Houston walk-on makes clutch free throw in March Madness after barely playing all year

The top-seeded Hughson Cougars were in major foul trouble in the final minutes of the Round of 32 game. Texas A&M on Sunday night. By the end of the game, three players had fouled out, including Emmanuel Sharpe, who scored 30 points in the game, Javier Francis, and Big 12 Player of the Year Jamal Shihed.

Houston was up 13-3 in the final minutes of the game. A stunning collapse by the Cougars forced Texas A&M into overtime. Suddenly, the No. 1 seed faced the possibility of his season ending in the most embarrassing way possible.

Houston advanced to the second round with a 100-95 victory over the Aggies. They accomplished that thanks to clutch free throws from a walk-on who had barely played all season.

When Shihed fouled out, senior guard Ryan Elvin entered the game, an impossible situation that left him feeling pressured. Forget about going from the frying pan to the fire. This is going straight to the volcano. Ervin entered with 18 seconds left in overtime, but was unsurprisingly immediately fouled by the Aggies. Still, everyone on Houston’s bench looked pretty calm when he took the line. Ervin played just 173 minutes in his entire career with the Cougars, but he headed to the line with the confidence of a kid who knew one of them was going to go down.

With 17 seconds left and Houston leading by three points, Ervin made two free throws to make it a two-possession game and sealed the victory. There must have been ice running through his veins.

Yes, Elvin is a University of Houston reject, but he’s such an integral part of the Cougar basketball team that it almost makes no sense to call him that.paper city writer chris baldwin’s Talking about Elvin, star guard LJ Cryer talked about how Baylor assigned him to guard Elvin in his first practice after transferring, and how Cryer despised it. After that, Erwin actually started cooking for Cryer, and the two became close as Cryer adjusted to life in Houston. Elvin is a team captain for the Cougars, which is even more unusual for a player who didn’t have a scholarship when he joined.

The respect Elvin has earned and deserves was felt in his postgame reaction to Houston’s return to the Sweet 16.

Houston coach Kelvin Sampson spoke about Elvin and his confidence in him at the line, as well as what Elvin means to the Houston program.

Yes, Ervin was a walk-on who only hit four free throws all season. But the confidence the team showed in him made it abundantly clear that he was much more than that. What a win for Houston, right down to the last player on the roster.