The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Houston Chronicle's Joseph Duarte Joins to Talk UH Cougar Basketball

Episode Date: February 23, 2026

Houston Chronicle's Joseph Duarte Joins to Talk UH Cougar Basketball 

119 on Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Ross is off today. Let's spend 10 quality minutes with our good friend Joseph Dwarte. He covers the University of Houston. He is in. Now, is the move to stay in Kansas City, or did you actually stay and find a hotel in Lawrence, Kansas? I'm curious.

Lawrence is a big town, buddy. I'm in Lawrence. Yeah, there's no Kansas City. That's an hour drive. All right. I don't know that Chronicle expense account. handle things so I just want to make sure you're all right on that. Oh, you can bend moamy.

I don't think that's going to happen all. All right. So I've been bringing this up a couple of times today. Something that's going to happen tonight that doesn't happen a lot. Kansas either going to lose their second straight at Allen Fieldhouse or the Cougars are going to have a three-game losing streak. So, man, there's a lot, not necessarily a lot running in the line, but an interesting store-line for the team to lose this game.

Yeah, and also throw in Kansas is 40-0 at home during Big Monday. ESPN games under Bill itself. So, yeah, that's another plot for tonight. But, yeah, I mean, you look at the way Saturday went down. Obviously, Houston losing Arizona, that was a tough matchup, a two versus four. Losing it home to Arizona is not, you know, no shame in that. But on the other side, you know, you saw Cincinnati go into Allen Fieldhouse and beat Kansas by, I believe it was 16 or 18 points.

So, yeah, one team's coming off of this tough. stretch and Kansas coming off a really bad loss. So strange things happen in the fog. So I would think that tonight we're going to be in for a pretty good game. Look, Joseph, you've covered Kelvin for a long time. He doesn't mince words. But I'm going to give you an opportunity to give him some additional truth serum. Does he love his team or is he a little nervous about this year's group because you were relying so much on Fleming's to do with so much of the heavy lifting? No, I think it's the unknown.

He likes the team. I mean, he put it together. He knew what he had. He knew that there was no way Chris and Ack was going to sit at the bench or come off the bench. And really with Fleming's, you knew what you had, but you maybe thought you were a year away from him being the point guard and not sort of moving in and forcing it to be a co-point guard or really him being the go-to guy.

in games to score. So, yeah, I mean, I think it's an adjustment for him because in 35, 37 years, whatever it's been, he hasn't been this young. And the things that made them so good last year and got up to the championship game was that they were a veteran team. They don't have that right now. And sort of games like Tonight or Arizona, those are still learning games. Those are games that Fleming's and Snack and Harwell and those guys haven't been.

in it yet. So you're going to have that little trial, you know, baptism by fire type deal. So, yeah, I mean, I think he likes it. He likes the progress. I've seen the progress since November. And he always has his team playing better going into March. Maybe if they're a little behind round, because there are things that you hear him say that maybe defensively were not as good or we're having the offensive problems. So, yeah, there's some things that as a young team. team he's still trying to figure out. You mentioned Sinek. How would you grade out his season?

Because obviously he's still being considered to be probably a late first round pick if he decided to go after this year. A thought or two about what you've seen from him because obviously Fleming's gets all the headlines and Kingston's probably going to be a top five selection that goes without saying and he's lived up to expectations. He's been just fantastic.

But Sinek, to me, was also pretty highly recruited coming out of high school. Oh, absolutely. And, you know, if you look at beginning of the season, he was in that lottery range maybe 12 to 15 got off to a little bit of a slow start I thought he's

actually improved his stock the last three weeks or so you know this is a guy who played the five in high school and you know you dominate and when you're that type of guy and he has to come in here and play the four and he sort of has been

feeling his way out on that and learning how what comes with that but the biggest improvement I think has been on the rebounding side. You know, he's got 13 and 12 in the last two games. He's really going after the offensive rebounds. He had three on one possession against Iowa State. So things like that you see the improvement.

I mean, he's got a nice, you know, mid-range shot, and he can step out, hit a three when you need them. So you see that progress. So while Fleming's has been more consistent, had a few hiccups here and there, I thought Chris has really done a nice job the last few weeks too. I wouldn't be surprised if he creeps back into that lottery. And when the last time, you know, Houston had two lottery picks that could go and possibly maybe another one late in the first round. So it'll be interesting to see, you know, how this plays out.

Joseph Dwarte covers the Cougars for the Chronicle. Joining us from Lawrence, Kansas. It'll be the Cougars and the Jayhawks over a 950 KPRC tonight. 8 o'clock will be the tip time. Hey, so I had Kelvin on Friday, and I mentioned about Jojo, and he's always had foul trouble. That just goes without saying. And it's always the easy low-hanging fruit for Cougar fans. Why is this the issue?

As you've seen 99% of his basketball games in person, is he right place, wrong place, wrong time? Is it still not too much reaching in? are there a lot of fouls say 30 feet beyond the basket because he does ask his big man to go out there and guard some of those guards. When can you see a night and will you see a night where Jojo doesn't have to constantly face foul trouble? Well, to me it's sort of split down the middle because Jojo is a product of Jojo things. And then I think he's sort of gotten a reputation where they call stuff on him. And some of the calls have been questionable. I mean, I'm not a jump on the referee kind of guy,

but I've seen some pretty ticky-tack ones that have come at the worst times. And, you know, Joe Joe's admitted he played a lot of playground ball where you don't call foul. And I think some of that catches up that aggressiveness, that over-excitement, because he's such a physical change the direction of games. just with his defense. So that's where you run into problems, and whether it was last year in the national championship game or these last two games,

when he sits on the bench, things change for the cougars. They can't do things without him in there. They're not as good defensively. So, you know, he's had some games, and, you know, Kelvin's tried to do some things like he brings in Khalifa Sacco at the four-minute mark every game. It's a chance to get Jojo in there, get them going, but get them out for a few minutes so that you don't pick up a second or a third foul in the first half.

So, I mean, Jojo is just going to, they're going to have to, you know, Kelvin really didn't want to talk about it when I asked about it yesterday. And it seems like it's just something that you can have to put Jojo out there and say, hey, look, you got to try to stay out of foul trouble. And I don't know if that's possible, but they're going to need him every game from here on out. Joseph, the early NCAA top seatings were announced on Saturday. Those things are obviously

fluid. Did I read it right? They don't have the cougars staying in the South. Is that what they originally thought? Yeah, you know, just for your listeners, Houston was the host for the South, which is at the Toyota Center. They gave that up to Rice. And by doing

that, that makes them eligible if they're, you know, eligible to go play at Toyota Center. most people say oh how can you be so close and play well they can they're eligible so in the first bracket reveal they're in the midwest which is chicago and that's the same region right now that michigan is the number one overall seat now things are going to change with the ones uh houston was considered the six overall which puts them you know two back of getting into the the four number ones but with teams losing you know if you win the big 12 or if you win the big 12 term

I think you could still get in there. I don't know if the South right now is realistic because with Iowa State being the number one in the south, they can't even be the number two because you can't have big 12 teams like that in the same region, top two seeds and stuff. So a lot of things have to sort of sort its way out. They're eligible, though, and that's what counts. If I'm them, just get into the region. I don't care if I'm a two, a three, or a one, because what if Yukon is the one in the South? I wouldn't want to come to Houston and have the coup.

Hougars playing two miles from their campus and what's going to be a home game in the Sweet 16 of the Elite 8. How much of that talk? And that could be for, and I'm just using an example, Duke playing in Charlotte or saying USC playing in Los Angeles. How much of that? And you've been talking to those folks over the years. How much of that becomes a real conversation piece of a non-number-one having a chance

to play in their region or very close to it? Oh, it's big. I mean, look at Purdue last year. They played in Indianapolis. You know, it's not in West Lopje, but it's pretty darn close. So you've had those situations. Kansas has played some opening round regionals right in their backyard. So, I mean, yeah, that's talked about a lot. I think from the national media standpoint, a lot of them weren't quite understanding and sure about how the South worked. And now people are starting to figure out that, yeah, you see. can play in that regional so you see more projections that have had Houston in the South. But in terms of the NCAA selection committee, you know, that that will be weighed heavily. And, you know, there were, I believe it were, there were three teams that were in position for that final number one seed when it was announced Saturday. And Houston was one of them. So if you stay in that discussion, you have a good chance if you're not the one in the

South because also bad you have to look at it. Who are the other number ones? If Duke's a one, they're out east. If Michigan's the one, they're in the Midwest. If Arizona's a one, they're out west. Where does that leave you? You have the South and that's it. So it's almost like you're put in there because that's just the way

the proximity and the destinations are going to play out. So you know, well, this thing will sort itself. I think you'll have a better picture going into the conference tournament if Houston is even, you know, in that discussion after, you know, wrapping up this game tonight against Kansas and some of the other games that play out over the next week.

All right. We're going to bother you again in Kansas City for the Big 12th tournament, but first things first tonight. How do you see things? What has to happen in order for the Cougars and this little two-game skid? Well, they can't let Ball Gowell and Fieldhouse, you know, rattle them. You know, they're a young team. That's the concern. This isn't a veteran team that came in there last year and won the double overtime. I think you have to force some turnovers. They haven't done that the last two games. Their offense is built on their defense and forcing turnover. So you do that, you play with them on the boards.

And I think overall you can make this a game. I don't see it being a blowout. And, of course, there's the Darren Peterson situation. How much does he play for Kansas and how good is he? when he's played, he's been good, but the minutes just haven't been there for whatever reason, injuries and what have you. So I think this is probably a five-point game tonight. That'd be my guess.