Houston making most of its run
Duke next up for region’s top seed
DALLAS — Houston is home in the Lone Star State, playing as a No. 1 seed in the South Region and in the Sweet 16 for the fifth NCAA Tournament in a row.
With All-america guard Jamal Shead, big man J’wan Roberts and coach Kelvin Sampson, the Cougars are in the midst of their best March Madness run since they made three consecutive Final Fours in the Phi Slama Jama era.
“I don’t think that we changed any type of motivation or changed what we’ve been doing all year, and for the past four years that I’ve been here,” Shead said Thursday. “They had a winning culture before I got here, and it kind of got instilled in me playing with guys like J’wan for four years and all the guys that were in front of us.”
The Cougars (32-4) play blueblood Duke (26-8) on Friday night in Dallas, about 250 miles from the Houston campus. Another ACC team, No. 11 seed North Carolina State (24-14), takes on second-seeded Marquette (27-9) and former Texas coach Shaka Smart in the first Dallas game.
Duke was just getting started with coach Mike Krzyzewski and wasn’t in the NCAA field when Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler took the Cougars to the first of those consecutive Final Fours in 1982. The following year, Houston lost to coach Jim Valvano’s Wolfpack in a memorable championship game. The Cougars made the title game again in 1984, the year of Coach K’s first NCAA tourney with the Blue Devils.
Since then, there have since been only two NCAA tournaments played without Duke, which has five national championships. The Cougars, meanwhile, went 34 years before even winning another March Madness game.
The next year started their active run of Sweet 16s, which is matched only by Midwest Region No. 5 seed Gonzaga.
“This (Houston) group has been together not just this year. It’s been a few years in the making,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “You’re playing a team that expects to win. Coach Sampson, the job that he’s done, the staff, the program, they’ve developed that edge and that belief.