NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: REGIONAL FINAL - HOUSTON VS VILLANOVA

March 26, 2022

Fabian White Jr.

Jamal Shead

Kelvin Sampson

AT&T Center

Houston Cougars

Elite 8 Postgame Media Conference

Villanova - 50, Houston - 44

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson, Houston student-athletes Fabian White and Jamal Shead. We're going to go right into questions. If you have questions for our student-athletes, I'd prefer that those go first.

Q. Fabian and Jamal, just kind of take us through the offensive struggles tonight and not being able to get going getting into a rhythm.

FABIAN WHITE JR.: We were just missing wide open shots really, missing layups, missing free throws. It's a struggle we've been having all year. We didn't finish at the end, though.

Q. Kelvin, that slow walk up the stairs kind of tells it, but can you put in words what happened out there tonight? You guys fought so hard but came up short.

KELVIN SAMPSON: First of all, congratulations to Jay. Villanova, I think they represent college athletics at the highest level the right way. They've got a really good team.

But if you'd have told me before the game that we're going to hold them to 28 percent from the field. They're going to shoot 23 percent from the three-point line, and we'd lose, I wouldn't have believed you.

Our kids guarded. Man, did we guard. Our defense was spot on. It's not easy to hold a team with that kind of -- Gillespie, Moore, Samuels -- everybody in their lineup can make a basket. Shoot, we held them to 50 points.

We had a lot of opportunities. They didn't go in. That happens. I'm disappointed we lost. I felt this was a game we could win. Not should win, but could win. We had to earn it. We got down early, then we fought back. I think we had it to four, and we had a breakaway, and Taze missed one right there in the paint. Most of the shots he missed tonight were the same as he made against Illinois.

But that's the way it goes. I'm sure Jay's kids felt like they missed some shots that they could have made, but I don't coach Villanova. I coach our kids.

Disappointed we lost, but I'm not disappointed in anything else. This team taught me a lot this year. I learned a lot from them. I'm sure I learned a lot more from them than they did me. How to overcome adversity, how to get up when you get knocked down. This team won a conference championship, tournament championship, went to the Elite Eight.

It sounds good right now, but because we're hurting, it's hard to celebrate that. Time will pass, and these kids will look back -- teams that cry care. There was a lot of tears in that locker room, coaches and players. This team's been through a lot this year. I knew it was going to take a good team to beat us. And a good team did.

I thought that was two great cultures out there tonight. Villanova is really good at what they do. We're really good at what we do. But somebody's going to walk away, go to New Orleans, and another team is going to call it a season.

I just thanked our players for allowing me to be their coach, taking me on this ride with them. This was an unbelievable season with so many exits off the highway, but we always found a way to get back on the highway. I'll remember this team.

Career's over, you look back, I'll always remember this team, and I'm always appreciate them.

Q. Jamal, you did such a great job guarding Gillespie tonight. What was the approach to try to take him out of the game a little bit or at least take him out of their offense?

JAMAL SHEAD: He's a really good player. You just try as hard as you can to stop him from what he's good at. He has a post game. He's a really good shooter, and I tried to stop him from both of those. Just tried to do all I can to help us win.

Q. Jamal and Fabian, Coach kind of talked about it. Teams that care, they cry. You guys were part of a celebration to go to the Final Four last year. What was it like just now and knowing what it tastes like to get there? What are the feelings inside that locker room?

JAMAL SHEAD: With all the adversity we faced this year, we just got closer and closer. We just wanted to win that so bad just so we can keep playing together. It wasn't really for the win. It was just so we wouldn't have to stop playing together.

These guys mean so much to me. They really changed my life.

Q. Kelvin, you knew this day would come when it would be your last time to coach Fabian. Can you reflect on what he's meant to this program, just all he's done?

KELVIN SAMPSON: To borrow Fabian's phrase, he came in here as a boy, and he left a man. I think that's part of a coach's responsibility. The kids have to let you coach them too. Usually freshmen have a lot more answers than they do questions, but as they get older, they realize that they get smarter as they get older, and Fabian did.

He went from a shy, introverted freshman that was 6'6", 196. That's exactly what he weighed when he got to campus in June of his freshman year, 6'6", 196. He's leaving right at 6'8", and he weighs almost 240.

His growth was not in his height and weight. His growth was emotionally, mentally. He's got his degree. He's graduated. He's ready to go to the next step. In an era where a lot of kids take the easy way out and run to another school, Fabian stayed. I think there's something to be said about those kind of kids. We need more role models like Fabian that love this school.

He loved this program, and he loved this city. The school and this program and this city loved him back, and they always will.

Q. Kelvin, there was a moment in the second half when you guys were able to cut 11 down to 2, and Moore was really carrying you guys. The crowd was really -- did you feel there was a shot, that you guys could find a way? Obviously, you were playing and playing, but it seemed like there was a moment when the game could have turned.

KELVIN SAMPSON: Well, it was turning. That's why it was down 2. We had it turned. We kept getting stops, stops, stops, but we just weren't scoring it at the other end. Sometimes that happens.

We've won a lot of games over the years not because of what we did but because of what the other team did not do. Jamal -- we went 1 for 20 from the three. We're down 2, and we're 1 for 20 from the three for the night. We're not going to win a free-throw battle with them. We're not going to win a free-throw battle with most teams. This was not a great free-throw shooting team.

Some nights we did, but not being able to make the free throws, but Kyler missed two in a row, it didn't matter because we got the offensive rebound, and we scored on that possession.

You don't get on kids for missing shots. That's ridiculous. Nobody's trying to miss, especially ones that are open. What I got on our kids about at halftime was the lack of offensive rebounding. I thought Villanova was the aggressor in the first half the way they blocked out.

Second half, we got home. We got home on the boards. I think we wound up with 15 offensive rebounds, but my God, we missed 40 shots.

Villanova's tough. They're really, really well coached. They've got good players. They're smart. But our kids are the same way. Look how many times that they shot fake, shot fake, shot fake, and we stayed home. We stayed down. We stayed down. We stayed down. We didn't ball watch.

We knew that Gillespie was going to back down, back down, back down, but he wasn't going to try to score, so we didn't go double him. But Jamal never went for shot fakes. We had some tough calls, especially Josh. That's going to happen too.

But it was right there. We needed a big shot. In a lot of close games this year, somebody stepped up. I remember telling them in the huddle, I think it was a four-point game there, went from four to two back to six to four, and we kept getting stops that somebody's going to make a big shot. But we didn't.

Credit Villanova. In a year where I don't think there's any great teams in college basketball, Villanova's got as good a chance as anybody.

Q. Fabian, the first three games of the tournament, you guys kind of landed the first punch on every single team for the first five, ten minutes. Villanova came out today, as Coach mentioned, they were the aggressor. Did anything catch you guys off guard, and how difficult was it to at least adjust as opposed to forcing a team to adjust to you?

FABIAN WHITE JR.: We just didn't come out aggressive, like Coach said. There wasn't really nothing that shocked us. We just had to buckle down really on defense. They scored their first two points pretty easily, but after that, I feel like the game was pretty much neck and neck, just again we weren't making any shots really.

I guess they were making their free-throws too. They were like 14 for 14 or 15 for 15, so that's the game right there.

Q. Coach, can you talk about Taze's game and also the season that he had. He talks about how you helped him grow as a man. Just the different things that had an impact on the team this season.

KELVIN SAMPSON: Taze was 6 for 21. I don't think he took a bad shot all night. He just didn't finish around the basket. We had some matchups we liked. So we went at him because they switch -- we went to Josh early, and that well was dry. So we tried to find another one, and we found it. Taze was getting good shots, especially in the paint, transition. Just couldn't finish.

This team was about team. Taze was a big part of our team, but all of our guys were. This time last year, he was a kid that had five leg surgeries and played at Cal State Bakersfield. And he was a Godsend in a lot of ways because our first 12 games of the year, clearly our best player was Marcus Sasser, clearly. He was averaging 18 points a game, made 46 threes, was shooting 46 percent from the three. Our best defender, led us in steals.

Then Taze became part of that. He became a good defender. Jamal, Kyler. But I don't know where we would be without Kyler and Taze and Josh. Those three transfer kids came in and buoyed us when we needed help. Jamal's growth. Fabian's leadership. This team was a very together team, very disciplined team.

It's a blessing as a coach when you don't have to worry about attitude and effort. You can coach basketball every day. We're in the ring of fighting. Unless you're in there, it's just hard to describe I guess.

Just really proud of this team, everything they accomplished. Ten years from now, 20 years from now, they'll come back with their families and show their kids those banners on the wall, and they'll remember this with fondness and pride.

I want to give a shout out to our fans from Houston. When people say it's like a home court, no, it's not. We're 200 miles away. We played Syracuse in Albany, New York, one time they were a 1 seed, we were a 5 seed, they were 75 miles from campus. That was a home game for Syracuse. This was not a home game. Our fan base had to make a big effort to get here.

Our fans, I think, mirror the growth of our program. When we first got to Houston, we couldn't get anybody to come to our games, students, anybody. But now look at us today. Our fans were awesome. I can't tell you how proud I am and thankful we are that we have a fan base. So my message to our program and to our fans, people that support us, is that thank you. Our kids poured their hearts out. We're not going anywhere. We'll be back.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you for your time, Coach. Thank you, Fabian. Thank you, Jamal.