, where BYU handily won its first two tournament games, beating seventh-seeded West Virginia 68-48 on Wednesday night after an opening-round defeat of Kansas State.
Chase McCarty delivered a dagger three down the stretch in Houston’s win over Oklahoma State, capping off a breakout performance in which he racked up a career-high 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting, including 6-of-9 from long distance.
McCarty had not scored more than 10 points in any prior Big 12 game and had scored a combined 21 points in the prior five games. He averages 3.9 points per game.
“Like most freshmen, he was just OK early. He hadn’t found a niche, hadn’t found his role,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said. “But what’s typical with our kids is they just hang in there. If you keep showing up every day with the right attitude, giving the right effort, you’ll usually get better. Chase has probably been our most improved player at both ends.”
McCarty’s emergence would be significant for the Cougars entering the postseason. They rely on Kingston Flemings (16.5 points per game), Emanuel Sharp (15.8) and Milos Uzan (11.5) for 56.3% of their 77.6 points per game.
BYU took an efficiency hit after losing Richie Saunders (18.0 points, 5.8 rebounds, 1.7 steals per game) to a torn right ACL on Feb. 14. But after losing four of the first five games after his injury, BYU has won its past three.
Big 12 Freshman of the Year AJ Dybantsa has played a large role in that. The projected top-three pick in the upcoming NBA draft is averaging 33.5 points, 8.0 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 2.5 steals in two Big 12 tournament games. He leads the nation in scoring at 25.2 points per game.
But the team defense also rose to the occasion against West Virginia. After Kansas State shot 50.8% from the floor and made 13 of 23 3-pointers (56.5%), BYU held the Mountaineers to 48 points — the fewest points an opponent has scored this season — on 38.1% shooting with 22 turnovers.
“We’ve just challenged our guys to do things stronger, longer, harder, faster, more,” BYU coach Kevin Young said. “That’s really it. That’s what we saw tonight.”
Houston won the regular-season matchup between these teams, coming away with a 77-66 road win on Feb. 7.
