Getty Head coach Kelvin Sampson of the Houston Cougars.
Houston looks to keep rolling after a blowout win to open the season as they face Boise State at the Fertitta Center in the first game of the Southwest Showcase on Saturday.
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The game (3 p.m. ET start time) won’t be on regular TV anywhere, but you can watch Boise State vs Houston on ESPN+ right here:
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Boise State vs Houston Preview
The Cougars saw little resistance in their opener against Lamar, running away with a 89-45 victory that wasn’t close from the start. Houston held Lamar to just 15 first-half points and held the Cardinals to just 30 percent shooting from the field.
“I thought our guys moved the ball well,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said. “We shot poorly, but we played good on offense because we got good shots. … I want our guys to move the ball and keep shooting. They’ll go in. We did a lot of good things.”
One Cougar who did shoot well was Marcus Sasser, who hit seven 3-pointers. He was 9 of 11, including 7 of 9 on 3-pointers.
“They’ve been drilling that in our head in practice to limit turnovers, offensive rebounding,” Sasser said. “Coming out in the first game, we wanted to come out and put it as like that’s how we win.”
Boise State has yet to play a game and gets a tough test in their debut against the No. 17 team in the nation.
“I wanted to seek out a resume opportunity and a challenging opportunity,” Boise State coach Leon Rice said Tuesday. “That’s what we got. We got the 17th-ranked team on their floor in front of some fans. It’s gonna be a big challenge, and our guys couldn’t be more excited.”
The rest of the Broncos non-conference schedule includes Sam Houston State, BYU, Santa Clara and Loyola Marymount. Boise State finished last season 20–12, going 11–7 in Mountain West play. They finished in a tie for fifth place.
Boise State and Houston have faced off just once before, back in 2014.
“When I went back and watched that one … the things that are important to our program are still important to our program,” Rice said. “The things that (Houston coach) Kelvin (Sampson) was instilling in those guys are still the main things that they do. They were maybe the best rebounding team in the country last year, and he gets them playing so hard, especially right out of the gate.”