Eight months after punching a ticket to the Final Four with a suffocating 69-50 victory over Tennessee, third-ranked Houston and the No. 17-rated Volunteers meet again in the Player's Era men's tournament in Las Vegas on Tuesday.

But after surviving a 78-74 overtime win over Syracuse on Monday in its tournament opener, Houston coach Kelvin Sampson made a point to emphasize that this team still has a long ways to go to be mentioned in the same breath as last spring's NCAA tourney runner-up.

"We've been a pretty good defensive team over the years, but not today," Sampson said after watching Syracuse go on an 11-0 run in the last 3:06 of regulation to force OT.

"This is not last year's team. I'm not saying it can't be eventually, but they're certainly not now. Look at the mistakes we made.

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