Many things went wrong for Kelvin Sampson’s Houston Cougars in Monday’s National Championship loss.
One of the most glaring issues was their season-low of just five assists in the 65-63 loss to the Florida Gators. Given that it was the fewest the Cougars had totaled in a game since 2020, it was definitely a stat worth addressing in the postgame press conference.
Houston only had 5 assists against Florida.
The last time Houston had less than 6 assists in a game was November 2020 🤯
— Evan Miyakawa (@EvanMiya) April 8, 2025
And Evan Miyakawa made sure to.
It was a notable discrepancy that Sampson didn’t shy away from addressing. But he wanted to explain to Miyakawa how an assist works, as his postgame diatribe turned into a teaching lesson.
Kelvin Sampson’s response to @EvanMiya on what Florida did to limit Houston’s number of assists 😅
The Cougars had a season-low with just five assists, their lowest as a program since 2020. pic.twitter.com/g3toS460Br
— Zeno ‘Jeno’ Jo (@jenozenojeno) April 8, 2025
It felt eerily similar to Taurean Prince describing how Baylor was out-rebounded by Yale during the 2016 NCAA Tournament or how Bo Nix perfectly described an interception he threw versus the Steelers this past season.
“Let me explain how an assist works, Evan,” Sampson said. “I’m not sure, but when you throw the ball to somebody and they score, that’s an assist, right? We threw the ball a lot to J’Wan [Roberts] in the post. And he missed some shots that he normally makes. So those were possible potential assists that we had a lot. We just didn’t make a lot of shots. I don’t know if it was. Certainly, Florida, let’s give them credit for being a good defensive team.
“But, we threw the ball and passed the ball enough to get more assists; we just didn’t make enough shots. That’s what I’d say right off the bat.”
At that point, Sampson paused, grinned, and playfully asked Miyazawa, “You’re the stats guy, right?”
Kelvin Sampson hitting me with “you’re the stats guy, right?” with a smile on his face was gold. https://t.co/utvrvO4LJD
— Evan Miyakawa (@EvanMiya) April 8, 2025
The Sampson ribbing Miyazawa about the art of an assist wasn’t the same Sampson we saw nearly 30 minutes earlier, staring in utter anguish as his Cougars failed to get a final shot off. He leaves San Antonio without a ring, but at least he showed that there’s still room for perspective even after suffering the most crushing loss of his career.
