INDIANAPOLIS — If you’re not careful, you might start to believe Sunday’s Midwest Region final between top-seeded Houston (34-3) and second-seeded Tennessee (30-7) will turn into a Lucas Oil Stadium-sized love-in — with yuks and chuckles thrown in for good measure.
After all, that’s what usually happens when 69-year-old Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson and 70-year-old Vols coach Rick Barnes are in the same place.
Their relationship began when they played against each other 50 years ago — Barnes for Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory, N.C. and Sampson for UNC Pembroke three hours to the southeast — and has evolved as these two cutups have played golf together, gone on Nike trips together (when they’d usually hang with Gary Williams and Tubby Smith) and remained tight with each other’s families.
“We’ve been good friends for 40-plus years,” Sampson said. “He’s a prankster, jokester, funny as all-get-out. Country boy… He’s one of a kind. I wish we had more like him. He’s just a jewel among jewels.”
“I love Kelvin Sampson,” Barnes said. “I will be friends with him until the day we die.”
“If we don’t win it (all), I hope he does,” Sampson said. “That’s how much I respect him.”
As for how Sunday’s game actually will play out, expect a tsunami of passion, ferocity and take-no-prisoners defense — exactly as Sampson and Barnes have taught their teams to play. Houston fifth-year guard LJ Cryer had to invent a word to sum up Sunday’s mission.
“It’s going to be a physical, physical game,” Cryer said. “We know that they rely on defense just like us, so I feel like we’re going to have to out-intensify them.”
“It’s going to be truly exciting,” said Tennessee senior guard Jahmai Mashack. “We’re going to figure out what team has the best defense. It’s probably a matchup that a lot of people can look forward to. Two teams with similar mindsets, similar values going against each other.”
Here’s how similar they are:
Houston leads the country in scoring defense (58.5 points per game) and KenPom defensive efficiency (88.0 points per 100 possessions) and stands third in field-goal defense (38.4 percent). Tennessee ranks “only” eighth in scoring defense (62.9 ppg), third in KenPom defensive efficiency (89.3 points per 100 possessions) and fourth in 3-point defense (28.5 percent).
You’ll likely be able to count the number of Sunday’s open shots on one hand. And because both teams rank among the nation’s most turtlish offenses — there are 364 Division I teams and Houston stands 360th in tempo while Tennessee is a comparative dervish at 349th — don’t be stunned if only one team gets to 60 points.
Out of deference to Tennessee point guard Zakai Zeigler, the third-team all-American who averages 13.9 points and 7.5 assists per game, the Cougars will adjust their defensive plans. Gonzaga and Purdue ran a ton of ball-screen offense in the last two games, so Houston trapped and doubled accordingly.
“Ziegler presents a different kind of front because he uses ball screens probably less than (Purdue’s Braden Smith and Gonzaga’s Ryan Nembhard),” Sampson said. “But he impacts the game probably more dynamically with his athleticism and his speed and the different ways that he can get a basket.”
Both sides could probably talk about defensive nuances all day. But, in reality, the ability to push beyond exhaustion will make the difference.
“At the end of the day, we’re going to have to be the tougher team to get this done,” Cryer said. “It’s not about Xs and Os or anything like that. It’s about you going out and being tougher.”
Cryer is motivated by trying to get back to the Final Four for the first time since 2021, when he was a freshman on Baylor’s championship team that knocked Houston (and current teammates J’Wan Roberts and Ja’Vier Francis) along the way.
On the other hand, Tennessee’s guys are playing for something tangible and eternal. As everyone in the Vols program has been reminded a million times, the school has yet to play in a Final Four.
And, as Zeigler and Mashack learned in last year’s Midwest Regional championship defeat to Purdue — a 72-66 verdict in Detroit — losing when you’re one step away can feel particularly cruel. The Vols built an 11-point lead in the first half and owned a 58-58 tie with five minutes, but they couldn’t finish the job.
“Losing a game like that is something we take so much pride in,” Zeigler said, “knowing we had a chance to win a game and we didn’t win it. It hurt us.”
One year later, Zeigler and Mashack are back with three transfer-portal additions riding shotgun — shooter Chaz Lanier (North Florida), stretch four Igor Milicic (Charlotte) and center Felix Oxpara (Ohio State). Houston essentially is running it back with last year’s team that got upset in last year’s Sweet Sixteen. All-American point guard Jamal Shead graduated, but Oklahoma transfer Milos Uzan gradually has worked his way into being nearly as indispensable.
Uzan, a pass-first point guard, nonetheless led all scorers Friday with 22 points — including the game-winner in the final second against Purdue. His recent ascension just adds more fuel to the voluble Mashack’s fire.
“I feel like we have the best guard group in the country, and I feel like we have the best defensive guard group in the country,” Mashack said. “And we’re going to show it when we play.”
