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40 Years After Phi Slama Jama, There’s Hope in Houston for a Better Finish

The 1982-83 Houston Cougars, a sensation nicknamed Phi Slama Jama, lost the N.C.A.A. men’s title game to North Carolina State on a dunk in the final moments.

Houston earned a No. 1 seed in the N.C.A.A. Division I men’s basketball tournament for the first time since 1983, when the team reached the championship game.Credit...Associated Press

Forty years is too long to hold onto heartbreak. Members of the 1983 Houston men’s basketball team, which found itself on the wrong side of one of the most famous upsets in N.