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Houston completed the final step to its first Elite Eight appearance since 1984 on Saturday, when Marcus Sasser intercepted a Kadary Richmond pass and scored the game’s final two points. DeJon Jarreau raised his arms on the sidelines as the game clock struck zeros, and Houston fans stood and cheered — snapping pictures and waving their hands, their towels, their mini American flags, anything within reach to celebrate.

Kelvin Sampson, Houston’s head coach, stood stoic on the sideline at first, arms resting at his side and feet pacing. He was Montana Tech’s head coach in 1984, when the Cougars and their Phi Slama Jama-nicknamed roster reached their third straight Final Four and punctuated an 88-16 record during that span — including a 31-3 record in 1982-83, their peak season. 

One of the losses in that peak year came to Syracuse, the only other time the programs met before Houston defeated the Orange 62-46 in the Sweet 16 on Saturday. But the win in 1984 didn’t seem as significant at the time. It carried more and more significance as the season — and the ensuing ones — unfolded and players from Houston’s roster flourished, said Sonny Spera, a reserve guard on the 1982-83 Syracuse team. Clyde Drexler became Clyde Drexler. Hakeem Olajuwon became Hakeem Olajuwon. And Phi Slama Jama became a phenomenon.

“At the time, the impact of the win, I don’t think I can say it was a huge, monumental win,” Spera said.

Houston’s win over Syracuse in the 2021 NCAA Tournament will evolve in a similar way. Sampson downplayed the meaning of Houston’s victory postgame after two consecutive seasons ended with single-digit postseason losses. He said he was more concerned about figuring out how to pull up Oregon State tape on his iPad during the bus ride back to their hotel.

Syracuse — a program defined by a lone 2003 title, a near-miss in 1987 and a plethora of other March runs — saw its win over Phi Slama Jama in 1982 mold into one of its most underrated wins ever. And Houston’s win over the Orange will serve as a pivotal point in the Sampson era, regardless of whether its run ends on Monday night or extends one more weekend to the Final Four. 

Bart Torvik gives the Cougars a 24.9% chance to finish the season as national champions. They’ve pieced together five consecutive tournament appearances after decades of mediocrity. And the foundation is there for more.

“What happened 37 years ago is — that was tremendous,” Sampson said postgame. “That’s one of the great teams of all time. But I don’t think any current team plays based on what happened 30 years ago.”

During that 1982 Saturday night game in the Carrier Dome, Spera played just two minutes against the Cougars, and starting center Andre Hawkins was tasked with guarding Olajuwon — someone 4 inches taller yet just as mobile. The CBS primetime game quickly turned into a “track meet,” with players constantly sprinting up and down the court, Spera said. Neither team established any sort of defensive rhythm, yet Syracuse, coming off back-to-back NCAA Tournament misses, still managed to defeat the No. 9-ranked Cougars. 

“I don’t think the Phi Slama Jama mystique or aurora had really hit yet,” Spera said. A near triple-double from Leo Rautins and 22 points from Erich Santifer lifted the Orange to a 92-87 win, their sixth straight to open the season.

That’s why Sampson downplayed Houston’s win, and that’s why Jarreau replied with “not really” when asked if he’d considered the historical context of the win over the Orange. It’s understandable — the importance of wins take shape over time, evolving as games become seasons and seasons form a program’s legacy. It’s why Sampson shaking off the burden of Houston’s past and focusing only on its brightened future is expected. It’s why he paused after fielding a question about the Cougars’ last trip to the Elite Eight, staring into the screen in front of him and asking “How many years (has it been)?”

That’s what Syracuse did against the Cougars 39 years ago too, downplaying the win initially and using that single nonconference win as a primer to Big East games against Patrick Ewing and Georgetown, against top-10 St. John’s and No. 4 Villanova. 

“Just think of all the people that have come and gone since then,” Sampson said before pausing. “I’m not even sure how to answer that. I think you should honor the past; I think you should live in the present.”

Eventually, this group of Houston players could be the ones honored as the past, the group that paved the way for future wins and runs. The victory over Syracuse brought them one step closer to that point, even if the win seems miniscule in the moment.

Andrew Crane is a senior staff writer at The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at arcrane@syr.edu or on Twitter @CraneAndrew.

Published on March 28, 2021 at 10:53 pm