When was the last time Houston did not make the NCAA tournament?

The Houston Cougars are one of the most well-known college programs in the NCAA. The team may not have a rich history in men's basketball compared to other universities such as UCLA, Kentucky or Duke, but their previous success is nothing to snuff about: six regular season titles, eight conference tournament championships, and 24 trips to the 'Big Dance', including 6 final fours.

With March just a couple of days away, the Houston Cougars are sitting pretty at the top of the Big 12 conference with a 25-3 record (12-3). The Cougars' recent renaissance is courtesy of their head coach, Kelvin Sampson, but that wasn't always the case.

When was the last time Houston did not make the NCAA tournament?

Sampson and the Cougars missed the NCAA tournament in the first three seasons under his helm, the last time being in 2017, excluding the 2019-20 season, which saw the NCAA Tournament postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It wasn't a great start for Kelvin Sampson when he first arrived as head coach for the Cougars.

"When I came here, we were a school in the middle to bottom of Conference USA. We didn’t have anywhere to practice if it rained, because the Hofheinz Pavilion’s roof leaked. Nobody came to the games. Nobody marketed the games. I was the sixth coach in sixteen years. The kids I’m recruiting have never heard of Phi Slama Jama—their parents don’t know. That’s part of our great tradition. But it has nothing to do with our present." - Kelvin Sampson in his 1st year as Head Coach of the Houston Cougars

Kelvin Sampson has some motivation to put the underrated Houston Cougars team back to the top of men's college basketball.

"I’d been to the Final Four. The top of the mountain. And I thought I could do it here. I thought this place was a gold mine. Look at this city—how in the hell did this program go to crap so fast in this city? You ain’t got to get on a plane to recruit if you don’t want to. It’s a good job, and nobody knew it."

The Houston Cougars heading to the 2024 NCAA Tournament

The Cougars are voted the No. 1 team (AP Top 25) in men's college basketball by the Associated Press, taking over Purdue and UConn's spotss after both teams stumbled to finish the season.

Winning five games in a row, the squad has three more games remaining in their regular season schedule (Oklahoma, UCF, and Kansas), before playing in the Big 12 conference tournament.

They are scheduled to play on March 14, 2024, in the tournament if they can secure their No. 1 seed in the last three games of the season.

Houston has been on an NCAA tournament streak with incredible results. In the past five seasons, the Cougars have made the Sweet Sixteen twice, Elite Eight once, and went all the way to the Final Four in the 2020-2021 NCAA men's college basketball season.