Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz reacts to the Cougars’ 76-46 win over the Kansas Jayhawks and discusses whether Houston is definitively the best team in men’s college basketball this season.
Video Transcript
JASON FITZ: I think it might be time for us to have a very real conversation about if we are underselling the Houston Cougars in the current conversations about the landscape of men's college basketball. Now, of course, this is based in part on the fact that they absolutely thrashed Kansas over the weekend. And you can't unsee what they did in that game.
But think about the overall tone of the conversations around college basketball this season. We've spent so much time talking about, where are the great stories, who are the household names, who are the coaches we gravitate towards, who are the new faces of college basketball.
Maybe we're missing what's clearly right there under our noses with the number one team in all the land. And there was every reason for Houston not to be that this year. Stepping into the Big 12, we would excuse if Houston took a step back. But that's not at all what's happened.
Instead, they've absolutely dominated throughout the course of the entire season. They've shown not only that they belong, but they're out there in one of, if not the best conference in all of college basketball, and absolutely controlling every one of their opponents.
And that speaks to the current landscape of the sport overall. We love certain brands. We love Kentucky. We love Duke. We love North Carolina. They're all comfortable. And at some point, we love it when they're good, because we know what to expect.
But isn't there a fair conversation about whatever the new blue blood language is in college basketball? Houston's only a couple of years removed from a Final Four, with Kelvin Sampson is a coach, a name that many fans recognize the minute they hear it.
In a world where we're talking about Connecticut and their possibility of going back to back, are they a blue blood? Is Houston not in that same conversation of current dominance in college basketball?
When you talk about the things that they need, I understand why so many fans want to doubt Purdue, for example. A big man doesn't win in the NCAA tournament. We've heard it for years. Well, none of those, we've heard it for years moments, stack up against this Houston team.
They did over the weekend what they've done all year, consistently played great defense, been explosive, and absolutely crushed their opponents. Maybe we should spend less time worrying about the future and the brands we're used to, and more time focusing right now.
Because as we enter March Madness, you're going to hear over and over again how this is the most wide open tournament we've ever seen. It's been such an up and down year. We don't even know who the best teams are.
And that's wrong. We do. The best team in the country right now, and one of the few teams that you can look at and bank on to be a contender for a national championship is clear. It's Houston.
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