Geographical disadvantage will test Houston in Sweet 16

Houston Cougars head coach Kelvin Sampson. Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Geographical disadvantage will test road warrior Houston in Sweet 16

By Austen Bundy | Last updated Mar 26, 2025 2:24 PM ET

The Sweet 16 is set to tip off on Thursday, but one of Friday's matchups will be drawing significant attention.

No. 1 seed Houston and No. 4 seed Purdue will face off in the Midwest Region semifinal at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Ind.

It will practically be a home game for the Boilermakers, but if history is any indicator, that won't be a problem for the Cougars.

Houston is 10-0 on the road this season and 6-3 on neutral courts, proving it thrives the most in hostile environments.

But could travel be the factor that gives Purdue the all-important edge over the region's top seed?

Midwest Region

Driving distances from four Sweet 16 schools to Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis:

(4) Purdue: 65.1 miles
(3) Kentucky: 189.2 miles
(2) Tennessee: 380 miles
(1) Houston: 1,015.2 miles pic.twitter.com/hvhzdD3cZf
— Joseph Duarte (@Joseph_Duarte) March 23, 2025

Three of the four teams competing in the Midwest Region semifinal are within 400 miles driving distance from Indianapolis. Houston will have to travel 1,015.2 miles on its way to the Sweet 16.

Of course, the Cougars will be flying instead of road-tripping, but that's still a considerable difference in mileage and logistics compared to their competitors.

"[Purdue] would be tough to beat no matter where we played them," Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson said on Wednesday (h/t Houston Chronicle's Joseph Duarte).

Three of Houston's nine neutral-court contests this season were played at venues over 1,000 miles from campus. The Cougars lost two of them.

Five of the remaining six were played in the state of Kansas (under 800 miles away), and Houston won all five.

So, distance seems to be a relative factor, but once it crosses time zones, that's where the issues begin for Sampson's squad.

Houston still has the third-best odds to win the national championship (+500 per ESPN BET) and is favored heavily against Purdue despite the long distance travel (-400).

Austen Bundy

Austen Bundy is a journalist and sports junkie from the Washington, D. C. area

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