KANSAS CITY, Mo. – There was a moment Friday night at the Big 12 Tournament when the nation’s No. 1 team with a bullet looked more than vulnerable. Fourth-seeded Texas Tech had been smacked upside its collective noggin, starting 1 for 12 from the field and trailing by 15 in the first half of its semifinal game against Houston.
“All year we’ve been pretty good about hitting first,” Houston assistant coach Kellen Sampson said outside the Cougars’ locker room. “That’s pretty much a hallmark of our program. We don’t hit back, we hit first. So we take it personally to get off to a good start. It’s important we play the game on our terms.”
And then the bottom fell out of another whoopin’ by the No. 1 Cougars. Texas Tech Coach Grant McCasland had the right idea after watching this team teeter on the brink of getting blown out in the first 10 minutes – go at Houston’s chest. That is, take the ball right at the Cougars. The Red Raiders made shots and basically nutted up without their third-leading scorer and top rebounder, guard Darrion Williams, who was out with an ankle injury.
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Part of what happened next was drawn up by Sampson in a reporter’s notebook outside Houston’s locker room following an 82-59 win over the Red Raiders that moved Houston into the Big 12 Tournament Championship Game. Sampson’s face lit up when asked the last time he played a five-guard lineup.
“Montana Tech Orediggers!” Sampson said.
Then he started the impromptu diagramming. On Friday, a leg injury to leading rebounder J’Wan Roberts dictated that Sampson use five guards at times to find a way past Tech.
But in Sampson World, any such inquiry merely opens the door to another anecdote. In the early 1980s when Sampson was an unknown coach just starting at the small NAIA school in Butte, Montana, circumstances dictated a similar roster adjustment.
“I had one team that led the entire nation in free-throw percentage,” Sampson recalled. “No shot clock, no three [back then] … Once we got up by four on the road, there weren’t but three people that touched the ball.
“We never lost close games .. That’s always been my Nirvana, to have a team full of point guards. Those things are hard to beat in a close game. Right in my wheelhouse.”
So…
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