SAN ANTONIO – For the last year, every day his feet have touched a basketball floor, J’Wan Roberts has finished that day’s work with 150 made free throws.
Not free throws, total. The makes, plus however many he misses on his way to 150.
Roberts isn’t alone. It’s a dedicated practice for Houston’s players, so engrained in team behavior coach Kelvin Sampson tasks a graduate assistant with delivering final shooting percentages to him afterward.
There’s history behind it — specifically last year’s Sweet 16 loss to Duke, when Houston shot 9-of-17 from the free-throw line. Roberts, then a fifth-year senior, accounted for five of those eight misses, internalizing his mistakes and the ways they could have changed a one-possession loss.
“Maybe we weren’t ready to make them then,” Sampson mused in the small hours of Sunday morning.
That was a year and a week ago. Even allowing for 100 days off between then and now — probably a generous estimate — that’s more than 39,000 made free throws since that night in Dallas.
You make them to wash away the taste of failure. You make them, as Sampson said, because “you prepare for moments like this, when everybody’s watching, in those moments when nobody is.”
You make them for moments like this.
How Houston's comeback against Duke started
Houston’s 14-point comeback against Duke, in a 70-67 win Saturday night made historic by the deficit and unbelievable to the naked eye, is the fifth-largest in the history of the Final Four.
Of course, the ugly truth of incredible comebacks is they probably started badly, and No. 1 seed Houston was certainly guilty here. The Cougars fell behind midway through the first half, shooting poorly and, almost unbelievably, getting outworked on the glass. Duke’s lead stretched to double digits before Houston shot its way back just before halftime.
Here, Sampson reminded his team about being down five at the half against Purdue in this year's Sweet 16. About the comeback at Arizona, or even better, the one at Kansas, when the Jayhawks led by six in Lawrence with 70 seconds left and Houston’s win probability cratered to 0.4% on KenPom and the Cougars still won in double overtime.
Mostly, Sampson emphasized the need to clean up the defensive mistakes, and win the possession battle by outworking Duke for second-chance rebounds.
“We played like crap, we’re down six,” Sampson said, returning to the present. “What’s the problem? There’s 20 more minutes.”
And still, it got worse before it got better.
At no point Saturday did Houston shoot the ball particularly well. With the exception of L.J. Cryer — whose 26 points kept his team from drowning — only one other Cougars player attempted more than one field goal and made 50% of them.
When Duke’s lead crested at 14, Houston looked like a team fighting for its life possession after possession.
Which meant Houston wasn’t dead.
“It ain’t over,” Cryer said postgame, “because they’ve still got time on the clock.”
