Latest news with #EmanuelSharp
New York Times
27-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Milos Uzan withdraws from NBA Draft to return to Houston: Source
Milos Uzan has decided to withdraw from the NBA Draft and return for his senior season at Houston, a source briefed on the move confirmed. This decision gives Houston three returning starters — Uzan joins Emanuel Sharp and Joseph Tugler — and cements last year's national runner-up as one of the preseason national title favorites. Advertisement In a roster domino of Uzan's decision, former Texas Tech and Creighton guard Pop Isaacs decommitted from Houston and will head to Texas A&M, his agency told The Athletic. The Houston coaching staff operated this spring under the premise that Uzan would likely stay in the draft and moved quickly to replace him in the starting lineup with Isaacs. The door was always left open in case Uzan's feedback from the NBA led him back to Houston. After participating in the NBA Draft Combine and working out for six teams, he was trending toward the second round — he appeared at No. 40 in The Athletic's Sam Vecenie's latest mock draft. By returning to college, it's possible that Uzan could get more money than he would have received with a contract in the second round. He also has the chance to play his way into the 2026 first round. With L.J. Cryer, Houston's leading scorer from last season, graduating, Uzan will likely take on more of a scoring role after averaging 11.4 points in his first season at Houston. For coach Kelvin Sampson, his formula has been roster continuity, and this certainly helps in that department. The Cougars will be leaning more on freshmen than ever before, with two starting spots likely going to power forward Chris Cenac Jr. and either Isiah Harwell or Kingston Fleming at the other guard spot, but it's a lot easier to blend those freshmen around three veterans. The combination of Uzan, Sharpe and Tugler outscored opponents by 40.8 points per 100 possessions when on the floor together last season, per CBB Analytics. — The Athletic's Tobias Bass contributed to this report.
Fox News
08-04-2025
- Sport
- Fox News
Houston's Kelvin Sampson on final possession in title loss: 'You've gotta get a shot'
The Houston Cougars' final possession in the NCAA Tournament final on Monday night against the Florida Gators was a head-scratcher to put it lightly. Down 65-63 with a chance to tie it, or better yet, end the game, the Cougars were unable to get a shot off. Emanuel Sharp looked like he was going to heave a three-pointer for the win, but he just dropped the ball instead as a Gators defender closed out to block the shot attempt. The Cougars had turnovers prior to that possession, but the fact that no shot went up near the final buzzer had many scratching their heads as to what Houston was thinking. Head coach Kelvin Sampson, trying to lead his great Cougars squad to the program's first-ever national title, peered onto the court as the final buzzer blew and appeared dumbfounded by what had transpired. In his post-game interview, Sampson obviously knew the question that was coming: what was the play, and more importantly, why didn't a shot go up? Sampson said Sharp should've shot-faked on that deep 3-point attempt instead of jumping and letting the ball go (he stood around it because a double-dribble would've been called if he had touched it first). "Both those guys, [Florida's Will] Richard and [Alijah] Martin, both really good defensively," Sampson said. "Clayton made a great play on that. But that's why you've got to shot-fake and get in the paint. "Two's fine." But Sampson knows, no matter what the defense was, getting a ball to the net just had to happen. "At the end, you've gotta get a shot," he said. "You've gotta do better than that." Sampson, though, told ESPN that he wasn't yelling at his players in the locker room after the game. They battled through the entire tournament, including taking down Duke in a come-from-behind victory in the Final Four. In this final, the Cougars saw their 12-point lead erased in the second half by the Gators. "I told them be disappointed that they lost, but don't be disappointed in their effort," Sampson explained, via ESPN. "These guys have played so hard for each other. And to get this far, get a minute, two minutes, a shot right there at the end of winning a national championship. They have so much to be proud of." Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Final Four betting odds, lines, favorites: Houston Cougars favored to win men's national championship next season
The Florida Gators may have won the national championship 65-63 over the Houston Cougars on Monday night, but oddsmakers at BetMGM have the Cougars as the favorites to cut down the nets in 2026. Houston has the best odds to win the 2026 national championship at +900, followed by the Duke Blue Devils (10-1), UConn Huskies (14-1) and Louisville Cardinals (17-1). Houston guard Milos Uzan is expected to turn pro, but Emanuel Sharp and Joseph Tugler could return to fortify a Cougars team that easily could have won Monday night. Advertisement The Gators have 20-1 odds to repeat, tied for the seventh best with five other teams (BYU, Kentucky, Arkansas, Kansas and Alabama). It's widely expected that 2025 Naismith Award winner and likely 2025 NBA Draft No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg, as well as other Duke standouts, will declare for the draft, but the Blue Devils still have the second-best odds of any college basketball team to win it all. Auburn (18-1) and Purdue (19-1) are the only other teams with odds better than 20-1. Sportsbooks did well on the futures market in the 2024-25 season, as the majority of wagers and money at most books were on the Blue Devils to win — and that included a $500,000 wager on Duke at +350 odds at BetMGM, which didn't cash. One bettor at BetMGM wagered $100,000 on the Gators at +900 odds to win the 2025 NCAA tournament March 6 and cashed a ticket worth $900,000 after Florida's win.
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
In a title-winning turnabout, Florida does to Houston what Houston did to Duke
Florida, unlike a notable local team, is capable of inbounding the ball against Houston with the game on the line. That's not the only reason why the Gators were celebrating Monday night, but it is a big reason why they were and Duke wasn't. The four No. 1 seeds in the Final Four delivered three games worthy of their stature, decided by a total of 11 points, the last a Florida comeback as remarkable as Houston's to beat Duke. Or, from the reverse angle, a late Houston collapse as remarkable as Duke's against the Cougars. And after almost six months of basketball, more than 6,000 games, the national title was decided on a potential double-dribble, when Houston's Emanuel Sharp went up for a potential game-winner, lost the ball as Walter Clayton Jr. closed him out, then couldn't reclaim it without being whistled. The clock essentially ran out during the scramble for the ball, as Sharp watched helplessly. Clayton, scoreless in the first half, had 11 points in the second, but that defensive play was bigger than any of them in a 65-63 win. 'We work on it in practice, closing out, jumping to the side so you don't foul the shooter,' Clayton said. 'He pump faked, threw the ball down, (Alex) Condon got on it, ended up being a good play. We won the game. The feeling, just surreal. It's a surreal feeling. I can't even explain it. But it feels good, though.' It was a strange way to end the season, but it was eerily familiar of how Houston ended Duke's season Saturday. Houston led Florida by 12 in the second half — as Carl Lewis and Hakeem Olajuwon exulted in the stands — and two with two minutes to go, only to turn the ball over four times without making a shot the rest of the way. What the Cougars did to the Blue Devils in the final moments, the Gators did to the Cougars. 'We held that team to 65 points,' Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said. '(Walter) Clayton and (Alijah) Martin combined to go 5 for 20. If you would have told me we would hold those two guys 5 for 20? We had a good plan. We just didn't score it well enough to win. Scored it well enough to be in a position to win. At the end you've got to get a shot. Got to do better than that.' That's how Todd Golden became the youngest coach, at 39, to win a national championship since Jim Valvano beat Houston in 1983 thanks to a slightly more dramatic finish, the first of now three title-game losses and seven Final Fours without a title. As the Cougars' wait for a championship goes on, Florida's title means that 17 of the past 21 national titles have been won by six schools: Connecticut, Duke, Florida, Kansas, North Carolina and Villanova. These Gators are different than Billy Donovan's Gators that won back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007, with Golden an offshoot of the analytics-focused Kyle Smith tree, a bunch of number-crunching whiz kids instead of grizzled basketball veterans like Sampson — whose team was no less innovative in its own way, beating teams with shot volume by crashing the offensive glass and taking care of the basketball. The next branch of that tree is headed to Harnett County, imminently. Florida assistant John Andrzejek has been double-dipping throughout the NCAA tournament as Campbell's next head coach, using the team rental car to visit Buies Creek when Florida started the tournament in Raleigh, recruiting for the Camels while going the distance with the Gators. Now he has to go back to Gainesville with the team on Tuesday before a group of Campbell boosters is coming to pick him up on a private jet to bring him to campus for his no-longer-indefinitely delayed introductory press conference. (As Mark Gottfried might say, there's a plane waiting to take you to Buies Creek.) But these are good problems to have for a first-time head coach, who will never have a stronger case to make to potential recruits and transfers. 'It's unbelievable. It's the best, that explosion of emotion,' Andrzejek said on the floor, amid piles of blue and orange confetti. 'You're in it, you're competing, you're thinking about the situation, what do you do next, how do you guard the next thing? It's so sudden. It just goes to zero. And I'm just running, running on the court, looking for somebody to hug.' He can keep the orange confetti and leave the blue. One season is over. For everybody, it's on to the next. Never miss a Luke DeCock column. Sign up at to have them delivered directly to your email inbox as soon as they post. Luke DeCock's Latest: Never miss a column on the Canes, ACC or other Triangle sports
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Final Four 2026 betting odds, lines, favorites: Houston Cougars favored to win national championship next season
The Florida Gators may have won the national championship 65-63 over the Houston Cougars on Monday night, but oddsmakers at BetMGM have the Cougars as the favorites to cut down the nets in 2026. Houston has the best odds to win the 2026 national championship at +900, followed by the Duke Blue Devils (10-1), UConn Huskies (14-1) and Louisville Cardinals (17-1). Houston guard Milos Uzan is expected to turn pro, but Emanuel Sharp and Joseph Tugler could return to fortify a Cougars team that easily could have won Monday night. Advertisement The Gators have 20-1 odds to repeat, tied for the seventh best with five other teams (BYU, Kentucky, Arkansas, Kansas and Alabama). It's widely expected that 2025 Naismith Award winner and likely 2025 NBA Draft No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg, as well as other Duke standouts, will declare for the draft, but the Blue Devils still have the second-best odds of any college basketball team to win it all. Auburn (18-1) and Purdue (19-1) are the only other teams with odds better than 20-1. Sportsbooks did well on the futures market in the 2024-25 season, as the majority of wagers and money at most books were on the Blue Devils to win — and that included a $500,000 wager on Duke at +350 odds at BetMGM, which didn't cash. One bettor at BetMGM wagered $100,000 on the Gators at +900 odds to win the 2025 NCAA tournament March 6 and cashed a ticket worth $900,000 after Florida's win.
