Different paths, one stage: Houston and Florida set for showdown

San Antonio – It’s Florida vs. Houston. It is a crime of vs. defense. It’s a young vs. Old, at least when it comes to people calling shots.

Start with the story of Kelvin Sampson. This week many of them said it to Final Four. That was at the age of 80 and his first main coaching work in Montana Tech, hired recommendations from her old boss, the Michigan state of Jud Heathcote.

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“They named me the head coach, but they never had a winning season. Everyone who played, every student, was an engineer. I could never get there to school and I coach those people in basketball. I think every curriculum required 30 mathematics credits, metallurgical engineering, oil engineering, mining engineer.

“Sometimes we would have only seven on a trip, which meant we didn’t have to take a bus, we would just go to the motor pool, give me the keys to the van. No credit cards, I have enough money to fill it.

“I felt bad for our children in Montana Tech because they had to have me as my coach. Our first year we went 4-22 (actually 7-20). Jud Heathcote called me Monday, the season ended on Saturday.” Hey, Kel, I just wanted to congratulate. “

“A real story.”

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Three years later, Montana Tech was 22-7 and Sampson would be on his way to Washington, his career flew. It was 1985. Todd Golden was born in Arizona.

It’s four decades later. “I’m so old,” Sampson said. “I remember when the season started after thanksgiving. Now you can have five boys to transfer thanksgiving.” Their roads closed here, for the 67th and the last game of this NCAA 2025 tournament. On Monday evening, in Alamodome could decide on many things, not just at the National Championship.

Houston could become 38. The school that wins the title, and finally comes at the end of his national championship after six decades of dead ends.

Florida could reduce the historical Sec season with confetti shower. Does SEC need to verify its claim as perhaps the strongest conference of all time? It depends on who you ask. But remember that it has been 13 years since he was a member of the league the last team.

Houston could become the first team in the half -century to win the title in his home state, in 1975 he returned to UCLA in San Diego. Although Kansas approached in 1988 and was crowned through the Missouri River in Kansas City,

Florida Walter Clayton Jr., one of the faces of the tournament, could ensure his legend like Mr. March (and April). His 34 points against Auburn to go against Texas Tech with 30 last weeks, made him the first player with 30-30 games in Eight and Final Four by Larry Bird. Rarified air. It average 24.6 points per game in the NCAA tournament in Florida.

Late game Walter Clayton arrived 🎯#Marchmadness @Gatorsmbk pic.twitter.com/4jsadtbyt

– NCAA MARCH MADNESS (@MARCHMADNESSMBB) April 6, 2025

However, he understands that when Houston stuffs his defensive plans in these last hours, it is the name that mentions the most. “I wouldn’t say it worried me,” he said. “But of course it will be a 40 -minute duel.” Houston’s LJ Cryer, who kept Cougars Afloat against Duke, could become the first man to play for two different national championship programs. In 2021, Baylor is expected, although he was only three minutes in the court in the last four and missed both shots.

Then there are two coaches, born 30 years apart and in various styles and ways of victory.

Golden began his game days at Saint Mary’s as walking, working a moment later on sale of advertising, becoming tradable with a successful coaching during San Francisco and never won the NCAA tournament game three weeks ago. “It probably happened a little faster than some people thought it could,” he said about his career trajectory Express Lane. “But now we’re here and we’re 40 minutes since we’re National Champions. We have to beat an incredibly difficult team on Monday night, but we’re in the arena. At the moment it’s all I can ask.” He is 39 years old, his native son of Phoenix and lives in the world of metrics. He will go with Houston with his computers and his Gators.

“We are very analytical in everything we do. We are talking about it a lot, whether it be a list, whether it be planning, deciding who I want to play, searching for game search, et cetera,” he said. “The way I like to explain this, the macro prospect of our decision -making and how we built. Then we have to live with the consequences. It’s not always working. Life isn’t perfect.”

Sampson is 69 years old and if his Cougars won on Monday evening, he would be the oldest champion coach in history. The first to start on the spot, such as the Indian community Lumbe in North Carolina. Maybe the stars are now aligned for Houston. Or maybe it’s just the right team, the product of the tireless Sampson building program, who is the case that someone has not noticed it-is 160-23 in the last five seasons.

Coach Sampson kills Houston’s name on #NATIONALCHAINPIONSHIP 😤@Uhcougarmbk The dressing room is illuminated 🗣#Marchmadness pic.twitter.com/3ywqhksrly

– NCAA MARCH MADNESS (@MARCHMADNESSMBB) April 6, 2025

Sunday, the championship Eva, looked like the right time to think about what it could mean.

“I’m not very good in those things,” he said. “My mother always told me I had to learn to feel the roses. My mother died in 2014. I never learned.”

But he had another story or two.

“When you press 70, you look at things very differently. I think you grew up now.

“I got so many lyrics last night. I didn’t return anything. There are too many to look at it at all. I didn’t even follow.

“When I was a young coach, I came to the tournament, I was sitting in these stalls and looking at two coaches in the championship game. You think one day you would like to be there if you could ever have a chance.

His team was built with a goal. Play Houston Basketball or otherwise.

“At first I had to give up culture,” Cryer said about his transfer. “You can’t come up with your own agenda.”

J’wan Roberts has been Cougar for six seasons, so he should know what Sampson Ball is, as well as anyone, with his unegotible requirements for constant effort. “It’s extremely hard to play the University of Houston,” he said. “I don’t think there is one property where we don’t play hard.”

Sampson longs for active and willing defenders with a high length, so one of the first things he does when a recruiter visits a campus is the measure of the wing. It goes on the wall of the wingspan where the display is the length of another Houston Cougar. Hakem Olajuwon. He could stretch from El Paso to Texarkany.

“We don’t have many signs in our building. I don’t know what these characters mean the same way,” Sampson said. “There’s one sign of seeing a lot in our building. Just saying” culture “. How do you do anything is how you do everything, right?

Obviously, each coach pressed the right buttons. Golden could have his analytics, but he can also get on the basics of basketball, such as the need to use muscles inside, and the consequences if the player does not.

“The way our boys understand if they are not physical, if they can’t resist, there are a few guys behind them who are on the bench who will be willing to do it,” he said.

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The numbers indicate what his team is for Monday evening.

“We are an elite offensive team, a top 10 defensive teams. These are the 10 best offensive teams and an elite defensive team,” Golden said. “I think it will be a contrasting battle in this way. Hopefully we can get the game up a little up and down. They will store their will as they did this year. We are also quite a hard team.”

He knows what the condition is and Monday can be like a road game. However, the potential paycheck is huge. In addition, they won the Sec tournament against Tennessee in Nashville.

“It’s just a part of what you have to go through to win the National Championship. For us, it allows us to add another shoulder chip and try to prove that we belong and win in another enemy environment. For this reason, it will be a bigger challenge.

“To continue to build on the map and continue to get basketball in Florida, where we want it, tomorrow evening is a great opportunity. We got 40 minutes for one chance to win the National Championship, and continue to build in this conversation.”

He is not 40 yet, so there may be other chances. Sampson? Who should he know? But he has his lifelong job to look back on Monday evening if he has time.

“It’s hard for me to think about the journey without thinking about my mother and my father. My mother was a nurse. She worked for 12 hours of shifts. Her shift was either 8 to 8. My dad was a high school basketball coach in a small country community, Magnolia High School.

At that time, the stubborn coach of the stubborn team had to stop, sip water and fight with tears.

He wants it wrong, six months before he hits 70.