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.

They tied for second place in regular-season conference play with a record of 14–4.

3 seed in the AAC tournament, Houston advanced to the final game, losing 56–55 to the Cincinnati Bearcats.

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.