The Houston basketball team was down to the end of its bench in overtime of its March Madness game Sunday against Texas A&M in Memphis.
Leading 98-95 with 18 seconds left in overtime, Houston All-American Jamal Shead fouled out. He was the fourth Cougars player to foul out. So coach Kelvin Sampson turned to walk-on Ryan Elvin, a seldom-used senior. He has not played more than six minutes in a game this season and had just four free-throw attempts.
But Elvin gave the Cougars the breathing room they needed to stave off upset-minded Texas A&M, winning 100-95 to advance to the Sweet 16. He missed his first free throw but buried the second to make it a 99-95 advantage with 17 seconds remaining.
The Cougars, almost across the board, had all the confidence in the world that Elvin would come through.
“I knew one of ’em or both of ’em were going in,” Ramon Walker Jr. said. “That’s just how hard he works. Nobody works harder than him. One or both, I had no doubt. I never thought he was going to miss two. I believe in him.”
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“He works just like we work,” Shead said. “And if I’m being honest, he works harder than we work. Anytime — you can ask anybody on our team and they can vouch for him — anytime we walk into the gym, Ryan Elvin is in the gym, working, helping someone else work.”
Elvin, whose first season at Houston was 2019-20, was blown away by the recognition.
“I appreciate that. It means a lot coming from people in this program, because obviously we all work really, really hard,” Elvin said. “But . . . basketball is what I love to do. I’ve never been the most talented or physically gifted. So, the way I try to one-up people is be a gym rat and work as hard as possible. Whatever happens, I’ll know that I put my all into it.”
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Elvin said when he was put on the floor, he assumed Texas A&M would try to force Houston to inbound the ball to him. His first attempt clanged off the side of the rim. But he drilled the second.
“He’s built for it,” Houston guard Damian Dunn said. “Don’t nobody work as hard as Ryan Elvin, man. Once he went to the line, man, we knew what time it was. Happy for him to have that moment.”
Reach sports writer Jason Munz at jason.munz@commercialappeal.com or follow him @munzly on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter.
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