The Houston Cougars punched their ticket to the Final Four Sunday with a win over No. 2 seed Tennessee and afterward, it was hard to tell who was happier — coach Kelvin Sampson and his players, or Houston superfan Jim Nantz.
Nantz, of course, is no stranger to March Madness, having called every Final Four for CBS from 1991 through 2023. But the Houston graduate is a huge fan, and he made a big road trip this weekend from Nashville to watch the Cougars play in Indianapolis.
“Just feel like taking in a road trip,” Nantz told PaperCityMag.com. “I just feel like being on the road to the Final Four. I want to be authentic. So I think I looked it up — two hundred and 90 miles. Here I come.”
Nantz loved what he saw from the No. 1 seed Cougars, who got out to a 19-point halftime lead and won, 69-50. Afterward, Nantz told Paper City’s Chris Baldwin he enjoys seeing the national media overlook his favorite team.
“This was a great performance, virtuoso, masterful,” Nantz said. “These guys are amazingly bonded. I’ll tell you a theme that I hope evolves … and the national media goes and picks against us again. We’re always underrated, underestimated. I really believe that. I know all the panels on all the studio shows, every network, everybody picked Tennessee. What they don’t understand, we’re used to that. … we’re immune to that.”
Nantz earned an honorary spot in the Houston team photo after the game, as Sampson summoned him over.
Nantz told Paper City he plans to attend the Final Four in San Antonio’s Alamodome, where he did play-by-play for four Final Fours. He’s taking his son Jamo with him. (No word on whether he’ll bring the harmonica he famously played in a Capital One March Madness commercial.)
The legendary announcer even found a way to comment on the current state of college basketball in the NIL/transfer portal era.
“I hope that when we get into the week, people will look at this team as a throwback team to what college basketball used to be,” Nantz told Baldwin. “Because our guys stay. … no one does that anymore. We’re the most committed team in college basketball.”