Houston, in an easy 67-47 win over Virginia on Tuesday, exposed myriad weaknesses with Tony Bennett’s makeshift 2021-2022 roster.
The lack of scoring punch is glaring, with Armaan Franklin, held scoreless in the first half, after having to go to the bench with two fouls in seven minutes of floor time, leading the team in scoring, with 11, making him the only guy in blue to reach double-figures.
Jayden Gardner, after getting a shot blocked early, was a ghost – four points on 1-of-4 shooting in 24 minutes, with two rebounds and three turnovers.
Kihei Clark had eight points by the 10:51 mark of the first half, and ended with eight.
Reece Beekman had six points, one assist and four turnovers.
The ‘Hoos shot 34.9 percent from the floor, 4-of-19 from three, had 17 turnovers.
Got outrebounded. Allowed Houston to go 11-of-20 from three, the second time in three games that the three-ball keyed an opponent’s offensive output.
This one was never in doubt, with Houston jumping out to an 8-0 lead, and leading by double-digits for the final 28:56.
Houston is good – a Final Four team last season, ranked 15th early this season, but like Virginia, Kelvin Sampson had to make some roster adjustments.
Kyler Edwards, for instance, who had 18 points, was 5-of-6 from three tonight, came via the transfer portal from Texas Tech, where he was a double-digit scorer the past two years.
Center Josh Carlton (seven points, five boards, 21 minutes) is a grad transfer from Connecticut. Guard Taze Moore i(five points, five rebounds, 33 minutes) s a grad transfer from Cal State-Bakersfield.
That’s four of the eight guys who got rotation minutes being transfers. Virginia, for all the talk of how this is a reconstruction for Bennett and his staff, has two – Franklin and Gardner.
Back to Houston for a moment: even holdover Marcus Sasser, who had 19 points tonight, and is averaging 23.3 points per game early on for the Cougs, is an adjustment of sorts for Sampson.
Sassser was a 13.7 points per game guy as the second fiddle to Quentin Grimes last year, but he’s improved his outside shot dramatically, shooting 48 percent from three this year after connecting on just 33.5 percent of his shots from long-range a year ago.
Sasser and Edwards owned Clark and Beekman.
Franklin missed half the game with foul trouble.
Gardner barely got off the bus.
The margin for error for this Virginia team is slim as it is.
Story by Chris Graham
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