Our Lady of the Lake @ Houston preview
Fertitta Center
Coach Chris Dial knows what he and his team are up against.
Dial's NAIA program -- the Our Lady of the Lake Saints -- faces the host Houston Cougars, ranked fifth in the nation in NCAA Division I, on Saturday afternoon.
"David's odds may have been a little better than ours on Saturday," Dial joked. "I don't see Vegas throwing a line on this game.
"Houston is a class organization, a blue-collar team. They guard, they fight, they defend, and they are one of the best rebounding teams in the country."
Indeed, Houston (15-2) outrebounds its opponents by an average of 9.8 per game. The Cougars also rank No. 1 in the nation with 15.2 offensive rebounds per game.
The Saints, based in San Antonio, have played seven games this season, all against Division I teams, and they have won only one. Three of those games were deemed exhibitions, and the Saints -- who have not played since Dec. 20 -- are officially 1-3.
That one victory, however, was meaningful as the Saints upset host Texas State 61-58 on Dec. 12.
Dial said his best player has been 6-foot-5 junior forward Ruben Monzon, who is averaging 13.3 points and 7.5 rebounds. He was named second-team All-Red River Athletic Conference last season, when the Saints finished 10-18.
The Saints decided to play only Division 1 opponents this season as a way to protect their players in the best way possible against COVID-19.
"We took a hard stance," Dial said. "We are testing our players at the same rate as D1. We've become known for handling (the pandemic) the right way."
That led to a bunch of cancellations from what had originally been a 28-game schedule.
Houston, meanwhile, sustained an 82-73 upset loss to East Carolina on Wednesday.
"We just didn't look like we were playing Cougars basketball," Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said after East Carolina beat a ranked team for the first time in nearly two decades.
Houston's DeJon Jarreau matched a career high with 25 points. But Cougars star Quentin Grimes was held to seven points on 2-for-10 shooting.
Grimes (16.2 points per game) and Marcus Sasser (15.7) are Houston's leading scorers. Justin Gorham is Houston's leading rebounder at 10.2.
The Cougars, who are at their highest ranking since the program featured Hakeem Olajuwon and reached the 1984 NCAA title game, didn't have their usual hustle against East Carolina.
"This game is going to haunt me for a while," Sampson said. "Rarely do teams play harder than us. We hang our hats on being tough. But we weren't tough (against East Carolina)."
The Cougars figure to bounce back against the Saints in a game that was added to the schedule on Wednesday. Sampson doesn't know Dial personally, at least not well.
However, Sampson knows his sister, Jenny Dial Creech, a sportswriter for The Athletic who has covered the coach's career for years.
"Twenty years ago, when I was coaching an inner-city private school called St. Gerard in San Antonio, Coach Sampson gave me a call," Dial said. "He called to encourage me, and it meant a lot to get a call from someone so high up on the totem pole. I was not even on a totem pole. I was below the totem pole."
That connection through Dial's sister helped lead to getting this game on Saturday, and the Saints players are apparently "stoked," according to their coach.
"U-of-H is on the biggest stage in Houston, other than the Rockets," Dial said. "We've haven't played in more than a month. Our guys would play anybody right now, from a high school team to the New England Patriots."
--Field Level Media