LAWRENCE, Kan. — With 51.5 seconds left in regulation, as Houston coach Kelvin Sampson referred to as timeout after Kansas guard Rylan Griffen had buried a 3 to place the Jayhawks forward by 4, Sampson’s spouse Karen obtained out of her seat behind the Cougars’ bench, mentioned goodbye to the great Kansas followers who sat subsequent to her and began strolling across the concourse of Allen Fieldhouse.
The coach’s spouse is aware of how these normally finish.
It’s all the time Kansas that makes the miraculous play, the wild comeback, justifying the “Watch out for the Phog” banner that hangs within the rafters. As soon as her husband led by 16 factors on this constructing because the coach of Oklahoma. He misplaced that one. Sampson had coached eight instances at Allen Fieldhouse, and he’d misplaced eight instances.
However Saturday evening, the ghosts obtained confused. The luck was on the aspect of the Cougars of their 92-86 double-overtime win to stay excellent in Massive 12 play. How else do you clarify that with 20 seconds left within the first extra time and Kansas forward by 6 after LJ Cryer air-balled a nook 3 and Kansas sixth-year level guard Dajuan Harris rebounded the miss and headed to the road with 18.3 seconds left, Houston can be the one to win that recreation?
In his first 72 video games he performed at Allen Fieldhouse, Harris had missed each free throws on a visit to the road simply as soon as. In response to Ken Pomeroy’s calculations, Houston had a 0.4 % probability to win at that time, which appears a bit excessive.
Harris missed each free throws.
Houston heart Joseph Tugler rebounded the miss and gave it to Milos Uzan, who dribbled to the far baseline, jumped and floated a move to Emanuel Sharp. Sharp harm his ankle Monday, missed Wednesday’s win in opposition to Utah and practiced Saturday morning for the primary time all week. He caught the ball about 6 toes behind the 3-point line with Zeke Mayo inches away and fired a 3 up anyway. It went by means of the web with 7.5 seconds left, giving Houston only a sliver of hope.
The Cougars had already prolonged the sport by not permitting Kansas to inbound the ball with 16.6 seconds left in regulation when Mayo ran the baseline making an attempt to seek for a teammate across the big shadow of Tugler and his 7-foot-6 wingspan. Mayo was referred to as for a 5-second violation, which gave the ball again to Houston and allowed J’Wan Roberts to ship the sport to extra time with two free throws.
“Jojo is sort of a massive ol’ bull that’s snorting at you and stomping his hooves and whipping his tail round,” Sampson mentioned. “I imply, he’s an element.”
Sampson let free his bull once more after that Sharp 3, with poor Mayo tasked once more with looking for somebody to move to.
This time Mayo, proper because the official’s rely hit 4, tried to drift a move to Hunter Dickinson. Mayo didn’t put it excessive sufficient, and Uzan reached within the air and hit it away along with his denial hand, the ball going proper to sixth-year guard Mylik Wilson. Wilson began his profession at Louisiana, then transferred to Texas Tech the place it made him a defensive specialist. He left after one season in Lubbock and transferred to Houston. “He didn’t have any confidence,” mentioned Houston assistant Anthony Goldwire, who was an intern 4 years in the past at Louisiana in Wilson’s closing season there.
MYLIK MAGIC 🪄#ForTheCity x #GoCoogs pic.twitter.com/ePDmrXrhhP
— Houston Males’s Hoops 🏀 🐾 (@UHCougarMBK) January 26, 2025
Wilson redshirted his first 12 months at Houston, enjoying solely within the workers pickup video games on recreation days.
Wednesday in opposition to Utah, he took a season-high 11 discipline purpose makes an attempt. He made his two dunks, however he missed all 9 jumpers. Each morning he shoots with Goldwire, and Friday morning, Wilson took an additional hour of photographs. The work paid off early Saturday evening. Wilson obtained in a zone within the first half and stored Houston inside 7 at halftime by scoring 9 factors on an ideal 4-of-4 taking pictures. When the ball landed in his fingers with 7.5 seconds, he had already matched probably the most factors he’d ever scored (15) for the Cougars. Wilson had made simply eight 3s all season coming into the evening, however with out hesitation, he took one dribble again along with his left hand to verify he was behind the road and made the largest shot of his life, tying the rating with 4.3 seconds left.
“It’s been a loopy journey,” Wilson mentioned after. “I stayed within the health club, stored working 12 months after 12 months, and now it’s right here. I’m right here.”
After Mayo’s half-court heave went left, Sharp sprinted onto the ground, made a beeline for Wilson and summed it up for everybody: “Oh, my God.”
Within the second extra time, Sampson stored working performs to get the ball to sixth-year ahead J’Wan Roberts on the left elbow, and he stored attending to his lefty hook. When Roberts obtained to Houston, he redshirted. His first season he averaged 1.4 field-goal makes an attempt per recreation; the following 12 months he averaged 2.1.
“We had a number of shooters that I performed with — Quentin Grimes, Marcus (Sasser), Caleb (Mills), Tramon (Mark) — I simply allow them to do their factor and I simply attempt to discover alternative ways to attain and affect successful,” Roberts mentioned. “Once I wasn’t the primary or second choice, I simply obtained the ball off the rim and scored that manner.”
Sampson says Roberts didn’t have that hook shot when he arrived. “He’s mendacity,” Roberts mentioned, with an enormous grin. “I labored on it, and it obtained manner higher.”
However Roberts definitely wasn’t anybody you’d ever think about was going to be the focus of the Houston offense. Now, in his sixth 12 months at Houston, that’s precisely what he’s turn into. When smaller defenders guard Roberts, Sampson runs his offense by means of Roberts within the put up. And in opposition to greater guys, Sampson tries to get him going downhill the place he can stand up and financial institution in these candy lefty hooks. Roberts stored buying and selling blows with KU bigs Dickinson and Flory Bidunga, the mixture that just about received Kansas the sport a number of instances, however Roberts and the Cougars had a number of extra swings left in them.
And the participant who used to solely shoot off offensive rebounds took a career-high 21 photographs and scored a career-high 24 factors, together with 9 within the second extra time.
“Twenty-one photographs is loopy!” Roberts mentioned. “I’d had shot the ball 10 extra instances, as a result of I belief myself and I belief the work I put in.”
Karen Sampson finally wandered again when it was obvious that her 69-year-old husband was about to scratch off a bucket record merchandise and win at Allen Fieldhouse. She took an image of the scoreboard so she’d have documentation that, that actually simply occurred.
Houston 92, Kansas 86.
(Photograph of Hunter Dickinson and J’Wan Roberts: Ed Zurga / Getty Pictures)