HOUSTON — His Final Four homecoming started with a crawfish boil with teammates at his Houston-area home.

It could end with a taste of a title for San Diego State's Jaedon LeDee.

“It was more of a surreal moment after we won the Elite Eight. I was like 'Man, we’re really going home'," LeDee said ahead of his team matchup with Florida Atlantic. "Now that we’re here, we’ve got a job to do, and I’m gonna feel a lot better if we win it on Monday.”

LeDee is in his first year on the court with the Aztecs after stops at Ohio State and TCU during his college career.  

“All the work, all the trials and tribulations I went through, it makes it a little more worth it," LeDee said.

His minutes off the bench have been vital during SDSU's unlikely run to the Final Four.

“I decided to be a star in my role and I wanna get it done," LeDee said. "I love winning more than anything else. If that’s what the team needed me to do, that’s what I’m gonna do."

Marland Lowe coached LeDee for the Texas PRO AAU basketball team as a teenager in Houston. 

“I've been coaching for 26 years. And it's nothing like just seeing guys get it. It’s just a feeling of relief and happiness and joy," Lowe said.

It's a feeling that's shared by LeDee's biggest fans at The Kinkaid School. That's where LeDee was a four-year star in high school.

"He's kind of Kinkaid’s basketball son, royalty," said Stacey Marshall, a LeDee family friend. "Just to know the process and know his work and to see it all kind of come into one place. I think that there was a lot of people really excited for him.”

People who are on LeDee's mind as he gets ready to play the national semifinal in his hometown. People who laid the foundation for his basketball journey. 

"Then for that to come full circle and say, 'You know what, the pinnacle of his career landed right back in Houston.' He probably couldn't script it any better than that," Lowe said.

"That kid that left Kinkaid, he was still wet behind the ears a little bit," LeDee said. "This college journey I had, I learned a lot about life.”

And now he's striving for a national championship on college basketball's biggest stage.