Cougars power their way into second round
ROAD TO THE FINAL FOUR NCAA TOURNAMENT
MINNEAPOLIS ★ APRIL 6-8
TULSA, Okla. — Nobody in the University of Houston locker room laughed when Georgia State coach Ron Hunter made several references to 63-yearold coach Kelvin Sampson as “Grandpa” on the eve of the NCAA Tournament.
Privately, players were angry, vowing to send a message in the first round of the Midwest Region. So, when the Cougars were up by 20 late in the second half Friday night, Sampson gathered his team in a huddle during a timeout and wrote a simple message on a pad. “Put ’em away.”
Corey Davis Jr. had 26 points, including seven 3-pointers, and Fabian White Jr. and Breaon Brady dominated inside as the No. 3 Cougars silenced 14thseeded Georgia State 84-55 at the BOK Center. UH (32-3), which matched a school singleseason record for victories, advanced to play 11th seed Ohio State (20-14) in the second round Sunday night.
Hunter, best known for falling off a stool after a first-round upset of Baylor in 2015, unintentionally provided bulletin board material when he referenced Sampson as “Grandpa” on several occasions.
“Kelvin, he’s like my idol,” Hunter said during Thursday’s
media session. “When I was 10, he was 60 at the time. I really look up to Grandpa. Grandpa has got a great team, been coaching longer. I will ask Grandpa if I should call a timeout. I’ll ask him who I should start. If it’s four minutes to go and we are winning, I will ask Grandpa if it’s OK to finish the game and we can win.”
UH knocked Hunter off his stool again, rolling to the second-largest NCAA Tournament victory in school history. The Cougars beat TCU 103-68 in the 1968 Midwest Region on the way to the Final Four.
“For us to get to this point and we’re still not getting the respect we deserve is just unacceptable,” Brady said. “For their head coach to say that was to me very disrespectful and unacceptable. That’s why we put on a clinic tonight. That just goes to show don’t talk too much when you have a fierce opponent ahead of you.”
All the things that have gotten the Cougars to this point as Final Four contenders were on display. They attacked from all directions. Inside. Outside. Controlled the boards. Chased loose balls. Matchup zone or “Twilight Zone,” it did not matter what Georgia State did — or said.
“I thought tonight was an extension of how we play,” Sampson said. “I don’t think you can play 34 games and get to the NCAA Tournament and become somebody else. This is who we are.”
Davis, the Cougars’ leading scorer, was again spectacular, coming within two 3-pointers of the school-record nine set by Robert McKiver in 2006-07. Davis showed no signs of the hip strain he suffered in the American Athletic Conference tournament final, going 9-of-22 from the floor and 7of-17 from 3-point range.
On one possession in the first half, Davis drained a 3-pointer from the corner. He turned and stared at the Georgia State bench.
“(One of their assistant coaches) yelled, ‘Miss!’ ” Davis said. “It threw me off. Actually, I almost missed it. I couldn’t believe he said it. It kind of dawned on me that he is going to say I’m going to miss a wide-open 3 from the corner. I said, ‘All right, let me focus.’ ”
Davis scored eight consecutive points early in the second half to push the UH lead to 17. When Georgia State got within 52-41 with about 14 minutes left, White scored eight points during a decisive 21-3 run. UH led by as many as 32 points in the second half.
“I think we have a much higher ceiling,” Davis said. “There’s a lot of things we didn’t do right. We played well, but there is so much more we could have done better. It just shows how good we can be in March.”
UH had a size advantage inside against the smaller Panthers lineup and used it, outrebounding Georgia State 51-27 and scoring 40 points in the paint.
“We want everything,” Brady said. “Every loose ball, every rebound. That’s our culture.”
White posted a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Brady made all six of his shot attempts for 13 points and eight rebounds as the Cougars won their NCAA Tournament opener for the second year in a row.
Georgia State (24-10), the Sun Belt champion, entered the game as one of the nation’s top 3-point shooting teams. The Panthers shot 26.1 percent (6-of-23).
D’Marcus Simonds had 18 points for Georgia State.
“We had a plan how we wanted to guard them on the 3-point line,” Sampson said. “Our kids really executed the game plan.”