Jim Nantz Has No Patience For Anyone Trying To ‘Console’ Him For Houston’s National Championship Game Loss

Jim Nantz has had enough of colleagues, friends and strangers trying to “console” him for the University of Houston’s loss in the national championship game. No matter how well meaning the sentiments might be, to Nantz they completely miss the reality of the run Kelvin Sampson’s basketball program made.

“I don’t pay any attention to people that look at me with sympathy in their eyes and say, ‘Oh. . .too bad about that,’ ” Nantz tells PaperCity. “Wait a minute. Too bad about what? Blew through the Big 12 conference for the second straight year. . . We raced through the regular season and the conference. We won a regional by blowing out a great Tennessee team. We beat Duke with three guys in the draft that went very high, including first overall.

“We did ourselves enormously proud. And there’s more to come. And there is more to come. There is more to come. And it’s going to be glorious.”

The legendary voice of CBS Sports and proud UH Cougar wishes that more people would actually celebrate the run to the national championship game rather than dwell on the loss to Florida in the title game on the last Monday night of the season. Nantz still thanks Houston coach Kelvin Sampson for last season’s run whenever he can. Instead, as he gets into calling his 21st NFL season as the lead voice of CBS, Nantz finds people trying to offer him their sympathies for a final game loss that does not begin to describe the journey.

With UH’s national championship game followup season now only 53 days from tipping off, Nantz is still relishing what LJ Cryer, J’Wan Roberts, Emanuel Sharp, JoJo Tugler and the rest of the Cougars accomplished last winter and spring. He’s just as excited to see what Houston’s new Fantastic Four freshmen class of Chris Cenac, Kingston Flemings, Isiah Harwell and Bryce Jackson will do this season.

“I truly bleed Cougar red,” Nantz says.

“I don’t pay any attention to people that look at me with sympathy in their eyes and say, ‘Oh. . .too bad about that. Wait a minute. Too bad about what? Blew through the Big 12 conference for the second straight year. . . We raced through the regular season and the conference. We won a regional by blowing out a great Tennessee team. We beat Duke with three guys in the draft that went very high.” — Jim Nantz

Nantz once again plans t0 follow UH through the NCAA Tournament, attending as many games as he can in person, like he has every March since he stepped away from broadcasting college basketball games after the 2023 Final Four held in his beloved Houston. He recently pledged to donate $1 million of his own money to UH and its Nantz Leadership Society — as detailed by PaperCity.

“Jim’s special man,” Kelvin Sampson says. “When you talk about the great Cougars and great people and great alumni, that’s Jim.”

Sampson also rightly resists any notion that last season is anything but one of the greatest seasons he’s ever been a part of. Putting everything on the final game almost completely misses the entire point.

“I’ve realized that to win in March and April, you’ve got to have a lot of things go your way,” Sampson tells PaperCity. “Health, foul trouble. If you stay out of foul trouble and you’re healthy, you’ve got a chance. If you’re good enough. You can be good enough and sprain an ankle or have your key players get foul trouble and you won’t win.

“So that’s why you can’t set that as a goal. Just win the next day. It’s a process.”

Jim Nantz knows this. It’s why maybe the most patient man in big-time sports (Nantz customarily poses for every photo and has time for everyone who stops him; something I’ve personally witnessed numerous times) has no patience for those trying to console him over the way UH’s season ended.

Sorry? For what? “That was the greatest UH season ever,” Nantz says firmly.