‘Hollywood can’t write that’: Why Houston ‘had no doubt’ J’Wan Roberts was built for legendary Final Four win

SAN ANTONIO — When Duke eliminated Houston in the Sweet 16 of the 2024 NCAA Tournament, poor health made for a convenient and legitimate source of blame. The Cougars were without All-American guard Jamal Shead and menacing defensive stopper JoJo Tugler due to injury. But Houston coach Kelvin Sampson laid the fault for that 54-51 season-ending defeat elsewhere.

“The real reason was the free throw line,” Sampson said.

Among the primary culprits was J’Wan Roberts, who hit just 3 of 8 shots from the stripe. In that crushing loss, a 1-of-3 stretch from the stripe for the veteran center was particularly deflating as Houston attempted to mount a charge late in the second half. The Cougars’ eight free throw missed that day led to an impassioned June speech from Sampson that set the stage for the ultimate redemption on Saturday night. 

“I don’t know if these guys remember,” Sampson said. “I told them, ‘We have got to change our mentality at the free-throw line.'”

This time, with the lights even brighter and a spot in the national championship game on the line, Houston — and Roberts more than anyone — scored revenge on the Blue Devils with a 70-67 comeback victory for the ages.

Essential to the effort were a pair of free throws from Roberts with 19 seconds left that gave Houston its first lead since early in the first half and brought Roberts some hard-earned redemption. It was part of a 20-second run for Roberts that will go down in Houston history. After hitting the biggest free throws of his life, Roberts drew the most important defensive assignment in at least the past 40 years of Cougars basketball.

Everyone knew Duke freshman phenom Cooper Flagg was going to get the basketball with the Blue Devils trailing by a point. And everyone in the Houston huddle knew exactly who would draw the assignment of guarding the National Player of the Year.

“We had no doubt that he was the right matchup,” Houston assistant coach K.C. Beard said of Roberts, who made life hard on Flagg all night.

The projected No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft still finished with 27 points but was just 8 of 19 from the floor and 1 for 5 over the final eight minutes, due in large part to Roberts’ defensive discipline.

“He has great anticipation and he’s a better weak side shot blocker than on the ball,” Beard told CBS Sports. “So we knew he wasn’t going to just go try and leap out of his stance and go for a shot fake or foul. He’s pretty disciplined in that area.”

Duke got the basketball to Flagg on the left wing with 15 seconds left. Roberts fought through a screen to meet him face-to-face at the 3-point line. Flagg sized him up, drove left and was met by the nimble-footed 6-foot-8 Roberts.

Flagg turned back right, reached the paint and rose for a go-ahead fallaway jumper with nine seconds remaining. There to contest it was Roberts. The ball seemed to hang in the air for an eternity as the Alamodome held its collective breath.

It came up short. After Houston collected the rebound with under four seconds remaining, Roberts hopped, skipped and jumped toward the Cougars’ faithful on the opposite side of the floor and pumped his arms in celebration.

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“The goal was just to make it as tough as we could,” Beard said. “We thought over the course of a game if we put a guy of size on [Flagg] like J’wan, that’s going to maybe wear him out. Maybe on that last shot he doesn’t have the legs for it. That’s kind of the hope. He’s so good, he’s going get 20 to 30 points, it’s just how hard is it for him to get that.”

Houston made it just hard enough. Then, it was back to the free-throw line — last season’s source of despair — where a pair of made free throws from LJ Cryer helped ice Houston’s improbable victory made possible by Roberts’ redemption.

“To tell you the honest truth, going up to the free-throw line, I wasn’t really nervous at all just ’cause of the work that I put in, just believing in it and trusting myself,” Roberts said. “I try not to get sidetracked by how big the stage is or the crowd getting into it. I just try to trust myself, focus on my routine, and trust my work.”

Sampson said his staff had Houston players make 150 free throws a day seven days per day following that June talk about how badly the program needed to improve in that area.

“I don’t think J’Wan missed a day from June 2nd till we left on Wednesday,” Sampson said. 

“In the moment tonight when everybody was watching,” Sampson added, “he prepared himself when nobody was watching.”

Houston went from ranking 302nd nationally in free-throw percentage at 68.7% in 2023-24 to ranking 107th at 74.2% this season. Roberts’ went from shooting 51.1% to 63% and from wearing some blame for a 2024 Duke loss to playing the role of hero against the Blue Devils in 2025.

“Those misses cost us that day,” Beard said. “Fast forward, a year later, same matchup, same tight, grind-it-out game … for him to step up the line and make those two in that moment? Hollywood can’t write that, you know?”