The NCAA tournament bracket was bending, breaking, busted. It was open season on No. 1 seeds: Purdue had gone down Friday night; Kansas was laid low Saturday evening. And while Arkansas was completing that upset of the Jayhawks, a third No. 1, Houston, was staggering.
Playing in a lamentable road atmosphere here—something that should never happen to a No. 1 seed in the second round—the Cougars were trailing Auburn by 10 points at halftime. Standout guards Marcus Sasser and Jamal Shead were playing through injuries (a groin strain for Sasser, a hyperextended knee for Shead) and navigating foul trouble. It looked like the Sweet 16 would be contested with no more than a single No. 1 seed.
What happened for the next 20 minutes restored some order to the chaos. It also showed why Houston has legitimate hope that it can end its angst-tinged, oh-for-forever NCAA tournament drought. The Cougars opened a can on Auburn, smashing the Tigers 50–23 in the second half to win by a comfortable, 81–64 margin.
