March 13, 2025 • 10 mins
Joseph Duarte, University of Houston and Big 12 Conference beat writer for the Houston Chronicle, joined "The Matt Thomas Show with Ross" to preview Houston playing in the Big 12 tournament and provide insight into expected seeding as the Cougars compete for a national championship.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
How is Kansas City by the way.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Okay, it's good.
Speaker 3 (00:04):
You know, made up made made a barbecue run last night.
Uh it didn't disappoint.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Did you run into Jeff Goodman today and see why
he's complaining about his press box seat.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
No, I'm down on the court, so I don't. I
don't mingle with those solks.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Good for you guys bitching about his press row seat.
The tournament properly, you know what you have into three
big twelve games. As you're shut your bumb ass up seriously,
good lord?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
All right?
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Uh? So are we locked in? We being the University
of Houston locked into a number three overall national sea.
Do you think is there any room for moving up
or down in this bad boy?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Uh? You know, I don't think there's I think threes
three is where it's gonna stand.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
You look at the the body of work. Uh, Auburn
is you know, quad wind lies hedge, shoulders above everyone,
and and and Duke is put it this way, Even
if even if there's movement, I think that the site
are set. You'll have Alburn in the south, You'll have
Duke in the east. And I still think Houston goes
out west as the number three, So, uh, it will
(01:13):
it matter?
Speaker 2 (01:14):
I don't in the big picture, I don't think so.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
But I think Houston is comfortable and set where they
are at the three.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Joseph harr is, how is the team right now health wise?
And there have been a little bit of aches and
pains the last couple of weeks, guys missing some time,
seeing limited minutes. Where is his team health wise right now?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
They're good.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
I you know, I spoke with the head trader Johns Houston,
uh prior to their departure.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
This week, and you know, the main ones L J.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Cryer, he's been playing with that that knuckle injury on
his shooting hand, but you know he's has to skip
to beat.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Uh. The one, the one that I'm I'm kind of
watching is Emmanuel Sharp.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
You know, he's dealt with that foot injury for for
the better part of you know, probably two months, and
he's got some ups and I don't know how much
of that is causing his shooting and maybe his rhythm
to be off. He'd be the one to watch. And
then Ramon Walker. He had a hand injury. He hasn't
played since December and the expectation is that he won't
(02:12):
play at all the rest of the year. They'll try
to do some type of a medical red shirt and
the accent.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
So they're in good shape.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
It's just a matter of staying that way, as you know,
for the duration, and that hasn't, unfortunately been the case.
But they are good as of now going into the tournament.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Do you think the perfect road record this year in
conference play has a unintended or maybe intended benefit about
playing in neutral sites for the rest of the season.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Well, I guess it can't hurt you.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
I mean, you look there.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
They're really good at home, and you know, most of
the times, if you're gonna have a slips, it's on
the road. You know. You look at the neutral site games.
They lost to Auburn at Toyota Center, they were winning
that one. They lose to Alabama at a New and
they could have won that one. The same thing with
the San Diego State game. So three of the four
losses have come at neutral sites and the other one
(03:07):
at home the Texas Tech. So you know, I mean,
that's the way this team has been. I mean, they
they haven't lost many games in any season in the
last you know, five or six years, So I don't
know if if there's an attending consequence to it, but
I mean they certainly show that big environments don't phase them.
And you know this week Iowa State's gonna pack it in,
(03:30):
Kansas will pack it in here. So if they play
either one of those, you know you're you're going to
basically be playing in essentially a road.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Game, and that hasn't been a bad thing for Houston
this season.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Jil So towardte covers the Cougars for the Houston Chronicle
and you can find him on Twitter and all the
different platforms that he gives you great insights not only
in the paper online but on his Twitter account. So,
of all the years this team has been where it
has been, which is Final four, Sweet sixteen, this feels
like the most complete team of the Samson era because
(04:01):
not only do they have the little post starts with
three different players, but they've got the outside touch as well.
Is this the best that you've seen or do you
feel like even last year's team or the team that
went to the Final Four. Again, if you're trying to
measure up year by year by year, where do you
size up this group as compared to years past?
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Well to me.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
It starts with the final four year and you know
this one is sort of a TVA on whether or
not they eventually take that spot away, but you know,
you do it first and then you kind of look
at all those things. But I do agree with you
this is this is probably by far his deepest team.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
You know, they go eight maybe nine deep. And the biggest.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Change or the addition is you know that we've always
known their good defensively, they're good rebounding, but this is
a team that can shoot the ball. They're very efficient
and three point shots. And the difference or maybe those
early years, like maybe that nineteen any team, or that
the twenty twenty one team, they could beat you with
(05:04):
first shots. This one is maybe not a first shot
type team, but when they do the rebounds and get
second chances, they're really good. So I say it's top too,
maybe top three since Kelvin's been here. But you know
that can certainly change if you up, if you do
what many people think they can do and get to
San Antonio and specifically the Monday.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Night Joseph, Is it too simple to say that the
key for this team is to make sure Francis Tugler
Roberts do not get into foul trouble. I mean that
could be said for about any team with a couple
of big men, but it feels like that there could
be some games, and there are certainly have been in
years passing tournament games where big men have gotten into
two fouls early early contests and are always chasing to
(05:49):
stay away from that third and fourth. Is foul trouble
of a concern to you for those guys, especially when
whistles can be pretty tight come tournament times.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
I think it's it's big for in this order, Tuggler
and Francis, those are the two guys that that typically
get in foul trouble the most. J One Roberts is
a veteran. He's been pretty good about staying on the floor.
They like to run things through him, so having him
on the court really helps them a lot. Tugler's the
defensive player of the year in the conference. I mean,
(06:20):
he's a difference maker, he's a shot alter. That's the
guy you got to keep on the court. And you know,
we've seen some games where he's picked up two in
fourteen seconds. I mean, I mean it's just been wild
the number of games that he's he's had three and
four thousands and have had to sit on the bench.
But you know, the big men, that's going to be
certainly a key. Uh, they're the guard play. They're really
(06:42):
smart about about not getting into foul trouble. So you know,
i'd agree with you. You know, for this team, a lot,
a lot of what they do centers around those three,
whether it's on the defensive end or trying to work inside.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
So you got to keep them on the court.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
And because you don't get any doovers this time of
the year, you have one bad game or or something
goes wrong like foul trouble, you could look, you know,
it could be the end of the sea.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Look at the A and M game last year.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
They were down to a walk on late because of
all the foul troubles they had and they had to
really pull out that one and the second round just
to advance of the second weekend.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Far let you run, Joseph. We don't know the teams
are going to be in the region obviously, so let's
do this. If you can do this, give me a
style of play, a type of a team that could
cause the Cougar some issues, maybe a little bit deeper
into the term and say sweet sixteen Elite eight round.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Oh, you know, that's that's interesting because you look at
you know, we've seen a little bit.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Of everything this year. You see teams that are.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Lots of possessions and try to go fast paced, and
then Houston makes you play their brand of ball. They
slow it down, They they force you into their game, like,
for instance, you know the Arizona game. Arizona was averaging
eighty plus points a game and Houston holds them to
a round sixty. That's the kind of game if you're Houston,
(08:12):
you know, and I've seen this in the past and
the past tournament.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
You know, they played Arizona in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
And then you look at a game like in Illinois
a few years ago where they had a dominant big
man and that didn't seem to face Houston. And also,
it's really interesting because it's not necessarily the matchup on
the other end that can get you. It's what Houston
sort of dictates because they're really good at forcing you
(08:38):
to play their game. They feel like if they can
keep it under sixty points of the opponent, they've got
a really good chance to win. And they do that
a lot of the time, So you know, I was
looking at and I saw Memphis as a possible second
round matchup that would be intriguing based on sort of.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
The style that Memphis likes to play. So you know,
I'd be guessing at this point, Matt, but.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
I just think that Houston uh for as as much
as other teams trying to do stuff, Houston usually has
a pretty good game plan and a way of attacking
other teams to make them do what they want them
to do.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Very last question, where are we going to talk to
you next week? Where do you think they're headed?
Speaker 3 (09:23):
They're going to Witchital. I'm almost one hundred percent sure
on that. The difference is if they're in the Midwest
or in the West. But that first UH week weekend
of the tournament, they'll they'll be in Wichital and I
think in the other side of it, you'll probably get
either A and M or Texas text so it'll be
(09:44):
there'll be a couple of Texas teams in my opinion,
that'll be in Wichital next week. And of course Houston
will get the sixteen seeds if they're number one, which
you know, we pretty much all expect that to happen.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Great soap, my friend, thank you again. We'll talk with
you next week. Save travels and our friend, our mutual friend,
Taylor sends her very best.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Thank you, buddy. I appreciate it all right.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
That's our good friend Joseph Torte from the Houston Chronicle
with us, and he'll be with us as the Cougars
make their big run towards the tournament, and when the
Longhorns make it ross, we'll have a Longhorned correspondents well
to what the tournament doesn't seem like it's happening
How is Kansas City by the way.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Okay, it's good.
Speaker 3 (00:04):
You know, made up made made a barbecue run last night.
Uh it didn't disappoint.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Did you run into Jeff Goodman today and see why
he's complaining about his press box seat.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
No, I'm down on the court, so I don't. I
don't mingle with those solks.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Good for you guys bitching about his press row seat.
The tournament properly, you know what you have into three
big twelve games. As you're shut your bumb ass up seriously,
good lord?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
All right?
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Uh? So are we locked in? We being the University
of Houston locked into a number three overall national sea.
Do you think is there any room for moving up
or down in this bad boy?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Uh? You know, I don't think there's I think threes
three is where it's gonna stand.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
You look at the the body of work. Uh, Auburn
is you know, quad wind lies hedge, shoulders above everyone,
and and and Duke is put it this way, Even
if even if there's movement, I think that the site
are set. You'll have Alburn in the south, You'll have
Duke in the east. And I still think Houston goes
out west as the number three, So, uh, it will
(01:13):
it matter?
Speaker 2 (01:14):
I don't in the big picture, I don't think so.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
But I think Houston is comfortable and set where they
are at the three.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Joseph harr is, how is the team right now health wise?
And there have been a little bit of aches and
pains the last couple of weeks, guys missing some time,
seeing limited minutes. Where is his team health wise right now?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
They're good.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
I you know, I spoke with the head trader Johns Houston,
uh prior to their departure.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
This week, and you know, the main ones L J.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Cryer, he's been playing with that that knuckle injury on
his shooting hand, but you know he's has to skip
to beat.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Uh. The one, the one that I'm I'm kind of
watching is Emmanuel Sharp.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
You know, he's dealt with that foot injury for for
the better part of you know, probably two months, and
he's got some ups and I don't know how much
of that is causing his shooting and maybe his rhythm
to be off. He'd be the one to watch. And
then Ramon Walker. He had a hand injury. He hasn't
played since December and the expectation is that he won't
(02:12):
play at all the rest of the year. They'll try
to do some type of a medical red shirt and
the accent.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
So they're in good shape.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
It's just a matter of staying that way, as you know,
for the duration, and that hasn't, unfortunately been the case.
But they are good as of now going into the tournament.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Do you think the perfect road record this year in
conference play has a unintended or maybe intended benefit about
playing in neutral sites for the rest of the season.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Well, I guess it can't hurt you.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
I mean, you look there.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
They're really good at home, and you know, most of
the times, if you're gonna have a slips, it's on
the road. You know. You look at the neutral site games.
They lost to Auburn at Toyota Center, they were winning
that one. They lose to Alabama at a New and
they could have won that one. The same thing with
the San Diego State game. So three of the four
losses have come at neutral sites and the other one
(03:07):
at home the Texas Tech. So you know, I mean,
that's the way this team has been. I mean, they
they haven't lost many games in any season in the
last you know, five or six years, So I don't
know if if there's an attending consequence to it, but
I mean they certainly show that big environments don't phase them.
And you know this week Iowa State's gonna pack it in,
(03:30):
Kansas will pack it in here. So if they play
either one of those, you know you're you're going to
basically be playing in essentially a road.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Game, and that hasn't been a bad thing for Houston
this season.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Jil So towardte covers the Cougars for the Houston Chronicle
and you can find him on Twitter and all the
different platforms that he gives you great insights not only
in the paper online but on his Twitter account. So,
of all the years this team has been where it
has been, which is Final four, Sweet sixteen, this feels
like the most complete team of the Samson era because
(04:01):
not only do they have the little post starts with
three different players, but they've got the outside touch as well.
Is this the best that you've seen or do you
feel like even last year's team or the team that
went to the Final Four. Again, if you're trying to
measure up year by year by year, where do you
size up this group as compared to years past?
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Well to me.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
It starts with the final four year and you know
this one is sort of a TVA on whether or
not they eventually take that spot away, but you know,
you do it first and then you kind of look
at all those things. But I do agree with you
this is this is probably by far his deepest team.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
You know, they go eight maybe nine deep. And the biggest.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Change or the addition is you know that we've always
known their good defensively, they're good rebounding, but this is
a team that can shoot the ball. They're very efficient
and three point shots. And the difference or maybe those
early years, like maybe that nineteen any team, or that
the twenty twenty one team, they could beat you with
(05:04):
first shots. This one is maybe not a first shot
type team, but when they do the rebounds and get
second chances, they're really good. So I say it's top too,
maybe top three since Kelvin's been here. But you know
that can certainly change if you up, if you do
what many people think they can do and get to
San Antonio and specifically the Monday.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Night Joseph, Is it too simple to say that the
key for this team is to make sure Francis Tugler
Roberts do not get into foul trouble. I mean that
could be said for about any team with a couple
of big men, but it feels like that there could
be some games, and there are certainly have been in
years passing tournament games where big men have gotten into
two fouls early early contests and are always chasing to
(05:49):
stay away from that third and fourth. Is foul trouble
of a concern to you for those guys, especially when
whistles can be pretty tight come tournament times.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
I think it's it's big for in this order, Tuggler
and Francis, those are the two guys that that typically
get in foul trouble the most. J One Roberts is
a veteran. He's been pretty good about staying on the floor.
They like to run things through him, so having him
on the court really helps them a lot. Tugler's the
defensive player of the year in the conference. I mean,
(06:20):
he's a difference maker, he's a shot alter. That's the
guy you got to keep on the court. And you know,
we've seen some games where he's picked up two in
fourteen seconds. I mean, I mean it's just been wild
the number of games that he's he's had three and
four thousands and have had to sit on the bench.
But you know, the big men, that's going to be
certainly a key. Uh, they're the guard play. They're really
(06:42):
smart about about not getting into foul trouble. So you know,
i'd agree with you. You know, for this team, a lot,
a lot of what they do centers around those three,
whether it's on the defensive end or trying to work inside.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
So you got to keep them on the court.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
And because you don't get any doovers this time of
the year, you have one bad game or or something
goes wrong like foul trouble, you could look, you know,
it could be the end of the sea.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Look at the A and M game last year.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
They were down to a walk on late because of
all the foul troubles they had and they had to
really pull out that one and the second round just
to advance of the second weekend.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Far let you run, Joseph. We don't know the teams
are going to be in the region obviously, so let's
do this. If you can do this, give me a
style of play, a type of a team that could
cause the Cougar some issues, maybe a little bit deeper
into the term and say sweet sixteen Elite eight round.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Oh, you know, that's that's interesting because you look at
you know, we've seen a little bit.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Of everything this year. You see teams that are.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Lots of possessions and try to go fast paced, and
then Houston makes you play their brand of ball. They
slow it down, They they force you into their game, like,
for instance, you know the Arizona game. Arizona was averaging
eighty plus points a game and Houston holds them to
a round sixty. That's the kind of game if you're Houston,
(08:12):
you know, and I've seen this in the past and
the past tournament.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
You know, they played Arizona in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
And then you look at a game like in Illinois
a few years ago where they had a dominant big
man and that didn't seem to face Houston. And also,
it's really interesting because it's not necessarily the matchup on
the other end that can get you. It's what Houston
sort of dictates because they're really good at forcing you
(08:38):
to play their game. They feel like if they can
keep it under sixty points of the opponent, they've got
a really good chance to win. And they do that
a lot of the time, So you know, I was
looking at and I saw Memphis as a possible second
round matchup that would be intriguing based on sort of.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
The style that Memphis likes to play. So you know,
I'd be guessing at this point, Matt, but.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
I just think that Houston uh for as as much
as other teams trying to do stuff, Houston usually has
a pretty good game plan and a way of attacking
other teams to make them do what they want them
to do.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Very last question, where are we going to talk to
you next week? Where do you think they're headed?
Speaker 3 (09:23):
They're going to Witchital. I'm almost one hundred percent sure
on that. The difference is if they're in the Midwest
or in the West. But that first UH week weekend
of the tournament, they'll they'll be in Wichital and I
think in the other side of it, you'll probably get
either A and M or Texas text so it'll be
(09:44):
there'll be a couple of Texas teams in my opinion,
that'll be in Wichital next week. And of course Houston
will get the sixteen seeds if they're number one, which
you know, we pretty much all expect that to happen.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Great soap, my friend, thank you again. We'll talk with
you next week. Save travels and our friend, our mutual friend,
Taylor sends her very best.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Thank you, buddy. I appreciate it all right.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
That's our good friend Joseph Torte from the Houston Chronicle
with us, and he'll be with us as the Cougars
make their big run towards the tournament, and when the
Longhorns make it ross, we'll have a Longhorned correspondents well
to what the tournament doesn't seem like it's happening
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