Things couldn’t have gone better in the schools first year in the Big 12.

The Cougars locked up a Big 12 title by going 15-3 in conference play and followed that up by advancing to the Big 12 Title game in the conferences tournament before falling to Iowa State in the final.

The Cougars were rewarded for this by clinching a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year and for the third time in school history, along with the 1983 team that reached the national championship game.

The Cougars secured the second overall seed behind only the University of Connecticut. UConn received the top overall seed based on winning the Big East regular season and post season championship.

Houston will be the No. 1 seed in the south region, but will have big competition, facing the likes of Marquette, Kentucky and Duke in their region. Houston will face No. 16 seed Longwood in the first round of the tournament, 8:20 p.m. Friday. A win would send the Cougars to face either Nebraska or Texas A&M in the second round of the tournament as they try to get to the sweet 16, which will be held in Dallas for the South Region.

Marquette is the two seed in the region while Kentucky is the three seed, Duke is the four seed, Wisconsin is the five seed and Texas Tech is the six seed.

Houston has been one of the top teams in the nation on defense and lead the country in scoring defense, allowing only 57 points per game along with field goal percentage, allowing just 37.9% of shots and turnover margin, where they are a +7.1. They are led by a strong group that includes Morton Ranch graduate L.J. Cryer, who is averaging 15.3 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game while shooting 40.4% from the field and 38.9% from 3-point range.

Houston enters the tournament at 30-4 overall and it is the third straight season Houston has won 30 plus games. This is Houston’s 25^th appearance overall in the NCAA Tournament and marks the first time in school history that the school has made six straight tournaments, as Houston tries to make it to the final four for the seventh time in school history. Hosuton will be trying to bounce back after the teams 69-41 loss to Iowa State in the Big 12 Tournament Championship.

“We’ll pick ourselves up, we have had a great year,” University of Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said after the Iowa State Loss. “Forty minutes is not going to define these three months, we’ll get some guys healthy and get back at it and be ready.”