The journey began for Kelvin Sampson in Butte, Mont., arguably as far from college basketball’s grandest stage as one could get. Forty-four years later, he has the University of Houston just 40 minutes away from its — and his — first national championship in Monday night’s title game against Florida at the Alamodome.

Sampson deserves every bit of the credit after leading his resilient Cougars squad to an unlikely late-game victory, as Duke at one point had a whopping 98.5% chance of winning th

Like his team, Kelvin Sampson would not stop. He kept talking, sentences on sentences on sentences, answering questions that hadn’t been asked, delivering a most lucid ramble to explain an epic comeback.