Milos Uzan’s return makes Houston Cougars a men’s college basketball championship favorite again

One of the best point guards in men’s college basketball is coming back to one of the best teams in men’s college basketball.

Houston’s Milos Uzan has taken his name out of the 2025 NBA Draft and will instead suit up for the Cougars again in 2025-26.

With Emanuel Sharp and Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year Joseph Tugler also coming back to school, Uzan’s return means that Kelvin Sampson will be returning three starters from a team that came within one shot of winning the national championship last season.

It also means that Houston appears to be the team most likely to begin the 2025-26 ranked No. 1.

A Second Team All-Big 12 selection in 2024-25, Uzan averaged 11.4 points, 4.3 assists and 3.1 rebounds per game while shooting 42.8 percent from three. He emerged as one of the best point guards in the country during the second half of the season, averaging better than 5.0 assists and scoring in double figures in all but two games from Jan. 22 through the end of the Big 12 tournament.

Houston had previously tapped Creighton transfer Pop Isaacs as their point guard for the 2025-26 season. The drama behind Uzan’s stay or go decision was probably spoiled a bit when Isaacs announced on Tuesday morning that he would instead be playing next season at Texas A&M.

Earlier this month, Uzan’s father, Mike, said his son would only remain in the NBA Draft if he was in a position to earn guaranteed money.

“We’re only leaving for guaranteed money,” Mike Uzan told PaperCity. “There’s no wish upon a star and hope we get there type of thing, No. It’s got to be guaranteed. It’s a good situation at Houston. We like Houston. We like Coach (Kelvin) Sampson and the whole family. Los loves Coach Sampson. Treasures him dearly.

“We didn’t even consider getting in the portal. That wasn’t even a thought. And I’m sure that there was a lot of money out there for him. You know how much college basketball has changed now. There’s a lot of money out there for him. But that’s not the case for us.”

Still, with Uzan widely projected as an early second round pick, his decision on Tuesday caught more than a few people by surprise.

It’s the second straight spring that Uzan has gone through the draft process before electing to return to college. A year ago, Uzan tested the waters after a somewhat disappointing sophomore season at Oklahoma. He ultimately hit the portal an landed at Houston, where he improved statistically across the board.

Perhaps most notably, Uzan went from a 29.6 percent three-point shooter in 2023-24 to one who nearly shot 43.0 percent from beyond the arc last season. Now he’ll return to school with the reputation as one of the best shooters in college basketball.

Now a three-time national runner-up, Houston certainly has a claim to the dubious title “best college basketball program to have never won it all.” With Uzan back in the fold, it’s easy to understand why Cougar fans are dreaming of that title disappearing forever in about 10 and-a-half months.