“Termination is not part of the agreement”: How Houston’s toughness allowed the Dukes to be stunned

San Antonio – On the day Jon Scheyer was born in 1987, Kelvin Sampson was just hired as a head coach in Washington. Until then, he had spent almost ten years as an assistant at more stops.

All basketball games that won and lost-games that his teams have been shaking and saved by their career, which has been extending for more than four decades, taught him a lesson that saved Houston’s season and led the program to the third national game on Monday evening after miraculous, coming from Duke.

“We did a great job on all other boys,” Sampson said after the victory of Houston 70-67 over Blue Devils on Saturday. (Kon Knuepel), made several hard 3s. Cooper FlaggCooper didn’t want to beat us himself. I felt as if we could only hang there, even if we were 14 … These guys will tell you what I was talking about in Hudli, it was: “Just hang up there, hold on there.” ”

Yes, there is a technical collapse of what happened on Saturday. Duke’s dilapidated incoming playing with 31.8 seconds that went Joseph Tugler. J’won Roberts and LJ Cryer made a big feast for free. Flagg’s controversial foul on Roberts also on Roberts. And Duke’s Hail Mary Pass with 3.7 seconds to play – a team that built the regime outside Hail Mary Christian Laettner three decades ago – did not reach the last attempt of the team to avoid one of the worst collapse in the last four history.

For many observers, Flagg’s 3-proofer who gave Duke the nine edge in the last minutes ended Houston’s dreams. According to ESPN research, Blue Devils had the probability of winning 95.5 percent after this shot with 3:03. But Sampson’s mantra persisted.

Just hold on, hold on there.

Every coach in America offers the toughness of his team. It is a cliché that lacks any tangible barometer. How do you measure the toughness of the team? How does the team really use it to win games? And how does one team get more than another team?

Cougars answered these questions on Thursday morning on Thursday morning just before the worst of Texas arrived in the summer and long before Saturday on Saturday tested the bright San San Antonio. There, Cougars would have gathered and went through intense training on Versaclimbers. There were no basketballs in sight. Just a lot of exhausted players, persecution of target time when climbing imaginary stairs.

“We put a lot of time at the beginning of the year,” he said Milos Saan. “We feel as if we put a lot of work in the country inserted many programs. When you go through some adversity at the beginning of the year, it builds your coherence and builds your bond. And we really believe.”

Just hold on, hold on there.

Cougars also found out how they claim to be last year’s sweet 16 loss for Duke, they didn’t sit well with Sampson. Key injuries affected this game, but Sampson was more concerned about free throws (that night was 9 to 17). After the loss, he demanded that each player on the list shoot 150 free per night, which is a practice that continued on Tuesday. And if Grad assistant responsible for watching these shots could not slip a piece of paper with night tallies under the door of Sampson’s office every day, he would have to pay hell. But it was on those evenings, when Roberts – who prepared on Saturday for the highest moment of his career, was preparing late on Saturday against Duke.

“I wasn’t really nervous at all for the work I gave, I just believed in it and I believed,” Robert said after the game. “I’m trying to get about how big the stage is or gets into it a crowd. I’m just trying to trust, focus on my routine and trust your work.”

But the match against Kansas at the beginning of this year forced Houston to dig deep and see if his claims of culture, heart and drive were also real. With 10 seconds to play in this 92-86 overtime victory against Kansas in January-Sampson’s first victory in Allen Fieldhouse-Cougars was six points, but managed to win. Sampson said he used this assembly to encourage his group on Saturday.

“Although (the Duke) went to 14, I thought we could play better,” Sampson said. “I just begged our children to stay with it. Just stay with it. Yeah, I raised the game Kansas. I don’t think I needed it. Our maturity in this team is pretty good.”

Just hold on, hold on there.

When Sampson preached resistance after Duke confiscated this 14-point lead with 8:17, he talked to a group of players who believed, not only because their coach told them, but because they had experienced it for themselves.

And now, Houston, who boasts defense no. 1 in America, has lost one game since November 30. This is more than four months of basketball with one defect. But Cougars spent exhausting summer days together to prepare for this run. They were in a gym without cameras or fans in the stalls to prepare for this run. And during the season they were tested to prepare for this run.

Even at the NCAA tournament, Gonzaga and Purdue managed to attack them in the last minutes before Duke seemed to have an insurmountable advantage on Saturday. However, these circumstances did not scatter Sampson or his team.

“The quitting is not part of the agreement,” he said. “We won’t stop. We’ll just play better.”

On Saturday evening, Houston was too hard, not only because he was talking about it, but because they actually live under Sampson.

“We knew he was coming, that America had chosen the Duke,” Saan said. “As long as people in the dressing room believed, it matters. We all believed.”