Kelvin Sampson had just led his team to an incredible comeback win in the Final Four over Duke, and stepped to the microphone in front of the world and made sure to share how he felt about the conference he was playing, compared to the conference his program is in.
Sampson wrapped up the comments below by saying, “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. Playing in the Big 12 helped us. Shout out to my Big 12 brethren, Brett Yormark, and all the great coaches in the Big 12.”
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The Big 12 was clearly the stronger conference than the ACC going into the NCAA Tournament this season.
Here’s a breakdown of the top conferences based on NET rankings:
| Rank | Conference | Average NET |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | SEC | 31.63 |
| 2 | Big Ten | 47.06 |
| 3 | Big 12 | 47.44 |
| 4 | Big East | 73.64 |
| 5 | Atlantic Coast | 96.44 |
Houston ended the game on an 11-1 run in the final 1:14 of the game. The Cougars were trailing the Blue Devils 59-45 with just over eight minutes to play and finished the game on a 25-8 run to reach Monday night’s Championship game where they will meet the Florida Gators.
LJ Cryer led Houston with 26 points, while Emanuel Sharp added 16 on the night. J’Wan Roberts had 11 points, including the two free throws in the final 30 seconds that put Houston up 68-67.
For the Big 12 Conference, the league is back in the National Championship for the first time since Kansas in 2022. The Jayhawks went on to win the National Title that season, which gave the Big 12 back-to-back National Champions following Baylor in 2021.
If Houston can win on Monday, the Big 12 would have won three of the past five National Championships, with only UConn having won the other two of this decade.
Houston vs. Florida will tip off at 7:50 p.m. CT from San Antonio on Monday night for the National Championship.
