J acob McFarland hears the crowd roar as what he’s been waiting and waiting for, daring to keep dreaming of through every setback, and all the pain, finally happens. “No. 13, Jacob McFarland,” the Fertitta Center public address announcer intones, introducing the talented 6-foot-11 center for the first time. McFarland is finally playing in a real game for the University of Houston, more than 900 days since he first showed as a wide-eyed freshman for summer conditioning in June of 2023. Two surgeries on the right leg that snapped and shattered in a practice in October 29th, 2024 — one of the most gruesome injuries Kelvin Sampson, UH’s 70-year-old basketball lifer of a coach, has ever seen — and a knee issue that cropped up could not stop McFarland from pushing on.

From getting to this intr

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