Houston Basketball tops preseason KenPom projections
Kelvin Sampson's team will something to hang their hat on going into the season. KenPom, a widely regarded metric system for evaluating college basketball teams, is one of the key tools used by the NCAA Tournament selection committee.
This week, it unveiled its preseason ratings for the 2024-2025 men’s college basketball season, offering early insights into team projections. Unlike traditional ranking systems, KenPom is predictive, focusing on a team’s offensive and defensive efficiency to calculate a net rating. It predicts how many points a team will score and allow per 100 possessions, providing a more detailed analysis than win-loss records alone.
Houston topped the preseason KenPom rankings with an adjusted offensive efficiency rating of 114.2, tying for third nationally with Creighton and Purdue. Even more impressive, the Cougars earned the highest defensive efficiency rating at 84.7, ranking first overall. If these predictions prove accurate, Houston would be achieving its best KenPom rating in school history.
These projections come as the Cougars were also ranked No. 4 in the AP Top 25 preseason poll, trailing only Kansas, which narrowly edged them out as the top team in the Big 12. The two teams will clash twice during the season—on January 25 in Lawrence and March 3 in Houston—highlighting a challenging schedule that includes ten projected matchups with ranked teams.
As college basketball fans eagerly await the start of the season, KenPom’s ratings offer an early indication of Houston’s potential dominance, especially on defense, and set the stage for an exciting Big 12 race with perennial powerhouses like Kansas.
