Houston's Kelvin Sampson on failed final play in NCAA championship loss to Florida: 'At the end, you've gotta get a shot'

For the better part of 40 minutes Monday night, an elusive championship was in Houston's and head coach Kelvin Sampson's grasp. 

A victory would have have marked a breakthrough for a program and a coach who took the championship stage in San Antonio on similar trajectories. 

Houston, in its seventh Final Four, is a program with a rich history and a proud lineage that features Phi Slama Jama, Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler and Elvin Hayes. It's a history that does not include an NCAA championship. 

Sampson entered Monday's game as one of the winningest coaches of his generation and a respected leader who's now taken two programs to three Final Fours and coached in 50 previous NCAA tournament games. His programs are mainstays in the second weekend of the tournament and beyond. But like the program he now presides over, Sampson does not have an NCAA championship. 

And after Florida's 65-63 win, Houston and Sampson remain on that search for their breakthrough titles. 

Jamie Schwaberow via Getty Images

For most of the game Monday night, it looked like Houston and Sampson would break through. Houston led 31-28 at halftime and extended the lead to 42-30 in the second half. But Florida chipped away at the Houston lead until it took one of its own in the final minute. 

Then, with 19.7 seconds remaining, Houston had the ball and a two-point deficit with a chance to tie the game or win it in regulation with a 3. 

But disaster struck on that final possession. Houston ran into a wall of Florida defense, and didn't manage to get off a final shot. 

Why didn't Houston get off a shot?

All-American LJ Cryer dribbled the ball over half court, then looked to set up sharpshooter Milos Uzan on the right wing. Uzan attempted to roll off a screen in an apparent effort to set up a go-ahead 3. Instead, he faced a double-team by Florida's Alijah Martin and Thomas Haugh after Martin stayed with him.

At that point, Uzan had nowhere else to go but to give the ball back to Cryer. Cryer met immediate ...