Before Jon Scheyer coached his first game as Duke’s head coach, he coached a game against Houston as Duke’s head coach.

Only kinda.

And then he led the Blue Devils against Houston in last year’s Sweet 16.

That was real.

Duke and Houston, for teams that haven’t played very often, are creating a bit of history.

The Blue Devils and Cougars have only played once — last year’s Sweet 16, a win by Duke. But they also had a closed-door scrimmage against Houston before Scheyer’s first season at the helm, in the fall of 2022.

Deeper into the layers of familiarity is Houston coach Kelvin Sampson’s roots. The 69-year-old is a Pembroke State University graduate (now UNC Pembroke) who grew up in Pembroke. Despite being in coaching since 1979, Sampson has never coached in the state of North Carolina.

Here are five things to know about Houston ahead of Saturday night’s Final Four game:

We’re going to get to Houston’s defense soon enough.

But what stands out and makes this Houston team different than any of the previous 10 seasons under Sampson?

Elite 3-point shooting, in the form of a 39.7% clip on 3-pointers.

It’s the third-best 3-point percentage in the country — only Villanova and North Dakota State were better (and just barely, at 39.9% and 39.8%, respectively).

Out of the previous 10 seasons with Sampson at Houston, the Cougars’ best 3-point clip was 39.4% in 2016-17. But that was only 16th in the country and it was eight years ago.

Over the past five seasons, Houston’s average national rank in 3-point percentage was 149th. The best finish was four years ago, the last time the Cougars were in the Final Four; and that was a season 3-point percentage of 34.8%, which was 115th in the country.

Having three guards shoot over 40%, and getting more than three-quarters of 3-point attempts from them this season, makes the explanation here a simple one (more on those guards below).

Duke spent some time with the No. 1 defensive ranking on KenPom this season; now the Blue Devils have the No. 1 offensive rating (and the fourth-ranked defense).

Houston ascended to the top of defensive efficiency rankings and it’s hardly a surprise; the Cougars finished last season with the No. 2-ranked defense and have finished in the top 10 for four straight seasons.

A Houston opponent scored more than 70 points in regulation four times this season. The last time was recent, as Houston’s second-round win was 81-76 against Gonzaga. That came with the Bulldogs assisting on 19 of 26 field goals, going 15-for-15 at the free-throw line, and shooting 50%.

There was a similar article to this one posted ahead of last year’s Sweet 16 matchup.

And the third bullet point about Houston focused on its guard trio.

So, the more things change …

Houston’s top three scorers are L.J. Cryer, Emanuel Sharp and Milos Uzan. Cryer and Sharp were a part of last season’s trio; Uzan transferred in after spending the past two seasons at Oklahoma, slotting in after the departure of Jamal Shead.

Going by volume, Cryer is the top scorer (15.4 points per game) and shooter, having made 113 3-pointers. He led Houston with 15 points in last year’s loss to Duke.

Uzan has the best 3-point percentage, at 44.5%. He’s had a bit of a wild swing in that category, shooting 40.8% as a freshman at Oklahoma and then 29.6% as a sophomore. The 6-4, 190-pounder was 6-for-9 from long range in the Sweet 16 against Purdue, and then just 0-for-2 against Tennessee in the Elite Eight.

Sharp is a strong, 6-3, 210-pounder who’s just a solid and experienced off-ball guard. He averaged more than 20 points per game in a three-game run to the Big 12 tournament title, including a 26-point game against BYU. He has the best free-throw rate (36.9%) among this trio, drawing four fouls per 40 minutes.

Bob Huggins, before his unceremonious dumping at West Virginia, said he pitied Houston and that the Cougars had “no idea what they’re getting into” coming into the Big 12.

Maybe it was the Big 12 that had no idea what it was getting into with Houston.

In two seasons of playing in the Big 12, Houston is 34-4 in league play. Throw in the five wins in six Big 12 tournament games and it’s a winning percentage of .886 against the Big 12.

This season, in going 19-1 in the regular season and winning the Big 12 tournament, Houston was unbeaten in Big 12 road games and notched two-game sweeps of Arizona, Kansas, Baylor and BYU — all NCAA tournament teams.

This is bound to happen in the Final Four because, well, most teams in the country are on one-game losing “streaks.”

But Houston and Duke have the two longest winning streaks in the country, having won 17 and 14 straight games, respectively. Houston’s last defeat was a Feb. 1 overtime loss to Texas Tech; Duke’s last loss came a week later, Feb. 8 at Clemson.

They’re even more similar than that, though.

Duke started 4-2; Houston started 4-3. It’s not like that meant either program was facing an existential crisis; it’s more the fact that each of them took a couple of early lumps and used those early lessons as a launching pad to become two of the best teams in the country.

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