Preseason MVP: When on his game, Quentin Grimes is as good as anyone in the American Athletic Conference. The former five-star recruit averaged 12.1 points with 21 starts in his first season with the Coogs.

The Ceiling: A run beyond the Sweet 16 is within reach for a program known for developing its perimeter players. Stacked at the guard spot, the Cougars could really take off and contend for a league crown if 3-point shooting is improved and Caleb Mills continues to improve as a complete player.

The Floor: About the only things that could derail the Cougars, who have lofty goals of winning the AAC and making a dark horse deep NCAA run, is if they play selfish and get away from what has put them on the national map the past three years – defensive discipline and tough rebounding.

Game of the Year: Alabama

Projected Starting Five:

DeJon Jarreau
G | 6-5 | R-Sr. | New Orleans, La.

Caleb Mills
G | 6-3 | R-So. | Arden, N.C.

Quentin Grimes
G | 6-5 | Jr. | The Woodlands, Texas

Reggie Chaney
F | 6-8 |Jr. | Tusla, Okla.

Brison Gresham
F/C | 6-8 | R-Sr. | New Orleans, La.

Kelvin Sampson
Head Coach

Impact First-Year Player: Tramon Mark

Season Preview

In September, Reggie Chaney was granted a waiver by the NCAA, giving the Arkansas transfer eligibility for the 2020-21 season and making an outstanding Houston team even better and deeper.

A burly 6-foot-8, 225-pound forward, Chaney not only fits Houston’s penchant for toughness, defense and rebounding, he’s also a capable replacement for Fabian White Jr., who is lost for the season with a torn ACL.

But for the Cougars, who have won the American Athletic Conference regular-season championship the past two years, their success starts with its core of returning talented guards and wing players – Quentin Grimes, DeJon Jarreau, Caleb Mills and Marcus Sasser. And that doesn’t include highly-touted freshmen Tramon Mark and Jamal Shead.

“You can never have enough good guards and we have a lot of good guards,” seventh-year Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson said. “We got some that have a chance to be better than good. 

“We challenge them to don’t settle being good if you got a chance of being great. Everything that we emphasize in this program is designed to make you better, not make you settle. That’s Cougar basketball.”

Cougar basketball under Sampson has gone 83-20 over the past three seasons.Two seasons removed from a 33-4 team that reached the Sweet 16, the Cougars are coming off a 23-8 season and 13-5 in the AAC in which four of the five conference road losses were by a total of six points. For the third straight year Houston finished among the top 25 in the national polls and has accumulated five straight 20-win seasons.

Last season the Cougars’ rebound margin of plus 9.5 led the nation.

“We got a good team,” Sampson said. “I expect our team to be successful, just like I did last year, year before that, year before that.”

Grimes, who is poised for a breakthrough season, and Jarreau bring experience and both can take over a game. As a redshirt freshman in 2019-20, Mills led the team in scoring (13.2). As a freshman last year, Sasser started the final 15 games. Even at that, with Jarreau and Sasser playing the 1 position, Shead may pop up and be the starting point guard.

The Cougars are just that talented on the court. And Mark, who can score at all levels, has as much upside as anyone on the roster. 

“Tramon can score,” Sampson said. “I’m excited to see how good this kid can be. He has a chance to be pretty good. I don’t think there’s anything he’s not good at.”

Returning in the post are Brison Gresham and Justin Gorham, who backed up White, who had increased his scoring and rebounding averages each of his first three seasons. Freshman Kiyron Powell at 6-foot-8 is a rim protector and elite shot blocker who is coming in as the best skilled big man Sampson has recruited at UH.

Sitting out last year as redshirts were 6-foot-2 sophomore guard Cameron Tyson, a sharpshooting transfer, and 6-foot-7 freshman forward J’Wan Roberts, who Sampson calls the most athletic player on the team. Tyson adds a dimension that was lacking last season – outside shooting. Tyson, who broke the Idaho freshman scoring record (13.5), made 106-of-247 3-pointers. 

“Last year was probably the worst shooting team we’ve had since we’ve been here other than the first year,” Sampson said.

Houston shot .422 percent from the field and .337 on 3-pointers last season, but made up from their average shooting numbers with superior rebounding.