WATCH! Houston Coach Kelvin Sampson Discusses TCU Loss
Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson addressed the media after his No. 2 Cougars lost 68-67 to the unranked TCU Horned Frogs.
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00:00 >> Go ahead, Charlie.
00:01 I'm just taking through those last few.
00:03 >> Okay, there's under eight seconds, so there's not a coach in there that doesn't
00:08 work on, not every day, but enough to know who to give the ball to.
00:17 If you follow our program,
00:21 you know how many times we've been in that position in this court and out of all courts.
00:26 You got Jamal in a broken court, that's how we won it in Memphis last year on their senior.
00:33 I didn't wanna call timeout, but not in a million years did I think we were not gonna
00:38 go ahead and back Jamal, not in a million years did I think that.
00:43 I mean, the kid that had it was probably then the last guy that we would put the ball
00:48 in his hands, but we just made a mistake there.
00:55 I feel bad for the kid.
01:00 As a coach, I can never lose sight of the fact all these kids I coach are great kids,
01:05 they're somebody's son, and they don't wanna mess up.
01:12 People will focus on that one play and decide the game,
01:19 but we just missed a one and one.
01:22 We also had a one and one.
01:24 It's a big one.
01:25 [BLANK_AUDIO]
01:30 We fought, our kids fought, and
01:32 we're a foul trouble the entire first half, we're up 10 or 11, whatever it was.
01:39 Then we go into halftime, come back, get down again, come back and go up.
01:45 I can't remember what we were up, I think at one point,
01:48 what was our biggest lead there today?
01:51 >> 12.
01:52 >> 12, 12 and five.
01:54 No, it wasn't 12, I said at the end, it was about four, yeah, four and five,
01:58 something like that.
02:00 So, no, we had a good chance for this game, we were right there, but
02:04 Tennessee kid hit some big threes, kudos to him.
02:08 We didn't play as good a defense as I would have liked,
02:13 but TCU's also a very good offensive team.
02:17 We've played two real games, 0 and 2, and we've been in a position where we're
02:22 welcome, so gotta go home, get ready, and play a big home game.
02:28 >> Kelvin, what do you attribute the lesser defense to?
02:32 >> Them being really, really good.
02:34 [BLANK_AUDIO]
02:36 And they don't have, if you're gonna play
02:42 Jay One and Jay Beard together,
02:47 I'm okay with Jay One guarding a kid like Miller.
02:55 I don't know if Miller had a couple baskets tonight,
03:01 but I thought we did a great job on him.
03:05 It was the roller and then the skip pass to the corner,
03:09 Tennessee made a couple of those threes.
03:13 If you'd have told me that we were gonna hold them to eight fast break points,
03:20 I said, okay, we're probably gonna win this game.
03:24 But we gotta shoot the ball better, I'm sure Jay and
03:31 King, now they go eight for 15,
03:35 for the three of you, go four for 18.
03:41 We had a couple of tough looks, but we also had a lot of wide open looks we didn't make.
03:47 So it's not a difficult game, it's a real simple game.
03:52 We played good enough to win.
03:54 I wish we could have done this and this better,
03:59 but I wish we could have got the ball in each of the boss' hands.
04:05 We'll make any situation, that's what we work on,
04:09 all the time out, get to the sidelines, let them all attack the middle.
04:15 And hopefully we learn from that.
04:19 >> Coach, you mentioned a little bit about four of 18 from three tonight.
04:23 What was TCU doing defensively that challenged you guys on the perimeter?
04:26 >> Well,
04:27 [BLANK_AUDIO]
04:33 It's, OJ Pryor's a really good shooter.
04:37 He had a lot of wide open looks.
04:39 So, and they're long too now, I mean, they're athletic and they're long.
04:46 But I was happy with our looks, especially his.
04:49 And we ran some set plays, got a wide open look in both corners.
04:54 It's just one of those nights.
04:58 He's struggling to make open shots right now, so we'll stay with him.
05:03 >> Kelvin, going back to that last sequence when they scored,
05:08 I think there was six seconds left.
05:09 >> Six minutes seven.
05:10 >> Did you say that you wanted a timeout there?
05:12 >> No way it was gonna call a timeout, zero chance.
05:15 If you call timeout there, now Jamie gets to substitute who he wants.
05:21 He gets to get his defense set.
05:23 Now we gotta start from zero and go and get going against a set defense.
05:29 They're gonna switch one through five.
05:31 Whereas as soon as the ball went in, get it out, get it to Jamal,
05:35 now it's a broken defense.
05:37 It's a broken court.
05:40 We did that, we won a game at Wichita State a few years ago doing that.
05:46 We won a game at Memphis doing that, not calling timeout purposely.
05:52 Purposely not calling timeout.
05:57 Cuz I knew exactly what the other coach would do.
06:00 I would hope the other coach would call timeout.
06:02 That would really help me if I was the opposing coach.
06:05 But we just made a bonehead of it, I don't know what else to call it.
06:10 >> Coach, I know that it's still just three games in, but
06:13 what are your early observations of life in the Big 12?
06:15 >> We should be 3-0, could easily be 3-0, but we're not.
06:23 So we move to the next game.
06:24 >> Any other questions?
06:27 >> Kelvin, it looked like y'all were running things through Jawan tonight.
06:30 You really wanted him to shoot the ball.
06:34 Can you talk about that?
06:35 >> Yeah, I can do this.
06:36 >> Yeah, and the fact that he never got a count off, any of those?
06:41 >> Well, I'm not gonna touch that with a 10-foot stick, but it's a good point.
06:45 >> Anybody else?
06:48 >> Live on the road.
06:49 May do the same thing with him though.
06:55 You get nine of these chances, and we're up one on the road at Iowa State.
07:02 Tough place to play.
07:02 Three minutes ago, it was a tie score 30 seconds ago.
07:07 Today, we're up five or six, up three, up two, hit the ball.
07:13 Just some of it's, just gotta make the right play at the right time.
07:21 Sometimes it's not overly complicated.
07:23 So, this team's gonna steal a bunch of games.
07:29 Jamie's done a great job here, he really has.
07:33 Jamie's done a great job.
07:34 Of course, Jamie does a great job wherever he goes.
07:37 TCU's very talented.
07:40 They have great athletes, they're very linked.
07:42 But I really like my team.
07:45 Because we didn't win today, I mean, we came here with a really good team and
07:49 we're leaving with a really good team too.
07:51 So I like my team.
07:53 >> Kelvin, to kind of weather the first half with Jabal on the bench,
07:58 rhythm wise or when you're on the bench that long,
08:00 did that even affect him in the second half?
08:03 Or was it tough to kind of come off the bench like that when you sat so off?
08:06 >> Maybe so.
08:07 I mean, that's a good question.
08:10 But I thought Jabal was just fine the second half.
08:14 I thought he was just fine the second half.
08:17 Obviously, we're a lot better with him on the floor.
08:20 We try to be aggressive with our defense.
08:23 But we pay gains for those, the gains gets,
08:28 the whistle's a little bit looser.
08:31 A tight whistle like that obviously does not benefit us.
08:35 And then, but we have to adjust.
08:38 That's not blaming the finger at the officials.
08:41 We've gotta do a better job adjusting ourselves.
08:43 [BLANK_AUDIO]
08:45 >> Thank you.