HOUSTON — One more chance. That’s all Emanuel Sharp has wanted since last season ended in disappointment for his Houston Cougars inside San Antonio’s Alamodome.
His teammate Milos Uzan shares the same desire.
Last April, Sharp had the ball in his hands with Houston down by two in the final seconds of the national championship game against Florida, but he failed to get a shot off in the 65-63 loss. Making it even worse, that came after the Cougars blew a 12-point lead in the second half.
For Sharp, the only way to move on was to get back to work.
“Once the season is over, it’s over,” Sharp tells Hoops HQ. “I had something to look forward to, getting back here in the summer and being with my guys and making sure the team was on the right track.”
Sharp has kept Houston (30-6) on the right track despite some key personnel losses, including top scorer LJ Cryer and three-year starting forward J’Wan Roberts due to exhausted eligibility. Last week, the Cougars rolled to a pair of 31-point NCAA Tournament wins in Oklahoma City as the South Region’s No. 2 seed after finishing second in the Big 12 behind Arizona.
Houston’s road to redemption now runs through Space City on Thursday night with a Sweet Sixteen matchup against No. 3 Illinois (26-8) inside the Toyota Center. The venue, home to the NBA’s Houston Rockets, is only two miles away from the UH campus, so it’s familiar territory for the Cougars, who demolished No. 15 Idaho and 10th-seeded Texas A&M last week.
It will be the first time for Houston to play inside the Toyota Center since Sharp, last season’s Big 12 Tournament and Midwest Regional Most Outstanding Player, scored a career-high 27 points with six threes in a Dec. 6 win over Florida State. The redshirt senior from Florida has made a school-record 306 career threes and is averaging 15.4 points per game this season.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to play this close to home,” says Sharp, a first-team all-conference and Big 12 All-Defensive Team selection this season. “But each year before this, we’ve played all over the place, and we’ve always won. Being able to play in front of our fans is great. Obviously, we would love to have them there, but it doesn’t change our mindset or mentality.
“We’re still locked in on doing what we need to do.”
Last year’s season-ending loss to Florida was a bitter end to Uzan’s first NCAA Tournament appearance after he played his first two seasons at Oklahoma. The Las Vegas native, who helped the Cougars to a single-season record 35 wins a year ago after he made the Big 12 All-Tournament Team, declared for the NBA Draft but later decided to return for his final season of eligibility.
Bracket Reset: Andy Katz Re-Picks the Tourney From the Sweet Sixteen On
Hoops HQ senior correspondent Andy Katz presents his refreshed bracket for the 2026 NCAA Tournament, including a disaster for the Big East
Houston will have to wait at least one more season for a rematch with reigning national champion Florida as the South Region’s top seed fell last week to No. 9 Iowa (23-12) in the second round. The Hawkeyes play No. 4 Nebraska (28-6) in the region’s other Sweet Sixteen game Thursday, with the winner of Saturday’s regional final advancing to the Final Four in Indianapolis.
“I feel like we let that Florida game slip away from us,” says Uzan, a two-year starter who is averaging 11.3 points and 4.0 assists per game as a senior. “It was frustrating, but you can’t hold onto that and dwell on the past. We used that as motivation in the summer to get our work in.
“Now we’re locked in on what we’ve got next.”
With the return of Uzan, Sharp and junior forward JoJo Tugler and the emergence of likely one-and-done freshman phenoms Kingston Flemings and Chris Cenac Jr., Houston is making its seventh straight Sweet Sixteen appearance under coach Kelvin Sampson. It’s the nation’s longest active Sweet Sixteen streak and tied for the fourth-best since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
With the Round of 32 victory over Texas A&M, Houston reached the 30-win mark for the fifth consecutive season. That’s tied for the best streak in NCAA Division-I history with Gonzaga, which had at least 30 wins every season from 2016 to 2021.
Sampson has built Houston into a consistent winner after taking over the program in 2014. After making the NIT in two of his first three seasons, the Cougars have made the Sweet Sixteen every year since then (other than when the NCAA Tournament wasn’t held in 2020 due to COVID-19).
Houston has made seven Final Four appearances — the most of any school yet to win a national championship. That includes Final Four trips with Sampson at the helm in 2021 and last season. “What’s consistent here is the players pass on the culture from team to team,” Sharp says. “Players leave, but the culture stays the same.”
As a freshman, Flemings appreciates the steady leadership that his veteran teammates have provided this season. Their presence, coupled with the guidance of Sampson, has helped the standout point guard become the youngest All-American in program history as he’s earned consensus second-team honors after averaging 16.2 points and 5.2 assists per game.
“Those guys have played in the national championship game,” Flemings says. “So when you hear them talking, it gives you another layer of confidence knowing they’ve been there. We’ve just got to follow after them, and hopefully, we’ll get there again.”
Meet your guide
