Houston player to know — and 3 ways Illinois can win

Another trip to the Sweet Sixteen for Brad Underwood and the Illini, and another tough, physical Big 12 2-seed awaiting them. Houston arrives to the Sweet Sixteen in similar dominating fashion as the Illini have, with 31-point victories over two double-digit seeds. A lot of the talk so far has been about how can Illinois handle a couple things that have given them problems this year: physical, aggressive teams like Michigan State and Michigan, and teams with quick, talented guards like UCLA, Wisconsin and Alabama. Houston has both of those aspects, but don’t ignore that Illinois has strengths that can give Houston problems as well.

I will get into the details of that below, but I just want to point out that this is a Houston team that went 3-6 against top-21 Kenpom opponents (I went to 21 to include all their losses). In those same games, Illinois went 4-5, with three of those wins in hostile environments. Illinois has famously struggled in their buzzer beater and overtime games this year, going 0-4, but Houston has not fared much better, going 2-4 in games that were within a possession with under a minute to go, only beating Texas Tech at home and Auburn. While this is getting pumped up as a Final Four matchup — and rightly so on talent — neither of these teams ended up as 1-seeds because they both have come up a bit short when it has mattered most.

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Players to Know

Kingston Flemings, 6-foot-4 freshman point guard

Flemings is tied to Keton Wagler in history, as the two of them joined AJ Dybantsa to become the first trio of freshmen to score 40+ points on the same day, when Flemings scored 42 in an overtime loss against Texas Tech and Wagler scored 46 against Purdue. They also are in close competition for draft position in the 5-10 range of the lottery.

While they play the same position, they go about their business in very different way. Flemings is an elite, downhill guard, using his speed and explosiveness to put pressure on the rim. Shooting from three…

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Publish date : 2026-03-25 12:30:00

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