HOUSTON - University of Houston Men’s Basketball head coach Kelvin Sampson publically expressed hope before Sunday’s matchup with the University of Connecticut that the fans would turn out to support the program, and the fans responded affirmatively in an encouraging step forward for the program.

Though the official attendance of 4,672 still falls well short of Hofheinz’s listed capacity of 8,479, the arena was electric. The crowd roared its deafening approval as Houston walked into the locker rooms at halftime leading by seven, 35-28.

Unfortunately for the fans in attendance, Connecticut outscored the Cougars by 19 in the second half, 41-22, winning the game 69-57, but the home team led as late as six minutes to go in the second half, 54-53, before giving up a 16-3 run to the Huskies to close.

Sampson is not overly concerned about the loss, which drops the Cougars’ in-conference record to 3-2.

“That’s college basketball,” Sampson said. “That’s the difference in college basketball versus college football. You can lose eight or nine games in college basketball and still get to the Final Four. The key is to stay together and keep working to get better.”

The Cougars are a team on the rise. After losing Danuel House to Texas A&M University and TaShawn Thomas to the University of Oklahoma, Sampson was forced to rebuild more or less from the ground up, and this season is the first featuring a class he recruited.

The early results have been encouraging. After a 13-19 (4-14 in American Athletic Conference play) season last year, with an average home attendance of 2,635, the Cougars have stormed out to a 13-4 start, winning three of their first five conference matches, and doing so in front of a noticeably larger, louder home crowd. Sampson has noticed, and remarked upon the impact a strong home crowd can have for the program.

“I’m proud of our team,” Sampson said. “I’m proud of where we are. I was proud of our fans today. We’re going to have some more big games here. When we’re in a fistfight with a really talented team, that’s when crowds make a difference.”

Sampson does not expect the program, or its level of fan support to turn around overnight, but he has been pleased with the steps both have already taken this year.

“We had a great crowd today,” Sampson said. “We’re slowly but surely building this. This is not a one-game fix or a one-year fix. It’s a process. But there’s no progress without the process. You just have to go through it.”

Despite the loss - to a tough, talented Connecticut team with a national pedigree - Sampson was encouraged by the signs that Houston is beginning to turn out to appreciate the rapidly-improving product the University of Houston is putting out on the court.

“I thought our crowd did a great job today,” Sampson said. “We’ll get better at that. We’ll both get better. Fans will hear about our team, and we’re going to grow with our fans, and our fans will start making Hofheinz a tough place to play. I’m convinced of that.”