They could not get a shot off on their final possession, with the 2025 NCAA Championship hanging in the balance. Looking back over the University of Houston’s history, one wonders whether the Cougars are snakebitten when the task is to execute in the eleventh hour.
Many teams in college basketball can only daydream of hoisting the coveted national championship trophy after the NCAA Final Four. It is a title garnered through earnest navigation of the March Madness bracketed labyrinth. Either win or go home. Consolation games are passé, no longer used (since 1981) to determine third and fourth place. Ballots from sports writers and subjective and ambiguous rankings are rendered null and void. At the season’s close–justifiably so–the last team standing at the final buzzer is the irrefutable victor.
At the University of Houston, despite a platoon that had been powerful over this past season (35-5), once again, the Cougars fell short. They have been bridesmaids a few times, coming up empty in March Madness despite seven Final Four appearances. They ascended to prominence in each instance, leaving multitudes wondering how they had not walked away in triumph. No matter who takes the reins of head coach, a tantamount fate emerges. From Hall of Famer Guy Lewis to current head coach Kelvin Sampson, a championship for the Houston Cougars, seemingly nanoseconds away sometimes, has not come to fruition.
THE BIG “E” & THE “DUCK”
In the mid-60s, head coach Guy Lewis atomized the color barrier at the University of Houston. With intrepid moxie, he journeyed into Louisiana and recruited two of the finest prep hoopsters in the nation. Those players were “The Big E,” Elvin Hayes (Rayville-E.D. Britton), and Don “Duck” Chaney (Baton Rouge-McKinley). Both were highly prized recruits who would later become very successful professionals. Although an excellent all-around player, the 6’9″, 235-pound Hayes was more renowned for his scoring ability; he was also proficient at rebounding and blocking shots. Chaney, at 6’5″, 215 pounds, and capable of filling the nets, was better known as a hounding and smothering defensive specialist.
The former–Hayes–surmounted a childhood speech impediment, majored in speech, and often chattered to his counterparts on the court and via the press. On the floor, both were very physical, never dirty. Off the hardwood, they were resilient enough to deal with the perils of the ’60s Jim Crow South.
“[There] were still obstacles. ‘There were racially insensitive comments towards Don and me that continued at gyms the Cougars played in [on the road], just like they did in high school around the state of Louisiana.’ Hayes also recalled how his parents couldn’t visit with him at a hotel during a road trip to New Orleans.” [1]
“My parents drove down and came to see us play in New Orleans,” Hayes stated. “We had to get approval to stay in the hotel (with the team), but my parents and relatives came down, and they could not come inside the hotel to visit. We had to go outside the hotel to see them and stand outside in the rain.” [1]
Well in advance of the 1979 Magic v. Bird epic showdown, there was a trilogy of Lew Alcindor v. Elvin Hayes.
Their much-anticipated initial confrontation occurred at the 1967 NCAA Final Four in Louisville, Kentucky. UCLA won 73-58, and the two giants (both of whom would become first-team All-Americans and first-overall NBA draft picks [1968 and 1969]) appeared amicable before and after the matchup. However, the “Bayou State” native sang a different tune when queried about Alcindor’s prowess in front of journalists. “Hayes [contended] afterward that his teammates had ‘choked’ and that he had found Alcindor sadly lacking. Speaking evenly and with apparent conviction, Hayes said: ‘He’s not aggressive enough on the boards, particularly on offense. Defensively, he just stands around. He’s not at all, you know, all they really put him up to be.” [2]
During a face-to-face meeting post-game, Hayes and Alcindor exchanged brief critiques after hanging out and visiting a record store. According to sportswriter Frank Deford, “The next afternoon, Alcindor came to Hayes’s hotel room, and they wandered off down 4th Street (Louisville), looking for a pair of sunglasses for Lew. Easter shoppers—a large number wearing frightful pink hair curlers that set back the image of Kentucky womanhood several years—had the nerve to stare to such an extent that the two big men settled for a visit to a record shop, where each bought to his taste. Alcindor: Cannonball Adderley; Hayes: the Supremes. Then they returned to Hayes’s room, where the talk turned back to basketball. Alcindor, absolutely unmoved by his friend’s public criticism, promised to follow Hayes’s advice and build himself up with weights. Lew, tacitly acknowledging the wisdom of Guy Lewis’s game plan, encouraged Hayes to go to the basket even more.” [2]
Elvin enclasped the saturation of the limelight, while Lew Alcindor (not yet Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), keenly aware of his worth, strategically avoided it. There was a surplus of ink/press for Elvin, which was congruent with his personality. In contrast, Alcindor’s approach (even into the pros) was “[to] get my 25 or 30 and let my teammates score the rest.” [3] Like others, Hayes matured later. Fond of prolific numbers, especially his points (chiefly) and rebounds, he was known as a shoot-first, ask-questions-later guy. For example, as a rookie with the San Diego Rockets, Hayes, who led the league in scoring that season, once infuriated his teammates by receiving the ball 29 times in the post in one contest and shooting it 28 times!
Round one had gone to UCLA; nevertheless, Hayes (25 points and 24 rebounds) had statistically gotten the better of Alcindor (19 points and 20 rebounds) and let the world know about it. Hayes stated, “I beat him one-on-one tonight. I was pleased with myself.” [4]
There’s a time-honored saying about winning battles and losing wars. While Hayes reveled in his press clippings and box scores, UCLA “survived and advanced” to crush Dayton for its first of three consecutive NCAA titles. Houston defeated North Carolina in the consolation game, 84-62, thus taking the prize money for a third-place finish.
