March Madness kicks off Thursday and one of the biggest stories from the tournament will be how a tiny school in rural Virginia ended up with a coach who's traveled Houston's highways and back roads.
When Longwood University learned on Selection Sunday that it was playing the powerful University of Houston, it became another twist within a remarkable turn of events for the Lancers head coach, Griff Aldrich.
“Is this the basketball gods tugging at your heartstrings,” asks KHOU 11 sports anchor Jason Bristol.
“I don't know,” replied Aldrich with a chuckle. “I think it's a neat thing.”
As we first reported two years ago, Aldrich was a former partner at one of Houston's oldest law firms before starting his own oil and gas company, and later becoming the CFO of a billion-dollar private equity firm.
“I never anticipated that this was in the cards,” said Aldrich.
Along the way, the small college basketball player inside him developed a hoops ministry program in Houston's Third Ward serving underprivileged kids.
“It was my wife who was really the catalyst saying, ‘Hey, well, don't you love college basketball? Shouldn't you explore that?’”
Aldrich left his high-paying job and ultimately wound up at Longwood. Four years in, the Lancers – with players from Houston – made their first-ever NCAA tourney in 2022. They've now made it to two of the last three tournaments.
D.A. Houston, from Houston, is still on the team.
“He's intense," Houston said of Aldrich. "He can be intense. And I mean, we, I mean, we appreciate that because we all know it's coming from a good place.”
And now, can the coach with the out-of-the-ordinary back story do the extraordinary -- upset a Number 1 seed?
“I think we need to be praying a lot over the next several days," Aldrich said. "So we need to make sure everybody's right with God first. Honestly, we (just) need to play the way Longwood basketball is played."
The odds are stacked against Longwood. Still, Longwood, with three players from Houston, is going to give it its best shot.