INDIANAPOLIS — Kelvin Sampson isn’t in the Hall of Fame. After the call that secured his Houston team’s Sweet 16 escape on Friday night, it’s past time for that to happen.
Thanks to a brilliant baseline-out-of-bounds play that got Milos Uzan a wide-open, last-second layup, Houston survived Purdue 62-60 in what felt like a road game to advance to the Elite Eight for the first time since 2022.
NO WAY 🤯
HOUSTON TAKES THE LEAD IN THE FINAL SECOND 😱 #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/L2wCPQ34gD
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 29, 2025
It was certainly discussed by the Cougars this week that, despite their No. 1 seed, Purdue traveled only 66.1 miles to Lucas Oil Stadium. Problem was, that’s where Houston is at its best. Defense, rebounding and steady point guard play travels.
“How we choose to peel the orange, man, is a brand of ball that you can take on the road,” head-coach-in-waiting Kellen Sampson said this week of the Cougars, who hadn’t lost a true road game all season.
That formula stayed perfect, but this one was far from easy. Purdue played its best defensive half of the season in the first half, taking a 31-29 lead into the break, and then came back from a 10-point second-half deficit to tie the game and set up Sampson’s magic with the white board.
On the play, Uzan threw the ball into center Joseph Tugler, who gave it right back to him while Purdue was distracted by the other three players on the court, who appeared to be trying to set up something for leading scorer LJ Cryer.
“Obviously, when you’re calling stuff at the end of the game, it’s gotta be something that you’ve worked on countless times,” Kelvin Sampson told on-court reporter Evan Washburn after the game. “We actually worked on that play yesterday. We call it 51, and there’s three different reads. They did a good job taking the first one, but we got to the second one and (Tugler) made the right read with the step-in. So, great execution.”
Uzan had his first chance at the game-winner in the final seconds when he missed an open turnaround 14-footer, but Houston retained the ball when it went out of bounds. The lay-in completed a terrific evening for Uzan, who had a few uncharacteristic bad turnovers but was otherwise close to perfect, scoring 22 points and dishing out six assists.
Why is he so good on the road?
“There’s nothing about Los’ game that’s adrenaline-driven,” Kellen Sampson said.
While the Boilermakers struggled to keep up on the glass, they were just about the perfect opponent to upset the Cougars.
That’s because Houston always puts two defenders on the ball on ball screens, and no one is better at dealing with that than Purdue point guard Braden Smith and his pick-and-roll partner Trey Kaufman-Renn.
Whether it was Kaufman-Renn on rolls or Purdue shooters spotting up, Smith found the open guy all night, racking up 15 assists, including a kickout to Cam Heide for the game-tying 3.
The Cougars had control for most of the second half until the final minutes. That’s because Houston settled in and started getting the shots it wanted, using ball screen sets for Uzan or Cryer to help get to the paint or find the occasional kick-out 3.
Houston won despite Cryer missing all six of his shots in the first half and finishing with just five points. Instead of scoring, he started passing and ended up with five assists. As usual, the experienced Coogs just do whatever they need to win.
“I think our guys have a really healthy maturity about them, honestly,” Kellen Sampson said. “They just don’t get rattled. We’ve got a bunch of guys that have been in a lot of really, really tough environments. And so we keep our composure pretty good. Keep our poise. Our guys have a lot of quiet confidence amongst themselves.”
And now they’re onto the Elite Eight, where they’ll face Tennessee and continue their mission of getting Sampson the only thing not yet his resume: a national championship.
(Photo: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)
