Kyler Edwards Makes a Major March Statement for UH — How Kelvin Sampson Used a Jack Nicklaus Golf Lesson to Help Him

FORT WORTH — By the second half, Quannas White knows it’s on. Kyler Edwards is locked in and teams have something else to fear from this rebuilt-on-the-fly University of Houston basketball team. No one works more closely with Edwards than White on this UH coaching staff. White knows exactly what this can do.

For Edwards. And for a Houston team that is still hunting a repeat Final Four berth, odds, doubters, injury realities and maybe even logic no matter.

“I know what this can do for his confidence,” White tells PaperCity. “I think it relieves some pressure. And continues to build his confidence in something he already knows that he can do.

This is Edwards hitting six triples and putting up one of his most complete games of the season (20 points, eight assists and seven rebounds) in Houston’s 86-66 demolition of Tulane in the American Athletic Conference semifinals on Saturday. With Selection Sunday essentially here, UH flexes its might, playing like one of the best teams in the entire country again.

It’s no coincidence this arrives with Edwards finding his shot, shaking off a 1 for 9 3-point shooting start in this tournament to hit four of his last six threes and six of 12 overall on Saturday. Suddenly, UH has another go-to scorer. Which could be more critical than ever with Fabian White Jr. suffering from a bout of back tightness. White only plays three minutes against Tulane and could be limited or completely rested against Memphis in a AAC Championship Game on Sunday afternoon that should have little implication on Houston’s NCAA Tournament seeding. (ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi moved Houston up to a No. 4 seed in his Saturday night projections.)

Edwards finding his shooting stroke could carry huge implications for UH’s March fortunes. A hot shooting Edwards raises a depth-challenged team’s ceiling much higher. If Edwards can go on anything close to the kind of run Quentin Grimes did last March, those Final Four visions become much more realistic. Grimes’ March magic happened to really get going during the AAC semis last year, when he absolutely took over a close game against Memphis.

This semi is never that close. Not with Edwards and Co. moving the ball at a rate that would wow the world’s most chipper and share obsessed preschool teacher, racking up 24 assists on 32 made baskets. Not with Josh Carlton (16 points, six rebounds) controlling everything inside, erasing one shot from Tulane’s best player Jaylen Forbes from behind after Forbes thought he’d beaten everyone to the basket. Not with J’Wan Roberts coming in for Fabian White and putting up 10 points and 13 rebounds in 34 high-energy minutes. Not with reserve guard Ramon Walker Jr. adding 11 more points off the bench, hitting three triples and collecting six rebounds.

That’s a season high in minutes for Roberts by nearly 10 minutes — and it gives the UH coaching staff a look at how effective this St. Thomas island proud man can be playing with Carlton in a more traditional big man combo. It also left Tulane coach Ron Hunter anything but surprised.

Hunter just assumes that any player in a Houston jersey is capable of haunting his nightmares. The veteran coach calls Houston “the mountain” and jokes about encouraging the Cougars to join the Big 12 even earlier than the 2023-24 season to give teams like Tulane a chance.

“It’s their culture,” Hunter moans. “I don’t even know who their guys are. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter who’s in or who’s out. They play the same way. So whether it’s Edwards or whether it’s (Taze) Moore, they’re all the same way.

“. . . Houston could go play tomorrow and you wouldn’t even know who the five starters are. That comes from the head coach and that comes from building a program.”

Tulane’s coach claims he didn’t even realize Fabian White had left just three minutes in after air balling his first shot until one of his assistants mentioned it to him later.

In many ways, Houston plays one of its most complete games of the entire season. Without Fabian White. Which is saying something for a 28-5 team that’s won 24 games by 10 points or more.

Edwards is a big part of this, the best defensive player on the best defensive team in the league by Kelvin Sampson’s estimation. And Sampson knows something about defense. Edwards’ fierce defense and his secondary playmaking have been Cougar constants all season. When the Texas Tech transfer adds in long range shooting, a team that’s been desperate for triples ever since lifeline guard Marcus Sasser broke his foot hits a new level.

Edwards comes into this semifinal shooting 37 percent from the field and 32 percent from 3-point range on the season. Yet, almost no one around the UH program thinks those numbers are an accurate representation of Kyler Edwards’ true shooting ability.

“I think with Kyler it’s just — he was due,” Sampson says. “He was due, man. Some of these tough shooting nights he had so many balls go in and out. Your target’s not the rim. I learn a lot from other people. Jack Nicklaus used to talk about, everybody looks to the back of the golf ball. But Jack Nicklaus picked out a dimple. One dimple.

“I try to apply that same logic to shooting a basketball. So we used to take little pieces of blue tape and put em on the rim. I told our guys to focus on that little piece of blue tape. From different angles. There’s different ways to teach things.

“Kyler when he’s shooting well —whether it goes in or not — it’s usually on target. His misses are where they should be. When the misses are where they should be, you’re going to have a good shooting night. Rather than what it did for us, I think everybody was just so happy for him. Because we all know how hard he’s worked.”

Edwards played well in — and lost — an epic overtime national championship game at Texas Tech his freshman season. All his years later, now at a different school, Edwards knows this is his last March. His last chance to write a new ending for himself.

So far, so banging. In fact, even Mike Breen would have gotten sick of screaming “Bang!” if he’d been calling Edwards’ second half on Saturday.

“I don’t even know who their guys are. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter who’s in or who’s out. They play the same way.” — Tulane coach Ron Hunter on Houston

What a difference a few makes makes.

“Just trusting my work and the process I have every day,” Edwards says when I ask him how he kept his confidence up. “Just getting my shots up. And knowing that I’m a good shooter in my mind. And just believing in myself.”

Kyler Edwards and The Confidence Game

It can’t hurt that Sampson keeps telling Edwards to not fret over the misses. “I think one of the ways our kids get confidence — and I used to tell Quentin Grimes this too, I think this really helped Quentin — is don’t ever worry about missing a shot with us.

“We missed 33 shots tonight and we had 17 offensive rebounds. That means we rebounded over 50 percent of our misses. We scored 30 points tonight on second chance points (Tulane had zero). That takes a lot of pressure off your shooters. And we told our guys that.

” ‘Shoot with confidence. If it goes in — cool. If it doesn’t we’re going to play sic ’em on the boards.”

With even the high-flying Taze Moore adding two offensive rebounds to his 17 points and seven assists, this is a Houston team that knows how to chase the basketball. But that does not make missing shots easy on a jump shooter’s psyche. Even Klay Thompson and Steph Curry, the two best jump shooters in the world, have had moments of shooting doubt this season.

Kyler Edwards has faced some too. Even if he does his best to hide it from his teammates.

“I know he was feeling frustrated (Friday) after that game,” UH assistant coach Quannas White says of Edwards’ 0 for 6 from three showing in the Cougars tournament opener against Cincinnati. “But he just stuck with it. I’m proud of him.”

White talks to PaperCity while he’s pulling video clips of sets from the Memphis-SMU semifinal that he and lead assistant Kellen Sampson are both scouting live court side at Dickies Arena. There is no real time for rest in March. There is always a next game to cram for — until your season’s over. And the grind will only intensify when UH finds out where it’s headed and who it’s playing in the NCAA Tournament while watching the selection show as a team from this Fort Worth arena where the Cougars still have never lost a game heading into Sunday’s AAC Championship tilt with Memphis. (UH is 7-0 all-time at still relatively new Dickies Arena.)

Taking a breath isn’t really an option this time of year. It’s hard to think about — much less dwell on — anything that happened even 12 hours ago. Still, there is no hiding how excited everyone in the UH program is about Kyler Edwards going off.

“I think with Kyler it’s just — he was due. He was due, man. Some of these tough shooting nights he had so many balls go in and out.” — UH coach Kelvin Sampson

Everyone else wants Kyler Edwards to have a great March almost even more than he does. That’s when you know your shooter is one heck of a teammate.

“Kyler’s sometimes playing 38, 40 minutes,” Quannas White says. “He’s been doing that for weeks. So you’re going to miss some shots. Especially when you’re playing so hard on the defensive end.”

A few things are certain. Kyler Edwards will keep shooting. And UH will happily see where it helps take them.