“We’re Still Houston” — Jamal Shead Vows UH Will Bounce Back After Intense Loss to Penny Hardaway’s Starry Memphis Team

His black University of Houston hoodie pulled up tight over his head to brace for the cold waiting for him outside the arena, Jamal Shead stops for a moment to give Fabian White Jr.’s mom a hug. Everyone loves White’s family. But the embrace is just a momentary distraction from Shead replaying Houston’s 69-59 loss to Memphis in his head.

Shead is kicking himself for the way he started the game. When his late flourish — driving down the lane to throw down a dunk, hitting a pull up three and then a floater in the lane to put UH up 53-48 with five minutes remaining — is mentioned, the point guard shakes his head. Scoring 10 points in the last 9:45 of the game means little to Shead.

“I didn’t play very good the rest of the game,” he says. “I didn’t bring the right intensity early.”

Penny Hardaway’s Memphis team is celebrating down the hall, very much enjoying its trip to the Third Ward. The Tigers chant “Fuck Houston! Fuck Houston!” in the tunnel before the game as they wait to run out onto the court. And they even take a souvenir photo in the Fertitta Center’s visitors locker room afterward.

Houston’s 37 game home winning streak — second in the nation only to mighty Gonzaga — is history. But Jamal Shead is already vowing to be better — and he dismisses any idea that this Houston team, which will surely tumble out of the Top 10 now, could tailspin.

“We’re still Houston,” Shead tells PaperCity. “We’re a good team. Good teams bounce back. And we’ll bounce back.”

The injured — and stuck in a walking boot at the moment — Marcus Sasser will likely be waiting for Shead in his room. That’s what Sasser usually does. He wants to be there to talk over the game with the young point guard who’s trying to fill his big shoes. Even while he can’t play, Sasser is determined to impart any knowledge he can, anything he notices from the bench, to Jamal Shead. Shead appreciates these point guard bull sessions.

These back-to-back losses at SMU and home to Memphis, two talented (crazy talented in the case of Hardaway’s squad) and desperate teams, were almost predictable. Without Sasser and Tramon Mark and down to what is essentially a seven man rotation, Kelvin Sampson’s overachieving team is running on fumes.

The surprising thing is not that Houston has lost two games in a row for the first time in five years. The amazing thing is that these limited, no depth Cougars managed to keep winning at such a prolific pace — still often in dominant fashion — for so long without Sasser and Mark.

Good teams are now building gameplans around Houston’s lack of depth. It’s no coincidence that the Cougars have lost halftime leads in two straight games. Or that Memphis went on a 15-0 run in the closing minutes of this Saturday afternoon national TV affair after UH took that 53-48 lead. Shead, Taze Moore, Kyler Edwards and Fabian White are getting worn down.

“We knew coming in that they only played about six or seven guys,” Memphis wonder freshman Jalen Duren says. “So we knew we had a lot more bodies than them. We just knew we had to pressure, pressure, pressure. . .

“We had bodies to just keep throwing at them.”

Not just bodies. Super talents in some cases. Duren jumps faster than anyone else can and skies high above the rim to slam down a critical putback dunk with 2:20 remaining. It’s a stunning burst of athleticism from a 6-foot-11 teen. Sitting in the front row, current Houston Rockets Jalen Green and Josh Christopher look as wowed as anyone. The 18-year-old Duren is almost assured of being a Top 10 pick in this summer’s NBA Draft for good reason.

“Everybody keep talking about it,” Duren says when I ask him about the putback dunk. “I honestly was just going off of what Coach was telling me to do. Coach told me late, ‘Every rebound. Every rebound. Every rebound.’ ”

Houston won’t have a big anywhere close to as athletic as Jalen Duren (14 points, 11 rebounds) until next season. But it is Memphis’ 3-point shooting — with Landers Nolley II, Lester Quinones and DeAndre Williams going a combined 9 for 13 from distance — and uncharacteristically excellent free throw shooting that really did the Cougars in. Coming into the game shooting 66 percent from the charity stripe, Hardaway’s team hits 18 straight free throws after missing its first one of the game.

“Penny did a much better job of getting his kids ready to play than I did getting mine ready to play,” Sampson says in his shortest postgame press conference of the season. “We got down 15-4. Then over the course of the game, we go up five. . .

“I think we can beat Memphis. But Memphis can certainly beat us. What we can’t do is beat both teams. When you have 19 turnovers, you’re playing against two teams. We’re not good enough to beat both teams.”

Which doesn’t mean Kelvin Sampson doubts he can still win now. The four days before UH’s next game against UCF Thursday night at the Fertitta Center present a critical chance to recharge and regroup.

“Hopefully, I do a better job of getting our kids ready to play,” Sampson says. “But our team is what it is. No excuses here. We’ve just got to play better man.”

Houston needs Kyler Edwards to get back in an offensive groove. The Texas Tech transfer, who’s carried the Cougars at times this season, shoots 1 for 9 from three against Memphis as UH scores its fewest points in any game this season. Kelvin Sampson’s team also needs big man difference maker Josh Carlton to rebound from a four point afternoon where he only takes four shots.

“We’re still Houston. We’re a good team. Good teams bounce back. And we’ll bounce back.” — UH point guard Jamal Shead

Memphis and Penny Hardaway’s Statement Game

In truth, Memphis (14-8) needed this game more than Houston (20-4) — and it showed at times. Penny Hardaway’s team started the season in the Top 10, but before this current five game winning streak, the Tigers’ NCAA Tournament visions were all but getting last rites.

“To be able to come in here today and do that is special,” Hardaway says in the hallway outside his pumped up locker room. “Today is special. This is the No. 1 (win). . . To kind of beat them at their own game, trying to out hustle them, to out scrape them. They force you to do that. And our guys were ready for it both mentally and physically.

“But this win is definitely No. 1.”

You could see that in how the Tigers pumped themselves up before the game with that harsh chant just before taking the court. (One which clearly annoyed newly extended UH football Dana Holgorsen, who was standing nearby.) You could see it in how the Tigers barked and trash talked at the Houston bench all game long. This game meant everything to a Memphis program that lost two heart crushing games to Kelvin Sampson’s Final Four team last season.

“It’s an intense rivalry,” Memphis forward DeAndre Williams says. “We want to beat them bad. They want to beat us bad. Everyone’s talking.”

It certainly means a lot to Williams, who graduated from nearby Klein Forest High School in 2016 and is now a 25-year-old college senior making the most of his last shot. Williams had more than 30 people at the game to see him. And many of them are still in the stands when Hardaway goes into them to take pictures more than a half hour after the final buzzer.

The former NBA star is still something of a celebrity coach, still more well known for his playing career. But he certainly seems to be winning over this Memphis team. “Best coach in the country!” Jalen Duren shouts out as he walks behind the media scrum interviewing Hardaway.

The Tigers have never been more comfortable in Houston’s arena. Meanwhile, Sampson’s team suddenly finds itself looking up at SMU in the American Athletic Conference standings — thanks to the Mustangs’ holding the tiebreaker at the moment due to their head-to-head win.

There will be more twists in this season, though. UH’s much more talented Final Four team lost three AAC games last season. Jamal Shead is certain the Cougars will be back. And he’s not the only one.

“Our kids will be resilient,” Sampson says. “We’ll bounce back.”