LJ Cryer is as experienced a guard as there is in the country, but he isn't alone.

Houston's offense doesn't stand out with play makers or size. It doesn't have the most intricate of sets or play fast. Instead, it attacks the offensive glass and it makes three-pointers at a nearly 40% clip.

That's what's made Houston a top-10 offense and something that Purdue is going to reckon with in the Sweet Sixteen.

Purdue and Matt Painter have made a living choosing the least dangerous options on offenses and designing defenses to ignore them. Against, Houston, there's nowhere for Painter's guards to hide. Houston's three starters are as good as it gets and all three of them are dangerous.

Let's take a look at who will test an inconsistent Purdue defense on Friday night at Lucas Oil Stadium.

It's a lot production, it's a little how long he's been around, but LJ Cryer has legitimate claims as the best jump shooter in college basketball. Cryer's career started out on the 2021 National Champion Baylor team, not playing, and then transferring for his senior season to Houston where he opted to take his COVID year this season after scoring 15.5 points a game.

Cryer's career for the last three seasons, but particularly his last two under Kelvin Sampson, have been remarkably consistent. He's averaged 15.5 adn 15.6 points the last two season. He's been more efficient this year, going up from 38.8% from three to 42.8%.

Cryer takes a lot of twos, but he's not particularly great at it. He's just 6-1, lacks vertical bursts, and relies on floaters and contested lay ups at the rim. He's good at getting north to south, but his game is about the three-point shot. Cryer's balance, control, and consistency make him as dangerous with the ball in his hand or off ball, dribbling or standings still, in transition and the half court. His release is quick and he doesn't need space to get a shot off.

He did shoot the ball much better at home this season. In similar attempts per game, Cryer was 45.3% at home while hitting just 35.5% of his three-pointers on the road. Houston has to travel to Indianapolis where Purdue fans should make another strong NCAA Tournament showing after playing its opening games on the east coast last week.

There will be a slight geographical advantage for Purdue fans than Houston fans.

Cryer is a small off-guard at 6-1, but is built solid. ESPN has him listed at 200 lbs.. He is not a natural play maker and drives to score, dribbles to score, and learned to stand so he could be able to shoot and score. His assist rate is 11.7% on the season, and his career-high is just 13.1%. With that amount of wanting to shoot, he's not someone you're going to interrupt or turnover either. He has an anemic 9.8% turnover rate.

He's probably the most difficult matchup to make for Purdue in regards of who Purdue puts on him to start the game. He has the profile, shooter, non-play maker, that usually ends up with Fletcher Loyer defending. Loyer's defensive short comings are somewhat minimized when he knows he just has to take a shot away.

That said, it's LJ Cryer and Purdue's CJ Cox is the best option to take on Cryer and limiting his looks and getting into the paint.

Fair to say, whoever Cox is looking to guard to start the game is probably who Painter will guard with Myles Colvin when he comes off the bench. The problem is, Houston has two players that Painter will want to use most on.

The difficulty will be, as always, sacrificing all the offensive smarts and spacing from Loyer at the other end.

Another transfer to Houston, Miles Uzan is Houston's only natural play makers.

He's a bigger guard, 6-4, 190, and he's another dangerous three-level guard. He's a nearly 44% three-point shooter, 48% insid ethe arc, and he takes care of the ball while defending with intensity on the other end.

Kinda sounds like Sampson has a type, huh?

Uzan is Houston's most natural passer out of the high pick and roll, but he isn't as reliable a scorer out of pick and rolls. He's an efficient scorer, but at 11 points a game, his ability to get others involved is what separates him on the Houston roster. His 4.1 assists a game is more than double anyone elses mark on the team.

There's a lot of Houston guys that can have good games, but Uzan is the one player where the better he plays, the better the players around him will do as well.

He plays with a nice pace, relies on a really good in and out dribble with both hands, and gets downhill. He's another guy Painter will want to put CJ Cox and Myles Colvin on, but strong chance this is who Braden Smith gets put on to start the game.

6-3, 210 guard out of Florida is a three year product of Houston and is, once again, a plus 40% shooter from three, that's making 89% of his free throws, and has just a 6% higher assist rate than you do at home on your couch.

But my goodness can Sharp shoot a basketball. Sharp doesn't have the twitch quickness of Cryer, but he also doesn't need it. He's stocky of build and will happily let it fly all the way from 28 feet and further away. There's no way and no angle that Sharp can't knock down a shot from.

Sharp did struggle in conference play comparitively, knocking down just 36% of his three in the Big Twelve while hitting 42% overall, but he got hot in the Big Twelve Tournament making 12 of 23 from three over the court of three games.

He's been okay in the NCAA Tournament so far, knocking down 3 of 9 from three.

For Sharp, he's the most one dimensional of the guards offensively. He's one of the stronger guards defensively but he is on the floor to make three-pointers. He hasn't had more than two assists since December 7th in a game against Troy. This makes him the most likely candidate for Loyer to defend, but how much Houston's guards get into action, attack the paint, and threaten Purdue's defense could stretch Painter to feature his bench even more than he already has this tournament.