Kelvin Sampson’s Houston Cougars faced numerous hurdles during their National Championship loss to the Florida Gators, culminating in a season-low of just five assists in a 65-63 defeat. This marked the fewest assists recorded by the Cougars since 2020 and was a significant point of discussion in the postgame press conference.
Houston only had 5 assists against Florida.
The last time Houston had less than 6 assists in a game was November 2020 🤯
— Evan Miyakawa (@EvanMiya) April 8, 2025
Evan Miyakawa made sure to bring this discrepancy to Sampson’s attention. In response, Sampson delved into a teaching moment, elaborating on how assists work amidst his postgame critique.
Kelvin Sampson’s response to @EvanMiya on what Florida did to limit Houston’s number of assists 😅
The Cougars had a season-low with just five assists, their lowest as a program since 2020. pic.twitter.com/g3toS460Br
— Zeno ‘Jeno’ Jo (@jenozenojeno) April 8, 2025
His comments mirrored moments from past tournaments, reminiscent of Taurean Prince discussing Baylor’s rebounding issues against Yale in 2016 or Bo Nix explaining his interception against the Steelers this season. “Let me explain how an assist works, Evan,” Sampson stated. “When you throw the ball to someone and they score, that’s an assist, right? We passed the ball to J’Wan [Roberts] in the post, but he missed some shots that he usually makes. Those were potential assists we could have had, but we just didn’t finish. Florida deserves credit for being a strong defensive team. However, we passed enough to get more assists; we just didn’t convert our shots. That’s my initial take.”
At that moment, Sampson paused, smiled, and humorously inquired if Miyakawa was indeed the “stats guy.”
Kelvin Sampson hitting me with “you’re the stats guy, right?” with a smile on his face was gold. https://t.co/utvrvO4LJD
— Evan Miyakawa (@EvanMiya) April 8, 2025
This lighter exchange contrasted sharply with the Sampson we witnessed 30 minutes earlier, who was visibly distraught as his team struggled to secure a final shot. Although he leaves San Antonio without a championship ring, he demonstrated that there remains room for humor and perspective, even after enduring one of the toughest losses of his coaching career.
