SAN ANTONIO – Before Duke coach Jon Scheyer coached in his first official game after taking over for Mike Krzyzewski two seasons ago, he flew his team to Houston to play in a secret preseason scrimmage. Scheyer intentionally sought out Kelvin Sampson and the Cougars for his first career "game."

When Kelvin Sampson took Houston to its last Final Four, it was a much different experience. That was in 2021, the year after COVID wiped out the entire NCAA Tournament, and things still hadn’t quite returned to normal.

Houston has been to seven Final Fours, but is still in search of the first national championship in program history.