Houston stunned: ‘That broke everyone’s heart’
SAN ANTONIO– Nearly an hour after Houston coach Kelvin Sampson strolled off the court amidst flurries of Florida-colored orange and blue confetti, he stood in front of a black drape in a hallway at the Alamodome.Sampson, 69, faced a phalanx of television lights that brightened him at his most squashing expert low. The lights shined on his close-cropped hair, which is more salt than pepper, as midnight rapidly approached.With his arms folded across his chest and an NCAA National Final pin surrounding to the UH logo on his gray polo, Sampson distilled the disappointment of Houston misusing a 12-point lead in the 2nd half and ending the national title game with four successive turnovers in a 65-63 loss to Florida.”There’s a lot of teams that are not built for six straight wins,”Sampson stated, describing the number required to win the NCAA competition. “This team was, this team was developed, this group had the character and the toughness and the leadership. This group was developed to win this tournament, which’s why it’s so disappointing. We got here and had an opportunity and simply didn’t get it done. “Editor’s Picks 2 Related The scene unfolded as the inverse of Houston’s stunning return win over Duke in the national semifinal. On Monday, the Cougars wilted in the final minute, in some way not having a ball touch the rim on the last three possessions.Nearly 2 days after scoring the game’s last 9 points in 33 seconds to stun the Blue Devils on Saturday, Houston handled to lose a game it controlled throughout and trailed for just 63 seconds.Florida’s first lead in the 2nd half featured 46 seconds staying. Sampson called it”incomprehensible”that the Cougars couldn’t
get a shot off on the last two ownerships, as Houston closed the game with back-to-back turnovers by star guard Emanuel Sharp.Florida summoned the third-biggest resurgence in NCAA title game history, which left the Houston locker space a mirror image of the destruction it had wrought 2 nights earlier.On Monday night, as reporters went into that locker space, Cougars guard Milos Uzan accompanied Sharp far from the media. Sharp used a towel over his head as he walked away, and he could be heard wailing as Uzan attempted to console him.” That’s me, brother,”Sharp was overheard saying. He then screamed an expletive, highlighting the consonants.An intermittently flushing toilet periodically cut through the uncomfortable interviews in the quiet locker space. Houston’s Joseph
Tugler summed up the destruction merely:” That broke everyone’s heart.” Sharp’s pain came from the back-to-back belongings to end the game, his only 2 turnovers, which Sampson called “a couple difficult belongings decisionwise. “With Houston facing its first deficit of the half in the final minute, Sharp drove to the basket with nearly 30 seconds remaining and got stripped by Florida’s Will Richard, who was an assistance defender. Richard essentially required Sharp to kick the ball out of bounds with 26 seconds left.After Florida’s Denzel
Aberdeen made one of 2 totally free tosses, Houston had the ball down 2 with 19 seconds left. Florida’s defense stymied Houston’s early offending action, then Sharp captured the ball almost 6 feet behind the 3-point line with five seconds remaining.Sharp went straight as much as attempt a long 3-pointer, but what would have been a 28-footer never got off. Walter Clayton Jr. sought his desperation and lunged at him midair with an outstretched left hand, and it put Sharp in the unenviable position of getting his shot blocked or letting the ball drop.Sharp protected Clayton as the ball struck the flooring, and Florida’s Alex Condon
made the hustle play to seal the game by snagging his 4th steal of the night. Sharp dropped down a few feet from his final turnover, his elbows perched atop his knees and fists covering his face as he looked towards the floor. “I told him I loved him,”Sampson said when asked what he informed Sharp.” I informed him I enjoyed him, and I actually focused on the task he did on Clayton. He did an awesome task on him. He made a couple reads that I’m sure he wish he ‘d had over, but we do not arrive without that kid.”Sharp played gritty defense on Clayton as Houston’s main protector on the Florida guard. Clayton completed with 11 points on 3-for-10 shooting, taking more than 32 minutes to score a field goal.Sampson hoped that Sharp would have shot-faked and entered the paint. However instead, Clayton lunged at Sharp with his left arm extended, and the contest froze Sharp. It made for an uncommon crucial play to win the game, as more than twenty years after Syracuse’s Hakim Warrick delivered the greatest obstructed shot in NCAA competition history to beat Kansas, Clayton will have the most replayed contest.The other 2 Houston miscues to close the game consisted of one turnover off an offending rebound by Tugler and another on a baseline drive to no place by L.J. Cryer that culminated when Cryer essentially turned the ball into Condon’s chest in the paint.Cryer summed up the total tenor of missed out on chance this way:”It was absolutely there for the taking. “A win would have marked Sampson’s 800th profession success and his first nationwide title and most likely would have pushed him to the Basketball Hall of Fame on the first tally.
Rather, he hustled off the court in disbelief after the handshake line. Sampson’s daughter, Lauren, ran to him in the tunnel and hugged him.” I’m okay,”he told her.As Houston’s assistant coaches beinged in their locker room and stared into area, assistant Kellen Sampson, the coach’s boy, summarized the fickle bounces of the tournament’s fate by doing this. “It’s a brutal, vicious guillotine,”
he said,”and when you get here, every group is so great and you do not get here without a team that’s linked, resistant, difficult. The margins are so razor-thin. We definitely did sufficient tonight to win. Florida did, too, and they won.”