INDIANAPOLIS — The defining theme of the 2024-25 college basketball season has revolved around the dominance of the SEC. The league set a record with 14 NCAA tournament bids, set another one with seven teams in the Sweet 16 and became the first conference to have four teams in each regional final.
But on Sunday in the Elite Eight, the University of Houston showed Tennessee and the SEC that the Big 12 can still play the role of bully. Houston threw a defensive haymaker in the first half and rendered Tennessee’s offense overwhelmed and ineffective, like so many victims of the SEC this year in a 69-50 win.
In a tournament where SEC teams won often by swallowing teams whole with athleticism, depth and an abundance of talent, Houston flipped the script.
Kelvin Sampson’s Cougars have been the Big 12’s most dominant program since entering the league two years ago. And they’ve done so with a defensive edge that Sampson began forging in teams back at Montana Tech when he first became a head coach in the early 1980s.
On Sunday, Sampson’s close friend Rick Barnes became the latest team to get ripped apart by the Houston buzz saw. Tennessee missed its first 14 3-pointers, trailed by as many as 22 in the first half and looked at times like a directional school “buy game” opponent in an early November matchup.
L.J. Cryer shook off a rough shooting performance against Purdue to score a team-high 17 points, and Houston dominated the paint by outscoring Tennessee 30 to 14 inside. Tennessee finished the game shooting 17.2% from 3-point range and 28.8% from the field.
Tennessee managed to cut the Houston lead to 10 in the second half, but any embers of life the Vols showed were extinguished by Emanuel Sharp, who hit a pair of second-half three pointers and finished with 16 points to make sure the lead stayed in double digits.
The Cougars improved to 34-4 and will face East Regional champion No. 1 Duke in the Final Four next week. It’s the program’s seventh Final Four, and its six appearances in the event without a national title are the most of any program in college basketball.
Sampson advances to the third Final Four of his career, and the second during his time at Houston. After advancing on a slick inbounds play with less than a second left against Purdue on Friday night, Houston’s beautiful defensive brutality eliminated any chance at similar drama Sunday.
The Final Four will be another showcase for the remarkable run of dominance that Sampson has conducted at Houston. The Cougars own the country’s longest run of Sweet 16s, having reached the round six straight years.
By winning Sunday, Sampson prevented Barnes from reaching his second Final Four. The result also prevented Tennessee from reaching the first Final Four in school history. This was Tennessee’s 10th Sweet 16, the most by any school to never make a Final Four.
The SEC already has Florida advanced to the Final Four and could have a second team with No. 1 Auburn playing No. 2 Michigan State in the South Regional final later Sunday. The Tennessee loss means the SEC will not tie the Big East’s record of three teams in the Final Four back in 1985.
No. 1 Houston is the third top seed to reach the Final Four. If Auburn joins the Cougars this will be the first Final Four with all four No. 1 seeds since 2008, the only other time all four No. 1s advanced.
Tennessee belly-flopped from the start. Houston forced misses on 10 of Tennessee’s first 11 shots and on the Vols first 14 3-pointers. By the time Zakai Zeigler hit Tennessee’s first 3-pointer, there were 39 seconds left in the first half and the shot cut the Cougars’ lead to 34-15.
The Vols were never really in the game. Tennessee fell behind 9-2 to open the game, 22-6 later in the first half and took more than 16 minutes to crack double digits. By then, the Vols trailed 29-10 and Barnes had his hands jammed in his pockets in frustration.
Tennessee’s offensive ineptitude — and Houston’s defensive disruption — had the NCAA interns getting paper cuts looking up historic lows in a tournament game.
It was the worst first half for a team seeded No. 1 or No. 2 in NCAA history, as the 15 points were the lowest of any top-two seed. It was also the second-lowest overall scoring half for a top-two seed, with Kentucky’s 11 points against Georgetown in the second half of their national semifinal game in 1984 the only worse performance.
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