HOUSTON (AP) — Houston is in the Sweet 16 for a seventh straight season, and this trip might be its sweetest yet.
The second-seeded Cougars meet No. 3 Illinois Thursday night in the NCAA Tournament's South Region semifinals at Toyota Center, the home of the Houston Rockets that sits just over two miles from their campus.
Though it’s technically a neutral site, the Cougars, last year's national runners-up, consider it a home game.
“Yeah, 100 percent,” Houston forward Joseph Tugler said. “We’re at the crib.”
And how does he expect the crowd to be?
“Lit,” Tugler said. “That’s it. Can’t hear nothing. You ain’t gonna hear nothing out there.”
While some coaches have complained in the past when matched up in the tournament with a team essentially playing at home, Illinois coach Brad Underwood had no gripes.
Underwood recalled a time during his first head coaching job at Dodge City Community College when he drove the team in a van more than 900 miles from its campus in Kansas to a tournament in Arizona.
“If you had told me back then that I’m getting to coach basketball in the Sweet 16 and play Houston, I would sign up for it, I would crawl to get there,” Underwood said. “If we want to beat them, no matter where we play them, we would have to play great. Guess what? We’re going to have to do that tomorrow. And I think they’re going to have to play well if they want a chance to beat us.”
Though Houston is thrilled to be playing so close to home, the Cougars know that a favorable location won’t mean anything if they don’t play well. In last year's Sweet 16, Houston met Purdue in Indianapolis, which is just over an hour from the Boilermakers' campus.
Houston won 62-60.
“It doesn’t really give you too much of an advantage, honestly,” the Cougars' Milos Uzan said. “Every team here is good. ... I think we just continue with the same preparation and live with the results.”
Houston beat Idaho and Texas A&M in the first two rounds, and Illinois beat Penn and VCU.
Illinois is in the round of 16 for the second time in three seasons. Underwood led his team to the Elite Eight in 2024.
The Illini rely on their powerful offense and are ranked 17th in the country in scoring at 84.7 points per game. As has long been the case under coach Kelvin Sampson, the Cougars win with defense, ranking second in the nation by limiting opponents to 62.2 points a game.
Both squads are led by fabulous freshman guards. Keaton Wagler averages 17.8 points a game to lead Illinois, and Kingston Flemings averages 16.2 points for Houston.
“They’re both, I would say, mature beyond their years in terms of poise,” Underwood said. “And, obviously, the successes both those young men have had this season are pretty paralleled in terms of their growth and what their impact’s been on their team.”
Nebraska and Iowa have long been rivals but Thursday night’s matchup will be their first in March Madness. The Cornhuskers are having their most successful season after snapping an 0-8 tournament slump with wins over Troy and Vanderbilt to punch their ticket to Houston.
Iowa knocked off last year’s champion, Florida, to reach the Sweet 16. Adding to the rivalry is that former Iowa player Pryce Sandfort is now starring for Nebraska.
The Big Ten squads have met twice this season, with each winning once.
“It’s obviously pretty intense, both teams care about their sports, and I think it’s any sport you play, Iowa-Nebraska, it’s going to be high-level intense and people care about it a lot,” Iowa’s Bennett Stirtz said. “So, it will be a packed out arena and just looking forward to it.”
Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg said the rigors of the conference have prepared both teams for this challenge.
“Let me just say this about the Big Ten: They have six teams in the Sweet 16. That’s phenomenal,” he said. “And ... it prepares you for this moment playing against that quality of opponent night-in and night-out. I’m just really happy for the league. It’s been a fun ride, it’s a grind to get through it. But it’s going to be fun to see hopefully multiple teams in the Final Four.”
AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
Illinois guard Keaton Wagler (23) celebrates a win against VCU during the second half in the second round of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, March 21, 2026, in Greenville, S.C. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
HOUSTON (AP) — George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston has become the symbol for how the ongoing partial government shutdown has wreaked havoc on the nation’s air travel system.
While long security lines have hobbled airports across the U.S., Bush Intercontinental’s problems have been more pronounced. Frustrated travelers at Houston’s largest airport have confronted warnings of four-hour wait times to get through security, as many Transportation Security Administration workers aren’t showing up for their shifts since they’re not getting paid during the shutdown.
“And we’ve been in this airport since 8 o’clock in the morning. Very tired, queuing and queuing and very slow,” Edgaer Fernando, who was traveling to Guatemala, said on Tuesday.
Union and airport officials have offered a variety of reasons why Bush Intercontinental seems to be worse than other airports.
These include the Houston airport having one of the highest callout rates of TSA workers in the country due to the economic challenges they are facing, higher passenger traffic as the airport is a major hub for United Airlines, and a busy tourism month for Houston.
Both Bush Intercontinental and Hobby, the city’s other major airport, have had some of the highest callout rates in the U.S.
While 11% of TSA workers nationally did not show up for work on Tuesday, at Bush Intercontinental, that number was nearly 40%. At Hobby, it was even higher — 43%. The callout rate in Houston has averaged between 35% and 40%, said Johnny Jones, the secretary and treasurer for Council 100 of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents TSA workers nationwide.
But Bush Intercontinental is much busier than Hobby, having served over 48.4 million passengers in 2024, compared to 14.6 million passengers at Hobby.
Jim Szczesniak, director of aviation for the Houston Airport System, said that at Bush Intercontinental, 37 TSA checkpoint lanes are usually operating. Only between a third and 50% of lanes are currently being operated, he said.
“We worry conditions will only get worse at airports across the U.S. until Congress ends this shutdown,” Szczesniak said in a video posted on social media Tuesday.
TSA workers were already dealing with financial difficulties and debt from last year’s shutdown, and with higher costs for groceries and gas, employees “are just tired of it," Jones said.
“There could be a million factors, but I can just tell you as simple as this: If everybody’s being paid, you wouldn’t have no lines,” Jones said.
The Houston airport is one of the nation’s busiest and is also a major hub for United Airlines. Of the 48.4 million passengers that went through the airport in 2024, 34.8 million were from United Airlines.
“There’s high call outs, but it’s also the excessive origination point for a lot of flights,” Jones said.
With the high volume of passengers, the Houston airport might have also been experiencing a staffing shortage even before the shutdown, as no TSA workers have been hired around the country in about a year, Jones said.
Besides spring break travelers, Houston has hosted a variety of high-profile events this month.
These include games during the World Baseball Classic and CERAWeek, a major energy conference with more than 10,000 participants from around the world. The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo reportedly drew 2.6 million attendees, many from outside the metro area, during its three-week duration. And this week, two of the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 games will be played in Houston.
“While the delays are frustrating for travelers, they do not appear to be impacting tourism. In fact, Houston is experiencing the strongest month of March in terms of hotel rooms and reservations in the city’s history,” Mayor John Whitmire said in a statement.
Wait times at Bush Intercontinental seemed to improve on Wednesday as it took less than two hours to get through TSA security.
“Everyone’s trying their best. And thanks to all the TSA members who are here,” Raj Chauhan, who was traveling to Miami, said on Wednesday.
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Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://x.com/juanlozano70
Passengers wait in a security checkpoint line at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Wednesday, March 25, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Passengers wait in a security checkpoint line at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Wednesday, March 25, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Federal immigration officers walk through a security checkpoint at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Wednesday, March 25, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Passengers start lining up in baggage claim for a security checkpoint a floor above at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Wednesday, March 25, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Passengers wait in a security checkpoint line at George Bush Intercontinental Airport Wednesday, March 25, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
