The 2017–18 Houston Cougars men's basketball team represented the University of Houston during the 2017–18 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Cougars were led by fourth-year head coach Kelvin Sampson as members of the American Athletic Conference. Due to renovations to the Cougars home arena, Hofheinz Pavilion, they played their home games at the H&PE Arena on the campus of Texas Southern University.
The Cougars ended the season with a record of 27–8. They tied for second place in regular-season conference play with a record of 14–4. As the No. 3 seed in the AAC tournament, Houston advanced to the final game, losing 56–55 to the Cincinnati Bearcats. The Cougars earned a No. 6 seed in the West Regional of the NCAA tournament, where they advanced to the second round before falling to the Michigan Wolverines by a score of 64–63.
Previous season The Cougars finished the 2016–17 season 21–11, 12–6 in AAC play to finish in third place. They lost to UConn in the quarterfinals of the AAC tournament. They received an at-large bid to the National Invitation Tournament as a No. 2 seed and lost in the first round to Akron.
Offseason
Departures Name Number Pos. Height Weight Year Hometown Reason for departure Danrad Knowles 0 F 6'10" 200 RS Senior Nassau, Bahamas Graduated Xavier Dupree 1 F 6'9" 210 Senior Houston, TX Graduated Morris Dunnigan 5 G 6'3" 195 Junior Joliet, IL Transferred Bertrand Nkali 13 C 6'9" 235 RS Senior Bertoua, Cameroon Graduated Damyean Dotson 21 G 6'5" 210 RS Senior Houston, TX Graduated Kyle Meyer 33 C 6'10" 230 RS Senior Atlanta, GA Graduated
Incoming transfers Name Number Pos. Height Weight Year Hometown Previous School Corey Davis Jr. 5 G 6'2" 175 Junior Lafayette, LA Junior college transferred from San Jacinto College Nura Zanna 13 F 6'7" 240 RS Senior Kaduna, Nigeria Transferred from LIU Brooklyn. Will be eligible to play since Zanna graduated from LIU Brooklyn. Gabe Grant 20 F 6'6" 220 Junior Chicago, IL Junior college transferred from Three Rivers CC Breaon Brady 24 F 6'8" 230 Junior Akron, OH Junior college transferred from Saddleback College
Class of 2017 signees
Class of 2018 signees
Roster
Schedule and results
!colspan=12 style=|Exhibition
!colspan=12 style=| Non-conference regular season
!colspan=12 style=| AAC regular season
!colspan=12 style=| AAC Tournament
!colspan=12 style=| NCAA tournament
Rankings
^Coaches Poll did not release a Week 2 poll at the same time AP did. *AP does not release post-NCAA tournament rankings.
References