O’Donnell: Illini-Houston — two ambitious, resourced arcs set to collide
IF THURSDAY NIGHT'S SWEET SIXTEENER between Illinois and Houston was a postseason football game, it could be called “The Open Pockets Forgive and Forget Bowl.”
Some reasons:
· Two major basketball universities, despite decades of trying, still starving for an NCAA men's championship;
· Both schools coached by chief sideline directors with pasts that brush up against “expungable”;
· Giddy, hungry, high-level boosters more than willing to freely give in the open startup era of Name, Image & Likeness money to see their old alma mater cut down the happy twine on Championship Monday.
THE OIL-FIELD INDICATOR IS THAT much Lone Star luck is pointing toward Kelvin Sampson and his Cougars to present an extremely formidable South Region barrier to Brad Underwood's Fighting Illini (9:05 p.m.; TBS/truTV; Kevin Harlan, Stan Van Gundy and Robbie Hummel).
When first-look odds went up late Saturday, No. 2 seed Houston was favored by 2½ points. That number has swelled to 3½ over 3-seed Illinois.
That trending is understandable, in part because the game will be played at the Toyota Center, an arena roughly 2 miles from the main campus of the University of Houston.
(For the Orange Krush, it's a shame that the NCAA couldn't have slotted the game into Urbana.)
STRATEGICALLY, THERE'S NOT A LOT to dissect.
The Cougars play tight, disciplined defense. The Illini bomb away, even by their big men.
Houston will try to slow tempo and neuter the arc, meaning every Illinois 3-pointer takes on added import.
David Mirkovic, Keaton Wagler and fellow Orange must begin well, try to speed up the Cougars and manage the predictable lasso tricks that will come in front of the stacked pro-rodeo crowd.
REGARDING SAMPSON AND UNDERWOOD, it's yet another tale of two seasoned dancers attempting to sustain a golden March.
Sampson is in his 12th season as head coach at Houston. Even in his happiest public moments, he projects the look of a man who is tired of pleading “not guilty.”
Back in 2008, the NCAA found him guilty of serious recruiting violations at Indiana in pursuit of the properly touted super wing Eric Gordon.
GORDON REPORTEDLY HAD IT DOWN to Sampson's Hoosiers or Bruce Weber's Illini.
He selected Indiana. But by the time Gordon laced sneakers for his one-and-done in Bloomington, Sampson was gone, nailed with a five-year “show cause” sanction for his sins.
He found exile in the NBA, first with Milwaukee (2008-2011) and then with the Houston Rockets (2011-14).
IT WAS WHIILE WITH THE ROCKETS that he gained the ear of Tilman Fertitta, a Houston billionaire who made his money in chain restaurants, casinos, hotels and assorted tangents of new tech.
Fertitta was also en route to serving as chairman of the University of Houston's Board of Regents. He'd buy the Rockets for $2.2B in October 2017 and make an all-in run for an NBA crown with Mike D'Antoni and Jeff Bzdelik constantly trying to get James Harden to expand his super-shot skill set and play defense.
Fertitta is accustomed to winning big. Sampson especially stoked his imagination when he told him: “Players and coaches win games. Administrations win national championships.”
Fertitta has been the primary bankroll behind the charges of the Cougars ever since.
SAMPSON HAS CONSISTENTLY knocked on heaven's door.
Since the pandemic, his NCAA Tournament finishes have been: a Final Four (2021), an Elite Eight (2022), consecutive Sweet Sixteens (2023-24) and last April's 65-63 championship game loss to Florida.
Sampson also remains one of the few major coaches in NCAA history to come back with such on-court success after a potentially career-breaking “show cause.”
AS FOR UNDERWOOD, his sideline stumble is so far in the comparative past that more rabid Illinois basketball faithful don't want it resurrected.
From 2013-16, while head coach at Stephen F. Austin — 143 miles north of Houston — Underwood's Lumberjacks posted impressive seasons of 32-3, 29-5 and 28-6.
But when a university violation of properly monitoring academic eligibility requirements across multiple sports was discovered, all 57 wins of Underwood's final two campaigns were vacated. That included three victories in the NCAA tournament.
WITH ILLINOIS SINCE 2017, all of Underwood's NCAA appearances have come since the pandemic. That scroll includes: Rounds of 32 (2021-22), Round of 64 (2023), Elite Eight (2024) and Round of 32 (2025).
Taking into account the Illini's wins over Penn and VCU this past weekend, Underwood's Orange are 8-5 in The Grand Fandango.
By all reports, the money people now behind Illinois men's basketball — people like former ABC Sports president Dennis Swanson — are only mildly antsy about Underwood's March flameouts.
SO TWO AMBITIOUS PROGRAM ARCS COLLIDE Thursday night in Houston. The winner will advance to play the survivor of 4-seed Nebraska vs. 9-seed Iowa Saturday.
One will win with a huge shot at the Final Four. The other will lose and try to more adroitly spend before the transfer portal for 2026-27 constricts.
But both can walk off saying that they played in the 2026 “Open Pockets Forgive and Forget Bowl.”
Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears each week on Sunday and Wednesday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.