No. 4 Houston Loses a Key Player For the Season — Terrance Arceneaux Tears His Achilles in Win Over Texas A&M, Leaving Kelvin Sampson Devastated

Kelvin Sampson’s University of Houston basketball team picked up its statement game win over Texas A&M in the Halal Guys Showcase, but it came with a significant price. Sophomore wing Terrance Arceneaux, a burgeoning talent who is an important bench player for the nation’s No. 4 team, tore the Achilles tendon in his right leg early in the game and will be out for the rest of the season.

One of the more devastating injuries in basketball, an Achilles tear will end Arceneaux’s season and require a long rehab.

After being helped off the floor with 8:26 left in the first half of the Cougars’ win over A&M, Terrance Arceneaux hobbled out for the second half with a big black boot over his right foot and lower leg. One of the prize players in a 2022 recruiting class that included Top 10 NBA pick Jarace Walker, the 6-foot-5 Arceneaux had come on of late, grabbing 19 rebounds in the last two games before the Texas A&M showdown.

He’d leave the Toyota Center on crutches, still clearly adjusting to getting around using the things.

“I just feel really bad for that young man,” University of Houston coach Kelvin Sampson says. “He was starting to play good. . . He was doing so many good things for us as a sophomore. And the next thing you know he’s torn his Achilles and is out for the year. I think I was more. . .

“I felt worse about that than I felt good about the game.”

The soft-spoken Arceneaux is extremely popular with his teammates, a hard worker who never complained even as many put unrealistic expectations on him as a freshman. And he seemed to be slowly making the next step before everyone’s eyes this season, getting better — and more confident in his role — game by game.

“Terrance is just an outstanding human being,” Sampson says. “I would say every kid on our team is a better person than they are a player.”

Losing Terrance Arceneaux, a Key Cog and Standup Teammate

This is a human loss for the country’s fourth ranked team, the sense of feeling hurt for a buddy, as much (if not more) than a basketball one.

“There’s not another Terrance and we’re going to miss him,” UH sophomore guard Emanuel Sharp, the third member of that Walker year recruiting class, says. “But the train keeps moving. We’ve got to recoup and try and fill in where Terrance helped us.”

Arceneaux has shown he has big game moments in him. In one of his more memorable games as a freshman last season, Arceneaux keyed a win at Pac-12 power Oregon, hitting three 3-pointers in a 15-point night.

He only logged 5:36 of court time against the Aggies before limping off, leaning against people on each side of him. By halftime, most of the UH players knew the deflating news.

Their buddy is hurting and done for the season, leaving a void on one of the best teams in America. Arceneaux still came out to watch the second half from the bench and cheer his teammates on.