I Wan Roberts seal Houston’s last victory with clutch throws

San Antonio – I Wan Roberts and the Houston Cougars were not going to let it happen again.

Call that bad luck? Yes, they certainly had a lot in March. Underline the offensive limitations that crushed them in key moments in March? Just as well. But that controllable of basketball, the free throw line? No, these misfortunes were not going to reproduce.

The loss of three points of Houston in the Sweet 16 in 2024 against the Duke Blue Devils was a collection with all those above, with two essential rooms at Jamal Shead and Jojo Tugler put away. But the cougars were only 9 out of 17 in this gang match, and Roberts (just a 51% shooter this season) was a main culprit with only three brands in eight tests.

So, from the moment he returned to campus in the first week of June, Roberts and the rest of this Houston group without work went to Stripe seven days a week and made 150 free throws per day. No one was no longer diligent Roberts. His shot has regularly improved. In games, the percentage jumped 12 points to 63%. In practice? He climbed more than 20 percentage points at 87% to the last check in Kelvin Sampson earlier this week.

So, of everyone to make the line for a one and Of course It was Roberts, the sixth year senior who could practically write a book on “Sampsonisms” with all the time he spent with the legendary head coach.

“The worst thing you can do is think,” says Roberts. “As you think and you try not to miss, I feel like it’s at this point that you are going to miss. I just tried to go to the line of free throws, take a deep inspiration and make my routine that I do every day. When you go to the free throw line, it’s just you and the basket. You just have to trust your work and you have to live with the results.”

Roberts dried up each hand on his jersey, took two dribbles, stopped and injured the first, leaning slightly forward while looking at the ball slide through the net. The first equaled, the second gave Houston his first advance since 6-5 with 15:25 to do in the first half. A defensive judgment (with Roberts, of course, Guarning Phenom Cooper Flagg), a rebound and two other free throws was everything it took to finish the unthinkable, a rally of 14 with a little more than eight minutes and nine drops with 2:15 for the best of 70 to 67 national victories of modern basketball.

“No one has ever lost their belief,” said Milos Uzan.

It was an extraordinary return, but the one rooted in the ordinary. Key defensive judgment after a key defensive stop, holding Duke to a single basket in the last 10 minutes and the defensive rebounds of the match to end the possessions to accompany them. Four offensive rebounds in a possession that set up a three. A pass flight, Duke, led under his basket, trying to hold. A key throwing box that attracted a fault on Flagg and sent Roberts to the Frank of the Frankish launches. And of course, Roberts enters this line and making the two biggest photos of the season in male university basketball.

Have there been any strengths in the remarkable overlap of Late Couguar? Of course, the Elite shooting of Cryer who kept them afloat to the high -flying putback jam to tugle on a putback that reduced the deficit to one. But more revealing than any highlighting was the grain and Houston’s commitment to all the little things that made cougars the most coherent elite program of sport. In the last 3:24 of the game, Houston obtained each Rebound available, bouncing all its failures and all of Duke. If it is not Houston’s culture, what is it?

The discipline makes you beat more than great help you win. It is a must -see of Sampson, according to his son and straight man Kellen Sampson, who said that his father had used this line “100 million times” during his over 40 years of coaching. Seven points in 15 seconds to go from six to the head to the head is undoubtedly greatBut the process to get there was simply the 11 -year -old culture built by Sampson in Houston played on his biggest scene to date.

“A big frank blockage (by Roberts) is exactly what was necessary, perhaps more than a spectacular Fadway jumper,” explains Kellen Sampson.

“Culture, resilience, but details and discipline, which are the brand of the brand, are rooted in this victory as much as anything.”

– Kellen Sampson

“Culture, resilience, but details and discipline, which are the brand of the brand, are rooted in this victory as much as anything.”

Houston’s resilience this season could never be questioned, not after his January rally to Allen Fieldhouse of six with 15 seconds to work overtime. There was a little more time involved in it, because Houston was 45 seconds to come from six, but the script was remarkably similar. Everyone started with a Three made by Emanuel Sharp who reduced the deficit in two … or has translated another way, a big error far from a match equally.

Indeed, in both cases, Houston forced this error. Hawking 7 ‘6 “Wingspan de Tugler makes him an intimidating choice to keep the incoming passers -by, and both in the Kansas and Duke Winds, his length forced a clumsy lobed pass in the middle of the ground. Having managed to overturn the hand with his right hand on a pass that came to less of his target. It gave Duke a free point.

From there, Houston defeated Tyrese Proctor, which missed the front end of the only and one. On the rebound, Flagg came on the back of Roberts. Suddenly Roberts had the chance to take the lead. He didn’t miss his moment.

The great debate in the Houston group entering the final defensive stand was how to keep Flagg, which, without a doubt, would end with the ball. Look at the other Duke end of game possessions this season (defeats at the start of the neutral field against Kentucky and Kansas, his only defeat of the Conference against Clemson) and he was obvious how Duke would play it. Kellen Sampson said that the staff had discussed the sending of a trap to force the ball from the hands of Flagg, but that the impact of Flagg as a smuggler earlier in the game frightened them. The decision was made: Roberts would check Flagg on-one and they would live with the results.

“We were going to trust our adults at the teenager,” says Kellen Sampson.

Flagg’s shooting failed, Houston obtained the rebound, and Cryer (whose shooting pushes kept Houston at a time when Duke dominated) made two other free throws to put the cougars by the edge. Duke’s last rabbit never rose to nothing, with a loose ball required to Proctor for a contested prayer of 35 feet. The return was complete; The most formidable dragon in the killed field.

Houston strikes the door, perhaps even with an already in the entrance, for a moment like this for years under Sampson. The cougars have not finished below fifth place in Kenpom since before the Pandemic COVID-19 and have danced until the least on the second weekend of the five tournaments since. Sometimes the cougars almost seemed cursed. The 2024 tournament was the most obvious example, with their DIY leader, Jamal Shead, descendant early against Duke with an ankle, which paralyzed a cougar team already in digital. Two years before that, Houston had received a devastating blow to lose Marcus Sasser from his 2022 championship caliber team in the middle of the year. Sampson tightened each ounce of this group and brought them to the elite eight, but could not overcome the bump.

So Houston grabbing a break or two, from missed free throws from Duke to the possession of six points launched by a technical fault by Blue Devils? If someone deserved it, they were them. All the little things that Houston had mastered, the domination of details, all finally paid on Saturday evening in a burst that cougar fans will never forget

“You know what, we have had bad luck here in March in the past three years,” said Sampson. “We have taken this bad luck and put it in one, and that’s what we got.”

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