March Madness

Father and Son Set to Face Off as Coaches in Final Four: ‘All Love!'

The Final Four game between Houston and Baylor will include Cougars assistant Alvin Brooks going against son Alvin Brooks III, an assistant for the Bears

a rack of basketballs

The good news for the Brooks family is that a team from Texas with Alvin Brooks on its coaching staff is guaranteed to be playing in this year's NCAA men's basketball championship game.

The bad news for the family is that a team from Texas with Alvin Brooks on its coaching staff will definitely have its season come to an end in Saturday's Final Four showdown.

It will be father vs. son in the NCAA semifinals, as Alvin Brooks is an assistant coach at the University of Houston, while his son, Alvin Brooks III, is an assistant for Baylor University. They will square off in Indianapolis on Saturday with a trip to the championship game on the line.

The younger Brooks celebrated the special family moment by posting a video on Twitter Tuesday of him hugging his father and beaming with pride.

"I am coaching against my Pops @Coach_Al_Brooks in the Final Four," he wrote. "Everyday I would say I can’t wait to see what God have in store. This is a big moment for our family! #FinalFour."

The elder Brooks shared his son's tweet, writing, "ALL LOVE!"

Brooks has been an assistant at Houston since 2010 after having previously been the head coach from 1993-98, while Brooks III has been on the staff at Baylor since 2016 after starting his career in the junior college ranks.

"He never pushed me to play a sport at all and allowed me to kind of grow and do what I love to do,” Brooks III said on a Zoom call with reporters, according to The Associated Press. "I actually never wanted to be a coach, so he never really brought me around the gym as much because he wanted me to be a kid and enjoy it organically."

This isn't the first time they have been on opposing sidelines during a game, as Brooks III was previously an assistant at Sam Houston State, which played Houston multiple times.

However, this is by far their biggest matchup. Houston is in its first Final Four since the famed "Phi Slama Jama" team of 1984 led by NBA legend Hakeem Olajuwon. The Cougars have never won an NCAA men's basketball title.

Meanwhile, Baylor is playing in its first Final Four since 1950 and also has never won the tournament.

It's guaranteed to be a hot ticket for the Brooks family, who are having T-shirts made that are half red and half green to show their support for both men, according to the elder Brooks.

"I’ve received a lot of texts, a lot of calls, and I’m sure you have, too,” Brooks III said to his father on the Zoom call. "We’re going to have to figure out how we’re going to make it work."

The trip to the Final Four is also a special family moment for Baylor head coach Scott Drew. He is the first in a family of head coaches that includes his father, Homer, and brother, Bryce, to coach in a Final Four after nearly 2,000 games coached between the three of them.

"We’re just thrilled one of us got in there," Homer Drew told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "It’s been wonderful and memorable. Scott has been there 18 years and it seems like he just got there."

The showdown between Brooks and his son also comes in a season in which there was a historic father vs. daughter coaching matchup. In January, the Army women’s basketball team, led by head coach Dave Magarity, lost twice to the College of the Holy Cross, coached by his daughter, Maureen Magarity. It's believed to be the first time in Division 1 women's basketball history that a father and daughter faced each other as head coaches.

This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:

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