Texas Tech basketball: Scouting the Houston Cougars

Today, the Texas Tech basketball team will take on No. 17 Houston so let’s take an in-depth look at the Cougars.

The Texas Tech basketball team will renew an old Southwest Conference rivalry this afternoon when the No. 14 Red Raiders face the No. 17 Houston Cougars in Fort Worth.  This is a series that the Cougars lead by the slimmest of margins 28-27 but it’s hard to find many editions in which both teams have been more nationally relevant.

Both teams are 2-0 on the young season with each yet to have been truly tested.  While all Red Raider fans know about our team’s dominant start, the same could be said of the Cougars’ start as they have won their two games by an average score of 27 points.

In the opener, Kelvin Sampson’s team wiped out Lamar 89-45 and two days later, they took care of Boise State 68-58.  So let’s go inside this matchup to get a feel for what we might be in store for this afternoon.  And we will begin by taking a look at a Houston Cougar that shares a name with a Red Raider legend.

A Texas Tech basketball legacy leads Houston in scoring

Before Jarrett Culver or Andre Emmett came along, the unquestioned best wing to ever play for the Red Raiders was Jason Sasser.  Over the course of his career (1992-96), he averaged 17.7 points per game for the Red Raiders while being named the Southwest Conference Player of the Year as a senior.

Now, his nephew Marcus Sasser is Houston’s leading scorer and he’s doing the family name proud.  So far this year, the 6-foot-1, 190-pound guard is averaging 17.5 points per game.

Against Lamar, he put up a career-high 25 points including seven 3-pointers.  However, he had just a modest showing against Boise with 10 points.

Last year, as a redshirt freshman, Sasser started 17 of 30 games averaging 8.1 points.  Now, he appears ready for a much more prominent role as his team’s primary point guard.

Tech will have to keep him from getting hot from 3-point range.  For his career, he’s shot 37.1% from deep and this year, he’s hit 56.3% of his long-range attempts.

One has to believe that Sasser will get plenty of attention from the Texas Tech defense.  Hopefully, Beard’s team will shut Houston’s top scorer down the way they did Sam Houston State’s top weapon, Zach Nutall.  After he scored 36 points in his team’s opener, he had just 14 against Tech on Friday with 10 coming after halftime when the 32-point Red Raider win had already been decided.

It will be interesting for fans who remember the days of Jason Sasser to see a name so closely associated with Red Raider basketball now trying to take down the Scarlet and Black.  But if Tech wants to win this game, they will have to make sure that Marcus Sasser doesn’t do his best imitation of his Red Raider uncle.