Wounded Cougars close in on landmark Big 12 title

Houston is one win away from winning a Big 12 title in its first season in the league. | Anh Le/The CougarOn Jan. 13, after the Cougars had just finished their first-ever Big 12 road trip with a pair of disappointingly close losses at Iowa State and TCU — two defeats by a combined five points — a conference title seemed increasingly distant.

While Houston was still clearly a top team in the conference and looked nearly unbeatable at home, life on the road in the Big 12 was a far cry from the relatively cushy schedule of the AAC in recent years. It looked like the team would spend the rest of the year dealing with growing pains in the league’s many hostile environments, scrounging for road…