With Houston's loss against Illinois, the Cougars once again fall short in the NCAA Tournament. Texas A&M suffered that same feat just a week ago, but the Illinois win shows the Aggies could've easily marched their way to the Sweet 16.
Okay, maybe "easy" isn't the best choice of words against Kelvin Sampson's squad. After all, their juggernaut defense is why they have the reputation they have. On the offensive side this season, the Cougars had a star in freshman Kingston Flemings, but the Cougars chose the wrong night to have a poor offensive showing.
The Cougars struggled offensively, shooting 34.4% from the field and hitting only 28.1% (9-of-32) from three-point range. The Aggies could've taken advantage of this, but it happened on the wrong day.
Houston's awful shooting shows Texas A&M could've been in the Sweet 16
Texas A&M scored 88.7 points per game (PPG) and ranked 9th nationally. This could've been well more than enough to catch Houston off their game if they decided to shoot poorly, but they just chose the wrong time.
Instead, the Aggies lost 88-57, and they looked completely out of sync in the first half. Houston controlled the game with an early 18-0 run, and that was pretty much all the Cougars needed to seal a victory. The Cougars got off to a sluggish start in the first half, and it only got worse in the second against Illinois.
Also, it should be noted that the Ags were completely undersized and had no answer in the rebounding column, with Houston out-rebounding the Ags by +17.
The Fighting Illini should've won by a lot more, considering they are one of the best offensive teams in the country, but they struggled in the first half shooting, too. If the Ags had some rebounding to go along with their great shooting, they could be a Sweet 16 team.
Of course, Houston is a great team that deserved to advance, but knowing they shot the rock as poorly as they did, Texas A&M had more of a real chance than we wanted to believe at first.