HOUSTON — Jamal Shead sat in his locker stall after Houston’s Sweet 16 loss to Duke with a towel draped over his head, trying to answer questions. The locker room felt like a wake: players talking in hushed tones, shocked their run had ended with their indestructible leader sidelined by a sprained ankle. Eventually, Shead couldn’t take it anymore and escaped to the coaches’ locker room.

Shead had grown up in this program, from an unplayable freshman to an All-American and Big 12 Player of the Year as a senior, and the injury forced him to watch the final 26 minutes of his college career from the sidelines as the Blue Devils ground out a 54-51 win.

“I always think about the investment those kids made and how hard I was on them and how hard I pushed them,” Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson said months later. “That was Jamal’s last time. I had him for four years, and maybe I’ll have another one, maybe I won’t, but he won’t have another one.”

That night in the coaches’ locker room, head-coach-in-waiting Kellen Sampson, Kelvin’s son, looked at Shead’s ankle and shook his head. “This just keeps happening to us,” he said.

Each of the last three Houston teams since the program’s 2021 Final Four appearance have looked capable of finally bringing Sampson the title that has eluded him in his decorated career. In KenPom.com’s adjusted efficiency margin rankings, the most popular statistical shorthand for measuring college basketball teams, the Cougars have finished No. 2 three years running; this year’s team opened at No. 1. But every NCAA Tournament run since 2021 has ended with what-ifs attached because of deflating injuries.

In 2021-22, leading scorer Marcus Sasser was playing like an All-American when he broke the fifth metatarsal in his foot right before Christmas, a day after starting wing Tramon Mark had season-ending shoulder surgery. The Cougars finished the ‘22-23 regular season ranked No. 1, but Sasser suffered a groin injury during the AAC tournament and aggravated it during the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, the same game in which Shead hyperextended his knee. Last March against Duke, when Shead rolled his right ankle going up for a layup, Houston was already playing without Jojo Tugler and Terrance Arceneaux, both lost to prior season-ending injuries. The Cougars were controlling the game before Shead’s injury, but they just weren’t the same after.

At 69, Kelvin Sampson is still one of the best coaches in the sport, validated by this late-career run of regular-season dominance.

“When you get to be my age, I think you look at it as, let’s keep doing what we’re doing,” Sampson said this fall. “We don’t need to change anything.”

But once the Sampsons returned home and started looking ahead, knowing they would have another team good enough to win a title — everyone of significance, minus Shead, was back — Kellen suggested to his dad they be proactive.

The formula obviously works, but it needed a tweak.

Houston is the most physical team in college basketball for a reason. “You don’t practice soft and play tough,” is the line that defines Sampson’s program, and the preseason sets the tone. Rebounding drills with a bubble on the basket; brick slides, in which players have to hold up bricks while sliding from lane line to lane line; loose-ball drills that resemble a football fumble scrum; inclined sprints in a parking garage.

Last season, all those practices added up. The Cougars started earlier than usual because of a four-game exhibition tour of Australia in August, which granted them 10 official practices in July. By March, Kellen could see the mileage showing: “I thought that our needle got pretty close to empty, a little quicker than we would have wanted.”

How could a perennial contender be better longer into the spring? Kellen looked to LeBron James, who credits low-impact training for his staying power at the top of the basketball world. James has said if he had only one piece of equipment to train with for the rest of his life, it’d be the VersaClimber, an upright full-body workout machine.

This spring Houston purchased five VersaClimbers — specifically modified for taller users — and they arrived in time for summer school. The head coach was receptive to a change but a little worried it’d go against his mantra. “This ain’t cheer camp,” he would say.

Then he saw his players try the VersaClimber.

“And I go, I like the VersaClimber, because they hate it,” Kelvin Sampson said, flashing a big grin. “That thing is a problem. And our guys, it just puts them on their knees.”

“It’s no fun,” senior L.J. Cryer said.

“It’s easily the worst thing I’ve ever done in my life,” J’Wan Roberts said. “Easily. I feel like it hurts more when you get off. When you’re on it, you’re pushing, you’re pushing. But when you get off, it’s like your legs burnt.”

The VersaClimber replaced incline runs in the parking garage. Houston stayed off pavement and spent a couple weeks training in the sand this summer. The staff also consulted with NBA teams on ankle testing protocols and bought a machine for isometrically testing ankle and Achilles strength.

Sampson also wielded time on the VersaClimber as a punishment for mistakes. One of the VersaClimbers has taken up permanent residence in the corner of the practice gym.

When the Cougars went through speed and agility tests this fall, this year’s group posted faster results than any of Sampson’s first 10 teams. With almost an identical roster to last year, it was obvious what the difference maker was.

Sometimes injuries happen, like Shead’s sprained ankle — “purely fate, luck, misfortune,” Kelvin Sampson said — but if these changes could help reduce the chances for injury by even a half a percentage point, then it was worth it.

Houston’s first heavyweight prizefight of the season ended in a 74-69 loss to Auburn, but more are on the way. (Troy Taormina / Imagn Images)

During halftime of an October exhibition game, Sampson narrowed his gaze toward Oklahoma transfer guard Milos Uzan and implored him not to be afraid to shoot. Sampson’s suggestion that Uzan not act like he’s stealing candy from a five-and-dime store got a chuckle from the older folks in the back of the locker room, but it’s doubtful his players were familiar with the old-timey establishments he was referencing.

“Milos from Vegas?” Kellen Sampson said. “No chance.”

Some of his humor might go over the heads of his players, but the elder Sampson does not have any issue connecting with young people, demonstrated by the fact that his late 60s have been the prime of his career.

Sampson is aging like there’s a blockage in the hourglass. At practice, he often has a player stand off to the side as he takes his place and demonstrates what he wants.

“He’s probably the most consistent person I’ve ever met in my life,” said Roberts, who has been at Houston for six years. “Screams like he’s 30. Might be a little slow when he’s walking, but that intensity and fire is still there.”

“I never really thought about coaching at 70 until I turned 69,” Sampson said, chuckling. “Then I realized the next number.”

In 2019 after Houston made its first Sweet 16 trip under Sampson, Kellen worried that his father’s coaching days were numbered because his hips had impacted his quality of life.

“He was starting to have some negative thoughts,” Kellen said. “My grandfather had battled a lot of health issues. He passed when I was 28 (Kellen is 39 now), and I don’t remember my grandfather not having physical health issues. And I think some of that started to worry my dad. Am I following a similar path?”

The pandemic-canceled 2020 postseason provided an opportunity. The forced time away from the gym convinced Sampson he had a window to get surgery and recover.

“That changed everything,” Kellen said.

Now, Sampson rides scooters and bikes when goes to Kellen’s to see his grandchildren. He’ll go down slides in the park. “If you spend any time with him,” Kellen said, “there’s nothing about him which makes you think he’s slowing down.”

As a graduate assistant at Michigan State In 1979, Sampson and Tom Izzo used to roll out baskets to a parking lot, get some string and erasable paint and line off courts for summer camp. Early in his head coaching career, Sampson did everything because he didn’t have much help. At Montana Tech, his assistant coach (a volunteer) couldn’t even travel to road games because there wasn’t room in the van, which Sampson drove. Once he landed in bigger jobs at Washington State, Oklahoma and finally Indiana, he still wanted to be involved with everything.

Kellen is convinced his father’s late-career ascent was a direct result of being forced out at Indiana in 2008 and landing in the NBA as an assistant coach.

“A six-year recharge,” Kellen said. “Away from the cauldron, away from being the governor. He got off the hamster wheel where everything was just this endless cycle of perpetual work. He got a chance to spend some time without all of the intense pressure and scrutiny all the time, and the daily beatdown of being in the top tier.”

When Sampson returned to college, he surrounded himself with people he knew and trusted — including his son and the backcourt from his 2002 Final Four team — and the staff has seen few changes in 11 years. Lamar coach Alvin Brooks is the only assistant coach who has left, and eight of the staffers on his original staff are still at Houston.

“One of the signs of him getting older is that he just doesn’t care about things he can’t control anymore,” Kellen said. “I’m choosing not to worry about that. I’m choosing happy every day.”

Sampson’s zen-ish approach has also allowed him not to let the recent bad injury luck consume him. He quotes an old Tiger Woods line: “Keep getting to the back nine with a chance to win, eventually things will go your way.”

The Cougars get to the back nine just about every March. Their 2018 tourney team, the first under Sampson, was the only one not to make the second weekend, and it lost on a buzzer beater to eventual national runner-up Michigan in the second round.

Sampson believes almost every team he’s had since has been good enough to win the title, with one exception: the 2021 team that actually made the Final Four.

“We weren’t better than Baylor,” he said. “They were different. Best team we’ve played against in the 10 years I’ve been here. But this team, if this team stays healthy…”

Sampson’s mind wandered off to his rotation and how he’s trying to get Arceneaux, working his way back into game action after an Achilles tear, to trust that he’s going to be OK.

“I’ve realized it’s not good enough to be good enough,” he said. “You’ve got to be good enough and fortune has to smile your way sometime.”

The question is: How many more shots does he have left?

Sampson won’t give a number. “I think at some point all coaches have to think about what’s best for the game,” he said. “I want to be a good coach. I don’t want to be an old coach.”

Kellen has been the coach-in-waiting since 2023, which has kept him from even considering other opportunities that have arisen in recent years.

“Regardless of what’s waiting for me when I become a head coach. I’m never going to get these years with my dad back,” Kellen said. “I’m wagering big and I’d do it 100 times over that I’m going to cherish and love these years I’m getting with my dad way more than whatever extra years I would have had sitting in the big chair. I’m getting to extend time with my hero.”

Kellen’s sister Lauren isn’t going to give a number either, but the one change she’s noticed in her dad is that he smiles easier now. She saw Rob Gray, the star of the 2018 team, as the first senior who started to savor every moment once February hit. “I would say dad’s the same way,” she said. “You feel things more acutely. The joy is bigger. The heartbreak.”

The pain Sampson felt last March was not for himself, he said; it’s always for the players, especially his seniors.

Sampson gets another chance, and he would love to win that elusive title, but thinking about it won’t help.

“Just do the best you can, but do the best you can,” he said. “Do not not do the best you can. That’s important that you do that, because I owe it to these kids. I owe it to them. And that’s why, if it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, I’ve done everything I can to help them, put them in the best position so they can win.”

With an experienced and talented lineup returning, Sampson’s Cougars will again be a Big 12 and national championship factor. (Thomas B. Shea / Imagn Images)

This summer on a lazy Saturday afternoon, Sampson was at his office with his grandchildren when someone stopped by and told him that his former players in town training for The Basketball Tournament were playing at the arena.

Sampson and his grandchildren hustled over to the Fertita Center for what felt like a reunion.

“It was like a picture of what this program is about,” he said. “Because that doesn’t happen at every school. But in some ways that’s your championship is the program you built. I know what stage we’re on and our opportunities that we have and I hope we make it. I just know how hard it is.”

This year again promises to be a grind — Houston is one of six Big 12 teams in the Top 25 and will play at least two Final Four hopefuls before conference play begins. Kellen, meanwhile, does not shy away from the urgency that is felt to make sure his dad cuts down a net on the final Monday of the season before he turns in his whistle:

“Every second, every day. One VersaClimber at a time.”

(Top photo: Alex Slitz / Getty Images)

One of ESPN’s longtime programming staples, “Around the Horn,” will come to an end in the summer of 2025, two sources briefed on the plans confirmed Thursday. The New York Post first reported the news.

The roundtable discussion show, which features notable panelists from the media world discussing the day’s top stories, launched in 2002 with Max Kellerman as host. Tony Reali took over hosting duties in 2004 and has remained in that role ever since. The show became a popular mainstay on the network in the 5 p.m. ET time slot, pairing with “Pardon the Interruption” and featuring sportswriters and media personalities from around the country, including Woody Paige, Mina Kimes, Bill Plaschke, Jackie MacMullan, J.A. Adande and Elle Duncan, among others.

Erik Rydholm, the creator and executive producer of “Pardon the Interruption,” has overseen “Around the Horn” since 2004.

The Athletic’s Stephen J. Nesbitt described the show in a story on Reali in 2022 as evolving “from a barrage of bombastic debate into a smarter show where banter and nuance can coexist,” and wrote that “Reali has developed from a facilitator, a pass-first point guard, into a host whose voice and vulnerability have made a glorified game show into a refreshingly genuine space.”

It’s unclear what will be next for Reali, 46. In terms of the show’s slot, the network and Rydholm’s team are exploring other shows but don’t have an exact plan yet, a source briefed on the matter confirmed.

Required reading

(Photo: Michael Loccisano / Getty Images For ESPN)

Welcome to the heartbeat. Take a seat.

The Davis family living room in their White Plains, N.Y., home is, in many ways, ordinary. Two well-worn, cream-colored sofas directly across from each other. A circular coffee table between them. Floor-to-ceiling bay windows, with decorative candles on the ledge. And the soundtrack to it all? Usually, barking, courtesy of the family Yorkshire terrier, Diggy.

“Any life decisions we make,” RJ Davis said, “yep, in that living room.”

About five years ago, there was something else in that space, too: a poster board. On it, Davis, then a high school senior, had written the names of each of his four college finalists, the schools the four-star guard was considering attending. To make his choice, Davis used one of his mother Venessa’s favorite practices. “Pros and cons,” she said. “As a psychologist, it’s something you use a lot.” With Venessa and the rest of his family — father Rob, younger brother Bryce and, of course, Diggy — gathered in the living room, Davis worked through his options.

When he’d finished writing, the decision was obvious: North Carolina.

If he only knew then what the next four years would hold.

An up-and-down freshman season that ended with Roy Williams’ shocking retirement. Then a slog of a sophomore year — until the Tar Heels turned into a rocket ship and manufactured one of the most miraculous Final Four runs in March Madness history. That led to hype entering Davis’ junior year, all of which promptly went up in flames as UNC became the first preseason No. 1 team in the modern era to miss the NCAA Tournament. And, finally, Davis’ senior season, when he sprouted into a full-blown star, posting one of the best individual campaigns in the baby blue blood’s storied history.

𝘽𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙮 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚.@ariidavis_ is the 2024 ACC Preseason Player of the Year!

🔗 https://t.co/eeqt3A1Enc pic.twitter.com/pMR3OiwYtT

— ACC Men’s Basketball (@accmbb) October 15, 2024

This spring, at the end of April, the Davis family once again gathered in their operations center. Another decision needed to be made: Would Davis — a first-team All-American last season and one of college basketball’s most recognizable figures — return to college for a fifth season, available because of the COVID-19 pandemic, or go pro?

Because Davis is only 6 feet, the feedback he received from the NBA Draft advisory committee suggested he’d go late in the second round or undrafted entirely. But coming off his best season, what more could he prove to scouts?

“I’ve always had dreams and aspirations of playing at the next level, of playing in the NBA,” he said, “and it’s like, why not right now?”

Davis settled into one of the sofas. Time to talk.

The first weekend of April, Davis was exactly where he’d dreamed of being: Phoenix, the site of the Final Four.

Just not for the reason he’d hoped.

That’s because the past two seasons, Davis had a singular motivation: a redo. Ever since North Carolina magically stormed through the NCAA Tournament in Hubert Davis’ debut season, advancing all the way to the 2022 national title game, he wanted another crack at college hoops immortality. He was 20 minutes and a 15-point halftime lead versus Kansas away from hanging a seventh NCAA championship banner in the Dean Smith Center, and then, whoosh, everything evaporated. He’s one of five active players left from that team but the only one still wearing Carolina blue.

Last season, Davis unequivocally became “the guy” for the first time in his college career, especially after his three-year backcourt mate, Caleb Love, transferred to Arizona. And he did everything in his power to will the Tar Heels back to that stage while rewriting UNC’s record books. Davis went from averaging 12 points and three assists per game during his first three seasons in Chapel Hill to setting career highs in points (21.2 per game), 3-point percentage (39.8), assist-to-turnover ratio (better than 2-1) and steals (1.2). But most importantly, he led UNC to its first ACC regular-season title and No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament since 2019.

A redo, suddenly, seemed like a very realistic possibility.

Then came the Sweet 16. Red-hot Alabama. And Davis, for the first time all season, went cold. He’d made at least one 3-pointer in all 36 games to that point but went 0-for-9 from deep in a 2-point loss to the Crimson Tide.

“Shots I normally make,” Davis said. “Had I made one 3 …”

His voice trailed off.

“I kind of felt like it was my fault, just because we were so close to reaching … everything.”

A week later, Davis was there in the desert as a finalist for the Naismith College Player of the Year Award, presented annually at the Final Four. Even brushing elbows with the biggest names in the sport, being recognized for his on-court excellence, Davis couldn’t shake one underlying thought: I’d rather be playing.

He couldn’t bring himself to turn on any of that weekend’s Final Four games.

On one hand, Davis’ jam-packed trophy case spoke for itself, including ACC Player of the Year and the Jerry West Award (given annually to the nation’s top shooting guard). He etched himself into North Carolina lore, in the same stratosphere of excellence as some of the school’s best guards, names such as Phil Ford, Ty Lawson and, yes, even Michael Jordan. By virtue of his accomplishments, his jersey is going the same place theirs did: the Smith Center rafters.

But at the same time, he couldn’t stop ruminating. On the loss to Alabama. The what-ifs. Every minute detail that added up to defeat.

By the time he landed back in Chapel Hill, offseason roster-building was already in full swing. Hubert Davis was holding end-of-season meetings with all his players. And Davis knew what his head coach was going to ask, whenever they sat down:

So, RJ, what are you going to do?

Tyler Hansbrough doesn’t play much basketball these days.

“My knees,” the now-39-year-old joked. “If I’m on the court, my knees are gonna have some issues.”

But Hansbrough still works out regularly, even sneaking over to the Smith Center for a lift when he can. One day in April, he was finishing a session when a familiar face approached.

“Rarely do I try to give anybody advice,” Hansbrough said, “but he actually asked me.”

It makes sense why Davis sought Hansbrough out. The star guard spoke to plenty of people in his circle about what he should do: Armando Bacot, his four-year teammate and close friend; Cam Johnson, arguably UNC’s top active NBA player; Theo Pinson, who won the program’s last championship in 2017; and even Marcus Paige, now on North Carolina’s coaching staff. But nobody could offer the perspective Hansbrough could.

That’s because about 15 years ago, Hansbrough was in the same bind. After his standout junior season, when the 6-foot-9 forward was the unanimous national player of the year, averaging a career-best 22.6 points and 10.2 rebounds, he, too, had a pro decision to make. Had he declared, based on feedback that then-coach Williams had gathered, Hansbrough learned he likely would’ve been a late lottery pick.

But like Davis, he couldn’t get his mind off a recent NCAA Tournament heartbreak. UNC had just lost to Kansas in the 2008 Final Four, only its third defeat all season, and Hansbrough hadn’t been at his best.

“Everyone thinks that whenever you get a chance to go to the NBA, you have to go. But if you believe in yourself and you think you can be a pro, one more year in college, that’s not going to derail your pro chances,” Hansbrough said. “One more year wasn’t going to change anything for me, and I felt like I could improve.”

And?

“And we had a chance to win a national championship.”

The rest is history. Hansbrough came back, and his decision was validated when UNC did win the national title his senior season. Hansbrough was right about his pro prospects, too; the Indiana Pacers selected him 13th in the 2009 NBA Draft, the same late-lottery range that was forecast for him a year prior.

The other consideration Hansbrough mentioned to Davis? Name, image and likeness, which didn’t exist in his heyday. Davis knew NIL wouldn’t be the primary factor in his decision — “If money wasn’t involved, I’d still be playing basketball,” he said. But by virtue of his record-setting senior season, he’d earned a bevy of endorsement deals: Crocs, Verizon and one of his favorites, JBL. (Although it probably wasn’t his neighbors’ favorite; Davis’ JBL speaker may or may not have earned him a noise complaint at his apartment complex. “There’s a bass boost, so I always press that,” Davis said with a wry smile, “and the next thing you know, it’s boom.”)

Hansbrough explained his thought process to Davis in UNC’s weight room and left him with one final thought.

“You can listen to all the most important people in your life,” Hansbrough said, “and you can take their advice — which you should value — but you’re the only one that has to live your life.”

Not long after his talk with Hansbrough, Davis returned to White Plains.

“I like to go home and get grounded,” he said, “because that’s where I feel safe, and that’s where my heart lives.”

Still unsure of what he’d do, the guard continued training. Most days, he met with his skills trainer, Ross Burns, at the local Life Time Fitness, and he regularly drove to Connecticut to meet with a strength and conditioning specialist. And between those sessions, it wasn’t uncommon for Davis to swing by his old high school, Archbishop Stepinac, for an early morning or late-night shooting session.

“My good companions here in the building are our maintenance guys,” said Patrick Massaroni, Davis’ high school coach at Stepinac. “We make it work.”

Other schools poked around Davis, his parents said, seeing if he’d consider entering the transfer portal, but UNC and the NBA were the only options he considered. Whenever he thought he’d made up his mind, that lingering memory of not winning a championship reared its head.

“My mind,” he said, “was changing every day.”

GO DEEPER

Men’s college basketball preseason All-Americans: Sears, Flagg, Davis lead the way

With the May 1 deadline for Davis to decide rapidly approaching, he had to stop waffling. So, back to the living room for final deliberations.

Bryce — now a freshman at Albany — wasn’t in town, so Davis FaceTimed his younger brother and put the phone in his lap. Rob and Venessa sat across from him on the opposite sofa. Diggy scurried across the hardwood floor.

Rob and Venessa reiterated what Hansbrough said: It’s your life, and you have to live with your choice.

With his mind racing, Davis stepped outside to gather his thoughts. He sat down on the family’s front porch steps and made a phone call.

To Williams, the coach who recruited him to UNC in the first place.

He walked around the block on the phone, and then came back to the family living room. “Whatever they talked about, he didn’t share,” Venessa said, “but it seemed to settle him, for sure.”

Davis didn’t make up his mind right then, but a few days later, Davis came downstairs from his bedroom and announced he’d made his decision.

Davis kept his decision close to the vest. He told his parents, obviously. Hubert Davis. But he didn’t even text his teammates.

“I wanted,” he said, flashing a toothy grin, “to keep people on their toes a little bit.”

So on the night of April 30, Davis set a timer on his phone for 3 a.m. and went to sleep. When the alarm went off, he woke up and posted a highlight video to Instagram with a simple two-word caption: “I’m back.” And then … Davis put his phone on “Do Not Disturb” and went back to bed.

The ultimate mic drop, letting the college basketball world stir while he slept.

“It wasn’t like I was saying no to my dreams (of playing in the NBA); it’s more so, I’m putting them on pause,” Davis said. “Besides the year I had this past year, there was no greater feeling than playing in that Final Four and playing in that national championship my sophomore year. I just remember watching the ball go up, and the buzzer sound hit, and we were on the losing side. … I want to be on that winning side.”

His decision finally behind him, Davis drilled down on his shooting the rest of the summer, motivated by that 0-for-9 showing against Alabama.

How much of his training was done through an NBA lens, knowing he’ll likely have to play point guard because of his size? Not much.

“That’s where guys get in trouble: They start listening to critics or scouts and start thinking they’ve got to change something,” Burns said. “No. Really, just keep being the dominant, elite shooter and scorer you are — and because you’re going to have more eyeballs on you, be a facilitator.”

So far, so good on that front: Through three games, Davis has 14 assists against just three turnovers. No. 10 UNC plays Hawaii on Friday and begins play Monday in the Maui Invitational.

There is so much still on the table for Davis this season, but three things stand above the rest.

A December rematch with Alabama as part of the ACC-SEC Challenge. The chance for Davis, if he scores the same number of points he did last season, to tie Hansbrough atop UNC’s, and the ACC’s, all-time scoring list (albeit with an extra season). “That’s hard to put into perspective,” he said. “Once I graduate and officially leave, then it’ll hit me. Like, wow, I really accomplished a lot of great things here.” And finally?

Hang a banner. Complete the redo.

“I’m just going to fulfill this moment,” Davis said, “and make the best of it.”

(Top photo of Elon’s Nick Dorn and UNC’s RJ Davis: Grant Halverson / Getty Images)