Houston’s Milos Uzman Has Some Thoughts On Duke In The 2025 Final Four

Kelvin Sampson may appreciate his comments less than Duke’s Jon Scheyer, however.

People have talked a lot about how the new environment, with the portal and NIL, may have changed the NCAA tournament. We’ll have to wait a while to see how that settles out, but there are still some things that will not change and really, can’t change. Among them are these:

• Experience matters.
• Coaching is and always will be about communication and trust.
• Talent is inescapable and you cannot succeed without it.

When it comes to the Duke-Houston matchup, both teams are coached on a very high level but the other two factors listed are split. Duke has a clear edge in talent, with up to six players listed as being likely draft picks. But Houston has a significant and undeniable advantage in experience.

And that includes playing in a much tougher conference this year than the ACC. And like Jon Scheyer, Kelvin Sampson scheduled aggressively. Out of conference, Houston has played Auburn (lost 74-69), Alabama (lost 85-80 in OT), San Diego State (lost 73-70 also in OT) and BYU (won 86-65).

When it comes to common opponents, aside from Auburn and Alabama, Houston beat Arizona twice, 62-58 and 72-64 and Baylor 65-61.

And while Duke didn’t play Texas Tech, we learned in the tournament that that team has a tremendous amount of heart, so that’s worth mentioning. And so is this: when Houston joined the Big 12, it was Kansas’s playground. Well, not anymore. For now at least, the Big 12 runs through H-Town. Sampson has built a program that is mentally very tough. And in Duke, it’s coming up against a team with three freshmen in key roles.

You may have noticed the announcer during the Houston-Tennessee beatdown - we think it was Steve Lappas but that could be wrong - watch the Cougars come out at halftime and say that they weren’t talking or making a fuss because they were all on the same page. Words to that effect, anyway.

It was a smart insight. As noted, this is a very united team. The starters are two seniors, two juniors and a sophomore and other than Milos Usman, that group has been together for awhile (Uzman came over from Oklahoma).

So it’s a bit surprising that Uzman said this about the Alabama win sending a message to Duke: “I feel like we always want to throw the first punch. It’s super-important to keep our foot on their necks.”

That’s just not a smart thing to say at all and it’s very likely to end up in Duke’s locker room. The last guy you really want to irritate before a game is Cooper Flagg, who, as several people have noted, has a bit of a mean streak. He’s also hyper competitive. That’s also true for several of his teammates.

Words matter. Remember when, during the ACC Tournament, a member of the broadcast team asked Paolo Banchero if he’d rather face Virginia Tech or UNC and he said UNC?

The Hokies certainly noticed, they beat UNC and then they stuck it to Duke too. The next time they asked Banchero a question like that, he said “oh no, you’re not getting me again!”

On the one hand, Uzman is confident. Giving players like Flagg extra incentive is kind of crazy, not to mention the other Blue Devils, and not what you’d expect from the more experienced team. But there it is. Now let’s see how Duke responds.