If basketball were a beauty pageant, the Houston Cougars wouldn’t be invited. There’s not much flash and certainly nothing sexy about the way Kelvin Sampson’s team plays basketball.
And that’s perfectly ok. The Cougars are beautiful in their own way.
For years, Houston has flourished with in-your-face defense, relentless pressure and eat-nails-for-breakfast toughness. In Saturday night’s semifinal 70-67 win over Duke, it needed every ounce of those three things to advance.
The Cougars trailed by 14 with 8:17 to play and by nine with 3:03 remaining. Even their comeback was a grind. Though Houston outscored Duke 15-3 in the final three minutes, nothing was easy. But it was perfectly Houston, and it has the Cougars competing for their first national championship since 1984.
The comeback required Houston to lean into its identity and, ultimately, five things that helped it win over Duke.
Defense
It’s Houston’s calling card, and when it needed it most, the defense showed up. Duke scored only one field goal in the final 10:31, making just two of its final 11 shots. The Cougars forced five turnovers in that span after Duke had only turned the ball over twice in the previous 30 minutes.
