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Houston Catches Attention of CBB Gamblers for March Madness

2022 Houston Cougars March Madness Odds by CashBet Sportsbook

The Houston Cougars have climbed to the top tier of national championship NCAA Basketball bets favorites.  At the onset, the gambling public rates Houston in the same class as the traditional blue blood name brands.  The history of Houston basketball is one of great highs and lows.  Following the Guy Lewis Glory years and a competent run by his successor, Pate Foster, came a lost generation.  Houston made the NCAA Tournament just one time between 1993 and 2017.  But the arrival of Kelvin Sampson in 2015 has flipped the script.

2022 Houston Cougars March Madness Odds

Houston Cougars CashBet Odds:  +680

Houston Cougars CashBet Wagering Analysis

For the 2022-23 best sportsbook online season, four of Houston’s five starters return.  Namely, UH is led by Marcus Sasser and Tramon Mark.  Sasser is a preseason All-American and could end up being the best guard in the country.  All that experience will lead to winning.  But Sampson acquired the highest-ranked recruit in Houston program history to make the Cougars that much more dangerous.  Specifically, five-star forward Jarace Walker was one of the most coveted players in college hoops.  Houston won ten of its first 11 games to start the 2022-23 campaign.

Overall, the Houston Cougars are 12-1 straight up, 9-4 against the spread, and 3-9-1 over/under the total.  Houston has national rankings of 154th for scoring offense, 86th for field goal percentage, 150th for 3-point field goal percentage, 230th for free throw percentage, and 17th for offensive rebounding.  While defensively, Houston has national rankings of 1st for scoring defense, 1st for field goal percentage permitted, 2nd for 3-point field goal percentage allowed, and 14th for defensive rebounding.

Following their 71-65 loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide on December 10, 2022, the Cougars have won three consecutive games.  Guard Marcus Sasser leads Houston with 16.0 points per game.  Forward Jarace Walker adds 9.5 points and 6.2 rebounds per contest.  And then Forward J’Wan Roberts adds 8.9 points and 7.2 rebounds per game.

Gamblers See a Loaded Houston Team for 2022-23

Head coach Kelvin Sampson is no saint and has had his share of run-ins with the NCAA.  Now it is largely forgotten that he led the Oklahoma Sooners to the Final Four in 2002.  In his 12 seasons leading OU, the Sooners made the Big Dance 11 times.  OU had betting on College basketball runs that included an Elite Eight and the Sweet Sixteen.

Following that bet on college basketball success at Oklahoma, Sampson seemed like a natural to fix the Indiana Hoosiers’ historic but broken program.  In fact, Sampson went 43-15 for a .741-win percentage in his two seasons.  But he was forced to leave due to NCAA violations.  Today, Sampson’s “crimes” of texting recruits too much seem like a joke.  Yet, it got him banned from college basketball for seven seasons at that time.  Late on, he toiled as an NBA assistant.

When Sampson arrived at Houston, he inherited a once-proud Betting on NCAAB

program hungry for a return to glory.  Also, he discovered that the program had a well-heeled billionaire alum in Tilman Fertitta.  Fertitta financed the renovation of the Cougars’ impressive arena, the Fertitta Center.  Correlate that Fertitta invests in anything that will make Houston a winner in any sport.

In his fourth season, Sampson put Houston in the NCAA Tournament.  Since then, they have made the Big Dance every year.  Many gamblers believe the best is yet to come.  Sampson is a proven recruiter and superb coach.

Although Houston has never won a national championship, they did win the “Game of the Century” in 1968.  On January 20, 1968, 50,000 fans appeared at the then-famed Astrodome.  Also, there was a national television audience.  Specifically, #2 Houston upset #1UCLA 71-69 in a landmark game that launched the popularity of college basketball and its eventual signature event.  In turn, came the growth of March Madness.  Houston ended UCLA’s 47-game winning streak with the win and made banner headlines throughout the country.

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