Our Cardinals will continue their conference grind on Wednesday night and travel to the Lone star State to face Houston. We have reached that point in the season where the conference return games are starting to be played. This is the second time the Cardinals have faced Houston this season. The Cardinals won the first game 91-52 last month, and have won two straight in the series they lead 14-5. The Cougars have dropped their last four overall by 22.5 per game. They do have a few things working in their favor as in they have won their last two home games against ranked teams and they haven’t lost five games in a row since the 2010-11 season. The Cards have won 29 in a row over unranked teams.

Coach James Dickey’s team was expected to be a sleeper in the AAC race this season but really haven’t lived up to those expectations. They have one decent win against UCONN under their belt and have been a competitive team in spurts. Due to some injury issues they have struggled with finding their team chemistry and maintaining any kind of consistency. Since playing the Cardinals last month they have got LJ Rose (8.5ppg, 1.9rpg, 4.9apg), Danuel House (12.8ppg, 5.4 rpg, 1.7 apg) and JJ Richardson (4.4ppg, 2.0rpg, 0.5apg) back in their line-up.

Houston uses an athletic, versatile, high-octane offensive attack that finished tenth in the nation in scoring a year ago. And they are led by TaShawn Thomas (15.9ppg, 8.8rpg, 1.7apg) , the above mentioned House and Rose, Jherrod Stiggers (9.4ppg 2.8rpg, 1.1apg), Danrad Knowles (8.0ppg, 5.1rpg, 0.7apg), Brandon Morris (6.5ppg, 2.2rpg, 1.1apg), and Tione Womack (4.1ppg, 2.4rpg, 2.2apg).
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 Wednesdays game averaging 69.1 points-per-game, while shooting 44% from the floor and 33.7% from 3-point range. The Cougars are converting 65.6% of its attempts from the free-throw line. Defensively, Houston is allowing 70.7 points-per-game as the opposition is shooting 43% from the floor. The Cougars are getting out-rebounded by their opponents 808-791 with a rebounding margin of -0.8 averaging 36 boards-per-contest. The Cougars are 13th nationally in blocked shots, swatting 6 per game.

Houston
2013-14 OVERALL RANKINGS
-POINTS PER GAME
69.1
240th
OVERALL
-REBOUNDS PER GAME
36.0
143rd
OVERALL
-ASSISTS PER GAME
14.0
99th
OVERALL
-FIELD GOAL PCT
.440
193rd
OVERALL

Kenpom Ranks
Overall – #163
Defense Adjustment Efficiency
– 103.7 ranks 156th
Offensive Adjustment Efficiency
– 103.5 ranks 189th

This team doesn’t jump off the page at you when breaking them down and they haven’t looked very good as of late. But when our Cardinals roll into town teams are going to have their game face on and are going give our guys their best shot. Houston is hungry for a win and are looking to get things back on track. They are calling the night Guy Lewis night and will be honoring their former “Hall of Fame” coach in a ceremony. This will also add a little extra fire to the team and the home crowd.

We found out on Wednesday that Blackshear is not traveling with the team to Houston due to a concussion he got in practice. That’s about 10 points we will have to make up for and we’ll need someone to step up on offense. Wayne was the leading scorer the last game against Houston and had a career high 23 points. Chris Jones will return to the starting line-up and he and Russ will have to do a good job at setting the pace early and keeping the offense settled if Houston does start hot riding the emotions of the night. Montrezl and Luke have had some great two man game working in the last couple of outings. They will need to keep that going against a very athletic and long Houston front-court. Houston is giving up over 80 points a game and our Cards are averaging a little over 80 while winning all four road games as AAC members by an average of 20.8 points. The Cardinals shouldn’t have trouble getting the win, but this Houston team is capable of pulling off the upset and on the road nothing comes easy. I look for a competitive game with Cards pulling away late. Go Cards!