American conference play rolls on and on Thursday night the Houston Cougars come to town. This will be the 19th meeting between the Cardinals and Cougars with Louisville holding the advantage 13-5 in the series. This is the first time the Cardinals have faced Houston since a 70-67 loss in Hofheinz Pavilion on Jan. 5, 2005. And it’s the first time the two teams have played in Louisville since a 64-48 Cards win on Jan. 28, 2004. Houston has won three of its last four games and the Cougars currently stand in fourth place, a half game behind Louisville.

Coach James Dickey’s team could be a sleeper in the AAC race before the season is over. They have a big win against UCONN under their belt and had a very competitive game losing to Cincy in their last game by one point. They are a very interesting team at this point in the season and due to some injury issues have struggled with their team chemistry. They are still missing some big time scoring in LJ Rose, Danuel House and JJ Richardson. Houston uses an athletic, versatile, high-octane offensive attack that finished tenth in the nation in scoring a year ago.
Leading the way for the Cougars is TaShawn Thomas (17 ppg, 8.9 rpg, 1.6 apg), Jherrod Stiggers (10.3 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 0.9 apg), Danrad Knowles (8.2 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 0.6 apg), Brandon Morris (5.9 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 1.2 apg), and Tione Womack (5.1 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 2.8 apg).
Thomas is the only player to rank among the league’s top-4 leaders in both scoring and rebounding. Stiggers is the team’s top three-point threat. Knowles has already earned conference freshman of the week honors this season. He has a unique skillset for a 6-9 player in that he can shoot the ball from the outside, handle the rock, and his length makes him a factor on the defensive end. Morris and Womack are sold players and have the experience edge.

Houston comes into Thursdays game averaging 72 points-per-game, while shooting 45.7% from the floor and 36.5% from 3-point range. The Cougars are converting 67.6% of its attempts from the free-throw line. Defensively, Houston is allowing 67.4 points-per-game as the opposition is shooting 41.6% from the floor. The Cougars are out-rebounding their opponents 580-566 with a rebounding margin of +0.9 averaging 36.2 boards-per-contest. The Cougars are 15th nationally in blocked shots, swatting 6.4 per game.

Houston
2013-14 OVERALL RANKINGS
-POINTS PER GAME
72.0
184th
OVERALL
-REBOUNDS PER GAME
36.3
151st
OVERALL
-ASSISTS PER GAME
14.1
108th
OVERALL
-FIELD GOAL PCT
.457
119th
OVERALL

Kenpom Ranks
Overall – #140
Defense Adjustment Efficiency
– 103.5 ranks 159th
Offensive Adjustment Efficiency
– 105.8 ranks 140th

After coach Pitino’s talk with his team about forming their own identity and stepping out from the shadow of the national title team they looked like they played with a sense of purpose in the win against SMU. While this Houston team has struggled at times with team chemistry due to injury they are playing well as of late and their athleticism and versatility will be another good challenge for the Cardinals. Our guys will match up well against this Houston team because both are a little undersized in the front-court. I think they do have a slight advantage on the wings but our back-court is much better. I like our Cards in this game to win comfortably. Houston you will have a problem on Thursday night. Go Cards!