Why Top College Hoops Analyst Thinks So Highly of Houston Cougars

We're just three days fresh into the 2025-26 campaign for No. 2 Houston men's basketball, in which, after starting off with a 75-57 win over Lehigh on Monday, early-season accolades and power rankings continue to pour in for the Cougars and their popularly billed "revenge tour."
to get back to the national championship game.

On Wednesday morning, one of college basketball's premier analysts, ESPN's Jay Bilas, released his "Bilas Index" in measuring the 68 best teams in Division I for the 2025-26 season to fit the field amount. What remained largely unchanged was his praise for coach Kelvin Sampson and Houston's nonstop contention for a title, as it doesn't take long to find that the Cougars hail second to Purdue on Bilas' list.

The Bilas Index is back 👀@JayBilas reveals his top 68 teams for the new season 📈 https://t.co/6yNfokS0iA
— ESPN (@espn) November 5, 2025

The standard is the same

Bilas instantly nodded to Houston's unmatched physicality, ranging across seasons in the Sampson era, a factor that most coaches will mention the Cougars as one of their toughest tests yet with their defensive prowess. With the addition of guard Milos Uzan in his junior season for 2024-25, Houston's offensive metrics saw a surge, which, when complemented by its defense, likely propelled the deepest tournament run of the era.

"Kelvin Sampson has not only returned Houston to its glory days of the 1980s, he has established the program as one of the truly elite in the country. Houston has been the model of consistency and annually leads the nation, or is among the top teams, in playing hard. While Houston suffered losses from last season's title game team, the returnees and additions make the roster title-worthy again. Guards Milos Uzan and Emanuel Sharp will lead the way, and Joseph Tugler has established himself as the premier defender in the country."

Junior forward Joseph Tugler, the defending Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, could be in contention to continue defending this coveted conference accolade with his 7-foot-4 wingspan that's given frontcourt opposition its fits.

Offensively, if he isn't a gamer enough in working through the post, there was also a glimpse of a successful three-point shot, which Tugler hit from the short corner in Monday's season opener. He often flirted with it last season in low-leverage situations, but it's something to keep an eye on if he's more consistent with it throughout the season.

New growing pains, similar outcome?

Bilas' point on the roster staying title-worthy brings up the concept of a similar occurring theme from last season.

When the Cougars started the 2024-25 campaign 4-3 through the first seven games, including a 1-2 trip to the Players Era tournament in Las Vegas, this was attributed somewhat to offensive growing pains, especially with a new face at point guard in Uzan. From that point on, Uzan set a presence at the spot in which he averaged 11.4 points per game in Big 12 play and ultimately helped Houston to go 31-1 the rest of the way to the championship game, which included a conference record 19 wins.

Now, Uzan, along with redshirt senior guard Emanuel Sharp, are the two leaders of the backcourt for 2025-26, in which they welcomed the highest-rated freshman class for the Cougars in the modern era in forward Chris Cenac and guards Kingston Flemings and Isiah Harwell.

From Monday night, it was evident that there is likely to be growing pains throughout November and December with the group in terms of defense, handling the ball, and shot selection, as naturally, there are some jitters with even the top freshmen in their classes.

All this only stirs up the idea that the Cougars could have a similar outcome to the growing pains of last season, where the "different animal" in sets in by league play, only this time, to where the freshman class unleashes their true caliber and starts living up to their prospect billing.