The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Cougars Expected To Earn A Top Seed In NCAA Tournament: 'Big Environments Don't Phase Them'

Episode Date: March 13, 2025

Joseph Duarte, University of Houston and Big 12 Conference beat writer for the Houston Chronicle, joined "The Matt Thomas Show with Ross" to preview Houston playing in the Big 12 tournament and provide insight into expected seeding as the Cougars compete for a national championship.

How is Kansas City, by the way? Kansas spaghetti's good, you know. Made a barbecue run last night. It didn't disappoint. Did you run into Jeff Goodman today and see why he's complaining about his press box seat? No, I'm down on the court, so I don't mingle with those folks. Good for you, guys bitching about his press row seat. I can't cover the tournament properly.

You know what? You haven't been to three big 12 games as you're such a bum ass up. Seriously. Good Lord. all right uh so are we locked in we being the university of houston locked into a number three overall national see do you think is there any room for movement up or down in this bad boy uh you know i don't think there's i i think three's where it's going to stand uh you look at the the body of work uh alburn is you know quad wind lies head and shoulders above everyone and and

Duke is, let's put it this way. Even if there's movement, I think that the site are set. You'll have Auburn and South. You'll have Duke in the east. And I still think Houston goes out west as the number three. So will it matter? In the big picture, I don't think so. But I think Houston is comfortable and set where they are at the three.

Joseph, how is the team right now health-wise? And there have been a little bit of aches and pains the last couple weeks. guys missing some time, seeing limited minutes. Where is his team health-wise right now? They're good. I spoke with the head trainer, John Houston, prior to their departure this week. And, you know, the main one, L.J.

Cryer, he's been playing with that knuckle injury on his shooting hand, but, you know, he hasn't skipped a beat. The one that I'm kind of watching is Emmanuel Sharp. You know, he's dealt with that foot injury for the better part of, you know, probably two months and he's got some ups and downs. I don't know how much of that is causing his shooting and maybe his rhythm to be off. He'd be the one to watch. And then Ramon Walker, he had a hand injury.

He hasn't played since December. And the expectation is that he won't play at all the rest of the year. They'll try to do some type of medical red shirt. And that's it. So they're in good shape. It's just a matter of staying that way, as you know, for the duration. And that hasn't unfortunately been the case. but they are good as of now going into the tournament.

Do you think the perfect road record this year in conference play has a unintended or maybe intended benefit about playing in neutral sites for the rest of the season? I guess it can't hurt you. I mean, you look, they're really good at home. And, you know, most of the times if you're going to have a slip, it's on the road. You know, you look at the neutral site games. They lost to Auburn at Toyota Center. They were winning that one.

They lose to Alabama at a neutral, and they could have won that one. The same thing with the San Diego State game. So three of the four losses have come at neutral sites and the other one at home to Texas Tech. So, you know, I mean, that's the way this team has been. I mean, they haven't lost many games in any season in the last, you know, five or six years. So I don't know if there's an intended consequence to it, but, I mean, they certainly show that big environments don't phase them. and, you know, this week, Iowa State's going to pack it in. Kansas will pack it in here.

So if they play either one of those, you know, you're going to basically be playing in essentially a road game. And that hasn't been a bad thing for Houston this season. Joseph Torto covers the Cougars for the Houston Chronicle. And you can find him on Twitter and all the different platforms that he gives you great insights not only in the paper online, but on his Twitter account. So of all the years, this team has been where it has been, which is Final Force, 816. This feels like the most complete team of the Calvin

Samson era because not only do they have the low pulse starts with three different players, but they've got the outside touch as well. Is this the best that you have seen, or do you feel like even last year's team or the team that went to the final four? Again, if you're trying to measure up year by year by year, where do you size up this group as compared to years past? Well, to me, it starts with the final four year. and, you know, this one is sort of a TBA on whether or not they eventually take that spot away.

But, you know, you do it first and then you kind of look at all those things. But I do agree with you. This is probably by far his deepest team. You know, they go eight, maybe nine deep. And the biggest change or the addition is, you know, we've always known they're good defensively. They're good rebounding. But this is a team that can shoot the ball. They're very efficient at the three-point shots.

And the difference, or maybe those early years, like maybe that 19-20 team or the 2021 team, they could beat you with first shots. This one is maybe not a first-shot type team, but when they do the rebounds and get second chances, they're really good. So I'd say it's top two, maybe top three since Kelvin's been here. but that can certainly change if you do what many people think they can do and get to San Antonio and specifically the Monday night. Joseph, is it too simple to say that the key for this team is to make sure

Francis, Tuggler, Roberts do not get into foul trouble? I mean, that could be said for about any team with a couple of big men, but it feels like that there could be some games and there certainly have been in years past in tournament games where big men have gotten into two fouls early early in the contest and are always chasing to stay away from that third and fourth. Is foul trouble of a concern to you for those guys, especially when whistles can be pretty tight come tournament time?

I think it's big for, in this order, Tuggler and Francis, because those are the two guys that typically get in foul trouble the most. J-Wan Roberts is a veteran. He's been pretty good about staying on the floor. They like to run things through him, so having him on the court really helps them a lot. Cugman's the defensive player of the year in the conference. I mean, he's a difference maker.

He's a shot alter. That's the guy you've got to keep on the court. And, you know, we've seen some games where he's picked up two and 14 seconds. I mean, I mean, it's just been wild the number of games that he's had three and four fouls and have had to sit on the bench. But, you know, the big men, that's going to be certainly a key. The guard play, they're really smart about not getting in the foul trouble. So, you know, I'd agree with you, you know, for this,

team, a lot of what they do centers around those three, whether it's on the defensive end or trying to work inside. So you got to keep them on the court because you don't get any do-overs this time of year. You have one bad game or something goes wrong like foul trouble. You could look at the NGC. Look at the A&M game last year. They were down to a walk-on late because of all the foul troubles they had and they had to really pull out that one and the second round just to advance of the second weekend. Far let you run, Joseph. We don't know the teams are going to be in the region, obviously.

So let's do this. If you can do this, give me a style of play a type of a team that could cause the Cougar some issues maybe a little bit deeper into the term and say Sweet 16, Elite 8 round. Oh, you know, that's interesting

because you look at we've seen a little bit of everything this year. you see teams that are lots of possessions and try to go fast-paced, and then Houston makes you play their brand of the ball. They slow it down. They force you into their game. Like, for instance, you know, the Arizona game, Arizona was averaging 80 plus points a game, and Houston holds them to around 60.

That's the kind of game, if you're Houston, you know, and I've seen this in the past tournaments. You know, they played Arizona in 2022, and then you look at it. at a game like in Illinois a few years ago where they had a dominant big man and that didn't seem to face Houston at all. So it's really interesting because it's not necessarily the matchup on the other end that can get you. It's what Houston sort of dictates because they're really good at forcing you to play their game. They feel like if they can keep it under 60 points of the opponent, they've got a really good chance to win and they do that a lot of the time. So you know, I was looking at, and I saw Memphis as a possible second round matchup.

That would be intriguing based on sort of the style that Memphis fights to play. So, you know, I'd be guessing at this point, Matt, but I just think that Houston, for as much as other teams try to do stuff, Houston usually has a pretty good game plan and a way of attacking other teams to make them do what they want them to do. Very last question. Where are we going to talk to you next week? Where do you think they're headed? They're going to Wichita. I'm almost 100% sure on that.

The difference is if they're in the Midwest or in the West. But that first weekend of the tournament, they'll be in Wichita. And I think in the other side of it, you'll probably get either A&M or Texas Tech. So it'll be interesting. There'll be a couple of Texas teams, in my opinion, that'll be in Wichita next week. And of course, Houston will get the 16 seeds if they're number one, which we pretty much all expect that to happen. Great stuff, my friend. Thank you again.

We'll talk with you next week. Safe Travels and our friend, our mutual friend Taylor, sends her very best. Thank you, buddy. Thank you. Thank you. That's our good friend Joseph Tortay from the Houston Chronicle with us, and he'll be with us as the Cougars make their big run towards the tournament. And when the Longhorns make it, Ross, we'll have a Longhorn correspondent as well. Make it to what?

The NCAA tournament. And it didn't seem like it's happening.