Cougar Basketball

Pat · Sep 7, 2020

YOLO said: ↑

The guard depth is way to deep for him

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Do you know, or are you supposing?
I was wondering what happened there. UH is a pretty good program and it wasn't that long ago that he committed.

RayRay10 · Sep 8, 2020

Replaced him with this guy:

RayRay10 · Sep 8, 2020

Houston has the pieces to be good again — very good. Get used to it

This is Kelvin Sampson’s favorite time of the year because it’s when he can teach. Once the game starts, it’s all about preparation. But the months leading up to the season is when he can build an identity.

Sampson couldn’t help but feel a little giddy on Aug. 24. It was the first day of school and also the first day of full-team workouts for his Houston Cougars. Obviously this offseason made the heart grow fonder for the camaraderie of team across college basketball, and Sampson was eager to get started. But his giddiness was more for the early arrival of everyone else. The workout was scheduled for 6:45 a.m. By 6:31, all of the players and coaches had arrived.

“It’s that time of the year where it really starts now if you want to win a championship,” sophomore guard Marcus Sasser says. “Standards are set.”

The goalposts have moved the last few years. Houston is 83-20 over the last three seasons with back-to-back American Athletic Conference titles. When assistant coach Kellen Sampson wrote that record on the board during a recent Zoom call, it struck the elder Sampson because he hadn’t grasped how consistently good his program had become. Then he started to think about the how.

“When you look at that record, you go back to how good we’ve been in the backcourt,” he says.

This group, like their punctuality, is ahead of schedule. Last year was supposed to be more of a transition season. The 2018-19 season marked the end for the group that had helped Sampson restore Houston as a basketball power again. The rebirth had started by landing Galen Robinson, whom the Sampsons identify as the founding father of the current program, and he was graduating along with leading scorer Corey Davis. When Armoni Brooks decided to leave early for the NBA Draft, it really started to feel more like a rebuild. Of course, the AAC coaches knew better. They picked Houston to win the league along with Memphis, and that prediction (at least the Houston part) came true.

How the Cougars defended their title wasn’t as predictable. The expectation was that DeJon Jarreau would go from one of the best sixth men in America to one of the best point guards. Statistically, he had a disappointing season. If it wasn’t going to be Jarreau as the star, then most would have predicted Quentin Grimes, who received a transfer waiver to play immediately, and while his start and finish were strong, he was inconsistent.

Instead, Houston won with Sampson staples — defense and rebounding — and then its guards took turns carrying the load offensively.

The plan this go around is to present a more visually appealing product, and Sampson is excited to teach something entirely different.

The big question
Kellen Sampson says this is the best collection of guards the staff has had at Houston. The Cougars return leading scorer Caleb Mills in the backcourt along with Jarreau, Grimes and Sasser. A late August conversation with Kelvin Sampson starts with him talking about his backcourt, and the first name he mentions is a newcomer.

“I’ve got a freshman,” he says. “He’s kind of in the background with these guys because they’ve all played so much, but this Tramon Mark kid, without gushing too much over him, I’ll say that kid is going to be good.”

In addition to those five, there’s also Cameron Tyson, who averaged 13.5 points and made 106 3s as a freshman at Idaho, and freshman point guard Jamal Shead, whom Kellen says is the best on-ball defender as a freshman the staff has coached at Houston.

With all that depth and star power in the backcourt, Kelvin Sampson plans to play four-guard lineups often and he wants to play fast.

“We’ve got guys who can play in transition,” he says. “After makes and miss, we want to be attacking. We want to get the ball across half-court in three seconds or less. We want to really, really attack the shot clock in the first 10 seconds and play out of space. Don’t walk it up the court and run plays. You’re going to have to be good at that at some point, but I want our identity to be an attacking offensive team.

“We want to be a disciplined team, but you don’t want to put Caleb and Quentin and DeJon and Marcus and Tramon in a box and make them run plays. I want them to have freedom to create.”

Such messaging is almost cliché in college basketball. Every coach says he wants to play fast, but not everyone follows through. It would be a change for this group of Cougars, who typically played big a year ago and ranked 253rd in the percentage of possessions labeled as transition, per Synergy.

But Sampson’s line of thinking was different last year. “We had to win games by trying to be the best rebounding team in America,” he says. “We realized really early that’s how we were going to have to win games was by consistently dominating the glass. That may not be how this team wins games. We’re obviously not going to be good with the rebounding margin being even, but we may have to sacrifice some rebounding in order to get the right combination of lineups on the floor.”

It’s easier to sacrifice size for speed when his perimeter guys offer some positional versatility because of their height. Jarreau grew in the offseason and is now 6-foot-6 without shoes. “You can move him around,” Kellen Sampson says. “Let’s say he’s the four. Who wants to guard him at the four? We’ll still play him the same. We’ll still put him in ball screens.”

Grimes and Tramon Mark, both 6-foot-5, also have the bodies to play the small-ball four spot, and while Mills doesn’t, he also grew this offseason and is up to 6-4.

And although the Cougars have never been one of the most up-tempo teams, Kelvin Sampson did trust his previous perimeter groups to get out in transition more often.

Sampson coaches controlled tempo. Since returning to the college game in 2014 after spending six seasons in the NBA, he has made spacing more of a priority. He was heavily influenced in how he sees offense from his time in San Antonio with Gregg Popovich. But Houston’s ascension started with a high-usage scorer in Rob Gray. With so many weapons, this iteration should turn much more Spurs-y.

“If you’re going to play fast, you’ve got to learn how to be a good decision-making team,” Sampson says. “You’ve got to be able to play in traffic, where if you draw somebody the ball’s gotta move and then may have to move again. Making a play is not always for you; it’s making the right play.”

The offense will also be built around hunting for the mismatch, and with those four guards, someone is always going to have an advantageous matchup. Sampson is good at identifying those and tweaking his game plan to pounce.
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RayRay10 · Sep 8, 2020

Continued:

Roster analysis
Guards
The big surprise for the Cougars last year was the ability of freshman guards Caleb Mills and Marcus Sasser to be guys who could carry the offense for entire games. Sasser, in particular, wasn’t expected to be a big-time contributor because of his recruiting profile — he ranked 399th nationally in the 247Sports database. Mills was 199th, but no one anticipated he’d lead the team in scoring.

The next step for both was changing their bodies. Mills, who played last season at 160 pounds, showed signs of wearing down late in February. While he started cooking again, he returned to campus 15 pounds heavier. Sasser went in the other direction, going from playing in the 200-pound range to living in the neighborhood of 185 pounds. He credits a lot of running and changes to his diet with the help of his brother, a nutritionist.

“They look different,” Kelvin Sampson says. “They’ve got more of a swagger to them.”

Sasser says Mills should be harder to guard because of the added height. It was already difficult to contest his high-release jumper, but now that release is even higher. Sasser is quicker after shedding the weight, which should help him get to the rim. He was already one of the best shooters off the dribble, so the extra gear will add to his arsenal.

Sasser bumped Quentin Grimes out of the starting lineup and played more minutes in conference play than fellow point guard DeJon Jarreau, but they were excellent together. The Cougars outscored opponents by 25 points per 100 possessions with Sasser and Jarreau on the floor, per hooplens.com. Jarreau, even with his struggles, was still Houston’s best player in the plus/minus category. (More on why he’s so important later.)

Cameron Tyson adds the one weapon the Cougars were lacking last year: a knockdown catch-and-shoot shooter. “He can really, really shoot, and the thing about it is when you’ve got so many playmakers, somebody who doesn’t need it always in their hands is going to look pretty good,” Kellen Sampson says. “Cam’s one of those pieces that he fits with anybody because he doesn’t need it in his hands all the time to be a good player.”

Freshman Jamal Shead offers insurance in the backcourt. He’s a true point guard, and although he’d make sense as a redshirt candidate because of the depth in the backcourt, the early reviews suggest he could carve out a niche. “He’s like Galen Robinson,” Kellen says. “That’s what we loved about him. He’s such a gifted passer in the open court and in transition. He’s the best freshman on-ball defender we’ve had here. He can really sit in a stance and guard the ball. Maybe even a little bit more so than Galen as a freshman, and he shoots it better than Galen.”

Wings
Quentin Grimes was a five-star prospect and expected to a be a one-and-done lottery pick at Kansas, but it’s not always easy to operate with those kinds of expectations. Those around the program have noticed that Grimes is finally comfortable with his situation and who he is.

“It’s the first time in three years he wasn’t recruited this year,” Kellen Sampson says. “I thought it was such an awesome step for him that he didn’t feel compelled to put his name in the draft. He wasn’t chasing anything this offseason. He just settled in to work. Let me go off the grid, let me go off the radar and let me settle into a rhythm of work, and I think that’ll make a world of difference for him.”

Grimes made progress as a sophomore. He went from one of the most inefficient scorers in college basketball in pick-and-roll situations to one of the most efficient. At Kansas, he’d fallen into a role as a spot-up shooter. At Houston, he was able to get back to being more of a playmaker off the bounce. The Houston coaches focused in more on emphasizing the little things, and he improved in those categories too, such as rebounding and making hustle plays.

The next step for Grimes is finding consistency. The expectation is that will come with added confidence along with improving as a finisher at the basket and being less streaky with his jumper. Sasser, who is often matched up with Grimes in individual workouts, has noticed he’s quicker. He also says he thinks he’s more efficient with his jump shot. But even more telling is his presence is felt. Sasser says Grimes is taking control of drills and becoming more of a leader. “He’s locked in,” Sasser says. “He’s serious about everything.”

Grimes was at his best last year when his in-between game was working and he could simply pull up and rise over defenders. Tramon Mark will offer a changeup to that, as he’s more of a slasher and three-level scorer.

Kelvin Sampson first saw Mark play in the summer of 2018 and was impressed by his talent but thought he wasn’t aggressive enough. Last summer he made a leap as a playmaker when he got invited to the NBA Top 100 camp and the point guard on his team didn’t show. Mark led the camp in assists, then he put up huge scoring numbers during his senior year at Dickinson High School, averaging 29.3 points and scoring 86 points over his final two games in leading his team to the Texas Class 6A state semifinals, at which point the season was canceled.

“He’s going to be good,” Sampson says. “He knows how to play. He’s got a nice flow to his game. He can shoot, but not a Armoni Brooks or Corey Davis type shooter. But he’s a got a chance to be a better player than either one of those guys, because his game is a little more complete.

“He can really make plays. The one thing that Luka Doncic is teaching people is that guys that are smart can always pass, just like guys who can’t pass usually have low IQs. This kid can make people better.”

Adding to the challenge opponents trying to slow Mark is he’s a lefty.

“When you start getting to the second and third sides of the floor offensively, those second and third side pick-and-rolls with a lefty is all of a sudden a different animal,” Kellen Sampson says. “Who made a living off of that off the second and third side was San Antonio with (Manu) Ginoboli. You get so used to guarding righties, righties, righties and all of a sudden that lefty jumps on you and it’s a different animal.”

Bigs
Fabian White Jr. will miss the season after tearing his ACL in May. White is the best scoring big man in the program and would have allowed the Cougars to have five shooters on the floor when they went small, as he’s an excellent shooter from the midrange. But senior Brison Gresham has worked this offseason to add a 15-footer to his game, and he’s the better defender and shot blocker of the two.

While the Cougars will lean on their smaller lineups often, they still have plenty of options to go big. Senior Justin Gorman is probably the one who will see his role increase the most with the loss of White. “Your senior year you want to make it count,” Kellen Sampson says. “Justin has made some shots and proven he can make shots. Now you’ve got to prove you can be consistent.”

Gorman pairs well with Gresham — Houston outscored opponents by 17 points per 100 possessions with them together, per Hooplens.com — and the Cougars still have great spacing when he’s on the floor because of his shooting.

Redshirt freshman J’Wan Roberts is an option at both frontcourt spots. He is one of the more athletic players on the roster and projects to be a good shot-blocker and rebounder with the potential to be a threat as a midrange shooter.

Reggie Chaney, a transfer from Arkansas, could also figure into the mix. Houston has applied for a waiver to get him eligible immediately. Chaney was a bad fit at Arkansas with Eric Musselman, who wants to space the floor with 3-point shooting. But Chaney fits in great at Houston, where he can focus on rebounding and defense.

The other option at center is 6-foot-10 freshman Kiyron Powell, who is an excellent shot-blocker. Powell averaged 7.9 blocks per game last season as a senior at Bosse High in Evansville, Ind.
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RayRay10 · Sep 8, 2020

More:

Spotlight on: DeJon Jarreau
At a recent conditioning session, one of the freshmen was struggling to make his time. Jarreau tried to save the freshman, running with him and pushing him from behind and across the finish line.

“That’s leadership,” Kelvin Sampson says. “That’s what great teammates do. He wanted that kid to make it.”

Afterward, Sampson told his senior that he was proud of him. He wasn’t sure he would have done that a year ago.

Last season was challenging from the start for Jarreau, who wasn’t always in the best mental space. Everyone is going to remember the biting incident at Cincinnati on Feb. 1 that led to a one-game suspension, but his outlook had changed in October.

“That whole (last) offseason I worked extremely hard and I felt like everything was coming together around October and then I broke my hand, and it was my shooting hand,” he says. “I couldn’t really touch the ball, shoot the ball. When I came back, sometimes catching the ball hurt and snapping my wrist hurt. I just lost confidence.”

Jarreau lost confidence in his jump shot. He was less willing to pull up from midrange and defenses started guarding him knowing he wanted to get to the basket. He was in and out of the starting lineup, and although he continued to be popular among his teammates, Sampson didn’t see the leadership he expects out of the point guard spot.

“I thought his sophomore season he made great strides; I thought his junior season he came in with the wrong mindset,” Sampson says. “One of the things they talk to rookies about in the NBA is just because you’re in the NBA doesn’t mean you’re a pro. Being a pro is being a pro off the floor in how you prepare, how you handle all the distractions that are going to be thrown at you. DeJon was the sixth man of the year in the league, and I think he came back last year with the wrong mindset, whereas this year you can tell last year really humbled him.”

Jarreau says he’s trying to apply lessons he learned from Galen Robinson so he can be the senior leader. Sampson believes assistant coach Quannas White, who was Sampson’s starting point guard on his 2002 Final Four team at Oklahoma, has helped Jarreau mature. He sees it in his daily approach — helping the freshman was a great example — and his teammates notice a difference on the court.

The way he’s looking to score is different too. He’s back to believing in his jumper. Sasser says it’s more fluid. If defenses have to respect his jumper and also worry about his driving, it will make everyone else around him better. Jarreau has great vision and is terrific throwing lobs. He’s the type of point guard who can control just about every aspect of the game and manipulate a defense.

“When DeJon played really good (last season), we were almost unbeatable,” Kellen Sampson says. “His talent level and size takes us to another level.”

Because of his size, the Sampsons will ask Jarreau to do some of the things that Nate Hinton did as a rebounder and defensive stopper. Like Hinton, they believe he can be Houston’s Swiss Army knife.

The other priority Kelvin Sampson has made clear to Jarreau is to keep the game simple. “DeJon’s got to quit trying to be Patrick Mahomes and be comfortable being Tom Brady,” Sampson says. That’s a message Jarreau hears constantly from his coach, and he takes it all in stride.

“He’s a great coach,” Jarreau says. “With the culture he’s built, all you’ve got to do is buy into it.”

Recruiting
This is the highest-ranked class Sampson has had at Houston, and Mark is the highest-rated player he has signed. This is a troubling development for the rest of the AAC because the Cougars have already been crushing it with lower-ranked classes.

While you’d typically expect the highest-ranked class a program has landed in years to contribute immediately, the newcomers are mostly insurance policies. Mark might be the one exception. He’s so talented he’ll most likely find a role, and more playing time opened up when Nate Hinton left school early. But while both Shead and Powell might have the talent to play right away, the coaches can focus on their development and there’s no rush to get them involved.

“We have four talented kids,” Sampson says. “Right now as far as helping you win a game, they don’t know if they’re pitching or catching. They made their stripes in high school and AAU, but we don’t play against high school and AAU guys.”

The one man in the class used to the competition level is Reggie Chaney, who signed after White hurt his knee. Chaney has played two years in the SEC and the transition has been seamless. “He plays hard,” Sasser says. “He’s already adapted to the culture.”

Schedule analysis
Sampson says coaches should decide who their team is and schedule accordingly, and based on the nonconference schedule, it’s clear he thinks highly of this year’s squad. The Cougars have three games against SEC opponents — LSU and South Carolina at home and then a game at Alabama — and they also are in the field for the Charleston Classic. The field is loaded. Florida State and Tennessee should be in the preseason Top 25 along with Houston, and Seton Hall and Penn State are coming off seasons in which they would have been NCAA Tournament teams. The field includes VCU, Oklahoma State (led by Cade Cunningham, the favorite to be the No. 1 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft) and host Charleston.

All told, Houston should get five to six opportunities at résumé wins in the nonconference.

“I think that’s where our program is,” Sampson says. “If you’ve got a program that’s nationally ranked, you should play a nationally ranked schedule.”

The ceiling
Houston has been one of the most consistent programs in college basketball over the last three years, and if you look back at the first two years of this run, that group flirted with a Final Four run. In 2018 they suffered a heart-breaking second-round loss on a buzzer-beater to Michigan (the eventual national runner-up) in a game they controlled, and in the 2019 Sweet 16, the Cougars blew a late lead against Kentucky.

In what looked like a rebuild last season, Houston finished 14th at KenPom.com and would have been back in the NCAA Tournament. With most of the core back and a year older, this could be a top 10-type team good enough to go to a Final Four. That’s the goal, Jarreau says.

What needs to go right is simple: The shooting has to improve and small ball has to work. It’s hard to argue against the talent after the fine freshman seasons Mills and Sasser had, the flashes Grimes showed and then what Jarreau has looked like when he’s at his best. If all four make leaps, Mark is as good as hyped and the bigs do their job, bank on an AAC three-peat and the Cougars entering the NCAA Tournament with a high seed.

The floor
It isn’t very low. Sampson has too much returning and too much of a track record to believe everything could fall apart. It’s a given the Cougars are going to defend at a high level and rebound, but maybe they struggle to find their rhythm on offense and the challenge of too many mouths to feed leads to no one really playing to their potential on the offensive end. And if the Cougars repeat their mediocre 3-point shooting from last year (33.7 percent), there’s a cap on how good the offense can be.

Final report
It’s wise to do as the AAC coaches did a year ago and trust in Sampson. When he has a roster that already has experienced success, he wins and that core keeps getting better.

Nationally, the Cougars are probably a bit underrated. Hinton was the perfect glue guy and his loss is factored into how others see the Cougars. White might be an even bigger loss, because he was clearly the best offensive big man in the program.

But listen to how excited Sampson is about this backcourt, and it’s clear he believes he has a special group.

Sampson felt like he was ahead of schedule by winning a share of the league title last season. “With all these young kids, that gives them so much confidence going into this year,” he says. But at the same time, he looks back at an 0-5 record in games decided by two points or less and it left him disappointed the Cougars didn’t win the league outright.

Returning experience is so important because the summer was lost. And in close games this time around, Sampson has confidence his guards will be ready for the moment.

They’re different, he keeps saying. Mature, confident and eager to get to work.
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Houston Native · Sep 9, 2020

RayRay10 said: ↑

More:

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Good read, thanks.

RayRay10 · Sep 10, 2020

This is huge...we have our Fabian White replacement for this season and solidifies the interior.

Hippieloser · Sep 12, 2020

Starting to suspect this will be a semi-decent team.

Pat · Sep 13, 2020

Starting to suspect that any Sampson team will be semi-decent.
Coogs are deep, have talent, play their asses off and seem capable to overcome anything.
Sampson took over absolute crap and turned it into a winning franchise.
Hope is son is half a good.

Aware · Sep 13, 2020

UH basketball was beyond crap when he took over. Hofheinz had to be one of the worst arenas in the country.

I remember Kelvin would be out by the library trying to get students to go during his first season lol. Were lucky that we got him when we did cause we would have no shot at keeping a younger kelvin.

Jturbofuel · Sep 20, 2020

Aware said: ↑

UH basketball was beyond crap when he took over. Hofheinz had to be one of the worst arenas in the country.

I remember Kelvin would be out by the library trying to get students to go during his first season lol. Were lucky that we got him when we did cause we would have no shot at keeping a younger kelvin.
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I said when he was hired if he can't win here no one can.

boomboom · Sep 27, 2020

Dr of Dunk · Sep 28, 2020

I don't follow high school hoops like I used to, but that UConn draft class, at least on paper, looks like they're going to be pretty good.

RayRay10 · Sep 28, 2020

Big pickup for the Coogs.

Pat · Sep 28, 2020

RayRay10 said: ↑

Big pickup for the Coogs.

Click to expand...

This is just a flat out good team. Sampson really has a system in place that seems to grow and overcome whatever. Demonstrates the importance of good coaching.

YOLO · Sep 29, 2020

Dr of Dunk said: ↑

I don't follow high school hoops like I used to, but that UConn draft class, at least on paper, looks like they're going to be pretty good.
Click to expand...

They're no longer part of the AAC

RayRay10 · Sep 29, 2020

YOLO said: ↑

They're no longer part of the AAC
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Thank God.

YOLO · Sep 29, 2020

RayRay10 said: ↑

Thank God.
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don't think it matters much besides making the AAC deeper bc UH is by far the best team in the conference going forward

RayRay10 · Sep 29, 2020

YOLO said: ↑

don't think it matters much besides making the AAC deeper bc UH is by far the best team in the conference going forward
Click to expand...

Was never a fan of UCONN's "we're better than this" fanbase. Granted, they have the basketball titles, but the football team was a huge drag on the conference. Ultimately, it was probably better for the American and UCONN for it to end up this way as they just weren't a fit and didn't want to play ball.

I'm more thrilled with moving to a 20 game conference schedule and getting to play everyone else twice...while also, likely, increasing everyone's RPI/NET overall.

Jturbofuel · Oct 1, 2020

RayRay10 said: ↑

Big pickup for the Coogs.

Click to expand...

Just saw something interesting about Francis he doesn't turn 17 until later this month. He could be 6'9 or more by the time he makes it to campus.

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