Houston travels gritty path to old glory
HOUSTON — Odds are we won’t remember the names. Not like before.
Quentin Grimes will not be as big a star as Clyde the Glide or Hakeem the Dream. Justin Gorham won’t go down in history like Big E.
Dejon Jarreau hits the court with a dazzling combination of the confidence of Rob Williams and the nastiness of Larry “Mr. Mean” Micheaux, but he’s not likely ever to be as popular as they were. (FYI: Williams didn’t need an alias. He was so cold he had his first name on the back of his jersey.)
This team doesn’t have a catchy nickname, and it didn’t play in the “Game of the Century” in the Eighth Wonder of the World.
Matters not. These are the good ol’ days of UH basketball.
The Cougars heading back to the Final Four is what many of us have longed for for so long.
Oh, if only Guy V. were here to see it. Seven years ago, when Kelvin Sampson was introduced as the new head coach at UH, the school held a dinner to drum up excitement for the program.
Guy Lewis was happy that night. I remember the smiles, the laughs, the hope.
Kelvin and Guy.
We had been there before when other coaches took the UH job, but that time felt different.
Before Sampson, six other coaches
had tried to live up to Lewis’ legacy. And by legacy, I mean Lewis is, was and always will be UH basketball.
He was a team captain on the first UH squad. He was head coach for a school-record 592 wins, and he took us to five Final Fours.
Yes, “us.” When UH wins, Houston wins. This generation of UH hoopers promotes the tagline “For the City,” because this is, well, for the city.
Guy V. was that way, too. Whenever UH accomplishes something in basketball, Lewis comes to mind.
I love basketball because Guy Lewis made me love it. He showed us the way. He made us Houston proud and Houston strong before there was a meme, a hashtag or an Internet.
“What would Guy do?” wasn’t the question his successors should have asked themselves. It was the answer.
Sampson has done what Lewis would do. He didn’t need to ask.
He has put together a fun team, a tough team, a Houston team.
We’re hash-tagging today because Sampson and the Cougars are still alive in the NCAA Tournament.
Oregon State didn’t know what to do as the Cougars overpowered them in the first half Monday night.
The game was over as soon as it started. We just didn’t have the final score yet.
It was like that the last time UH made a run to the Final Four.
Phi Slama Jama shocked opponents by slammin’ and jammin’ from the opening tip. Wide-eyed foes quickly realized the Cougars were as good as advertised.
This team doesn’t have a national endorsement. These Cougars have been under the radar in a sense, but they have a genuine shot at a national title.
This is a championship-caliber squad. The Cougars are bold and bodacious.
Game after game, night after night, they have excelled, forcing teams into submission with relentless defensive pressure. UH puts the squeeze on. Baylor is next. I could go on about the Bears, too. Oh, they are tough, athletic, relentless, and the last time Baylor was this close to a national championship was 1950.
Our football state is hooping it up.
Only five times in NCAA Tournament history have teams from the same state faced off in a Final
Four. Two teams from Texas have never advanced this far in the same season. Only once in the last three decades have two teams from any state made it this far.
Texas Western, now Texas-el Paso, is the lone star from the Lone Star State, having won the NCAA crown in 1966.
A Texas team will be in the final. A Texas team could win it all.
UH isn’t the favorite, but the way the Cougars get after it, Mayor Sylvester Turner would be wise to start planning how Htown can throw a socially distanced parade.
Oh yeah, two more wins, and we’re going to a parade. Masks and all. Period.
We never got to celebrate Lewis’ teams in that way because they never won a national championship.
These Coogs just might. Then, of course, they will be remembered.
Whose house?
Coogs’ house.