Houston expects to have two of its best players available for its second-round matchup with Auburn in the NCAA Tournament.

AAC Player of the Year Marcus Sasser and fellow guard Jamal Shead both said Friday that they are “100 percent” playing in the team’s Saturday showdown with Auburn in Birmingham. The top-seeded Cougars and ninth-seeded Tigers will square off at 6:10 p.m. CT in Legacy Arena, with the game airing on TBS.

“If the trainer thinks he can go, and the kid thinks he can go, I trust Marcus, like I trust Jamal,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said. “I trust them all.”

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Both guards sustained injuries during Houston’s opening-round win against 16th-seeded Northern Kentucky late Thursday night. Sasser aggravated a groin injury while pulling up for a midrange jump shot during the Cougars’ 63-52 win, adding Friday that he believes he just planted too hard as he went up for the shot.

Sasser played just 14 minutes in the first half and scored five points before exiting the game. He did not play in the second half, but he was adamant that he’ll give it a go against Auburn with a trip to the Sweet 16 on the line.

“All I know how to do is go out there and play 100 percent,” Sasser said. “Just really got to try to go out there and not think about it, because I feel like you favor it, I think about it, you just won’t be yourself. I just really want to go out there and be myself 100 percent.”

Sasser being at 100 percent is a major reason why Houston has gone 32-3 this season and earned the No. 2 overall seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament. The 6-foot-2 senior has averaged 16.7 points per game while shooting 38.2 percent from deep and averaging 3.1 assists and 2.8 rebounds for the Cougars.

He initially injured his groin last Saturday in the AAC Tournament semifinal, and he was held out of the conference title game against Memphis, which Houston wound up losing. He returned to the court for practice Wednesday at Legacy Arena ahead of the opening-round game against Northern Kentucky before exiting that game in the first half.

“That’s a tough dude,” Shead said of Sasser. “I felt like he was going to go because I know him as a person, not just as a player, and I know he is tough. You know, he fights through a lot of things, and he doesn’t really miss a lot of days unless he has to. So, I knew that he was going to push through because he is a tough dude.”

Shead also sustained an injury during the Cougars’ first-round win. He hyperextended his knee late in the game against Northern Kentucky but played 36 minutes and finished with 13 points, three rebounds and six assists but also had a team-high six turnovers on the night. Shead, who is one of four Houston players averaging double figures this season (10.4 points per game), said he’s “good” for the Auburn game and is “100 percent” playing against the Tigers.

Both guards want to push through it, though, given what’s at stake at Legacy Arena: a trip to Kansas City for the Sweet 16.

“It’s win or go home,” Sasser said. “Tomorrow is not promised. The next game is not promised. I just feel like I don’t want to just sit a game out. I just want to go out there and give it my all because you never know when your last game is.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.