Kelvin Sampson couldn’t just beat Duke in dramatic fashion to land in his first title game at Houston. No, he had to remind everyone that Duke couldn’t have had an easier season to go along with an even easier NCAA Tournament path to the Final Four.
Duke didn’t have the ACC gauntlet it usually does. The ACC was a cupcake league this past year. Or as Sampson put it, the “toy poodle league”.
“I hear what people say,” Sampson told Tracy Wolfson after the game on the broadcast.. “Duke this, Duke that. Duke’s great. Jon Scheyer is awesome. But don’t sleep on Houston. We weren’t 34-4 playing in the toy poodle league, we were 19-1 in the Big 12.”
It’s a great point. The Big 12 wasn’t quite the SEC this year, but it certainly wasn’t a Charmin league like the ACC. Clemson, the No. 5 seed, lost to No. 12 seed McNeese State; Louisville lost to Creighton.
Only Duke was able to put together a run to save face for the conference. It’s probably why they wrote off Houston. And it cost Scheyer his first title appearance since taking over for Mike Krzyzewski.
Kelvin Sampson, Houston kick Duke while they're down after Final Four comeback
The Blue Devils overlooked Houston and now it’s at home like the other 66 teams in the NCAA Tournament field. Duke had a lead as late as 19 seconds left in the game and couldn’t manage to hold on for the win.
The No. 1 player in the country was robbed of a chance to have his One Shining Moment and declare for the NBA Draft as a national champion. That’s probably because Houston was arguably the toughest team the Blue Devils played all season.
Certainly since conference play began, Duke was on cruise control. They coasted through conference play with one loss to Clemson. They had no problems winning their second ACC Tournament title since 2023.
No, their biggest problem came against Houston, who they probably wrote off after building a double-digit lead. Like Sampson said, don’t sleep on Houston, which is a message not just to Duke but to Florida, too.
While the Gators don’t come from the “toy poodle league”, they do come from the strongest league in the field. As a result, the Gators could easily overlook Houston as Florida has been tested but survived the last two weekends of the NCAA Tournament.
In a way, Houston and Florida are alike. The Gators were an afterthought in the SEC with Auburn, Alabama and Tennessee constantly at the forefront. Walter Clayton Jr. has carried this team to the title game and the national stage in the same way J’Wan Roberts has Houston.
Florida better be careful. Houston’s win over Duke was a wake up call to the Gators: Don’t sleep on Houston. Don’t take my words for it though, take Sampson’s. He knows how to take advantage of a team that overlooks his Cougars.