Sampson’s selfless squad refuses to lose
DeJon Jarreau played through everything.
The pain.
More pain.
The No. 2-seed University of Houston being pushed to the edge of nothing by No. 10 Rutgers, with the tough and driven Scarlet Knights constantly beating the Cougars at their own relentless game.
But this was a Kelvin Sampson team. He rebuilt the program. He built the culture. He created a selfless squad that kept fighting for everything — rebounds, loose balls, lastsecond victories and the lasting brilliance of March Madness joy.
Jarreau was going to watch helplessly from afar as UH was knocked out of the NCAA Tournament and lost his final game as a Coog?
No.
No way.
It was 63-60 UH on Sunday in the Midwest Region’s second round at Lucas Oil Stadium in
Indianapolis.
The Coogs are dancing again in the Sweet 16.
What a win it was. Gutsy. Gritty. Perfect, when you factor in everything that Jarreau played through — and the fact that Rutgers led 58-49 with less than five minutes to go.
“There was no way I was coming out of the game,” said Jarreau, who suffered a hip pointer during a first-round win then spent the second round constantly lifting himself off the hardwood. “Coach Sampson kept asking me, ‘Was I alright? Am I OK?’ Inside, I wasn’t OK. But I just wanted to win so bad. I don’t want it to end that way. I love this team. We’re so closeknitted. We’re a family. I just didn’t want to let these guys down — it’s my last year playing with this group.”
Jarreau spent part of his postvictory Zoom interview giving a shoutout to UH’s training crew.
There was treatment, treatment and more treatment.
But you watched these Coogs (26-3) somehow survive and advance. You saw Jarreau go down hard, get up, wince in pain on the sideline and slam a hand in frustration. Then you watched Jarreau go down again and again — and get up, again and again.
He found the will.
He kept UH alive in 2021. He relied on everything inside of himself and all the things he overcame, then kept pouring his heart out on the court, with his team and teammates always in the back of his basketball mind.
We spent the last few days again reminded of how amazing March Madness can be.
Watching Jarreau refuse to quit and refuse to lose on Sunday night was a powerful, beautiful thing.
“I can’t even tell you how bad I wanted it,” said Jarreau, who finished with 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting, pulled down five rebounds, dished out two assists and recorded a block. “I’ve been through so much, with myself and with this team, with this crazy year we’ve been through, with (COVID-19) and not having fans and with all the pauses — man, just everything. My hip hurts so bad but I just ain’t going to go home. I told coach Sampson to put me back in, and I just did what I had to do to help this team get this win.” Sampson called Jarreau the Coogs’ most valuable player before UH was so inspired by the 6-foot-5, 185-pound senior guard from New Orleans that a late nine-point deficit was traded for a Sweet 16 matchup against Jim Boeheim and Syracuse.
After?
Sampson is one of those coaches who truly has seen it all.
But he’d never won a March Madness game in the final seconds with Jarreau blocking out and playing through so much pain.
“Maybe the play of the game for us was when he got on the floor after a loose ball,” Sampson said. “When I say he was in pain, he was in pain. I knew he was going to try to go (Sunday). But he got a hit early in the game. He’s one of our best defenders but he just could not keep those guys in front of him because he couldn’t move laterally.
“Leadership doesn’t have to be loud. It doesn’t have to be words. DeJon’s leadership was huge (Sunday), just by his actions, his refusal to lose. Sometimes you don’t play good enough to win, so sometimes you just have to refuse to lose. I would put that in the refuse to lose category and DeJon was the captain of that ship.”
UH reached No. 5 in the country this season. Two years ago, Sampson had a team that went 33-4 and almost made the Elite Eight.
But the last two times the Coogs were pushed out of The Dance, the season-ending losses were decided by only five combined points, and the pain kept reverberating.
This team isn’t going anywhere but onward right now. Forward and higher.
The national stage will shine brighter.
The program that Sampson rebuilt will receive another long, extended look from coast to coast and border to border.
UH is a basketball school with serious pride and a thumping heart.
The Coogs are back in the Sweet 16 in 2021 because Jarreau refused to allow his team to go away.
Pain is temporary.
The best memories from the NCAA Tournament last forever.