{"id":314239,"date":"2025-10-18T20:11:21","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T20:11:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/314239\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T20:11:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T20:11:21","slug":"houston-basketball-chasing-eighth-straight-ncaa-tournament-bid-and-big-12-three-peat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/314239\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston Basketball Chasing Eighth Straight NCAA Tournament Bid and Big 12 Three-Peat"},"content":{"rendered":"

It didn\u2019t take long for the Houston Cougars<\/a> to take control of one of the toughest conferences in college basketball.<\/p>\n

Sampson\u2019s Cougars Continue to Set the Standard<\/p>\n

Under Kelvin Sampson, the Cougars<\/a> have dominated since joining the Big 12, winning the league title in each of their first two seasons.<\/p>\n

In their debut Big 12 campaign, Houston<\/a> went 32-5 overall and 15-3 in conference play to claim the outright championship. Last season, they followed up with one of the most successful years in program history, capturing both the regular season and tournament titles before advancing to the NCAA championship game as a No. 1 seed.<\/p>\n

Now, the Cougars<\/a> enter the 2025-26 season with two major goals: a third straight Big 12 crown and an eighth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance.<\/p>\n

Sustained Success and a Culture of Winning<\/p>\n

Since 2018, Houston has earned a spot in every NCAA Tournament except for the canceled 2020 season. Even more impressive, they\u2019ve won at least one game in every trip and multiple games in six straight tournaments. Over that stretch, the Cougars have totaled 17 NCAA Tournament victories, including six straight Sweet 16s, three Elite Eight appearances, and two Final Fours.<\/p>\n

Under Sampson\u2019s leadership, Houston has gone 299-84 heading into his 13th season at the helm. The Cougars have also reached the 20-win mark in ten straight seasons, a testament to their consistency and championship-level expectations.<\/p>\n

That standard doesn\u2019t appear to be slipping anytime soon. The 2025-26 roster is deep, talented, and built to withstand the challenges of a rugged Big 12 schedule.<\/p>\n

Houston opens the new season at the Fertitta Center on November 3 against Lehigh before facing its first major test on November 16 in Birmingham against Auburn. Their non-conference slate also includes Syracuse, Tennessee, Florida State, and Arkansas, a strong tune-up for Big 12 play.<\/p>\n

The Cougars will tip off their conference schedule on January 3 against Cincinnati, a fitting start for a team once again expected to be among the nation\u2019s best.<\/p>\n

Houston\u2019s mix of experience, defense, and discipline has them poised not just to extend their tournament streak to eight, but to make another serious run at the national title that narrowly escaped them last season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It didn\u2019t take long for the Houston Cougars to take control of one of the toughest conferences in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":314240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[1339,1317,1337,1338,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-314239","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-basketball","11":"tag-ncaabasketball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115396993587777382","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}