Kelvin Sampson’s Double Champs Are Ready For More Doubters — Inside UH’s Anything But Conventional NCAA Tournament Moment

FORT WORTH — Kelvin Sampson and his players are barely in their seats in the Goodnight Room of Dickies Arena when Houston is flashing on the screen as a fifth seed in the South Region. There isn’t much reaction from a group that just came up from celebrating a double championship. The Cougars are American Athletic Conference regular season and tournament kings. The floor of the arena below is still covered in confetti — and no one seems very interested in digesting a tough NCAA Tournament draw at the moment.

Instead, Sampson gets up and tells his players to go out into the hallway and give the UH fans who made the trip to North Texas to cheer them on a chance to get in on the moment. Another largely missed example of Houston’s coach trying to teach his guys that it’s about more than just them. In many ways, it’s about the people you bring along.

So Fabian White Jr., Kyler Edwards and Co. pose for some iPhone pics with the fans and exchange a number of fist bumps and hand slaps before heading down to the court again for more photos and confetti time. Forward Taze Moore finds himself carrying a whole stacked plate of food down the arena stairs, getting in bites of mac and cheese between steps. “I didn’t have time to eat,” Moore laughs.

It can be all very sudden in March. But this particular University of Houston basketball team — these double champs – are used to having to adjust. They know how to make due — and keep winning.

“We’ve been through so much it seems surreal,” Jamal Shead, the emergency point guard turned AAC assists leader, tells PaperCity after Houston 71, Memphis 53 goes final and the Selection Sunday madness begins. “We’re fighters. We’ve got big hearts. We’re fighters, man.”

A team that’s been doubted and sometimes outright dismissed ever since star guards Marcus Sasser and Tramon Mark went down with major injuries in December is 29-5. With 25 wins by 10 points or more. Including this Selection Sunday dismantling of an ultra talented Memphis team that beat them twice before.

The NCAA Selection Committee might not have been all that impressed, handing Houston a fifth seed despite UH’s double conference titles and No. 3 NET ranking, which places Sampson’s team behind only No. 1 seeds Gonzaga and Arizona in the metrics. America may not be all that impressed either, with many already pegging Houston as a likely victim of the classic 12 seed/five seed upset. (Houston plays a dangerous 27-7 UAB team in Pittsburgh at 8:20 pm on Friday night.)

But these double champs don’t really care. . .

“A lot of people doubted us in December when Tramon and Marcus went down, but we made a statement and proved them wrong,” center Josh Carlton says. “I don’t think there’s much left to say bad about us. But of course people keep saying things when we get in tournament, doubt our ability to make a deep run.

“But we’ve proved people wrong so far. So let’s keep doing it.”

Carlton admits he was thinking Houston would get a three seed or a four seed. Either would have meant UH could have avoided playing a team as stacked as Illinois, the Big Ten regular season co-champions, in the second round. But Houston’s a fifth seed and if it beats UAB and Illinois beats 13th seed Chattanooga, the Cougars and Illini will face off on Sunday with a Sweet 16 berth on the line.

Sampson knows better than to look ahead — and this basketball lifer of a coach seems to understand that Virginia, Oregon and Oklahoma State — teams Sampson scheduled because he thought they’d be very good to elite — having down years allowed the selection committee to doubt Houston.

“Had those three teams had good years, I think we would have been a three seed,” Sampson says when I ask about UH’s seeding. “We beat Virginia. We beat Oklahoma State. We beat Oregon. But because those teams had down years we didn’t get any credit for it.

“Then we’re a whistle away or a couple of free throws away from beating Alabama (on the road). That was a very winnable game. We had the ball at the end with a chance to beat Alabama. And we had the ball at the end with a chance to beat (No. 3 seed) Wisconsin.”

Yet, Houston still finished 29-5. Having to essentially remake the team on the fly in the middle of the season. The downside of conference championship games being played on Selection Sunday — besides the fact that the selection committee seems to completely ignore the Sunday results year after year — is that the games get completely swept away and overshadowed by what happens with the NCAA Tournament bracket.

This win over Memphis —this double championship — is no footnote to the University of Houston’s coaches and players though. In many ways, it meant everything.

“That’s how you do it,” UH assistant coach Kellen Sampson says amid the on-court celebration, one that includes his 4-year-old daughter Maisy getting a long ride in grandpa Kelvin’s arms. “Best in the league regular season and tournament. Both championships.”

Savoring a Moment That America Will Ignore

This AAC title game is an ultra high-level game between two fierce talented teams that don’t like one another. The Cougars don’t just rise to the moment. They grab it and never let go, playing like one of the very best teams in America for the second straight day.

There’s Taze Moore flying all over the court, getting his hands on ball after ball, tipping them out to create second shot chances, triggering fast breaks. Moore’s final stat line is good — 11 points, eight assists, four rebounds — but it only begins to hint at his true impact on this title tilt.

There’s Fabian White Jr. shrugging off an aching back to score a game-high 20 points in 29 minutes, matching Memphis’ happily yappy trash talkers barb for barb, showing his team the way again and again. Even if it meant crashing into a press table — and ending up half under it — chasing a loose ball. SMU guard Kendric Davis can have the Player of the Year Award. White will be taking home the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player award and plenty of hardware.

There’s Josh Carlton putting Penny Hardaway’s team to bed late, finishing with 18 points while discovering his free throw stroke (8 for 11) when Houston needs it most.

And there’s Jamal Shead never letting the Memphis pressure to get to him, not even once (10 points, six assists and zero turnovers). Never losing his cool. When Shead is slammed into the basket support on a breakaway late in the game, a flagrant one foul from Memphis guard Alex Lomax, and some of his teammates look like they’re about to lose their minds. . . the 19-year-old point guard just pops up screaming. In delight.

“Alex isn’t a bad dude,” Shead tells PaperCity. “Me and him, we’ve got good blood together. I know he wouldn’t do that purposely. I just felt like they were defeated. Got to scream because I felt like we won already. We won.”

The Cougars are still the unquestioned kings of the conference — double champs. Despite all of Memphis’ big talk. Despite having to turn back NBA Draft Lottery marvel-to-be Jalen Duren (14 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, two blocks and many more wows). And Hardaway and Co. could be running out of chances to ever dethrone Houston with UH preparing to join the Big 12 maybe as early as after next season.

“I mean, it’s just a whole bunch of empty celebration,” Fabian White says of Memphis’ big talk after its two regular season wins over Houston. “Now we got the ring. That’s all that matters.”

White is enjoying the moment like he seldom allows himself to, knowing he’s pushed his guys to double titles. Everyone will want to only talk about the NCAA Tournament today, tomorrow and into the future, but don’t tell White and the rest of the Cougars in championship hats and T-shirts that this doesn’t really matter.

“Of course people keep saying things when we get in tournament, doubt our ability to make a deep run. But we’ve proved people wrong so far. So let’s keep doing it.” — UH center Josh Carlton

Taking it all in — and making sure his daughters get the photo with the trophy they want — UH athletic director Chris Pezman marvels anew at how Kelvin Sampson’s program keeps seeming to top itself.

“I don’t want anybody to take these moments for granted,” Pezman says. “This is so special. Think about how long we went without having the consistency of this. It’s frigging cool man.”

This is the first time that UH basketball has won both the regular season and conference tournament titles since the 1991-92 season. In an injury-rocked year which would have left many coaches crying for a do-over.

“What Coach did — and I’m obviously a football meathead,” Pezman, a former UH football captain, says. “Going from basically running air raid to triple option in the middle of a week, in the middle of the season and then roll off how many wins in a row. And to go from an outside-in team to an inside-out team.

“And how we’ve done it. That just doesn’t happen.”

It’s happening — and the double champs are heading into the NCAA Tournament, eager to prove a whole new set of doubters wrong.

“This is what I came here for,” says Moore, one of three transfer starters in this remade UH lineup. “Just to be a champion going into the NCAA Tournament. This is for everything we’ve all been through.”