Houston adding a potent offense to its suffocating defense has the Big 12 champs set for a Final Four run

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Now they're complete, these Houston Cougars. 

You knew it in the second half Saturday in the Big 12 Tournament Championship Game when Milos Uzan began almost every offensive possession with the ball in his hands. Sensing the moment and situation, his teammates began clearing out for the Houston guard like he was Michael Jordan. 

Uzan definitely took advantage driving to the basket with more force than the 65-mph winds that struck the area on Friday. 

It's one thing to bring the ball up. It's another for a teammate to clear out for an alpha guard to make a play. That was what Uzan did several times in Houston's comeback 72-64 victory over Arizona to win its first Big 12 Tournament title. 

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Uzan is a wiry 6-foot-4 transfer guard from Oklahoma who just may be the difference between Houston going to another Final Four and, this time, winning that Final Four. 

"They saw I had the hot hand," Uzan said after scoring a career-high 25 points, including 17 in that pivotal second half. "They saw what was working so they let me play a little bit."

That's the brilliance of Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson – knowing what he had to tweak  for the national program he has resurrected since arriving in 2014. A defense that smothers the opposition quicker than a blanket puts out a kitchen fire is a given and Houston continues to lead the nation in scoring defense, allowing 58.3 points per game. 

But the difference for this season's Cougars team is a guy like Uzan – who averaged 8.3 points starting 56 games in two seasons for the Sooners – teaming up with 3-point shooter L.J. Cryer and veteran Emanuel Sharp, the Big 12 Tournament's Most Outstanding Player, to give Houston a potent offense that it has been missing recently.

"We have this series we call 'Push,'' Sampson said. "Milos is the best ambidextrous pick-and-roll guard I've had … He goes left and right equally good. What we did at halftime was stay away from any big-on-big pick and roll … Instead of setting the screen we ghosted [faked] the screen. By ghosting the screen that allows us to go downhill without anybody in front of us."

"We didn't set one ball screen [in the second half]," he added. "We ghosted [faked] every screen. That allowed us to get in the paint. Once we got in the paint, we could either spray [pass] it or shoot it."

That's a fancy way of saying Uzan had the game in his hands after Arizona led by five at halftime. The Cougars then scored 44 in the second half shooting 50% from beyond the arc. In the final 20 minutes, Uzan went 5 for 9 from the field while making all three of his shots from deep. 

And, oh yeah, that defense. The Cougars backed up their regular-season Big 12 championship holding their three opponents (Colorado, BYU, Arizona) in the conference tournament to a combined 38.5% shooting. 

This is the most complete team Sampson has had at Houston. Maybe the most complete team in the country. 

"That's why I came here. I came here to win a national championship," Uzan said. "This is a great step in the right direction."

Houston has a case to move to No. 1 in the polls prior to the NCAA Tournament. Their third consecutive No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament is already assured.

A discussion can be had about who the overall No. 1 seed should be as we head into Selection Sunday, but there is no doubt who is playing better than anyone heading into the Big Dance.

"All I see is us," Houston forward J'Wan Roberts said. 

The Cougars ran through the Big 12 this season going 22-1 counting this week's three conference tournament wins. The only loss was to Texas Tech by a point more than six weeks ago. Saturday's win was the season's 30th, the sixth 30-win campaign of Sampson's career. Since losing two of three in November's Players Era Festival, the Cougars are 25-2. 

With a bullet.

There's a reason. A program noted for its halfcourt defense, has a more balanced attack – translated: more offensive -- with the likes of Sharp, Cryer and Uzan.

"Our kids are good one-on-one players," Sampson said with words you never thought you'd hear him speak. "There's a lot of old school people that think offense should look like it did when [Princeton legend] Pete Carril was the coach."

"I'd like to introduce LeBron James, James Harden and Kevin Durant and basketball today … If you can get a good one-on-one player in space you can get a good shot."

Houston has proved it can win shootouts, rock fights and anything in between. It won vs. Arizona with an intensity that resembled an Elite Eight game. 

It finally came time to ask Sampson himself if this is the best team he's had. Typical of the Houston coach, the answer came after a long, winding reminiscence of the past. His 2002 Oklahoma team went to the Final Four. The 2021 Cougars advanced that far, losing to Baylor in the national semifinals.

"I didn't think that team could win it [all]," Sampson said. "Baylor was better than us."

Since then a series of injuries have impacted the Cougars' NCAA Tournament chances. This season it was Roberts on the sidelines Friday and Saturday after spraining his ankle vs. Colorado. 

But in a twist of basketball irony, Uzan is only at Houston because its best player last season, Jamal Shedd, moved on after winning the Big 12 Player of the Year and is now in the NBA. 

"I saw how good of players they had here," Uzan said. "They had only one guy leaving, Jamal. I saw the development. There were so many things honestly. When I entered the portal they were one of the first teams that hit my line. 

"I felt like I was wanted here." 

As for this being Sampson's best team? The 69-year-old didn't get this far without coaching his way out of jams. 

"Sometimes it's not how good you are," Sampson said, non-committal. "It's whether good fortune shines on you."