Saturday's historic comeback against Duke was a big one for Houston, which is now set for a very compelling national championship game matchup against Florida on Monday night in San Antonio. The Cougars are one of the country's most successful basketball programs, routinely sitting near the top of whatever conference they are in (currently the Big 12), and having a reputation for deep March Madness runs.
Despite appearing in seven Final Fours, including this year's, the Cougars don't have a national title under their belt. Houston's title-less run is the most notable in college basketball since no other program has reached the Final Four as many times as the Cougars have without claiming at least one championship.
Houston's close calls at a National Championship
While the Cougars made Final Four runs in 1967 and 1968 led by future Hall of Famer Elvin Hayes and Don Chaney, the real peak of Houston basketball came in the early 1980's. Guy Lewis, who was the Cougars' head coach for the previous Final Four runs, assembled an elite collection of talent in what became known as the Phi Slama Jam era.
Houston was loaded with future NBA stars, including Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler, that played an up-tempo pace at a time when the college game was trying to emulate the fundamental approach to basketball that John Wooden established as part of his UCLA dynasty. Phi Slama Jama was a precursor to the more athletic nature that has been set in basketball today with free-flowing offense, plenty of slam dunks and fast breaks being used to get easy points.
Lewis took the Phi Slama Jama Cougars to three straight Final Fours between 1982 and 1984, but couldn't get over the hump to win it all. The 1982 team was a very young group that made a surprise run to the Final Four before getting beaten by North Carolina, which went on to win the national championship behind James Worthy and a young Michael Jordan.
The 1982-83 season looked to be Houston's year as the Cougars stormed through the regular season to become the No. 1 team in the AP Top 25 poll and entered the title game on a 26-game winning streak with a 31-1 record. The Final Four that year took place in Albuquerque, which was problematic for the fast-paced style the Cougars wanted to run, so Lewis had to slow his tempo down in order to keep his players fresh.
That decision played into the hands of NC State and their head coach Jim Valvano, who kept the game tight until the final seconds, when a dunk by Lorenzo Charles on a putback gave the Wolfpack a stunning title. Olajuwon ended up taking home the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player honors despite losing in the title game, making him the last losing finalist to take home that award to date.
Despite Drexler's departure for the NBA after the season, Houston was still a dynamic force in 1984 as Olajuwon and sharp-shooting guard Michael Young helped the Cougars get back to the championship game. Unfortunately for Houston, they ran into another generational talent as Patrick Ewing led Georgetown to the title in an 84-75 loss.
Olajuwon and Young turned pro after the season, bringing an end to the Phi Slama Jama era and relegating Houston to a less elite status for the next 30 years. The decision to hire Kelvin Sampson in 2014 has revitalized the Cougars, however, and he brought them back to the Final Four in 2021 before falling to Baylor.
Houston has been a juggernaut the past few years under Sampson but has experienced its fair share of March Madness heartbreak, falling to Villanova in the Elite Eight in 2022, getting upset by Miami in the 2023 Sweet 16 as a 1-seed and seeing star guard Jamal Shead get hurt in a 2024 Sweet 16 loss to Duke. The injury to Shead was a major turning point in that game as Houston had been in control of the game prior to that point.
Cougars fans are surely hoping that their close calls finally get rewarded with a title against the Gators tonight. Having a historically great team and a good shot at home court advantage with a slew of Houston fans making the three hour trip to San Antonio hasn't been enough to make the Cougars favorites, with Florida entering the day as 1.5-point favorites, but it does feel like Houston is overdue to have their One Shining Moment.