Coach says playing in Big 12 helped Houston: ‘Yeah, I brought up the Kansas game’
Duke went into Saturday night’s Final Four semifinal contest against Houston having won five NCAA basketball championships to the Cougars’ none.
Past performances on college hoops’ biggest stage meant nothing as coach Kelvin Sampson’s Cougars upended Jon Scheyer’s Blue Devils, 70-67, to advance to Monday’s title game against Florida.
Tipoff is 7:50 p.m. Central Time at San Antonio’s Alamodome, with a live telecast on CBS.
“I hear what people said, you know, ‘Duke this. Duke that,’’’ Sampson said late Saturday night in his postgame interview with CBS. “That’s great. Jon Scheyer is awesome, but don’t sleep on Houston. Don’t sleep on Houston,” Sampson repeated in what has become a catchy rallying cry heading into the title contest.
“We weren’t 34-4 playing in the toy poodle league. We were 19-1 in the Big 12,” Sampson added. “Playing in the Big 12 helped us. Shout out to my Big 12 brethren. Coach (commissioner) Brett Yormark and all the great coaches in the Big 12.”
One particular game on the Cougars’ Big 12 slate has been identified as one that served as a blueprint for how Houston could overcome a six-point deficit with 34 seconds remaining against Cooper Flagg and the Blue Devils.
Remember, Houston trailed KU by six points with 1:31 left in regulation and again by six points with 18 ticks left in the first overtime of the Cougars’ 92-86 double-OT win over KU on Jan. 25 at Allen Fieldhouse.
“There’s a few plays that change momentum that are not ideal,” said Scheyer, whose Blue Devils led Houston by 14 points with 8:03 left. “But I keep going back we’re up six with under a minute to go. Never once did I feel we were going to blow Houston out, even with that lead. Look, they were in that same position at Kansas. I was watching that game a couple days ago. You never feel like they’re out of it. … We just have to finish the deal,” Scheyer added.
Houston senior guard L.J. Cryer agreed with Duke’s coach that the comeback win over KU may have prepared the Cougars for what happened late Saturday.
“I mean, it isn’t over because they still got time on the clock. As long as there’s time on the clock, we’re going out there and give it our all. We’ve been in positions like that before at Kansas. I don’t remember how much we were down, but it was late in the game. That game looked like it was pretty much over, too. Somehow we ended up winning it,” Cryer said in the media room after Saturday’s action. “We just had to keep that belief and keep faith. We got it done.”
As Sampson said: “Even when Duke went up 14, I thought we could play better. I was just imploring our kids to stay with it. Just stay with it. Yeah, I brought up the Kansas game. I don’t think I needed to. Our maturity on this team is pretty good.”
On Monday night, Sampson, who has led teams to the Final Four three times (2002 with Oklahoma; 2021 and 2025 with Houston) will try to become the oldest coach to win a national title. He turns 70 on Oct. 5.
His counterpart, Florida coach Todd Golden, is 39.
“When you’re pressing 70, you look at things a lot differently. I mean, you’re grown up now. You’re 70,” Sampson said at Sunday’s pre-title game media availability session at the Alamodome.
“I’ve spent a little time this morning with my grandkids. First time I went to the Final Four in 2002, my son was on the team, or he was on the bench with us. Over the years, things kind of come full circle in some ways. Last night (after beating Duke) I got so many texts. I haven’t returned any. There’s too many to even look at. I didn’t even get through all of them.
“I saw Tubby (Smith) and Rick Barnes, Tom Izzo, Pop (Gregg Popovich), a bunch of the older coaches. They all kind of had similar messages to me: ‘Win one for the old guys, something like that.’ We were all young at the same time coming up. But I haven’t thought a lot about what’s next. I get so focused on the team, trying to figure out how to help them. But I know we’ve been working with the (transfer) portal since we’ve been here. I mean, there’s some things going on that require our immediate attention.”
Sampson recalled his Cougars’ trip to the Final Four during 2021 when the games were played in a bubble in Indianapolis.
“I remember when we were in the Final Four in, what was it, ‘21? That was COVID, right?. “I mean, they let us go out to the yard, which was Victory Park. We had a football to throw around. We couldn’t see our families because they had us in that quarantine thing. But I see all our kids now. I’m happy for them. I’m happy for their families. They’re creating memories that will last them forever, you know?” Sampson said.
He added: “I used to come to the tournament when I was a young coach, I would sit in those stands and look at the two coaches in the championship game. You think you’d like to be there one day, if you could ever get a chance. So for me, it’s a lot of gratitude, a lot of appreciation for having this opportunity. But you owe it to so many people. You don’t do things like this in a vacuum. I’ve got a great team, a great staff. I’m able to work independent of everything. I run the program without any resistance. I make all the decisions. I do everything on my own, with my staff of course. We’ve kind of done it our way. It’s worked out pretty well.”
Houston (35-4), which leads the country in Final Four appearances (seven) without an NCAA title, enters the championship game on an 18-game game win streak. Houston reached the national title game in back-to-back years in 1983 and 1984, losing both times.
Florida (also 35-4), which has won 11 games in a row, has returned to the NCAA championship game for the first time since Billy Donovan’s Gators won consecutive championships in 2006-07.
This story was originally published April 7, 2025 at 9:53 AM with the headline "Coach says playing in Big 12 helped Houston: ‘Yeah, I brought up the Kansas game’."
