Loss to Bears doesn’t spoil impressive season.
Sampson’s Cougars have reason to be proud after the program’s best season in 37 years
In the losing locker room, Kelvin Sampson thanked his squad.
For working hard. For playing hard. For winning.
That the University of Houston Cougars’ final game of the season was their worst does not erase the accomplishments of a team that made one of the great runs in school history.
A glorious season in which UH returned to the Final Four for the first time since it went to three in a row from 1982 to 1984 came to a crashing halt as the Baylor Bears sucked the air out of UH’s NCAA Tournament bubble with a 78-59 thrashing.
“This loss stings today; it’ll sting tomorrow,” Sampson said. “Losing in the Final Four to one of the best teams in the country, we’re not going to hang our head over that.
“The people that care about our university and our team will never forget this group,” Sampson said. “I know I won’t. What a run. What a ride.”
We should thank the Cougars as well, for a ride the city of Houston hasn’t been on in a generation.
It was a tough finish to a challenging season. In the last six months of 2020, UH’s entire 15-player roster tested positive for COVID-19.
Sampson kept the squad focused. The Cougars improved from game to game, earning a No. 2 seed in the tournament.
They rolled Cleveland State and beat Rutgers, Syracuse and Oregon State to earn a trip to the Final Four.
On this day, Baylor was tougher and better on both ends of the floor.
“I don’t think I’ve seen a team with five guards at that level, no drop-off,” Sampson said of the
Bears’ backcourt. “Baylor is clearly the best team that we’ve played. They may be the best team that we’ve played in the seven years that I’ve been here.”
Still, we didn’t see the true gap between the top-seeded Bears and No. 2 seed UH. What we saw was one of the country’s best teams playing its best and one of its better teams playing its worst.
The redemption stories of Texas programs that at various times had been considered dead took a backseat to basketball Saturday evening.
For UH, though, it was far from the style of basketball we had become accustomed to seeing from them.
No doubt, the Bears had a lot to do with the Cougars’ bumbling performance, but UH did not look like it looked throughout the season.
The Cougars won the American Athletic Conference champions and the Midwest Region with suffocating defense and relentless rebounding. They hadn’t been out-toughed until they ran into the hot-shooting Bears, who had five players score in double figures, led by Jared Butler with 17.
“They’re just a good overall team,” Sasser said. “They made a lot of shots, tough shots.”
And brought a tough end to a great year for an outstanding team.
Almost from the start, after several solid defensive possessions ended with Baylor draining long 3-pointers, UH was under a lot of pressure to keep up.
“We were going shot for shot, and that wasn’t going to win it.
We had to get stops,” said guard Marcus Sasser, who led UH with 20 points. “It was just unfortunate we couldn’t do that.”
The Cougars don’t usually win with offense, and they certainly weren’t going to on this night.
Sasser, who had 17 of UH’s 20 points at the half, was the only Cougar who did anything offensively early on. Only one other player even made a field goal in the first 20 minutes.
UH leading scorer and thirdteam All-American Quentin Grimes and fellow guard DeJon Jarreau were a combined 1-for-12 from the field at halftime. Grimes managed to finish with 13 points, but he was 1-of-8 from long range. Jarreau had almost as many turnovers (five) and points (six).
Midway through the period, Baylor had doubled up the
Coogs, putting UH behind by more points than they had trailed in a game all season.
By halftime, UH was down 45-20, having allowed the Bears to score more points in a half than any opponent this season, while the Cougars’ total was their worst.
“It was a great start,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said. “Guys really playing with poise, sharing the ball, making extra passes. … but the big thing was we really guarded first half, really defended well, rebounded well.” Of course, the game was over. As was to be expected, Cougar Pride kicked in to start the second half, and UH pulled to within 16 points with a 16-7 run in the first seven minutes.
But this hill was too steep, these Bears too good.
Jerome Solomon reported from Houston.