On this day in 1978:
The Houston Cougars won the Southwest Conference Classic at The Summit, 92-90 over #12 Texas. It was Houston’s first SWC basketball title. Mike Schultz had 10 points and 16 rebounds and was named the tournament MVP.
Guy V. Lewis used his bench in a major way in the game: George Walker, Mark Trammell, and Cedric Fears combined to score 29 points, including 17 in the second half, 16 rebounds, and 13 assists.
After narrowly missing the NCAA Tournament the season before (and going to the NIT title game), the win over Texas erased any chance of getting left out again. Texas was left out of the NCAA Tournament and went on to win the NIT.
“Ol’ Guy is getting tricky,” UT coach Abe Lemons said after the game with a smile. “He pulled out some old plays tonight I hadn’t seen in a long time.
“You know, Guy’s getting up in age. These close games aren’t good for his health. At his age, he needs to win games by big margins.”
Lemons was eight months younger than Lewis. The two coaches had faced each other 22 times prior to that night in The Summit.
To win the Classic, the third-seeded Cougars beat Rice at Hofheinz on February 25th in the preliminary round, then beat the three other highest-seeded teams in three nights: #4 Texas Tech, #2 Arkansas, and #1 Texas. It was UH’s 25th win of the season.
UH players elected to stay in their dorms rather than at the Greenway Plaza hotel that housed the other teams. The Coogs did not even have a team bus: players drove themselves to the arena each night.
