MEMPHIS, Tennessee. – With 17 seconds left in overtime, leading by three, a trip to the Sweet 16 in the balance, Houston senior Ryan Elvin stepped to the foul line.
Elvin had played 60 minutes total all season, almost all of it in garbage time. But head coach Kelvin Sampson was forced to send him to the scorer’s table a second early when a fourth Cougars player exited the game: Jamal Shead, the All-America point guard and Big 12 Player of the Year. Houston put the last man on the bench instead of their star player, and suddenly, instantly, he was the open man on the incoming pass, with a trip to the crease and a chance to decide the game.
The first one was lost.
He did the second.
The four-point lead was enough for Houston to hold on for a 100-95 victory over Texas A&M on Sunday in arguably the best game of the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament, highlighted by the most unsuspecting heroes.
“I was surprised he missed one,” Shead said afterward. “He works just like we do. And if I’m honest, he works harder than us. He is the guy we trust and he is a pillar of our culture.”
The win advanced the No. 1-seeded Cougars to the Sweet 16 for the fourth consecutive postseason, where they will face No. 4 seed Duke in Dallas on Friday in the South Regional.
“I’m not going to lie and say I wasn’t nervous. He was pretty nervous,” said Elvin, who has now made 4 of 6 free throws this season. “That was a testament to the way our program is run. We use everyone. (The biggest free throw) of my life, without a doubt. For a long shot.”
Elvin’s only shining moment was the culmination of an incredible game with an ending stranger than fiction. Houston was in control for much of the night and led throughout the second half, including a 10-point lead with 1:24 left in regulation. But the No. 9 seed Aggies, one day removed from a 98-83 first-round victory over Nebraska, rebounded in dramatic fashion, punctuated by forward Andersson Garcia’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer to force time. extra. Garcia was just 8 of 19 on 3-point attempts this season before burying what coach Buzz Williams called a “shot that will go down in Texas A&M history.”
BUZZER BEATER TO FORCE OT 🚨🚨🚨#MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/mZSqICdiZR
– NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 25, 2024
Houston outscored A&M 14-9 in the extra period despite finishing the game with four of five starters out, the first time since 1987 that a team has won an NCAA Tournament game with that distinction.
“That’s a perfect record for Houston, to have four players displaced and still find a way to win,” Sampson said. “In all these years I’ve been doing this, I don’t know if there is a more satisfying victory than tonight. I can’t express how proud I am of this group. “I am really very proud of this team.”
Foul trouble required the shorthanded Cougars to dip into an already short bench for the entire game, which looked like it would spell disaster with five extra minutes on the clock.
Rather, it was a gutsy victory for a program that has been defined by its culture of toughness under Sampson. Generally, this toughness is described in Houston’s physicality and defense. That was obvious Sunday, often too obvious, considering A&M’s 28 fouls and 45 free throw attempts. But as the game progressed, Houston’s toughness became a reflection of his resilience.
“When that (shot) went in (to force overtime), I’m sure most people’s thought process was, ‘Houston made a mistake, now they’re going to lose,’” Sampson said. “That would have been a wrong assumption, because our children are made for that.”
From the top of the list to the bottom, it was a team that fought against each other. And for those who are no longer with them.
At 68 years old and in his 10th season in Houston, Sampson describes himself as a “perpetual tweaker.” He goes to the office every day to watch film, take practice notes or go over scouting reports.
“When I go on Sunday mornings, that’s my favorite time because there’s no one there,” Sampson said. “Except one person: Ryan Elvin.”
Elvin joined the program in the same 2020 recruiting class as Shead, coming out of the state’s Cedar Ridge High School in Round Rock, near Austin, where he was a first-team all-district player in 6A, the largest in Texas. . He’s the stereo: the short, skinny kid at the end of the bench who is a great baseball player, but who doesn’t have the athleticism to play at a high level typical of Division I. Sampson and his staff asked Elvin to will continue anyway, crediting him with the same work ethic and tenacity that has produced 125 wins (and counting) over the past four seasons, more than any other D1 program in the country during that span.
Elvin has been with the team for all 125 games, although never in such an impactful way. With about two and a half minutes left in overtime and the crowd gathering, Sharp, who had already moved on, looked at Elvin from the bench and told him to stay ready.
“Because you never know what’s going to happen,” Elvin said in the locker room after the game. “And something crazy happened.”
Elvin is a gym rat and fires off shots alone on Sunday morning while Sampson frolics. She runs extra sprints, takes her teammates to practice, makes dinner at her apartment, and invites the team over.
“Ryan is a leader,” Cryer said afterward. “People might not see it because he doesn’t get playing time, but he came out and showed that he’s a big part of the team.”
It’s part of the fight, on and off the court, that has endeared Elvin to the team and its fan base. In October 2021, just before the start of its second season, Elvin’s father Scott passed away after a long illness. Sampson described Scott as Ryan’s biggest fan.
“That was a big loss for our program,” Sampson said.
He wasn’t the only one. Sampson has talked in recent weeks about four key players this group had to replace from last year’s roster: Marcus Sasser, Jarace Walker, Tramon Mark and Reggie Chaney. Sasser and Walker were first-round NBA Draft picks. Mark transferred to Arkansas. Chaney graduated after three seasons with the Cougars and then died last August from an accidental overdose.
He was a 6-foot-8, tough-as-nails bully, a quintessential Houston big man. Sampson used to call it his security blanket, telling Chaney, “Some days when it’s hot, I may not need you, but if there’s a little chill in the air, it’s nice to know I have that blanket there. “
The head coach has referenced Chaney in postgame news conferences, and the team wore a No. 32 patch on its uniform this year, but Sampson said Sunday that for the first time all season, he mentioned Chaney. Chaney in the locker room at halftime. .
“He mentioned Reggie and I started crying a little bit,” Shead said. “That guy was a warrior. He played with broken knuckles, stress fractures in his knee and back spasms. So when (the coach) asked, ‘What would Reggie do?’ Reggie would fight. And I think we did that in the second half.”

Jamal Shead led the way as usual for Houston, until he retired. (Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
Shead has been fighting all season. The senior captain has not only been Houston’s best player, but one of the best in the country, leading a banged-up Cougars team to a Big 12 regular-season championship in his first year in the conference and another No. 1 ranking in the tournament. He was critical again on Sunday, scoring when necessary, going for rebounds and dunks, and setting up his teammates.

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A handful of his 10 assists went to Emanuel Sharp, the 6-foot-3 wing who scored a career-high 30 points. Sharp’s role increased when Terrance Arceneaux tore his Achilles tendon in December. J’Wan Roberts wears a bandage on his right hand after receiving seven stitches earlier this month and has battled a shin injury since the Big 12 tournament. He worked his way through 33 minutes and was the only starter who didn’t commit fouls despite earning his fourth foul with almost eight minutes left in regulation. Houston’s frontcourt shrank earlier this month when rookie forward Joseph Tugler broke his foot. In mid-February, backup guard Ramon Walker Jr. tore his meniscus. Rookie center Ced Lath, whom Sampson hoped to redshirt this season, was recalled amid all the injuries.
“We were just winging it,” Sampson said.
Lath and Walker, who had a crucial offensive play with 70 seconds left, were among those on the court in overtime, along with Elvin. Walker left the court with tear-stained cheeks after the victory, thinking about Chaney.
“To be able to get through that game and come out victorious is a testament to how connected we are as a team,” he said. “From Jamal to Ryan, everyone is ready to play.”
In the huddle before overtime began, Sampson reminded his players about the Feb. 1 game. 24 in overtime at Baylor, when the Bears rallied from a 15-point deficit, the crowd was in a frenzy, only for the Cougars to pull away again in the extra session. A team built on toughness, one that has stayed atop the rankings and metrics all season, injuries and all, took advantage of that once again on Sunday, cheered on by each other and by those who They are no longer with them. They can play another game because of it.
The challenges do not stop. A Duke team that scored 93 points in its second-round win over James Madison and made 14 of 28 3-point attempts awaits in Dallas, where the Coogs will at least have home-field advantage. But another Final Four, like the one the program had in 2021, will require a couple of more culture-filled collective efforts.
“Survive and advance” is the popular cliché this time of year. Houston experienced it on Sunday.

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(Photo of Emanuel Sharp and Ramon Walker Jr.: Petre Thomas / USA Today)