SDSU - 73, Houston - 70 (OT)
KELVIN SAMPSON: Congratulations to Brian and his kids. They deserved to win. Shoot, there was some possession things. Coleman-Jones kid when he banked -- I think they called it a three, it was a two. When he banked that ball in, the defense was outstanding. We just needed to get a stop there.
But he banks it in, and then we go down and got a one and one to win it in regulation.
Then we still had an opportunity. Was it one and one in regulation or overtime? I can't remember. Which one is that? No, the free throws. Yeah, we had two chances there to win it.
Same thing against Alabama. Our chance to win that one, we're up five with four-something to go against Auburn.
We're right there. Just sometimes you've got to keep plugging and finding who the guy is. We've always had the guy. This team doesn't have a guy yet.
Then as a coach I've got to help them. I'm not a finger pointer, never have been. Got to really, really continue to evaluate this team. They're all in different roles, and we have a hard time getting the ball into the paint for kickouts. We struggle with that. San Diego State did a great job of guarding that tonight.
Then we did -- same thing. They had some tough, contested threes, especially No. 21, Byrd, hit three. Then the Jones kid, threes off the bounce. But we're up 10, we're up 11, 40-29. We're up 10.
I think that was disappointing to me was our leadership breakdowns. We've been pretty good at pick-and-roll defense. Somebody neglected to take the roller there. Why did we have that mistake? What is the issue there?
We're switching there at the end. We had a young man jump into a coverage call. It was said during the timeout, after the timeout, switch, switch, switch, take away the left hand. Next thing you know, he's going down Broadway, shooting a layup. We've just got to get a lot of things cleared up.
I've got to do a better job coaching them, better job putting them in the right spots. We've got to figure out how. Offense, we're struggling because we're not getting anything easy.
Easy baskets happen because you can get the ball inside the paint. We are getting the ball to the block, to the post area, but our big guys are just dribble post move against the shot blocker, and obviously you've got to shot fake that.
Little things, we've got to clean those things up.
We're a good team, but that might be all we are right now, just a good team. We're not really good or very good. But we're good enough to play with all these really good teams because we've been in position to beat them all.
We could make a case that we could be 7-0, but you could make a case that we're right where we should be, 4-3. Reality says we're probably somewhere in the middle.
Q. Quick question, both the teams, San Diego State and Houston, really kind of hang their hat on defense. Is the way they play defense, is it different than the way you guys play defense?
KELVIN SAMPSON: I don't think so. We're similar. Maybe certain things are different, but it doesn't have to be alike or different. They're both good.
Q. They had a couple guys who might not have been prominent people in the scouting report have big games, Coleman-Jones and Pharaoh Compton. They haven't done that much at all this season. Did you not expect that?
KELVIN SAMPSON: Did you?
Q. If you'd seen the first two games, no.
KELVIN SAMPSON: I saw the stat sheet. Jones kid was shooting off the bounce threes. He made three of them. That doesn't include the one he banked in. The offense looks a lot better when the ball goes in the basket, that's for sure.
Q. You did a great job on their two leading scorers. They didn't have a point 31 minutes into the game. From there, Boyd got going a little bit, and B.J. Davis hit a big shot there. Is that -- what did you see there? What happened that sort of allowed it? Just a matter of time before they got going or just defensive errors?
KELVIN SAMPSON: Talented kids are going to make some shots. We're not the 1964 Dodgers with Sandy Koufax. We're not going to shut them out. They're going to score points.
It was Compton and Coleman-Jones; they scored 29 points. What were they averaging combined coming into the game? I don't have that. But you know, when you're struggling, that's what happens. We've just got to keep hanging in there. Keep the right attitude, keep coming to practice.
Coaches, starting with me, we've got to do a better job putting these kids in better positions. We've got to find a way to get some easy baskets against good defensive teams. The offense is always better against teams that don't guard, but San Diego State is a good defensive team.
It bothered us tonight because they forced us to play way too much east and west. Some points you've got to get north. You've got to get downhill. You've got to get north and south.
We had our opportunities. Sharp's a pretty good scorer. He got in there a few times, and he just missed. Whereas when they had their opportunities, they scored.
Hat's off to Brian and his group. We go back and go back to the drawing board and try to figure out how to make this team better.
Q. On the final possession of overtime with 7 seconds left, traditionally Brian will foul in that situation. Did you expect that?
KELVIN SAMPSON: No, you don't ever -- I mean, I thought about it, but I don't think that the way his defense was set up, I wouldn't have fouled. The defense is too good. That's giving us a chance to -- that's not a foul situation anyway.
They're up three. The best we could do is high. We're down three, right? Why would he foul if you're up three? That's not -- I wouldn't have fouled us. The way they guarded, they guarded the crap out of us.
You're not going to put pen to paper and get a wide open shot against a team. You're just going to switch every screen. So someone is going to put the ball in your best shooter's hands off some kind of action. L.J. got a shot. He hit some. His foot was bothering him a little bit tonight.
But we've got some guys on the bench we've got to keep bringing along that can help us once we get through December, January, February. A lot of the season left.
Houston's not used to losing like this over the last six or seven, seven or eight years, but it happens. You saw what happened in Maui. It happens. You'd better tighten your belt. You don't point fingers and blame as a coach. You figure out how to help your team.
A lot of basketball left, and I expect this team to bounce back.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports