Comeback complete, but Florida awaits Houston in championship quest
Comeback complete, but Florida awaits Houston in championship quest
San Antonio – Saturday evening in the dressing room Houston Cougars Postgame dressing rooms in Houston Cougars all says:
35-4.
1 more.
Near the Cougar, some of the Cougar are trying to explain what has just happened and what could be ahead.
“At the beginning of the year we set our goals and the National Championship was one of them,” says Milos Saan. Last season Oklahoma was previously and mentions his first transmission portal calls with Houston coach Kelvin Sampson. “The first thing, when we got on the phone, told me that many teams were trying to get into the tournament, we try to win it.”
“You always have to have faith. I think this is something that this team has.”
Nearby, the Guardian of Terrance Arceneaux has been discussing the last three weeks of the living on the edge of Houston. General Gonzaga. The winning incoming plays in the last seconds against Purdue. And then on Saturday, when Cougars was like a piano that fell on the dick’s head, he sealed a guy who made a better free throw by earning 150 a day.
“If it is still happening,” says Arceneaux, “I feel it is a year for us.”
Chief coach Kelvin Sampson of Houston Cougars celebrates the win in the finals of four games of the Male Basketball tournament NCAA in Alamodome 5th April 2025 in San Antonio, Texas.
1 more.
This means that Florida on Monday evening in the National Championship and the chance to achieve something that has been chasing this program for so long. After Saturday, when Houston has erased the Duke’s nine -point lead in the last 125 seconds, who may doubt there may be something magical?
In his session of media media media media sessions, Sampson describes his team.
“It took us a while to become who we are. At some point, if you have a culture.
J’wan Roberts, one of the heroes of the night and the older statesman Cougars, who has been six years old, answers the question of how no one expected it to end the Duke returns home. “Everyone has an opinion. They can say what they want to say. When you give 40 minutes on your watch and put Houston against everyone, they get our best shot. We don’t have to be mentioned in giants or as follows.
Look at what they did on Saturday. . .
She said the starting table on the lower line.
And yet there was so much left.
What just happened?
Duke was strong. Duke was ready. Duke rolled together with Cooper Flagg and his 27 points, which led almost all night – 14 with more than eight minutes, still nine, when the clock closed in two minutes, still seven at 1:26.
And then came the last 60 seconds.
Houston continues at the end of 9-0 run on Best Duke in Final Four
In one minute everything changed in one minute, the era Cooper Flagg probably ended. Duke was finished in one minute. In one minute, Houston Cougars had a kind of victory Final Four, which they never had in their history, and could feel free to think about the emptiness that tortured them in nearly six decades and the last four. . . Their time came, finally?
What just happened?
With 10:31 on the left, Flagg hit a jump to give Blue Devils a 13-point lead. The whole game would create one more goal.
There were still six upstairs and 40 seconds left. Then he turned into Alamo for Duke Alamodome. Emanuel Sharp 3-reporter for Houston and Blue Devils turn against press. Subsequent dunk by Joseph Tugler and missed the Duke of free throw Flagg Foul, who is trying to revive, which led to two thrown Roberts Free for leading 68-67. Seven Houston points in 14 seconds.
J’wan Roberts, No. 13 Houston Cougars, celebrates four NCAA games of the male basketball tournament in Alamodome 5 April 2025 in San Antonio, Texas.
Finally, missed Flagg Pull-up Jumper, two other Houston points from the line and the last dick of the Duke that did not work because Christian Laettner was nowhere in the building.
What just happened?
This season, the Duke led an average margin of victory in the average victory and won 22 games by at least 20 points. There are not many tight goals on this CV and Houston Cougars knew.
“They do not have so many such pressure games of late games,” Saan said. “Once we got close and we were able to start pushing them, you can definitely say it.”
Blue Devils had only seven turnover, but two were in the final 1:39 and were fatal.
“It’s hard to process it,” said Duke’s coach Jon Scheyer later. “You go from some of the most special moments in the tournament to the most outstanding loss. I won’t want to be sorry for one second. These guys have done an incredible job. It’s heartbreaking. It’s incredibly disappointing.
And then you’re light for years.
If it’s a consolation to Scheyer, Mike Krzyzewski happened in this city. Blue Devils were eight on Connecticut with less than four minutes remaining in their 2004 final game, but Huskies continued to sprint 12-0 to catch the game by a point.
“We thought we were the best team,” Scheyer said. “The best team was Houston tonight.”
It turned out that this NCAA tournament had a few surprises. It was not exactly Umbc and Fairleigh Dickinson, but Auburn was the best seed in the whole NCAA and Duke was a team 1 in the Associated Press and Net Rankings and the expected favorite here. He will not play the National Championship on Monday evening.
In the second half, Auburn could not hold a nine -point lead over Florida. Duke could not hold a 14-point lead over Houston in the last eight minutes. So we have a very different masterpiece when the so-free Walter Clayton Jr. From Florida he will try his hot hand against the defense of Houston.
Gators have two National Championship trophies back in Gainesville and are eager to join the consecrated 2006-07 teams. “We are really proud and proud that Florida Basketball apparently has several very high species of the guards,” said coach Todd Golden. “We feel we could become part of the family.”
There are no master trophies in Houston. Just memories of approaching.
Sampson talks about missed feasts for free, namely last year’s three -point loss in Sweet 16 at Duke, when Cougars was 9 at 17, and Roberts was 3: 8. After each mark he turned to the crowd of Houston and used his hands to tell them to hold it. Nothing was certain yet.
“Although we have lost only four games all year round, the free throw line has influenced two of them,” says Sampson. “So we let our children make 150 free throws seven days a week. I don’t think J’wan missed the day from June 2. As long as we left on Wednesday. We left on Wednesday on Wednesday?
“(For) the moment tonight, when everyone was looking, he prepared when no one was looking.”
Roberts agrees. “As Coach said, I shoot 150 every night. I don’t understand with the two free throws that differ than if I be there alone.”
In the dressing room, Arceneaux says how great it is that Roberts had such a role not only with free throws at the end, but also helped to defend Flagg’s last lady – probably the last college of Cooper Flagg’s life.
“That means everything to him. He was here and he glued it, so I’m glad he is the one who plays for us. He deserves it.”
Sampson dissecting box score before leaving for the night. He notes 26 points by LJ Cryer, who held Cougars in the game early. 18 offensive rebounds for Houston. And while Flagg might have had 19 of his 27 points in the second half, everyone else had only 14 in the Duke uniform. “Cooper didn’t want to beat us alone,” says Sampson.
In the end, the Sampson’s boys did exactly what they asked and trained them to do.
“No one loses anything until you stop,” he says. “You stopped, then I don’t care, you lost.”
His players heard him. You could say a quiet coming from the Duke’s dressing room.
Houston
