Houston’s Duke stunner ‘ain’t no beauty contest’ but keeps Kelvin Sampson dancing and Hakeem Olajuwon smiling

SAN ANTONIO, Texas — At this point, might as well call them the Houston Cockroaches. You can stomp on them, lay traps, smother the team otherwise known as the Houston Cougars. Bothersome? Yes. Annoying? Yes. 

Just like the bugs, they don’t go away. They’re also moving on. 

Duke tried a little bit of all of that Saturday night in a national semifinal for the ages. In the same game where the Blue Devils looked like they should be awarded a national championship before it was played Monday night, Duke also gagged one up.

But that’s not the first thing that comes to mind in recounting Houston’s rally from oblivion. What other team goes on a 7-0 run in a 16-second span with under a minute to play to beat those perfect, destined Dookies?

What other team stares down the No. 1 pick in the draft and definitely blinks — Duke’s Cooper Flagg had 27 points — but doesn’t lose focus? 

What other team turns the impossible into routine? A shocked Alamodome absorbed Houston’s 70-67 comeback over Duke while the Cockroaches, er, Cougars themselves already had comparisons in their hip pocket.

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They had done it before, they reminded. Slightly more than a week ago, Milos Uzan scored the winner with less than a second left against Purdue in the Midwest Regional semifinal. Barely a month ago the Cougars rallied from six down with 91 seconds to play to win in double overtime at Kansas. It was coach Kelvin Sampson’s first career win at Allen Fieldhouse.

Monday will mark his first national championship game.

“That just shows the heart that we have as a group,” Roberts said.  

“This ain’t no beauty contest,” Sampson said. “If it was a beauty contest we shouldn’t have showed up.” 

That’s true, the same Houston team that started 1-for-9, 3-for-15 and 5-for-25 from the field, outrebounded Duke by 11 and scored 19 second-chance points against the Blue Devils’ best field-goal defense since 1960. 

The same team that trailed by 14 with 11:54 left held Duke to three points in the final three minutes. 

It was a game-long scramble drill for the Cougars. Flagg was his amazing self most of the night but when it counted, the wunderkind disappeared. He had one basket in the last 10½ minutes — the only Duke field goal in that span.

Meanwhile, those pesky Cockroaches scratched clawed and, just like the real thing, got inside the Blue Devils laundry. The Cougars made them that uncomfortable as Duke shot 40%.

“We have the No. 1 defense in America for a reason, trust me,” said Houston assistant Kellen Sampson, Kelvin’s son. “The more disciplined you are, the more you can find yourself doing little tiny things that is going to find yourself in the winner’s circle more often than a great spectacular play.”

Houston shot even worse (37.7%) but made up for it with 18 offensive rebounds. 

“People think your offense has to score out of set plays all the time,” Kelvin Sampson said. “We score on unscripted points. That’s how we’re 35-4 … I was in the NBA for six years. There is a column in the NBA that says where are the most points scored in the NBA. The title of the column is ‘random.’ … We’re pretty good at that too.”

Duke had three lottery picks — Flagg, Knuebel and 7-foot-2 Khaman Maluach. Houston has a sixth-year big, J’Wan Roberts, who may have just played the game of his life. 

“They had three guys who could get 30,” Sampson said. “I’m not going to sit here and tell you I’m some kind of genius. We weren’t going to dedicate two or three to Cooper at the risk of letting somebody else get 30.”

And so it was for the Cougars, who won again with the nation’s No. 1 defense. With 1:14 left, Houston forward Joseph Tugler committed the unpardonable sin. He reached out of bounds like Duke was trying to inbound the ball, knocking the ball out of Tyrese Porter’s hands. The subsequent technical put Duke up 67-61. The Blue Devils didn’t score again. 

Tugler’s block of Knueppel with 47 seconds left was magnified by two massive plays from sharpshooter Emanuel Sharp, who grabbed a defensive rebound, went down court and hit a long 3-pointer on an assist from Uzan. But Uzan was promptly pulled with four fouls, and the move strategically put Mylik Wilson in to get a steal on Sion James.

Tugler’s jam putback on a missed 3 with 25 seconds left made it 67-66 Duke. Proctor then missed the front end of a one-and-one with 20.3 seconds left. Roberts – a 62.5% free-throw shooter – then hit both ends of a one-and-one with 19.6 seconds to put the Cougars ahead for the first time since early in the game, 68-67.

Roberts had missed some big free throws in last year’s three-point Elite Eight loss to the Blue Devils.

“The worst thing you can do is think,” he said. “The moment you think, that’s when you miss.”

This is not just a loss. This being Duke and this being the Final Four, this will have to go down as an epic upchuck. Duke just doesn’t do this. Thirty-three years ago, Christian Laettner catches that pass and beats Kentucky. On Saturday night, a desperation inbound heave found Flagg who had a heck of a look from about 10 feet. 

It bumped the front rim as Roberts threw a hand in the face of the national player of the year. 

“I tried to make it as uncomfortable as I could,” Roberts said. “I knew where the ball was going. I knew he was going to be the guy to take the last shot. Trust my work on defense, move my feet, not foul him and when he shoots have a great contest. I was going to live with the result.”

When the choke, er, smoke cleared Houston had just pulled off the fifth-largest rally to win in Final Four history. The nation’s tallest team (Duke) seemed like it was going to crawl out of the Alamodome. 

Except for a stunned section of Duke fans, that Dome erupted. The crowd had gotten behind the underdog Cougars.

“Let’s f—in’ go,” Sampson screamed at the Houston rooting section as he left the court.

Cougars legend Hakeem Olajuwon had a smile from ear-to-ear. He was asked if the late comeback reminded him of a certain close championship game that turned out the wrong way against North Carolina State 42 two years ago.

“Eighty-three?,” Olajuwon said. “I forgot about ’83.”