Houston Cougars’ loss to Kansas puts No. 1 seed hopes in jeopardy

The No. 5 Houston Cougars dropped their third straight game against Big 12 opponents with Monday night’s loss to the No. 14 Kansas Jayhawks. It was another uneven performance for Kelvin Sampson's Cougars, which struggled to find any rhythm in Lawrence.

The Cougars were stagnant offensively once again, struggling to find any rhythm or consistency. Outside of Kingston Flemings, Houston generated little production on that end of the floor. The performance continued a troubling trend for the Cougars, who have now suffered through costly scoring droughts in three straight games, going scoreless in the final five minutes against Iowa State earlier in the week and enduring an eight-minute dry spell in the second half versus Arizona. 

The Cougars have not experienced a three-game losing streak since 2017, but they are currently 1-4 against top-5 teams in the Big 12. As conference play comes to a close and the conference tournament approaches in just a few weeks, several factors will determine the Cougars' chances of entering the tournament without a victory against a projected protected seed.

Once viewed as a No. 1 seed favorite in Sporting News’ bracketology just last week, Houston no longer holds that spot. Arizona has replaced the Cougars at the top of the seed line after rebounding with wins over BYU and Houston. Sporting News' Bill Bender now lists Arizona among the projected No. 1 seeds, alongside Duke, Michigan, and Iowa State, in his latest Field of 68 update.

The Cougars will face Colorado next and then turn their attention to Baylor and close things out against Oklahoma State. The Jayhawks will head to Arizona to take on the No. 2-ranked Wildcats and the Arizona State Sun Devils before closing out the regular season against Kansas State.

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