DALLAS — The University of Houston men's basketball team is back 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 point guard Jamal Shead, big man J'Wan Roberts and coach Kelvin Sampson, the Cougars are enjoying their best March Madness run since they made three consecutive Final Fours in the Phi Slama Jama era four decades ago. They were Big 12 regular-season champions after moving into that power conference this season, remained in the top 10 in the AP poll throughout and were No. 1 for three weeks.
"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. ... We follow Coach Sampson, and I think that's the real reason we're here."
Houston (32-4) faces No. 4 seed Duke (26-8) of the Atlantic Coast Conference on Friday night at the home of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, some 250 miles from the Cougars' campus.
The Blue Devils, with five NCAA championships, are among the most successful programs of all time, but it was their ninth Final Four appearance and fifth trip to the title game that produced their first crown. Houston's 10 Final Four trips are the most without a title, with the Cougars' best finishes coming in back-to-back runner-up showings in 1983 and 1984.
The Cougars would make just four NCAA tourney appearances over the next 23 years, exiting in the first round each time. They ended the drought by reaching the second round in 2018, then started their current Sweet 16 streak the following year.
Jon Scheyer is in his second year as Duke's head coach. He won an NCAA title as a Duke player in 2010 and was an assistant on Mike Krzyzewski's staff when the Blue Devils won their most recent championship in 2015.
Scheyer pointed out that the core group for this year's Cougars is one "a few years in the making. 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."
Sound familiar?
"I've known no other way since I've been a player at Duke," Scheyer said. "It's no different since I have been an assistant coach here, the head coach. We expect to win."
Houston's 125 victories with Roberts and Shead are the most in a four-year span in program history. The latest was a 100-95 overtime survival of Texas A&M in the second round Sunday night, when Shead and three other starters fouled out and Roberts finished with four fouls.
No. 11 seed North Carolina State (24-14), the ACC tournament champ, takes on No. 2 seed Marquette (27-9) of the Big East in the South Region's first semifinal Friday.
Marquette is in the Sweet 16 for the first time since making it to three in a row from 2011-13.
N.C. State has been playing elimination games since going into the ACC tourney on a 2-7 stretch. The Wolfpack won five games in five days against past national champs for the league's automatic NCAA bid, then beat Texas Tech and Oakland in the NCAA's first two rounds.
"We went into this postseason with the approach that it's a new season," Wolfpack guard Casey Morsell said.
AP photo by Mary Altaffer / Duke men's basketball coach Jon Scheyer talks to guards Tyrese Proctor, left, and Jared McCain during an NCAA tournament second-round game against James Madison on Sunday in New York.Another try at Edey
DETROIT — For most teams, facing a 7-foot-4, 300-pound force of nature such as Zach Edey is uncharted territory, but the Purdue star is no mystery to the Gonzaga Bulldogs. They've faced the Boilermakers twice over the past 16 months, losing by double digits both times.
The Bulldogs' third try at toppling the big man comes in the Sweet 16. South Region No. 5 seed Gonzaga (27-7) and No. 1 seed Purdue (31-4) meet in Friday's first regional semifinal at the home of the NBA's Detroit Pistons.
"We've at least experienced it," Gonzaga coach Mark Few said, looking at the bright side of facing Edey, an AP All-America first-team selection for the second year in a row. "So we're not trying to describe it to our guys and show them other teams playing against it."
Edey had 23 points and seven rebounds in the 2022 meeting, which Purdue won by 18. In the Maui Invitational early this season, he went for 25 and 14 in a 10-point win for the Boilermakers.
Edey, the AP men's basketball player of the year in 2023, is defying the narrative that a true post player no longer has a place in today's game. He has averaged 24 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks per game this season — close to his numbers from 2022-23 — and has become a more nimble defender.
"He worked his butt off this summer," Purdue guard Braden Smith said.
The Boilermakers are in the Sweet 16 for the second time in a three-season stretch, but they're also just a year removed from becoming only the second No. 1 seed to lose in the first round.
Gonzaga is in the Sweet 16 for the ninth tourney in a row, the longest active streak among men's teams. But the Bulldogs were coming off a 4-4 stretch in January when Few added even more size to a lineup that already included Graham Ike (6-9) and Anton Watson (6-8) by making Ben Gregg (6-10) a starter.
Gregg still gives up six inches and 70 pounds to Edey, but he's part of the plan to try to limit Purdue's big man.
"It's a very hard thing to do," Gregg said. "You try and balance being physical, but not too physical that you're getting foul after foul, which I think happens to a lot of guys when guarding him."
The winner will play an Elite Eight matchup Sunday, facing the winner of Friday's second semifinal between No. 2 seed Tennessee (26-8) and No. 3 seed Creighton (25-9).