:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72090562/usa_today_20264435.0.jpg "Houston NCAA Tournament history: When was the last time Houston was in Sweet 16?")
The Houston Cougars are back in the last 16 of college basketball in 2023, as they came back from a halftime deficit to knock off the Auburn Tigers 81-64 in the second round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament on Saturday.
But it's a place Houston fans are getting to know well, as the revitalization of the program under head coach Kelvin Sampson has been one of the great success stories of college basketball in the last several seasons.
2023 NCAA Tournament history
The Coogs have a long and rich basketball history, but mostly split over two coaches in Guy Lewis from 1957-86, and now Kelvin Sampson since 2014. Sampson has had UH in three of the previous four seasons. They played in the Final Four in 2021, and look to get back there where they will be the host city in 2023.
They made past the Sweet 16 and to the Elite Eight in 2022, but fell to 50-44 to the Villanova Wildcats in the Regional Final.
The Cougars have been to the Sweet 16 a whopping 14 times: 1956, 1961, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1982, 1983, 1984, 2019, 2021, 2022, and now 2023.