Bobby Hurley Gives Scary Assessment of Houston Cougars

It’s well known that the Houston Cougars defense under head coach Kelvin Sampson is physical. This program has another level of playing hard that just is not found anywhere else in the nation. Houston’s defense is one of one in terms of being tough and physical.

It has impressed college basketball coaches across the country. Whenever a program comes in to face Houston, the opposing team head coach always has incredible words to say about how different playing the Cougars is. A couple of years ago in Houston’s first season in the Big 12, Kansas State head coach Jerome Tang said it was the best defense he’s ever seen.

Earlier this year, Oakland head coach Greg Kampe said a lot of great things about the program and the defense. His team had faced Michigan and Purdue earlier, but Kampe mentioned while both those teams are good defensively, “they ain’t Houston defensively.”

After the No. 6 Cougars thrashed Arizona State in a 30-point win on Sunday, Sun Devils head coach Bobby Hurley had plenty to say about Houston’s defense that typically leaves coaching staffs mind-boggled.

A Fresh Take on Houston Basketball

Hurley was quite complimentary about the Cougars and gave a brutally honest assessment of his opponent that was new to hear.

Take a look:

Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley on Kelvin Sampson's 17-1 team: "Houston just tries to beat you into submission. And make you want to quit or be somewhere else. The intensity that they play with is probably different than anything that I've played against this year." pic.twitter.com/GYRzGcDnY0
— Chris Baldwin (@ChrisYBaldwin) January 19, 2026

Hurley and his team had just come off playing No. 1 Arizona earlier that week and No. 11 BYU before that. Hurley believes all three teams have a chance to win any game, but made sure to point out Houston’s intensity was on another level.

Hurley mentioned that he tried to simulate how hard Houston plays, but like almost every coach that faces the Cougars, they are just not able to match that intensity in practice and have an understanding of it beforehand.

It becomes overwhelming for most teams during the game. Hurley was impressed with how active and aggressive Houston was, and just the way they moved around the court.

Being one of college basketball’s greatest point guards ever, his thoughts on Kingston Flemings are very relevant. Hurley led Duke to the national championship game during his freshman year and eventually won the title twice as a collegiate player. Hurley is still the NCAA’s all-time assists leader.

Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley, one of college basketball's all-time greatest point guards at Duke, on University of Houston freshman point guard Kingston Flemings: "He gets fast like instantly. His first step, his ability to separate. He makes good reads out there. He moves… pic.twitter.com/JHSfw1leBs
— Chris Baldwin (@ChrisYBaldwin) January 19, 2026

Flemings’ quickness and ability on the offensive end stood out to Hurley.

Additionally, he noted that besides Houston making a lot of shots, they also got half of the ones they missed back through offensive rebounding.

Even Arizona State guard Noah Meeusen had an interesting comment to say. Meeusen believed that the Cougars out-toughed them in the first few minutes of the game itself.

“That shouldn’t have happened. That was embarrassing,” Meeusen said.

Additionally, Hurley thinks Houston has done a great job blending the veteran talent alongside the five-star freshmen group and how they have constructed the team.

“They have something pretty special,” Hurley said.