When Houston hangs its banner up at the Fertitta Center, there won't be a distinction of how many teams the Cougars share the championship with, or exactly that it took Wichita State beating Tulsa just hours after Houston took down Memphis in the final regular season game.
Not that Sampson wanted to root against Tulsa -- he said he didn't. But he wanted that conference title.
"If we do get a banner it ain't gonna say part-time, or night shift, or day shift. It's gonna say championship," Sampson said after the Cougars' 64-57 win against Memphis on Sunday.
"I hope we win it. Don't get it twisted."
It's special because the Cougars haven't won back-to-back conference titles since 1983-84, in the Phi Slama Jama days.
On Sunday, Houston did not begin the day looking like a champion.
The crowd (7,129) was involved early, but the Cougars shot just 22 percent from the field.
The only Cougars with more than one bucket in the first half were Fabian White Jr. and Nate Hinton, who combined for 15 points on 5-of-12 shooting.
The rest of the Cougars were 3-for-24 from the field in the first half.
White finished with 18 points and 14 rebounds.
"I’ve seen a lot of teams have bad shooting nights and they just don’t have a foundation from which to win from. You’ve got to have a culture,” Sampson said.
Part of that culture is believing in players when they struggle. Sophomore Quentin Grimes was 1-for-4 in the first half. Grimes went 6-for-9 in the second half.
Memphis head coach Penny Hardaway said after the game that Houston just started making shots it was missing earlier.
Grimes got into a groove, and "what he did is what he does," as Hardaway put it.
"That's who he is. That's what he's capable of being on a nightly basis," Hardaway said.
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Hardaway also noted the pressure Grimes has dealt with since being a McDonald's All-American out of The Woodlands College Park High School, then a highly-touted freshman at Kansas before landing with the Cougars.
Grimes tends to start games slow, but his confidence builds throughout the game.
''He struggled early in the first half,'' Sampson said of Grimes. ''He does that sometimes, but you have to stay with it because I know how good he is. Sometimes they've got to get out of their own way. When he gets out of his own way and gives himself permission to go be a dominant player, he can do it.''
Houston opens postseason play in conference tournament quarterfinals on Friday, March 13. The Cougars will play the winner of Temple and SMU.