Ronald Hughey enters his 11th season at the helm of Houston Cougars women’s basketball and he’s already been dealt a difficult hand.
In mid-October the program announced that senior forward Maliyah Johnson would miss the 2024-25 season after she suffered a right knee injury.
She started six of Houston’s final seven games a season ago and she was expected to be a significant contributor this season.
That brought Houston down to five returning players from last year’s team.
Hughey and the Cougars went 14-16 last year, with a 5-13 Big 12 record in their first year in the conference. The program last made the postseason in 2020-21 when it reached the WNIT for the third time under his leadership, and they’ve never been to the NCAA Tournament under Hughey.
If Houston is going to get to some sort of postseason play, he’s going to need significant contributions from unexpected players.
Here’s a preview of the Houston Cougars’ upcoming season.
Odds
Vegas Insider did not give Houston odds to win the national championship. The Big 12 coaches voted the Cougars to finish 16th in the preseason poll.
Three Players to Watch
G Laila Blair: Houston has its leading scorer from a year ago back in Blair, who was the Cougars’ only player in double figures at 15.9 points per game. She has scored 1,606 points, now ranked sixth in program history for career points. As she goes, so goes the Cougars.
F Kiera Edmonds: Houston needed height and production and can get both from the Wagner transfer after she produced 9.9 points and 7.8 rebounds per game in conference action in the NEC. At 6-2, she’s a candidate to start.
G Gigi Cooke: The former four-star recruit started her college career at Maryland and then transferred to Houston for her sophomore year. She never played due to injury. She may be a hidden gem on this roster.
Biggest Strength
Blair. It’s nice to have a player of her ability on a team that is looking to integrate a lot of new parts between the transfer portal and recruiting. She’s where she wants to be. She’s a Houston native who went to Waller High School and in an era of portable talent, the former Top 100 recruit will end her career at Houston. Her teammates respected her so much as a sophomore that they named her a captain.
Biggest Weakness
Untested talent. This is where losing Johnson for this season really hurts. She was Houston’s third-leading scorer last year. Without her, the Cougars will be without four of their five leading scorers, as the others have either run out of eligibility or have graduated. Peyton McFarland was their sixth-leading scorer and she’s back. With so much new talent or unknown quantities, finding chemistry is going to be a challenge.
Season Prediction
Blair is one of the best individual players in the conference. That said, her ability is only going to carry Houston so far. They need their holdover players to step up and produce in bigger roles. Edmonds will be given every opportunity to take over the paint. But this is a team that needs at least one or two unexpected contributors to give them production on the offensive end. We’re projecting 14 to 16 wins as the Cougars enter the Big 12 tournament.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
