The Houston Cougars, for the second time this season, faced the Arizona Wildcats on Saturday night with the Big 12 Championship on the line. Ultimately, similar to the first meeting, Houston fell short of a late comeback and lost 79–74.
For the Cougars, Joseph Tugler led the charge, recording a career-high 20 points while adding 10 rebounds. Outside of him, however, the production was fairly minimal across the board — especially from arguably their most important player, star freshman Kingston Flemings.
Flemings played 34 minutes and scored just eight points after averaging 16.6 per game this season. He shot 3-for-12 from the field and 0-for-2 from beyond the arc, though he did add three rebounds and seven assists.
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Nonetheless, after the game, Flemings largely placed the blame on himself and fellow starter Chris Cenac Jr., admitting the two didn’t perform the way they needed to.
“We didn’t even show up, to be honest,” Flemings said.
“JoJo [Joseph Tugler] is consistent. Me and Chris, we just didn’t show up, honestly,” Flemings added. “Three of the five starters did. Me and Chris really didn’t. To win in the Big 12 and in the tournament, you’ve got to be consistent. You can’t have a good game one game and then not show up the next. That’s how you get upset, but me and Chris know what we did wrong.”
Houston will likely enter the NCAA Tournament as a No. 2 seed, as they apparently didn’t do enough to climb into the top line — a spot that could have opened up after both Florida and UConn lost on Saturday.
The 68-team field will be revealed on Sunday, at which point Houston will learn their opponent and whether they’ll play on Thursday or Friday in the first round.
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