Hours later, inside an empty Fertitta Center, Kelvin Sampson climbed the steps of an aluminum ladder in what is becoming a yearly tradition at the University of Houston.
At the top, scissors in hand, Sampson cut a piece of white basketball net as a souvenir. He ripped off the rest from the rim and flung it in the air.
“It never gets old,” said Sampson, the 64-year-old college basketball lifer who overcame the loss of four key starters from last year’s Sweet 16 team and molded a youthful bunch into a title-winning UH roster.
Earlier Sunday, the Cougars did their part with a 64-57 win over Memphis. Then they waited.
Some went to a nearby pizza joint. Others went out to a late lunch with family.
They were never far from a television, keeping tabs on the game between Wichita State and Tulsa. Cellphones and social media provided constant updates.
One group text message gave an update when Wichita State was ahead with five minutes left.
“Don’t jinx it. Don’t jinx it,” junior forward Fabian White Jr. said.
Another message followed: Meet back at Fertitta Center. Time to celebrate.
With Wichita State’s 79-57 win over Tulsa, the Cougars (23-8) celebrated a second straight American Athletic Conference title. Officially, it’s a three-way tie among Houston, Cincinnati and Tulsa — which all finished the regular season 13-5 in league play — but none of that mattered to the Cougars.
“I don’t want to hear share,” Sampson said. “If you are a conference champion, you’re conference champion. It doesn’t say share.”
This season might mark the best coaching job yet by Sampson, who replaced three seniors from a 33-win team that won an outright AAC title and weathered the unexpected 11th-hour departure of his top shooter to the NBA draft. The Cougars filled the holes with the addition of Quentin Grimes, a transfer from Kansas, and the arrival of talented freshmen Caleb Mills and Marcus Sasser, who were put into pressure-packed moments from the beginning.
Sampson mixed those newcomers and returnees White, Nate Hinton, DeJon Jarreau and Chris Harris Jr. (the only senior) into a team that lost five AAC road games by a combined 12 points, went 14-2 at home, and continued a streak of three straight seasons without back-to-back losses.
“I didn’t want to go out this year on a bad note,” Harris said.
The Cougars proved they were not one-hit wonders. The back-to-back league championships are the first for UH since Phi Slama Jama won the Southwest Conference in 1983 and 1984.
“Validation” assistant coach Kellen Sampson said. “To do it one time is a little bit of a magical, lightning-in-a-bottle sort of feel, but when you start doing it multiple years consecutively and start really sticking your flagpole in the ground and kind of saying, ‘We’re the program in the American,’ that’s kind of what this year has been about for us. We felt like we needed to validate and prove what we’ve done.”
What the Cougars have done is win 83 games over the last three seasons (ranking in the top 10 among Division I schools) and become a virtual lock for a third straight NCAA Tournament appearance.
“I don’t know how many championships I’ve been a part of,” said Sampson, whose count is up to eight. “They’re all special. They all go in the memory bank … (but) I certainly don’t take it for granted.”
For 30 minutes Sunday, the same poor shooting stretches that were present most of the season were back as the Cougars shot 22 percent in the first half and trailed by six. With UH down 41-39, Grimes came to the rescue with a 3-pointer with 9:24 remaining, jump-starting a decisive run in which he accounted for 15 of the Cougars’ 17 points.
A year ago, the Cougars cut down the nets after claiming at least a share of the AAC title in a home victory against SMU. Three days later, Sampson was being doused during a celebration of the outright title in the visitors’ locker room in Cincinnati.
This time, groups of players quietly walked through the tunnel at Fertitta Center nearly four hours after the end of Sunday’s game. They posed for photos. They put on red AAC championship hats and T-shirts.
“How does this look, Q?” Sampson asked Grimes as he put on his championship T-shirt.
“Looks good, Coach,” Grimes responded.
“It’s just a blessing to win back-to-back titles,” said White, who had 18 points and 14 rebounds against Memphis. “It feels good.”
“Speechless,” Jarreau said. “We worked so hard through this whole year.”
Hinton called it “special” to be mentioned in the same breath as the legendary Phi Slama Jama teams.
“On the banner it’s not going to say three-way tie, two-way tie or outright,” Hinton said. “A banner is a banner. When we come back in a couple years or later down the road, we’ll look over in the corner, and the banner is going to say ‘2020 conference champion.’”
As Sampson climbed down the ladder, each step symbolized a contributor to the program — from players and coaches to academic advisers and office staff, from strength and conditioning and training staff to equipment staff and workers in the communications office.
“Every step represents somebody,” Sampson said. “This thing is 12 months. It’s not easy to win championships.”
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