Houston was on the cusp of a title. And then it wasn't.
A devastated Cougars locker room tries to make sense of what went wrong offensively down the stretch.
SAN ANTONIO — The door was shut for 42 minutes, but time was not going to heal any wounds on this night. Not after blowing a 12-point second-half lead. Not after a final two-minute stretch that was every bit the opposite of the final two-minute stretch just two nights earlier.
Kelvin Sampson emerged from the Houston locker room at 10:54 p.m., and now the scars were plain for all to see.
Houston was on its way to a national championship. And then it wasn’t.
Florida 65, Houston 63.
The whiteboard in the back of the room simply read “35-5.”
The Cougars had been stuck at four losses for 68 days.
In the final game of this 68-team NCAA tournament, they were handed loss No. 5.
“I swear to God we gonna be back,” guard Kordelius Jefferson shouted to no one in particular.
“I swear to God we gonna be back.”