Three things to watch in TCU men’s basketball’s showdown with No. 10 Houston
TCU men’s basketball shrugged off a four-game losing streak to pick up back-to-back wins last week over Oklahoma State and rival Baylor.
Now, the Horned Frogs (13-7, 3-4 Big 12) will aim to keep rolling when they host defending national runner-up No. 10 Houston (17-2, 5-1) at 8 p.m. Wednesday on ESPN2.
It’s a pivotal game for both teams. TCU is still trying to add quality wins to its NCAA Tournament resume, while the Cougars are aiming to keep pace in the Big 12 title race with Arizona, Texas Tech and BYU.
Defeating Houston will be a daunting task, as the Cougars have only lost five league games since joining the Big 12 in the 2023-24 season.
However, the Horned Frogs are one of the few teams that knows what it takes to beat Houston after TCU shocked the Cougars with bucket from Emanuel Miller in the final seconds for a 68-67 win on Jan. 13, 2024.
It may take some more late-game heroics for TCU to pull off the upset again.
Here are three more things to watch in Wednesday night’s matchup:
Houston’s freshmen sensations
Houston hasn’t been known for producing one-and-done talent during its rise to becoming one of the country’s premier college basketball programs, but it’s a different story this season. Houston has two dynamic freshmen who will likely be taken high in the upcoming NBA draft.
Point guard Kingston Flemings is the most prominent name and is coming off one of the season’s most impressive performances with 42 points and six assists in a 90-86 loss at Texas Tech on Saturday. Flemings leads Houston with 17.0 points and 5.4 assists per night this season.
Flemings is in the same tier as BYU’s A.J. Dybantsa, Kansas’ Darryn Peterson and Arizona’s Koa Peat, and TCU went 0-3 against those first-round talents.
The other name to know is Chris Cenac. The 6-foot-11 center was a top-10 recruit in the 2025 class and has lived up to his lofty recruiting ranking by earning a starting role, averaging 9.2 points and a team-high 7.6 rebounds. Cenac has the type of talent that could challenge TCU’s productive but undersized frontcourt.
Returning veterans
While the freshmen have received most of the attention, the Cougars still return a number of key players from last year’s national runner-up squad. Senior guard Emanuel Sharp is having the best season of his career, averaging a career-high 16.1 points while also knocking down 38.5% of his 3-pointers.
Sharp is a shining example of Houston’s ability to develop players; he averaged only 5.9 points as a freshman, but now he’s one of the best guards in the Big 12. Senior guard Milos Uzan is back as well and has fit well with Flemings as a secondary ball handler. Uzan is averaging 11.3 points and 3.9 assists.
Joseph Tugler is another key returner having a career year. The 6-8 junior forward is averaging a career-high 8.4 points and 5.9 rebounds. Tugler fits the mold of a Houston big man: strong, physical and with a team-first mentality that’s allowed him to blend in well with the rest of the starting lineup.
Cougars’ elite defense
Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but Houston has one of the best defenses in the country. It’s become one of the program’s signatures under coach Kelvin Sampson, and this season is no different. The Cougars rank third nationally in scoring defense and 14th in defensive rating.
Opponents are only averaging 61.6 points per game against Houston, and getting to 70 points has been the ultimate challenge, with only six teams accomplishing the feat so far. And one of those teams was Arizona State, but the Sun Devils lost 103-73 in the process.
Another thing that will make things challenging for TCU is the fact that Houston is coming off allowing a season-high 90 points in its loss to Texas Tech on Saturday.
There’s a good chance Sampson will have the Cougars playing angry defensively as they look for a bounce-back performance.
This story was originally published January 26, 2026 at 4:43 PM.
