{"id":197406,"date":"2026-03-19T05:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T05:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/197406\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T05:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T05:04:11","slug":"houston-fights-the-urge-to-look-ahead-to-possible-florida-rematch-focuses-on-1st-round-vs-idaho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/197406\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston fights the urge to look ahead to possible Florida rematch, focuses on 1st round vs. Idaho"},"content":{"rendered":"

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) \u2014 Houston<\/a> could eventually go back home for a rematch of last season’s national championship game it lost to Florida<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The South regional final would be played at the Toyota Center in Houston, just a few miles from the Fertitta Center where the Cougars play their home games. Though Florida is the top seed, the Gators might need to fight through a road environment against No. 2 seed Houston to get to the Final Four.<\/p>\n

Both have to win three games before that would happen, and Houston isn\u2019t getting ahead of itself. The Cougars open South Regional play against No. 15 seed Idaho<\/a> on Thursday night in Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, we got Idaho,\u201d Houston guard Emanuel Sharp<\/a> said. \u201c(Playing in) Houston is not promised. We\u2019re focused on what\u2019s directly in front of us. You know, we have a good Idaho team that we have to play, and we\u2019re going to use that game to win, get better, move on to whoever we play after that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Florida coach Todd Golden has voiced his displeasure about the site of the potential game against Houston down the road. Cougars guard Milos Uzan<\/a> won’t allow himself to think ahead.<\/p>\n

“One thing I\u2019ve learned from last year, last year\u2019s run, was what the other guys did … they never looked ahead and took it one game at a time, and that\u2019s the same approach we have to take it as,” he said. <\/p>\n

Florida will open Friday in Tampa, Florida against Prairie View A&M, which beat Lehigh 67-55 in a First Four game Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Surprise qualifier<\/p>\n

While Houston is a tournament regular, Idaho is in for the first time since 1990. The Vandals qualified by winning four games in five days to win the Big Sky<\/a> championship, despite being seeded seventh in the conference tournament. <\/p>\n

First time?<\/p>\n

Troy or Nebraska<\/a> will claim its first ever tournament victory on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Nebraska could make history. The Cornhuskers are the only power conference program without a tournament victory. Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg said past players have reminded him how much a win by the fourth-seeded Huskers would mean.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hear from them after games,\u201d he said. \u201cI hear from them before games. I\u2019ve heard from multiple former Huskers going into this one about what it would mean to get over the hump.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nebraska is 0-8 in tournament play, while 13th-seeded Troy is 0-3.<\/p>\n

They’re back<\/p>\n

Texas A&M<\/a> returns to the site of one of its most exciting wins.<\/p>\n

In a second-round game in 2016 in Oklahoma City, the Aggies outscored Northern Iowa 14-2 in the last 33 seconds of regulation to force overtime, then won 92-88 in double overtime to advance to the Sweet 16.<\/p>\n

Texas A&M will try to summon more of that magic on Thursday at the Paycom Center \u2014 the same building \u2014 when the 10th seeded Aggies play No. 7 Saint Mary\u2019s.<\/p>\n

OKC connections<\/p>\n

Troy guard Javier Gilgeous-Glasgow’s cousin is Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Nebraska forward Pryce Sandfort’s<\/a> brother, Payton, plays for the Oklahoma City Blue \u2014 the Thunder G League affiliate that plays home games at the Paycom Center. Thunder guard Alex Caruso played for Texas A&M in the 2016 tournament in Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n

Big scorers<\/p>\n

No. 5 seed Vanderbilt<\/a> plays No. 12 McNeese on Thursday in Oklahoma City, and both feature big-time scorers.<\/p>\n

Tyler Tanner<\/a> leads the Commodores with 19.1 points and 5.6 assists per game. Larry Johnson leads McNeese with 17.5 points per contest.<\/p>\n

Fearless Rams<\/p>\n

North Carolina has the big name, but Virginia Commonwealth is confident it can win the teams’ first round matchup.<\/p>\n

VCU<\/a>, an 11 seed, has a 27-7 record and a history of pulling tournament upsets. The Rams believe they can beat the sixth-seeded Tar Heels.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, we play against UNC<\/a>, but we don\u2019t play against the brand,\u201d forward Lazar Djokovic<\/a> said. \u201cWe play against the players wearing those jerseys. I think we have a really great chance tomorrow to win it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Uphill battle<\/p>\n

Penn<\/a> is overmatched in the size department heading into their game against Illinois<\/a> on Thursday in Greenville, South Carolina.<\/p>\n

Illinois, seeded third, features 7-foot-1, 255-pound Tomislav Ivisic and 6-9, 250-pound David Mirkovic<\/a> inside. The Fighting Illini rank seventh nationally with a rebound margin of +9.6 per game.<\/p>\n

Penn, seeded 14th, goes with three guards and has no starter taller than 6-9 or heavier than 235 pounds. The Quakers are about even with their opponents in rebounding margin.<\/p>\n

Stopping Stirtz<\/p>\n

No. 8 seed Clemson likely will need to contain Iowa guard Bennett Stirtz to win on Friday in Tampa, Florida.<\/p>\n

Stirtz is fifth among active Division I players with 2,279 points. He averages 20 points and shoots 49.2% from the field and 37.2% from 3-point range for No. 9 seed Iowa.<\/p>\n

Clemson allows just 66.7 points per game, 28th nationally.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP March Madness bracket: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/march-madness<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) \u2014 Houston could eventually go back home for a rematch of last season’s national championship…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[91600,8294,91599,91596,70652,28,2530,30,29,2514,89660,2523,91602,91597,4646,91601,91598,48198,10254,37621],"class_list":["post-197406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-big-sky","tag-college-basketball","tag-david-mirkovic","tag-emanuel-sharp","tag-event_preview","tag-florida","tag-florida-gators","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-houston-cougars","tag-idaho-vandals","tag-illinois-fighting-illini","tag-lazar-djokovic","tag-milos-uzan","tag-nebraska-cornhuskers","tag-penn-quakers","tag-pryce-sandfort","tag-tyler-tanner","tag-vanderbilt-commodores","tag-vcu-rams"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}