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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: WICHITA

March 15, 2018

Wichita, Kansas

Houston - 67, San Diego State - 65

THE MODERATOR: At this time we'll get an opening statement from Coach Sampson. If there's ever a reason they call it March Madness, we just saw it, Coach.

COACH SAMPSON: First of all, congratulations to Brian, Coach Dutcher, and his kids, first of all, on a great, great year. I know this was his first year, and for them to win their conference championship and then get to the NCAA Tournament is unbelievable accomplishment. So congratulations to them.

There's a lot of ways you have to win games. A lot of times you just have to do it from the seat of your pants. We certainly didn't go into this game thinking that offensively this was what we were going to have to do. But I think we said that -- what was the number we said, Devin? 24?

You know, our three best shooters tonight went 6 for 28. If you'd have told me that Corey Davis would go 2 for 10, Armoni Brooks 0 for 4, and Devin 4 for 14, go 6 for 28 and was going to win, I'd say there's no way. Especially with the shots they were getting.

But that's -- NCAA Tournament will do that to you. Coaching these games, a lot of these games, and I've always thought the hardest one is the first one. If you can get by the first one, usually your kids relax and play a little bit better.

But difference in this game tonight is we had Rob Gray and they didn't.

THE MODERATOR: At this time we'll open it up for questions for our student-athletes.

Q. Rob, can you take us through those last few seconds there and what you saw on that last play to make that driving layup?
ROB GRAY: Well, you know, I had the ball. I was dribbling the clock out, just kind of thinking to myself, you know, I'm a senior, never been in March Madness. This is what I live for. You know, I've been from junior college to Houston just working, working my tail off with my teammates from summer conditioning to doing war drills in practice, and I just didn't want to let my team down.

A small thought ran through my head. I was thinking about Cincinnati, how I had a final chance to win the game for us and I didn't. So I just wanted to come through for my team and my family and just give all the U of H fans the feeling they haven't had since 1984.

Q. Rob, we talked to Elvin Hayes after the game. You tied his record here for most points scored. And his quote was: Rob Gray refused to lose tonight. I know how much you think of Elvin. What does that mean when a Hall of Famer says that about you?
ROB GRAY: It means a lot. Ever since I've been at U of H, Elvin has had nothing but love and great comments to give to me. He gives me great confidence. Looking back at the records he's set, everything he's done in the NBA and being a top basketball player ever, for him to be in my corner and supporting me so much means a lot. And I will say I should have beat them because I missed four free throws. I just can't believe that. I need to get back in the gym and work on those free throws ASAP.

Q. Rob, was there a point in the game where you just felt like, hey, I can take this game over? Looked like in the second half you really started going to the rim and really taking the defenders off the dribble.
ROB GRAY: My guy right here to my left he told me rob take over. And I didn't really say anything. I was just trying to stay composed and just stay in the moment and just make the right basketball play. Maybe I could have done some things better, but in the end I'm just glad that we got the win and we were able to pull it out for the city.

Q. You talked about in the second half taking over, but it seemed like from the beginning you took it to them very aggressive. Is that a mindset you had or just kind of how it presented itself when the defense plays?
ROB GRAY: Yeah. I try to be aggressive all the time. If I'm going to pass or score, I have to be aggressive to draw the defense in and help get guys off or shooters and our bigs so I can get them in position to score easy baskets. So that's just a constant thing everyone is telling me, Rob, stay aggressive. Stay aggressive. Don't be passive.

It also leads to getting to the foul line a lot. Most of the times when I'm aggressive, it does good things for our teammates. Just gotta take care of the ball at the same time.

Q. Rob, they used primarily two guys, Trey Kell and Jeremy Hemsley. And it seemed like Jeremy had a little success middle of that half. They went back to Trey. Did that surprise you at all, and was there something you were able to do against Trey that you couldn't do against Jeremy?
ROB GRAY: You know, I don't really pay much attention to that. They're both about the same size. That's pretty much all I pay attention to, how big they are or what's their weakness.

Hemsley, I'll give him credit. He's a good defender and he was staying low, moving his feet very well. And he blocked my shot one time on a jumper, and hats off to him for playing good defense. But I just try to stay aggressive no matter who's guarding me.

Q. Devin, as one of the seniors, what's this win mean to your program and your coach?
DEVIN DAVIS: It means a lot to our program, especially sitting next to Coach Sampson. He's an big part of why I'm here. Rob's a big part. It's a great win. And we survived to play another day.

Q. Kelvin, could you describe your emotions watching that last sequence go back and forth, Rob, Watson and then Rob?
COACH SAMPSON: It's two really good teams that neither one wanted to lose. You know, the way they were defending us, you know, we went a lot to Devin tonight. Devin's a really good shooter. I think he's shooting over 50 percent for the year. And for those of you that haven't seen him, he's one of the better mid-range 15- to 18-foot jump shooters I think in the country. He's a really good shooter. He just didn't make any shots tonight.

Corey has made 102 threes this year. He made 102 threes this year. And top 15 in the nation. Three-point field goal percentage. But neither one could knock down a shot tonight.

But when you're at this time of the year, you don't keep going back to the well to see if they're going to make one. Rob had it going. When he has it going, you know, we're going to ride that horse until they stop it. But when he hit that three and then I think it was -- was it Watson that made the three? That was a great shot. They're a good team.

You know, I mean, obviously we have great teams in our conference. We have two teams ranked in the Top 10 in the nation in our conference, Wichita State and Cincinnati. But they're really well coached. Brian does a good job of exploiting, taking advantage of his players' strengths. He puts Kell in that mid-picking role. They spread you out. Their bigs slip. We hadn't seen that much. We had to make an adjustment by staying back on the pick and roll.

But I felt really good when Rob's shot went in and there's 1.1 second left. And then if I was ever going to have a premature death, it would have been when Mitchell caught that ball and had a clean look. All I could think was, oh, God, there's Christian Lattner, because that's kind of what it reminded me of.

Again, hats off to San Diego State. They played great tonight.

THE MODERATOR: A couple of notes here. Rob scored 21 of Houston's last 22 points of the game, including 14 in a row. And, Coach, you held San Diego State without a basket the last 6:39 of the first half.

COACH SAMPSON: Our defense was tough. We had a hard time keeping them off the free-throw line. But it was just a rock fight. You know, we're used to being in rock fights.

Q. Kelvin, you had mentioned going into the game just about the opportunities that were here, but to get that win that hadn't been in this program, a tournament win since '84, what does that do now for the program?
COACH SAMPSON: Yeah. I don't really know how to answer the question because I wasn't here in '84. I've been here since 2014. I mean, we're one for one. Why do you keep bringing up '84? You know. Corey Davis and -- I got a lot of guys, this is their first NCAA Tournament game. I don't know if thinking about how many we've won since 1984 even comes into our -- I'm just glad we won tonight, you know. That means that we have -- we're 40 minutes away from going to the Sweet 16. You know, we've won 27 games this year. You know, that to me is for -- I think it's just more significant, you know.

I'm glad we won for -- you know, it's been a long time. But, you know, if I'd been here since '84, I'd been on my fifth job by now. I'd have been fired a long time ago. We've gone from building this program to the point where we get to the tournament and the very first time we're here we beat a really good team and we're getting ready, I think that's more significant.

But I'm glad we won, and I'm glad -- you know who I'm happy for. I'm happy for all those fans at all those watch parties all over the city of Houston. I'm happy for all those Cougars that the well has been dry for all these years that have wanted something to support and get behind. I'm happy for Mack Rhoades for fighting to make sure that that development center was built. I'm happy for Renu Khator, our president, and Tilman Fertitta, and Hunter Yurachek and Chris Pezman, our administration for giving us the resources to be successful.

And I've said this once, I've said it 100 times. Coaches win games, but administrators win championships. So our administration started with Mack Rhoades, but they put us in the position to be successful. And shout out to Rob Gray, too.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: WICHITA

March 15, 2018

Kelvin Sampson

Rob Gray

Devin Davis