Houston Cougars Receive Surprisingly Low Final Ranking by Top Basketball Analyst
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The Houston Cougars, as they have been in years past, were predicted and expected to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament this season, as the Cougars ended last year just a possession shy from claiming the program's first national title, finishing as national runners-up.
However, those predictions and expectations did not come to fruition as the Cougars' participation in the NCAA Tournament this season was cut shorter than many expected, as the Coogs fell in the Sweet Sixteen to the Illinois Fighting Illini.
And with the Cougars not reaching the goals that many college basketball analysts had set for head coach Kelvin Sampson's squad, one of these analysts had an interesting ranking for the Cougars in his final ballot of the year.
Jon Rothstein Ranks Houston Outside the Top 15
That analyst was CBS Sports' Jon Rothstein, who, in his final AP ballot of the year for the final AP Poll rankings of the college basketball season, had the Cougars surprisingly slotted as the No. 16 team in the country in his final rankings.
The final rankings didn't match Rothstein's ballot as the Cougars, in the final AP Poll of the season, were ranked as one of the teams rounding out the top 10, coming in as the No. 7 team in the country, with national champion Michigan up top, runners up UConn in second, Arizona, Duke, Illinois and Purdue all followed ending the season higher than the Coogs.
Of the teams that Rothstein has ranked in front of the Cougars, none was more intriguing and question-filled than having the Texas Longhorns, who ended the season with a 21-15 record and No. 10 in the SEC, ranked ahead of Houston at No. 14.
The Longhorns were one of the final teams to make the cut for the NCAA Tournament this season as they had to earn their way into the first round, competing in the First Four and while the Longhorns did manage several upsets over BYU and Gonzaga on the way to a Sweet Sixteen appearance where they took Purdue to the brink a final ranking has to encapsulate the entire year not just March.
While the Longhorns had an impressive NCAA Tournament, the Cougars were consistent from the first tipoff of the season, ending the year with a 30-7 record, finishing as the second team in the Big 12, not in the bottom half of their conference, and were a No. 2 seed headed into the NCAA Tournament.
The final AP Poll did have the Longhorns ranked in the Top 25; however, it was much lower than Rothstein's, with Texas coming in at No. 22 compared to No. 14, and the Cougars, like they had been all year, ranked as a top 10 team in the country.
