No. 1 Seed Houston Loses 'Heart And Soul' With Jamal Shead Injury, Falls To Duke

DALLAS - Houston point guard Jamal Shead looked like he was in a commercial for a new horror movie.

And for the No. 1 seed Houston Cougars, he was. At times, from the Houston bench with a grade four right ankle sprain suffered in the first half, he couldn't watch. He often pushed his fleece over his eyes as No. 4 seed Duke came back and dominated his Houston team without him for a 54-51 win Friday night to advance to the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight here at the American Airlines Center. 

The Blue Devils (27-8) will play No. 11 seed North Carolina State (25-14) in an all-Atlantic Coast Conference NCAA South Regional championship game on Sunday (5:05 p.m., CBS).

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North Carolina State upset No. 2 seed Marquette earlier Friday, 67-58.

Houston senior point guard Jamnal Shead is a major reason why the Cougars have been an elite team over the last four seasons. (Getty Images)

Shead, a senior guard from near Austin averaging 12.9 points and 6.3 assists a game, turned his right ankle with 6:38 to go in the first half and Houston leading 16-10. He had only two points on 1-of-5 shooting at the time with three assists and two steals, but the Cougars were lost without him. Duke took a 23-22 lead at the half, never trailed again and outscored Houston, 33-21, from the point of the injury until the 10:16 mark of the second half to take a 43-37 lead and eventually wore down the Cougars.

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"He is a first-team All American. He is a Big 12 player of the year. He's a Big 12 defensive player of the year. He's the heart and soul of this team," Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said. "I doubt any team in America has - maybe (Zach) Edey from Purdue - a player who means as much to their team as Jamal means to this team. There's just not another Jamal. He was the best player on the floor tonight. He's been the best player on the floor every game we've played this year except a few."

Had Houston won, Shead would have missed the rest of the NCAA Tournament as Sampson said the injury will take four to six weeks to heal. 

"I hate that it ended like this," Shead said. "I wish I could have got back out there and at least been in the fight. It would have been different if I could have at least limped around a little bit and fought a little."

It was Shead with Sampson who made the Houston program elite again as it went 28-4 and reached the Final Four in Shead's freshman season of 2020-21. Seasons of 32-6 and the Elite Eight and 33-4 and the Sweet 16 followed the previous two seasons before this 32-5 finish.

"We got a No. 1 seed because of his leadership, his toughness, his ability to make everybody better," Sampson said. "We didn't have another one. We don't have another Jamal. You say, ‘Well, who is your point guard to replace Jamal?’ We don't have a point guard to replace Jamal. We've had guys to go in and rest him. Sometimes, that's just God's work. It just wasn't our time."

Former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski (right) leads his team in a game in the 2020-21 season with then-assistant coach Jon Scheyer at his side. (Getty Images)

Meanwhile, Duke second-year coach Jon Scheyer is doing his best to replace the god of Duke - former coach Mike Krzyzewski, who retired after reaching the Final Four in 2022. Coach K had two Elite Eight finishes in 2018 and ‘19. Scheyer did manage Duke’s first win over a better-seeded team since the No. 2 seeded Blue Devils beat No. 1 seed Purdue in 1994 to reach the Final Four before losing to Arkansas in the title game.

Scheyer's No. 5-seeded team got pushed around by 4 seed Tennessee last season in a 65-52 loss to Tennessee in the second round.

"Coach K has prepared me for moments like this one, because we've been in so many games like this together, starting when I was a player for four years, but then being on staff with him for 11 years," he said. "You have to show great poise in these moments. You know your team wants it really badly, but I'm fortunate. I'm beyond fortunate to have learned from him as a player and as a coach - just the amount of situations you're in together. I could go on and on. Being down in a game, being up, just learning how to win, that's the biggest thing I've learned from him."