Houston flips script on SEC, Vols, advances to Final Four - ESPN

INDIANAPOLIS — The defining theme of the 2024-25 college basketball season has been the dominance of the SEC. The league set a record with 14 NCAA tournament bids, set another one with seven teams in the Sweet 16 and became the first conference to have four schools in each regional final.

But on Sunday in the Elite Eight, the University of Houston showed Tennessee and the SEC that the Big 12 can still play the role of bully. Houston threw a defensive haymaker in the first half and rendered Tennessee's offense overwhelmed and ineffective, like so many victims of the SEC this season, in a 69-50 win.

In a tournament where SEC teams have won often by swallowing teams whole with athleticism, depth and an abundance of talent, Houston flipped the script.

Kelvin Sampson's Cougars have been the Big 12's most dominant program since entering the league two years ago. And they've done so with a defensive edge that Sampson began forging in teams at Montana Tech when he first became a head coach in the early 1980s.

On Sunday, Sampson's close friend Rick Barnes became the latest team to get ripped apart by Houston. Tennessee missed its first 14 3-pointers, trailed by as many as 22 in the first half and looked at times like a directional school «buy game» opponent in an early November matchup.

L.J. Cryer shook off a rough shooting performance against Purdue to score a team-high 17 points, and Houston dominated the paint by outscoring Tennessee 30-14 inside. Tennessee finished the game shooting 17.2% from 3-point range and 28.8% from the field.

Tennessee managed to cut the Houston lead to 10 in the second half, but any embers of life the Vols showed were extinguished by Emanuel Sharp, who hit a pair of second-half 3-pointers and finished