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NCAA MEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: KANSAS CITY

March 29, 2019

Kansas City, Missouri

Kentucky - 62 Houston - 58

THE MODERATOR: Houston Cougars are with us. Head Coach Kelvin Sampson is here along with Armoni Brooks and Corey Davis, Jr., representing the student body. We'll ask the head coach to make a statement on the game and go to question for all three gentlemen from Houston.

Kelvin, please.

KELVIN SAMPSON: We're up 3 with under a minute to go. Obviously we're in a position to potentially win the game. They are going to Washington. We guarded the post pretty good. We doubled it and made them spit it out. He's too good. For some reason we missed a defensive assignment. Washington is really good on that low post.

But we had our chances. We certainly had our chances. We had a lot of good looks throughout the game. Even when we were coming back, we had some possessions. I thought we got great looks on. But you, know, when you get this far, you know, it's always tough. It's always hard to accept losing a game.

But you know, going to the Elite 8 would be great, but what would mean more to me would be a chance to coach this group of kids again. That's what I was looking for, another film session, another practice, another game. Just keep playing as long as we could play.

You know, sometime in coaching you just get blessed with a great group of kids. I mean a great, great group of kids. It's such a blessing and an honor for me to coach these kids this season, and I say thank you to them for letting me go along on the ride, especially Corey and Galen and Breaon and Landon.

So, tough one to lose, but hats off to Cal and his kids. Their length bothered us at times, but, you know, after awhile we figured -- we figured some things out and came back and put ourselves in position to win. That's a credit to these kids.

Q. Coach, you guys found a way to get back to your identity in that second half, really swarming on defense, getting rebounds, rebounds were a problem in the first. What did you talk about at halftime to kind of get your team back on track to those things that kind of got you here?
KELVIN SAMPSON: Well, sometimes it's how you say it versus what you said. We've been down before. We were down 15 to LSU, came back and won by 6. At some point we were plus 21 on them.

I knew we were going to come back. That was never an issue. I didn't think it would go from 11 to 22. I knew we were going to get that thing down. When you're coming back, you do expend a lot of energy. One of the things that Kentucky similar to us, that they have depth up-front. You can't play three post guys. They rotate their bigs pretty good. But make no question about it, their best player is number 25. He's their best player. He's the only one that we didn't have an answer for.

He can score. You can't teach that. You have to recruit that. But even with that, still had a chance, you know. Corey put us -- we got on his back there for awhile, got on Armoni's back. Nate Hinton had some minutes. Once we started offensive rebounding, we -- we usually don't take offensive rebounds back to the rim, we usual kick them out. Call those daggers. When we were daggering the rebounds, Armoni got some looks. Corey didn't shoot as well as he's capable. He's actually a great 3-point shooter. He's made about 105 or so.

But, two good teams, two good teams. Both of them probably deserve to be playing Sunday, but only one could advance. And congratulations to Cal and his kids.

Q. Corey, can you just kind of take me through the last second when you saw Herro's shot go through the net Internet?
COREY DAVIS, JR.: I mean, it was a big shot. Came down, tried to get to the rim. I think that was when PJ blocked my shot, I believe. He got to it. They got in transition. They made two of our guys converge on one and Herro was wide open for the 3. Even though it was heavily contested. You give a good shooter that type of shot, nine times out of ten he'll make it. He was very confident in his stroke. He shot it like he normally shot it. It went in, so --

Q. Each of you, what has been some of your favorite parts about playing for this team this year?
COREY DAVIS, JR.: Just the family atmosphere. That's probably my biggest thing out of this program. We really treat each other like family. Lot of programs say that and they built a cohesiveness together. We built something that will last a lifetime.

Outside of all the basketball stuff, all the things we've been through together builds so many memories we can take outside of this. I know we won't be able the play with each other ever again, but at the same time, we've made so many great memories and we just created so many great bonds. Something you can't take away from us. That's probably my biggest thing out of it.

ARMONI BROOKS: Just the family atmosphere. We all love each other on and off the floor and just, you know, having this be the last game that we'll be play all on the same court together, it really hurts. We were really looking forward to getting back to practice and being able to be around each other some more.

But, you know, we still -- we'll all keep in contact with each other. This is a brotherhood we built for life. These are memories we'll cherish forever.

Q. Corey, Armoni, we saw some significant emotion. Can both of you take us through the pain you're feeling inside right now?
ARMONI BROOKS: Just, you know, I don't know how to put it into words right now. Kind of still -- I'm kind of in shock, really. But, you know, just going through the locker room, you know, going through all the seniors and just knowing that you'll never be able the play another game with them in the same uniform, you know.

That brotherhood that we built is so much stronger than just basketball. We care about each other on and off the floor. I think that's just something that really stings right now. We all get along so well that we hated that it had to end so early. But, you know, we all love each other and we'll always look out for each other.

COREY DAVIS, JR.: Yeah, just to pick up. We have a great passion for this game. We have a great passion for each other, and just the way it ended, I mean, just no one wants it to end, especially when you've gone through so much as a unit and you prevailed through so many other challenges that you've seen all throughout the year. And just for your season to end like that, it's a lot.

I'm taking it heavy considering I had to two chances to help my team win a game and kind of came up short. I'm taking it as heavy as you can take it. I mean. But at the end of the day, I'm grateful. Coach Sampson gave me an opportunity to live a dream I've always wanted to live. We're all going to be emotional at this time. We'll take what we learned from Coach Sampson throughout all the years and keep growing as men and basketball players.

THE MODERATOR: Three minutes left in the session.

Q. Coach, you mentioned the LSU game, down 15 come back and win by 6. I think Joe was mentioning a couple times down 10 at halftime, came back and win those games. What is it about this team that can find a way to persevere, get back in the games late and have a shot to win?
KELVIN SAMPSON: Starts with leadership. Teams that underachieve usually have poor player leadership. Starts there.

Because you have good players don't mean you're going to have good leadership. This team was blessed that way. Last year's team had outstanding leadership, too.

Another thing is their hearts. They have big hearts. They think they can win every game they play. We played 37 games this year and won 33. There wasn't a game they played including tonight -- they thought they were going to win tonight. The first half they -- you know, knocked us back a little bit. But, you know, once we regrouped and spread them a little bit, could drive them, just took a little spark to get going.

We've seen -- we've -- our fans in Fertitta Center has seen that many times, us come back. Done it on the road many times. But this is a really, really good basketball team. It really was. It was a really good basketball team and really good players. Played well together. Really good at both ends. No reason why we can't be playing on Sunday.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you gentlemen. Great season. Best of luck.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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