One year after reaching the Final Four of the N.C.A.A. men’s basketball tournament, Houston is making another run. This time, it is doing it with five new starters and an overhauled roster.
The Cougars, a No. 5 seed, advanced to the round of 16 for the third straight tournament with a 68-53 victory over fifth-seeded Illinois on Sunday afternoon in Pittsburgh. Houston, which lost in last year’s national semifinals to the eventual national champion, Baylor, advanced to meet the winner of Sunday night’s game between No. 1 Arizona and No. 9 Texas Christian in the South regional.
“I just think these guys stand on the shoulders of all those players that came before them,” Houston Coach Kelvin Sampson, who advanced to the round of 16 for the sixth time in his career, said in a television interview. “They believe in our culture. We talk about watering trees. We don’t water…
