Sampson on Elite Eight finish: 'What a SPECIAL season!'

The Houston men's basketball team failed to secure a return trip to the Final Four, but to hear head coach Kelvin Sampson and his players tell it, there was no shame felt after his program fell to the second-seeded Villanova Wildcats 50-44 in San Antonio on Saturday (March 26).

In their second straight Elite Eight appearance under Sampson, the Cougars played solid defense but struggled from behind the three-point arc against the Wildcats, who are now seeking to add to their national titles from 2016 and 2018, both won in Texas. Houston CBS affiliate KHOU reported that Taze Moore led the 2021 national semifinalists with 21 points and 10 rebounds.

"Thank you Coog Nation for ALL of your support. What a SPECIAL season!" Sampson tweeted.

Moore, a 6-foot-5-inch, 195-pound graduate student-athlete who hails from Mississippi, was among the cadre of players who stepped up admirably after stars Marcus Sasser and Tramon Mark bowed out of the season because of injuries.

His postgame tweet essentially summed up the year for the Cougars.

"Thank you, UH, definitely lived my college dream here just in this [one] year, the gang [and] I had a big year," the guard tweeted. "When people counted us out, we counted ourselves in and I’m forever grateful for my teammates, coaches, managers and fans for making a small-town kid's dreams come to reality."

Jamal Shead, the Austin-area underclassman who was anointed as Houston's floor general, reassured the heartbroken Cougar faithful with just three words.

"We'll be back," the 6-foot-1-inch sophomore from Manor tweeted. 

According to KHOU, it was the first regional final the Cougars lost after winning the previous six dating back to the late Guy V. Lewis's first decade as head coach.

As upsetting as it was to not be making hotel reservations in this year's Final Four host city, New Orleans, Houston fans still had plenty to be proud of, sharing the sentiments of their beloved team.

One fan told KHOU that they believe in the program because Sampson and the players do.

"They keep developing it and eventually we'll go ahead and bring a championship home," the unidentified fan said, according to the station.