Is it the year of Kelvin Sampson? While Houston returns to the last four, his stars of the coach align

Indianapolis – Lauren and Karen Sampson, daughter and wife of Houston’s coach, Kelvin Sampson, stood on the Lucas Oil Stadium floor on Sunday afternoon with confetti at their feet celebrating the elite of Houston on the eight victories on Tennessee and, without problem, left the same four words.

“To do it here.”

They were less than 50 kilometers from the Hall assembly, where Kelvin Sampson led to Indiana Hoosiers for a season and three -quarters of another before being forced to resign under a cloud of NCAA violations on February 22, 2008. Sampson went directly from Bloomington to San Antonio to be with his friend Gregg Popovich and to watch another rehabation, spending the rest of the season A role adviser with the role of Spurs and in career rehabilitation and another season in a season in a role adviser with the role of Spurs and to career rehabilation and another of the season in a role adviser with the role of Spurs and to career rehabilitation and another of the season in a season in a role of adviser with the role of Spurs and the rehabilitation of the career and the rehabilitation of one of the other season.

Sampson released his phone on Sunday afternoon and searched the 400 text messages to show that he obtained one of pop, who declared himself the happiest person in San Antonio.

“But not as happy as you, Karen, the family and all your program,” read Sampson, “built with grain, character and love.”

Sampson is again heading for Indiana to San Antonio this week, except that the circumstances have changed. With a 69-50 victory over Tennessee which has perfectly captured everything that its program is, Houston is on the way back in the end for the second time in five seasons. This time, he has a realistic shot to get Sampson somewhere that he has never been: a national championship scene on the last Monday evening of the season.

Waiting for cougars, Duke, who has the best and most talented list of university basketball, a group that may seem intended to win the national title. But if there was never a team with the defensive force to slow down the Blue Devils, it was the one that Sampson built in his image.

Difficult, relentless and resilient.

To continue the karmic theme of this race, it was Duke who ended the Houston season a year ago in Sweet 16, although, in reality, the leader of the ankle star, Jamal Shead, suffered in this game played a role as big as something in the withdrawal of cougars.

Last spring, everyone knew that Shead had left for the NBA, but Houston had three other seniors – I Wan Roberts, LJ Cryer and Mylik Wilson – with the additional year of eligibility granted to all players following the pandemic. These three underwent senior night festivities last spring, but the wait was that they would all come back and fight like hell to recover Houston.

At that time, few programs operated in certain terms, but Houston was a program where retention was not a problem.

“I don’t think I’m worried about things most people do because we have built a program,” said Sampson. “When you have a program, it’s different. Many schools can have a good team or have a happy new year. But our program has been built over time. “

Sampson has used the transfer portal, but in the past two years, he has only needed a guard at each off -season – Baylor Cryer in 2023, and Uzan Milos of Oklahoma in 2024.

The two players are examples of what is happening once the Sampson teachings rub on beginners. During the visit of Cryer two years ago, Sampson gave him an unsettled assessment: “Your defense is bad. We will work on it each time you arrive here. I will keep you responsible.”

“I improved a lot,” said Cryer after Sunday’s victory. “I have to continue to improve because I am not yet along the way, but my defensive effort and the way I play this end is the night and the day of Baylor, honestly.”

Sampson was not too satisfied with Uzan either on his arrival last June – “We had a leader who would not even make someone fault”, in his words – but Sampson knew that the program would take care of this, just as he will do for the three first -year students that Houston signed for next season.

“Our players will not ask them for their opinion on a lot,” said Sampson. “This is how we do it here.”

Flights have taken the weight of what this way looks like, because Houston has executed exactly what his coach wanted in a historic defensive performance.

Tennessee is one of the best screening teams outside the country; In his victory Sweet 16 on Kentucky, the shooters Chaz Lanier and Jordan Gainey prospered in the mid -range which flows endless screens. The Houston coaches told their guards that they had really had a good navigation on this type of selection action all season, and they gave the players how to defend each: lock and follow or pull the gap.

“Trust Yourself” was the message, according to assistant Kellen Sampson, Kelvin’s son and the program waiting for the program. “Whatever you choose, we’re going to ride with you. But we don’t need help. Don’t need a second defender.”

The results were quite spectacular in the first half: the flights missed their first 14 attempts by 3 points and went to the locker room with only 15 points, the least marked in the first half by a seeded n ° 1 or n ° 2 in the history of the NCAA tournament.

Lanier withdrew 18 shots, but not much were clean looks, and even when he obtained an open at the end of the first half, he barely fired iron, almost as if he were frightened. Even when the flights found a little light, the cougars came from behind to keep the ball away. Lanier only made four shots overnight, and thefts pulled 28.8% of the land. Cryer also succeeded what seemed impossible, keeping the all-American playmaker of Tennessee, Zakai Zeigler, in front of him. Zeigler finished with only five points on a 1 of 9 shot.

“It’s attitude and efforts,” said Cryer. “You go there with the right attitude, the attitude you will lock your man and be more physical and give a mad amount of effort, and that is the result there.”

During the two previous laps against Gonzaga and Purdue, Houston used to build tracks before allowing his opponent back in the match. Saturday evening, the message from the Sampsons to the team was to play without fear and not to hope that time is exhausted.

“We haven’t played very well against Purdue at all,” said Kellen Sampson. “There was a lot of gna-tank. We just didn’t have the impression of playing our best. We did not shoot the weapon. And I think our guys were signing a relief; we did not play our best and we found a way. But Sunday afternoon, it’s lit.”

Sunday looked like another match on the road, less than 48 hours after Uh survived the drivers 66 miles from the Purdue campus. The size pro-plump contingent was looking for a reason to burst, and the orange fans finally pumped the energy through the Lucas Oil Stadium after the flights found a ribbon of hope by reducing the deficit to 10 with a little less than six minutes thanks to a complete press which gave the cougar some problems. Against Gonzaga’s pressure in the 32 -year -old round, the coogs used the test to play. This time, Emanuel Sharp said he thought, “Let him fly.”

So when Sharp caught a Wilson pass at about four feet behind the 3 -point line, he pulled without any hesitation and buried it. Less than a minute later, more and more deeply, he did it again. And after Wilson followed with a 3 and Cryer missed what could have been the dagger, Sharp obtained the rebound, ended up with the ball far beyond the line and made the final death.

While he was on stage thereafter, Sharp was announced as the most remarkable player in the Regional Midwest, but he didn’t even look at the screen when the global team appeared.

“I understood my mission, then if the shots fall or not, the offensive is second,” he said. “Defense comes first, and that’s what I did.”

Sampson watched the last minute of the match with his crossed arms, almost fighting the corners of his mouth to stay in place. He said he was thinking of the Tennessee coach Rick Barnes, 70, who like him is at the twilight of his career. “I hope it will have its moment one day,” said Sampson.

Since the loss of Duke from last year, cougars have been on a mission to give Sampson his moment. Although the Sampsons had the impression that the cougars were the best team in their region a year ago, they lacked two important players for injuries – Arceneaux Terrance, which tore its Achilles last season, but caught fire in the first half of Sunday against the flight, and the Joseph Tugler center, which broke a bone in the country and missed the best man but came back like the best man but came back like the best man but defensive. They knew they did not have the best team; Uconn clearly did it.

Four years ago in the Final Four, they knew that the possible national Baylor champion was better. But this time?

“We have a good chance,” said Kellen Sampson. “We have as good luck as anyone.”

Kelvin Sampson has always argued that he is satisfied with his inheritance, whether or not he wins a national title. He says that everything that is happening in San Antonio “will not influence what I felt this year”. But his confidence seems to build this race more takes place.

And even her daughter Lauren, the most superstitious of them who watched the last minutes of the purdue match in a fetal position, also seems to feel it.

“Sometimes it’s your time,” she said. “Everyone came back with a mission. These children returned and said, “Go back it”. They were a joyful group to be there.

“And at that time, how rare is it? They love each other. It makes him fun. We don’t want it to stop.”

(Photo: Andy Lyons / Getty Images)