Kelvin Sampson sounds off on reporter's question after Florida stuns Houston in NCAA title game: "Let me explain how an assist works"

Houston coach Kelvin Sampson saw his No. 1-seeded Cougars fall agonizingly short of a national championship on Monday. The Cougars lost 65-63 to the No. 1-seeded Florida Gators who mounted a stirring second-half comeback from 12 points down to clinch the win.

During his postgame news conference, Sampson sounded off on a reporter who questioned why the Cougars only managed five assists in the game.

"Let me explain how an assist works," Kelvin Sampson said. "When you throw the ball to somebody and they score, that's an assist right? But we threw the ball a lot to J1 in the post and he missed some shots that he normally makes. So, those were possible, potential assists that we had." [12:35]

"We just didn't make a lot of shots. Certainly, Florida, we give them a lot of credit for being a good defensive team. But we threw the ball and passed the ball enough to get more assists, we just didn't make enough shots. That's what I would say right off the bat."

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Kelvin Sampson highlights where Houston lost the national championship game

The Houston Cougars were dominant in the national championship game, eking out a 12-point lead in the second half but a bizarre last two minutes of the game left coach Kelvin Sampson stunned. His team had four turnovers in that period, allowing the Gators to take the lead.

During his postgame news conference, Sampson rued the missed chance to win and analyzed where it all went wrong.

"Just going through those last two possessions more than anything else," Kelvin Sampson said. "It's incomprehensible in that situation we couldn't get a shot. We're down two and obviously, we didn't need a three but with the manual, we were struggling to score the entire second half. We got good looks but Florida was doing a good job running us off the line and forcing us to score it." [9:00]

"But, we just didn't do a very good job of finishing some shots. You've got to give Florida credit too. I'm not gonna sit up here and poor mouth and pity mouth them. We held that team to 65 points. We had a good plan. We just didn't score well enough to win. We scored it well enough to be in a position to win but at the end, you've gotta get a shot."

The Florida Gators only led for 63 seconds in the national championship game and Kelvin Sampson's team was left ruing a game that they had well in hand before the last two minutes.