The Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks and the Houston Cougars meet in college basketball action from the Fertitta Center on Monday night.

UL-Monroe Team Preview

The Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks come into the 2023-24 season hoping to bounce back from a disappointing 11-21 season, finishing 7-11 in Sun Belt conference play. The Warhawks would be bounced in the second round of the Sun Belt tournament, ending their season in the process. There are a fair number of returning pieces from last year’s squad, including Tyreke Locure (14.4 PPG, 4.2 RPG) and Nika Metskhvarishvili (9.8 PPG, 5.8 RPG) but it will be a challenge to replace Jamari Blackmon (13 PPG, 3.1 APG) on the fly as he was a key piece of this ULM lineup and Houston is not the easiest of places to figure things out on the fly.

Houston Team Preview

The Houston Cougars come into the 2023-24 season hoping to fulfill their prophecy of a national title after finishing 33-4 last year, including 17-1 in AAC conference play to win the AAC regular season title. The Cougars would knock off East Carolina and Cincinnati in the AAC tournament before falling to Memphis in the championship game. As a 1-seed in the NCAA tournament, the Cougars would take out Northern Kentucky and Auburn before falling to Miami in the sweet 16. The Cougars have some replacing to do for their first year in Big 12 play, as Marcus Sasser (16.8 PPG, 3.1 APG), Jarace Walker (11.2 PPG, 6.8 RPG) and Tramon Mark (10.1 PPG, 4.9 RPG) are all gone, but the Cougars retain Jamal Shead (10.5 PPG, 5.4 APG) and J’Wan Roberts (10 PPG, 7.7 RPG) while also welcoming incoming transfers like L.J. Cryer (15 PPG) from Baylor and Damian Dunn (15.3 PPG, 3 APG) from Temple. The Cougars also have a pair of incoming four-star recruits in Joseph Tugler and Jacob McFarland coming to help the cause as well.

Chris’ Pick

I’m on Houston here. Sure there’s turnover for the Cougars, and ULM does have some pieces coming back, but what Houston does in these early season games, is pummel lesser teams and impose their will as a statement. Last year, Houston beat Northern Colorado by 47, Saint Joseph’s by 26, Oral Roberts by 38 and Texas Southern by 35 before their game against Oregon. I think we see a similar path for Houston here as ULM just looks overmatched. Give me the Cougars laying the big number.