TXST News
- After spending much of last season in the mid-major top 25, TXST wasn’t even receiving votes in the first poll released this year. After a 6-2 start, the Bobcats finally have exactly 1 top 25 vote. That would put them at about the 50th best mid-major team in the country. TXST has a long way to go and a lot of wins to rack up to reach national relevancy this year. A win at UH would be a nice start.
- Texas State went a perfect 4-0 in the Southwestern Showdown with a road win at UNLV and home wins vs. Jackson State, Abilene Christian, and Hartford. D1 records of all participating teams:
- Texas State 4-0
- SMU 4-0
- UNLV 2-2
- Hartford 0-2
- Abilene Christian 0-3
- Jackson State 0-3
- I guess Texas State and SMU are co-champs? Would have been nice if we played each other.
- Nijal Pearson was named the Southwestern Showdown MVP, averaging 17.6 PPG and 5.0 RPG for the tournament. Mason Harrell and Alonzo Sule were named to the all-Tournament team.
Scouting Houston
Houston is off to a 3-2 start to begin the season. They have home wins vs. Alabama State and Houston Baptist, a road win at Rice, a home loss to BYU, and a road loss at #13 Oregon.
The Cougars are coming off a historic season that saw them finish the season at 33-4 overall and ended with a 4-point loss in the Sweet 16 to Kentucky. They went 16-2 in AAC play and won the regular season championship, though they lost in the AAC Tournament final. They were a 3-seed in the NCAA tournament where they beat Georgia State and Ohio State in the first 2 rounds. In the AAC preseason poll they tied with Memphis for the top spot, but received 7 first place votes to Memphis’s 4.
6’5″ Jr. G DeJon Jarreau was named to the preseason all-AAC first team. He was the AAC Sixth Man of the Year last year. He didn’t start a single game last year but finished 3rd on the team in scoring with 8.0 PPG and racked up 100 assists for the season. He’s still not an every day starter as he’s started 3 of 5 games so far this year. At 10.8 PPG he’s just 4th on the team in scoring so far this year and his 2.4 turnovers per game are a team high. Jarreau is expected to be a dangerous player, but has struggled to start the season. Don’t expect him to take a ton of shots as he’s more of a distributing PG.
Part of the reason Jarreau has struggled to get going this year is the addition of Kansas transfer 6’5″ So. G Quentin Grimes to the roster. Grimes was granted a waiver to play immediately after being 1 of 3 players to start all 36 games at Kansas last year. Grimes was a 5-star prospect from the Houston area out of HS. He put up 8.4 PPG, 2.5 RPG, and 2.0 APG for the Jayhawks last year. He’s the top scorer so far for the Cougars this year at 16.0 PPG (5th in the AAC). He also leads the team in assists at 3.8 per game (6th in the AAC).
The top forward is 6’7″ Jr. Fabian White. He put up 6.3 PPG and 4.0 RPG last year as a sophomore but has taken on a much bigger role this year scoring 12 per game and bringing down 7.2 RPG (10th in the AAC). He’s also 7th in the AAC with 1.2 blocks per game.
Houston is an uptempo team with a very deep bench. Similar to TXST, they play a full 10 man rotation and have a whopping 6 guys averaging double digit scoring. They have the #5 scoring offense in the country at 86 points per game. They shoot it well too at 48.3% from the field (1st AAC, 41st nationally) and 36.8% from 3 (2nd in the AAC, 67th nationally). They also have the 2nd to worst scoring defense in the AAC, giving up 73.6 per game. This will be a classic clash of styles as both teams will try to force the other to play their game. TXST has relied on its defense to win games the past two games, that will be a much harder tasks against one of the best scoring teams in America. But if the Bobcats can force Houston to play their game and slow it down it could play in TXST’s favor. If TXST tries to run with UH they likely get beat handily.
Last Meeting
The last meeting between UH and TXST was back in 2013 and it was Kaspar’s 2nd ever game coaching the Bobcats. Houston won that game 76-70 and has a commanding 12-2 lead in the series. TXST has never beaten them in Houston.
Odds/Time/TV
Houston opened as 14 point favorites, but that has since shrunk to 12.5.
Tip-off is set for 7pm from the Fertitta Center. Game will be broadcast on ESPN3 (NOT +).
