Houston basketball HC Kelvin Sampson’s crushing reaction to Ramon Walker’s season-ending injury

The Houston basketball team is 24-3 and No. 2 in the nation as they look to earn a top seed in the NCAA Tournament. However, Kelvin Sampson’s team just suffered a crushing injury to Ramon Walker as he recently suffered a torn lateral meniscus and is out for the season. After the news came, Sampson had a heartbroken reaction to losing Walker, Per Joseph Duarte of The Houston Chronicle.

“He was playing his best … my heart broke for that young man.”

The Houston basketball team will now be without Walker for the remainder of the year. While his stats don’t jump off the page — 2.o PPG, 3.0 rebounds — the junior guard has been playing better and better for Sampson’s team and has seen valuable minutes lately off the bench. With Walker absent, the Cougars played just eight players total in the win over Baylor, so their depth will be tested over the next few weeks as Sampson tries to find some answers to those problems.

The good news for the Cougars is that they moved up to No. 1 in the AP top 25 poll after defeating Iowa State and Baylor in a pair of victories over top-15 teams. Up next for the Houston basketball team is four more games before the Big 12 Conference tournament, and they finish the regular season with a massive game against Kansas at home. If they can win out, a top seed in the Big Dance is a very realistic possibility.

Nonetheless, the loss of Ramon Walker is a tough blow for a surging Houston team.