SAN ANTONIO – Florida basketball won the national championship over Houston one week ago in an incredible game that showcased their ability to find a way against top competition
The Houston Cougars came out of halftime of the national championship on a roll and had a 42-30 lead over Florida with just under 16 minutes left.
It seemed as if the perfect opportunity to jump onto the Florida Gators and put the game away. Florida has been a strong second half team during the entire tournament and UH needed to maintain a comfortable lead to be in control.
UH’s lead was still in double digits even under 14 minutes to go. However, like the Gators have pulled off a comeback in the second round vs UConn, the elite eight vs Texas Tech, or the Final Four vs Auburn, they got it done again in the national championship.
Houston’s 12-point lead was brought all the way down to three as the momentum changed. Florida’s 14-3 run ended Houston’s controlling advantage, with buckets in the fast break and senior guard Walter Clayton Jr’s 3-point plays in the paint.
The Cougars went cold for long stretches in the second half, and the Gators took advantage. Houston was not able to make most of the Florida turnovers and opportunities they received.
As the game remained close down the final stretch, there was a feeling that Florida did well to keep this close and now had the opportunity to win it. Every time Houston would score, the Gators would answer. When the Cougars hit a three or gained some traction, Florida immediately replied.
UH still had a one-point lead as the clock went down to a minute left and missed two shots on the possession even after getting an offensive rebound.
Tugler was not able to secure a second offensive rebound, but after getting a defensive stop, Cryer proceeded to turn it over on a bad pass that allowed the Gators into a fast break where senior guard Alijah Martin was fouled and made both of his free throws. Florida took their first lead since early in the game at 64-63.
With the Cougars trying to take the lead, junior guard Emanuel Sharp turned it over. Even after back-to-back waste of possessions, Houston still had 19.6 seconds left to tie or win on a three. Sharp got the ball with five seconds left, jumped in the air, but couldn’t get a shot off with Clayton in his face and let the ball go as he would have been called for a travel. Florida jumped on it and that was the end.
As the orange and blue confetti fell onto the court, Sharp was on his knees with hands over his face. Ja’Vier Francis & Mercy Miller were there to comfort & get him on his feet as well as Clayton Jr of Florida.
“It’s not your fault you couldn’t get a shot off, nobody can blame you for that,” graduate forward J’Wan Roberts said of Sharp on the last possession.
It was understandably devastating to get so close to the first national championship in program history. Houston had their hands on the trophy, but were not able to claim it. This will be a loss that will take some time to move on from.
“This team was built to win this tournament. This is why it’s so disappointing that we made it this far & didn’t get it done. It wasn’t due to a lack of effort or cohesion,” head coach Kelvin Sampson said.
Here are three takeaways from the national championship.
Takeaway #1: Offensive struggles in the last three minutes
It wasn’t just on Sharp, the entire offense as a whole was not able to come through for the Cougars. Houston was just not able to finish their possessions and uncharacteristically turned the ball over four times during the last two minutes when just a single score would have put them in the driver’s seat to win it all.
While Sharp had the ball touch off his leg on the penultimate possession, graduate guard L.J. Cryer also had a turnover on a bad pass right before that when UH was still up one with under a minute to go. Overall, a team that had been delivering down the stretch was unable to put the game away. It didn’t require many points, just one or two layups would have been enough.
The Cougars did not score in the last 2:05 of the game, but the majority of shots were not going in throughout the second half from the likes of Roberts and Uzan.
The Last Gasp
Now, on the final play that everyone was talking about: the execution was slightly off; however, the play call by Sampson was good. It had an option for Cryer, but the primary goal was seemingly to get Sharp for an open shot, which they were actually able to.
However, once he was at the top of the key, Sharp immediately went into the shot. It was an excellent closing by Clayton Jr in a blocked shot attempt that changed everything.
“Incomprehensible in that situation we couldn’t get a shot,” Sampson said.
Sampson mentioned postgame about Sharp needing to make a shot-fake. If Sharp was able to fake his shot & reset his stance, he would have had a wide-open 3-pointer to win the national championship.
That is something any fan would have taken, with the kind of caliber shooter that Sharp is. He would have also had the option to drive to the basket to get a shot and potentially get fouled as well.
“That’s why you got to shot fake and get in the paint,” Sampson said.
The play was just a second off, just as the execution was down the stretch. It was an unfortunate & strange ending to what was an incredible season of Houston basketball.
Takeaway #2: Florida basketball did what Houston does
This was a fascinating matchup where both teams were finding ways to get it done at the end of their games. For Florida, they had to come from behind multiple times throughout the tournament, whether that was against two-time defending champion UConn in the 2nd round, or more incredibly against Texas Tech in the elite eight.
The Gators were down nine late with just over two minutes to go but Clayton Jr hit two clutch threes that allowed them to head to the Final Four.
Even vs Auburn, Florida was down 8 at halftime. Clayton came alive and had 34 points that carried the Gators to the title game. Houston has been able to come through in the end, relying both on their defense and offense. Against Gonzaga in the second round, the Cougars stepped up on the last possession and locked down the Bulldogs to win.
Against Purdue in the Sweet 16, the Cougars found a way to victory on a game-winning play featuring a brilliant in-bound and easy layup at the rim. Houston also forced the worst offensive performance in Tennessee basketball history in the elite eight.
Most incredibly, UH was down 14 to no.1 Duke with just eight minutes left in the Final Four win. This team made the greatest comeback in Houston history and one of the best in final four history. Multiple big threes, defensive stops and pure belief allowed the Coogs to pull that off.
Houston definitely had belief against Florida the whole way, but it wasn’t enough. In the battle of two teams that just do not go away, it took till the final seconds to decide a winner. Unfortunately for UH, it did not go their way.
“We thought this was a game that if we played well, we could win. And we did play well. We just didn’t play very good the last three minutes,” Sampson said. “That’s been a strength of ours all year long, was winning close games. But tonight we didn’t.”
Takeaway #3: Houston’s defense did enough to win
The Cougars held the no.2 offense in the country to 65 points after holding the no. 1 offense in Duke to just 67. It was an incredible effort that gave Houston a great chance to win. Florida did not even make a field goal in the last three minutes, as it was just five free throws.
Clayton Jr and Martin combined for 18 points and shot 5/20. The Gators were just 25% from three. Additionally, Florida had 13 turnovers, but Houston only generated nine points off of them.
Houston’s offense was truly the reason for this rare loss after UH won 18 games in a row heading in, with their last loss in regulation being at the beginning of the year on Nov. 9 vs Auburn.
“We had a good plan. We just didn’t score it well enough to win. Scored it well enough to be in a position to win. At the end you’ve got to get a shot. Got to do better than that,” Sampson said.
The Cougars shot just 35% from the field and were 6/25 on 3-point attempts. Houston did everything right according to their formula of getting offensive rebounds- UH won that 15-8, but had only 10 second chance points compared to 11 for Florida.
“Some nights we struggle offensively. But we usually find ways to win. Tonight we didn’t,” Sampson said.
While there is obviously big disappointment right now among the program, it has been an incredible season for Houston, arguably the greatest they’ve ever had.
“Played our hearts out and just came up short,” Roberts said. “They wanted to win so bad. I told them to keep their heads up and never forget this feeling, so next year they’ll be ready for the moment.”