Chris Cenac, No. 1 Center In The Country, Announces His Commitment
11/26/2024 05:07 PM
Like all major sports, college basketball has been affected by the transfer portal and the rise of NIL deals. Players aren't staying at schools, and those schools are moving to face new opponents.
One program that's been able to manage the changes in the sport has been Houston, bucking the trends by keeping players on their roster well into their junior and senior seasons.
That hasn't been the case for every player who's come through head coach Kevin Sampson's program, but doing things differently has produced results that are difficult to ignore.
Sampson's program has created multiple first-round draft picks in the NBA, and one more elite player is now slated to head down to Houston next season.
According to ESPN's Jeff Borzello, Chris Cenac is heading to the Cougars after announcing his commitment. Cenac is the No. 1 center in the class of 2025, and is Houston's highest-ranked recruit since 2007.
NEWS: Chris Cenac, the No. 1 center in the 2025 class, just announced his commitment to Houston. He becomes the program's highest-ranked recruit since the ESPN recruiting database began in 2007 -- and vaults Houston's recruiting class to No. 2 in the country behind Duke. pic.twitter.com/zcUJ0MTJgk
— Jeff Borzello (@jeffborzello) November 26, 2024
Borzello also says that Houston now has the second-best recruiting class in 2025, one behind the Duke Blue Devils.
Since arriving at Houston in 2014, Sampson has taken the Cougars to the Final Four, along with one finish in the Elite Eight and two more in in the Sweet Sixteen. Houston has not been eliminated before the NCAA Tournament's second weekend since 2018, one of the best records of consistency in the country.
Sampson and his team will look to win the Big 12 for the second year in a row after a first-place finish last season. They entered the tournament as the No. 1 seed in the South region, defeating Longwood and Texas A&M before losing to Duke in the Sweet Sixteen.
This season, the Cougars are off to a 3-1 start, dropping a close game against No. 4 Auburn earlier this month.
Houston is now set to compete in the Players Era Festival tournament in Las Vegas during Thanksgiving week, and they'll face No. 9 Alabama in another early-season matchup against one of the top teams in the SEC on Tuesday night.
We'll see what Cenac and some of the other top recruits heading to Houston are able to do when they arrive on campus next year.
Related: Dan Hurley Calls Out Officiating After UConn's Loss In Maui Monday
