UH’s Fight Club — Caleb Mills and Nate Hinton Drive Tulsa Absolutely Mad, Make Another Opponent Completely Lose It

Kelvin Sampson calls for the play once, twice, three times and more. Over and over again, the University of Houston basketball coach motions for the baseline action, the play that puts the ball in Caleb Mills’ hands. Sampson just would not stop calling for that play.

“When Coach Sampson changed the play and switched (Mills) with the big man and put him on the baseline and we just called that play maybe, I would say, like 12 times in a row,” UH point guard DeJon Jarreau laughs when asked when he knew Mills was doing something special. “And he probably scored on a good nine out of 12.

“That’s when I knew he was on fire. And we just kept going to him.”

Mills ends up scoring Houston’s first 19 points of the second half, turning a close game with a conference contender into a runaway and soon driving Tulsa coach Frank Haith, a guy who keeps a silver cross in his pocket every game, and his players absolutely stark raving mad. By the time Mills finishes scoring, Haith and Tulsa point guard Elijah Joiner were long gone, having both been ejected in a seven second span that included five technical fouls overall. (Tulsa forward Martins Igbanu and UH forward Fabian White Jr. also drew offsetting technicals.)

The wild scrum began with Igbanu shoving into White under the basket and finally ended when Joiner was eventually convinced to leave the floor for the locker room.

Hey, you might be a little upset if the same guy scored 19 straight points against you on essentially the same play, over and over again, too.

“As the game go by, some of their guys started talking and pushing and shoving,” Jarreau tells PaperCity. “But Coach Sampson grabbed us and just told us to keep our composure. Said to show our character — and we did.”

These Cougars (21-6) can make other teams want to fist fight — while taking the basketball fight right out of them. That’s exactly what happens in this 76-43 demolition of a Tulsa team probably worthy of NCAA Tournament bubble consideration. In putting up 50 points and outscoring the Golden Hurricane by 27 in the second half, UH drives a good team completely batty.

There are Bachelor contestants more composed than Tulsa is in the second half of this game.

“Yeah, you can feel it a little bit,” Houston wing Nate Hinton says of opponent frustrations. “You can.”

This is what happens when you play hard every second of every game. Sampson’s flawed but dogged young team refuses to let other teams breathe when it’s at its best. That has driven Houston into first place in the American Athletic Conference all by itself, standing on the brink of a second straight regular season championship despite not having the overall dominant stuff of last season’s record-breaking 33-4 team.

“Everybody in our program plays for each other,” Sampson says. “Something way bigger than ourselves. Losing programs — they play for themselves. Winning programs, they play for something bigger than themselves.

“That’s why we win around here a lot.”

That bigger-than-themselves mindset can be seen in the Cougars not getting drawn into a macho retaliation game when Tulsa loses its cool. Jarreau bit a Cincinnati player in the leg in a game earlier this season, drawing a one-game suspension from his coach. And Sampson is not about to see anything like that again.

“The game was getting away a little bit,” Sampson says. “They have a lot of pride. But you know, we’ve been in these situations so many times. My rule is that if I see anybody retaliate, you’re coming out. And I mean verbal. It doesn’t matter. You’re coming out.

“The most important thing we have going here is our basketball program. Period. Not you. It’s not about you. It’s about our program. So don’t do anything to embarrass our program.”

UH’s Program Players

That program’s spirit can be seen in Nate Hinton knocking on Sampson’s office door, sticking his head in and asking for a minute two days before this Tulsa game. Houston’s most complete player comes with a request. He asks Sampson to switch the Cougars’ original defensive assignments and let him guard Brandon Rachal, Tulsa’s leading scorer, instead.

Hinton gets his wish. Rachal goes scoreless in 29 minutes of action. Just like that, Hinton essentially eliminates the biggest threat to make UH lose.

“It’s that time of year,” Hinton says when I ask why he went out of his way to request the toughest defensive assignment. “I just wanted to impact winning. I just want to win. So I just want to do whatever it takes to win and get us going and have that attack mentality.”

There are Bachelor contestants more composed than Tulsa is in the second half of this game.

There are rabid pit bulls with less of an attack mentality than Sampson’s players. But even the most vicious dogs need some grace. A little burst of beauty. That is where Caleb Mills comes in. Sampson calls the redshirt freshman guard, “Slim” because of Mills’ skinny frame.

Yes, Mills looks like a decent breeze might be able to blow him over. But ask him to attack and the other team’s bound to be soon looking up at the scoreboard in horror. Mills scores like today’s 6-year-olds take to an iPad. With ease.

“Caleb Mills,” Jarreau quickly shoots back when asked what changed for UH’s offense in that 50-point second half. “That’s all the answer I can give you.

“Once Caleb started heating up, the whole team just kind of rode his back until he couldn’t go no more.”

Mills finishes with 27 points, 22 of those in the second half on 7 for 11 shooting, including those 19 straight UH points in the first six minutes and eight seconds of the period. No Houston player besides Slim scores in the second half until Hinton (15 points, six rebounds) hits a free throw with 13:37 remaining.

There are nuclear reactors that heat up less quickly.

Caleb Mills ends up scoring Houston’s first 19 points of the second half, turning a close game with a conference contender into a runaway.

Mills is pretty soft spoken with reporters. But his true personality — and confidence — comes out when Sampson asks “Did I see you go in there and snatch a defensive rebound, leading the break there, Slim?”

“Five of them,” the freshman fires back, noting his total number of defensive rebounds.

“My bad, my bad,” Sampson says. The 64-year-old basketball lifer cannot hide the trace of a smile at the quick exchange. “Slow down, Tiger,” Sampson finishes.

That’s the thing about Caleb Mills — and this young UH basketball team. They really probably should not be here right now, sitting atop a conference that has teams with serious older NBA prospects. But they are. They are set up for another March to remember.

Good luck getting them to stop now.