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Houston will be in Houston.
There was so much concern about that in advance of the announcement of the 2026 NCAA March Madness bracket, about the idea the Cougars might get to play so close to home if they’re able to advance through two rounds and arrive in the South Region event for the Sweet 16.
Well, that’s how the tournament works.
There have been much more egregious examples of teams that didn’t perform as well as UH did this season advantaged by game locations close to home. (And there are some in this year’s tournament, like Missouri getting to play as a 10 seed in St. Louis. But that’s a discussion for another region).
When Houston leaves the South Region games as champion and heads on to the Final Four, it won’t be on account of being able to bus from campus to the team hotel. It’ll be because they’re a fantastic team.
I’m sure Florida won’t agree, but you can’t play the games on Mars. They’re going to be close to someone’s hometown.
MARCH MADNESS HQ: Live NCAA bracket | Full TV schedule | Printable bracket
All-South Region Team
G – Kingston Flemings
G – Keaton Wagler, Illinois
G – Tyler Tanner, Vanderbilt
G – Bruce Thornton, Ohio State
F – Thomas Haugh, Florida
SN AWARDS: All-America team | Boozer Player of the Year | Lloyd Coach of the Year
Best South Region First Round game
No. 5 Vanderbilt vs. No. 12 McNeese
This is not the same McNeese State that rolled through its first-round game in the 2025 tournament. Coach Will Wade moved onto a better job at NC State (and got the Wolfpack to a seed two lines better than these Cowboys, so yeah).
It’s still an entertaining team. McNeese went 19-3 in the Southland Conference and prevailed over regular season champion Stephen F. Austin in the league tournament – after escaping UT Rio Grande Valley in triple OT to keep the season alive.
Vanderbilt is one of the most pleasing teams to watch, with the backcourt tandem of Tyler Tanner and Duke Miles both capable of getting the ball to the rim or dropping in deep threes. But McNeese managed to rank 49th in the nation in defensive efficiency despite playing a mid-major schedule; who you play is a factor in such rankings, so imagine how well the Cowboys had to play to rank so high.
SN EXPERT BRACKETS: DeCourcy (Arizona) | Bender (Michigan) | Iyer (Arizona) | Gay (UCLA women)
Silly seed, indeed
It’s a darned good thing VCU won the Atlantic 10 Tournament, because they saved the selection committee from making their biggest mistake of the weekend.
Committee chair Keith Gill of the Sun Belt Conference said VCU would have been excluded from the field had they not won their league’s automatic bid. Preposterous. If the Rams had lost to Saint Louis in the final, their resume would have been dramatically better than such First Four teams as SMU and Texas.
VCU wound up 40th in Wins Above Bubble, ahead of three teams that made the at-large field. They finished 26-7, which would have meant 25 wins a least, with a perfectly clean record in the last two quadrants.
The Rams clearly belonged in the field, even if it meant having to play the extra game in Dayton.
Upset special
No. 13 Troy over No. 4 Nebraska
By slipping a line to No. 4 in the committee’s judgment (not everyone’s), the Huskers found themselves in a 4-13 matchup that will be far more challenging than anything they would have encountered on the 3 line.
Troy has the ability to score big numbers; they put up 100 in games against both San Diego State and Southern California. And they beat the Aztecs.
Coach Scott Cross’ crew had a rough time through late January and mid-February, losing five of eight in that stretch, but they have won four in a row entering the tournament and have begun to defend at a much higher level.
Nebraska is a program that never has won an NCAA Tournament game. That will be the subject of many questions directed at the players, and if it’s close at the end, it may be a factor in the result.
But Nebraska at its best is a joy to watch. Pryce Sandfort is one of the best 3-point shooters in the sport. Point guard Sam Hoiberg, son of coach Fred Hoiberg, is a complete player: shooter, passer, driver on offense, disruptive force on D. This should be a blast. But it might not be a great day for the Huskers.
HISTORY OF UPSETS BY SEED:
16 vs. 1 | 15 vs. 2 | 14 vs. 3 | 13 vs. 4 | 12 vs. 5
Best Potential Game
No. 3 Illinois vs. No. 2 Houston
Forget the seeds: It’s the No. 1 offensive team in the nation (Illinois) against the No. 5 defense. That showdown could be spectacular, especially with point guard Keaton Wagler running the show against Kelvin Sampson’s varying defensive schemes.
We know what we’ll see from Houston. Forward Joseph Tugler will battle inside, especially at the defensive end. Guard Kingston Flemings will serve as the driving – and sometimes only reliable – offensive force. The Cougars will look to punish the Illini frontcourt physically, and it might work.
We don’t know what we’ll see from Illinois. In truth, the Illini have so many options that they don’t always have an idea which ones they want to use.
Are they a perimeter shooting team with Jake Davis? Are they a driving team with Andrej Stojakovic? Are they a power team with David Mirkovic in the lane? Well, yes. And yes. And yes. But no. They need to find a clear path, an identity.
If they don’t have it by the time they get to Houston, it’ll be a brief visit.
Sleeper team
No. 7 Saint Mary’s
The Gaels did not have a ton of opportunities to face major competition, outside of Gonzaga within the West Coast Conference. They split with the Zags, claiming an impressive homecourt victory in the season finale behind 31 points from guard Mikey Lewis.
They’re not lasting here long without getting by a few major players, possibly Houston or Illinois. They can handle themselves physically. Paulius Murauskas is 6-8, 235. Harry Wessels is 7-1, 280. They’re going to play a slower tempo to make that power matter.
Do they have enough 3-point shooting? Yes. Their .386 percentage was top-15 in the nation. Will they trust it, though? They ranked only 246th in 3-point usage.
Bigger defenders are going to limit, at least somewhat, that inside power combination.
But Lewis will need to have an outstanding tournament, however long it lasts.
South Region Final Four pick
Think about Kelvin Sampson’s NCAA Tournament performance since 2019: narrow Sweet 16 loss to Kentucky; Final Four appearance in 2021; Elite Eight and narrow loss to Villanova in 2022; upset loss to Miami in 2023 Sweet 16; injury-afflicted Sweet 16 loss to Duke in 2024 and championship game loss to Florida in 2025.
Houston battles. Every time.
And now, with Kingston Flemings at guard and power forward Chris Cenac, they have legit NBA first-round talent for one of the few times in Sampson’s tenure.
And this time the Cougars have the pure talent to make that battle, well, prettier.
They can struggle for offense even now, and they can become too reliant on freshman star Flemings to rescue them from such situations. But guard Milos Uzan has been a bit better in recent games. Emanuel Sharp still has another gear. And if neither deliver, suddenly UH is getting something from reserve shooter Chase McCarthy, averaging only 4 points with 29 3-pointers all season – but more than half of those came in the past six games.
There are multiple teams in this region capable of beating the No. 1 seed Florida Gators. They all have the same drive to do it, because it means getting closer to the Final Four. Revenge for last year’s title-game loss might matter to a few members of the team, but this is the 2026 Cougars one chance to win a title. They should be in Indianapolis in April, this time with the kind of talent with a real chance of getting that done.
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