The journey starts in Houston, where the Cougars were being coached by Kelvin Sampson. Despite being at the helm since 2014, he’s facing a lot of doubters this season with his team found at the bottom of the recruitment rankings. The only freshman in the team is a walk-on who’ll struggle to get minutes in the team.
With such an experienced squad, can his team make some noise this season?
Training camp was dominated by sophomores, with the following players making a push for the starting lineup: PG Noel Best, SG Mike Shumpert, SF Juwan Hemhill, and PF Ryan Slane. Despite the lack of freshmen, their improvement would provide this program with a solid core for the next 3 years.
Elsewhere, Senior Nate Franklin appears to have locked down the remaining starting spot.
The Cougars cruised through non-conference play, finishing with a dominant 12-1 record, winning the JAG Holiday Invitational along the way.
Senior Nate Franklin was 1 rebound shy of a double-double but his 19-point effort was enough to bring home the MVP award. It was far from a one-man show though as the Cougars bench outscored St. John’s 16-4 en route to a 71-65 win.
Against stronger conference opponents, the Cougars weren’t really expected to maintain their almost perfect record. They still managed to finish as the #2 seed in the AAC Tournament though, with a record of 11-7 (23-8 overall). The team’s strong performances during the season pretty much ensured an invite to the Big Dance as they got a ranking of #17 in the nation.
Unfortunately for the Cougars, the #5-ranked team in the nation also happened to be in their conference. The Cincinnati Bearcats dominated the AAC in conference play with a 16-2 conference record. They would continue their dominance in the AAC tournament finals by beating the Cougars.
Despite leading all scorers with 25 points, PG Noel Best didn’t get much help from the rest of the team. Senior Nate Franklin really struggled against Burke as he fouled out of the game. For the Bearcats, Chris Boozer put up an MVP performance by shutting down SG Mike Shumpert.
It was a disappointing loss for the Cougars, but especially so for Franklin and Shumpert as their performances were a far cry from the those that got them named into the AAC All-Conference 2nd team.
The Cougar’s post-season is a mirror of how their whole season. They started off really strong and played well enough to reach the Final Four. In contrast, the Bearcats were eliminated in Round 2. Houston would eventually run into the #1-ranked team and eventual champions Michigan State.
To say that the Cougars played poorly is an understatement. They were crushed. The Spartan’s Douglas and Cornell outscored Houston’s starting lineup by themselves. Senior Nate Franklin was in tears after the game, knowing that he just played his last collegiate game. He finished his last season with averages of 10.8 PPG, 5.9 RPG and 1.6 BPG.
Zimmerman broke the record the following year with 61 blocks. The season record is currently owned by Rod Floyd (Class of 2022), who has 70 blocks.
Despite falling short in tournament games, it was a good season overall for the Cougars. They found a core capable of carrying the program in the next two seasons. They’ll be doing it under a new coach though, with Sampson taking over the prestigious Duke program as Coach K enjoys his retirement. (Spoiler Alert: It wasn’t a match made in heaven as the Blue Devils severely under-performed before Sampson’s own retirement.)
Former Cal State Northbridge coach Mark Gottfried would take over and go on to have a successful decade in Houston, in spite of never going beyond the Big Dance’s 2nd round.
Franklin’s replacement in the starting five, incoming freshman Jerrance Wampler (career 7.0/3.5/0.5), won’t be able to match his level of performance and is a contributing factor to why this year’s remaining core players (Best, Shumpert, Hemhill, and Slane) never made it past the Second Round in subsequent seasons.
College Hoop Dreams 