Case Keenum Raises Next Generation Coogs, JoJo Tugler Dominates the Metrics & Ryan Elvin Film Bonds With Milos Uzan — Inside Kelvin Sampson’s Fertitta Center Wonderland

Case Keenum, his wife Kimberly and their toddler daughter walk through the Fertitta Center hallway with smiles on their faces. Back at the University of Houston on a night when a number of basketball season ticket holders stayed away. “Oh yeah, heck yeah,” Keenum tells PaperCity on if it’s still special coming back for games. “We love it. And now we have a new generation.”

Keenum points at his daughter, who is all decked out in Cougar red. “Hey Cadence, Cadence,” Keenum says to his daughter. “How old are you?” The adorable girl quickly answers “Three!” “Can you show him?” Keenum prompts. Cadence flashes three fingers without hesitation and Keenum grins. Case and Kimberly are devoted parents to young kids and Keenum being placed on season-ending IR with a foot injury he suffered in the Houston Texans’ final preseason game brought the mixed blessing of being able to spend more time with them while losing football.

“There’s different buckets it’s in,” Keenum says, pausing in the hallway. “You hate being hurt. But you want to be part of what they’re doing. But a lot more family time’s been great.”

Whether Keenum tries to return to play a 13th NFL season next year as a will be 37-year-0ld free agent or not is a decision that will be made on another day. (There are seven quarterbacks 36 or older who’ve started games in the NFL this season.) On this day, Keenum is just enjoying cheering for his Cougars with his family.

“It means a lot man,” Keenum says of watching a UH game with Kimberly and the kids.

From Case Keenum Pride to JoJo Tugler Super Talent

Keenum insists on paying for his own basketball tickets too, a Houston athletics administrator tells PaperCity. Even though the school would happily give the all-time Coog free tickets, Keenum wants to support UH and Kelvin Sampson’s program.

In a way, Houston’s NCAA record-shattering QB is showing why what Sampson and his basketball program have created in this on-campus arena remains so special. For this is expected to be one of the rare “quiet” stretches at Fertitta. A game against Toledo, which sits at 225th in the NET rankings, followed by a game vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, which is 178th in the NET, on Saturday afternoon.

In fact, this may be the last “quiet” mini stint at Fertitta for a long while. With Kelvin Sampson bringing in his own version of a Fab 4 recruiting class, one that is widely regarded as the first or second rated class in the entire country, there likely will be no quiet games next season. Not that this 78-49 dismantling of Toledo really turns out to be a quiet game either. Not with Keenum, UH’s football GOAT, in the house. Not with ever rising star Terrance Arceneaux seemingly getting better by the game. Two games after getting his breakthrough first dunk since he tore his Achilles tendon last December, Arceneaux throws down three dunks against Toledo as part of a 16 point, nine rebound night.

“There’s different buckets it’s in. You hate being hurt. But you want to be part of what they’re doing. But a lot more family time’s been great.” — Case Keenum

Not with JoJo Tugler continuing to show why he’s a true unicorn, one of college basketball’s most impactful players and not surprisingly a metrics darling. Tugler leads the Big 12 in Regularized Adjusted Plus-Minus (RAPM) per CBB Analytics rankings. (Arceneaux ranks fourth.) Even when Tugler experiences some foul trouble like he does early against Toledo, his affect on the game is undeniable. In just 16 minutes against the Rockets, Tugler scores 13 points (only missing one shot), blocks three shots and collects two steals, hitting Arceneaux in stride for a breakaway slam off one of those takeaways.

“He is extremely, extremely instinctive,” Kelvin Sampson’s says of Tugler’s unique gifts. “I thought the best play he made (against Toledo) was when he missed the bunny and then swiped his big long paw up there and tipped it in. That was an unbelievable play. I mean, I spent six years coaching in the NBA. I watched those guys. A lot of great ones. Coached against all the greats — from LeBron to Kobe. Saw them a lot of times.

“That — that’s a pro play. Not many guys can do what he did.”

Tugler can. Miss a game at the Fertitta Center when he’s playing and you’re liable to miss something memorable. Of course that’s been true of Kelvin Sampson’s teams for years. UH’s on-campus arena is one of the special places in college basketball because of how special the teams are that Sampson’s nationally elite program puts out season after season after season.

Sampson’s Houston program is almost as consistent as Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company back in the day.

Going to Film School

Some of that hinges on the players who’ve come before helping out the current players. Ryan Elvin never received a lot of minutes during his playing days. But the beloved 11th or 12th man always understood the game and Kelvin Sampson’s expectations. Now that Elvin is a first year graduate assistant for Sampson, new starting point guard Milos Uzan is watching a lot of extra video with him, leaning on that knowledge.

“Film is super important,” Uzan tells PaperCity. “I get to watch it with Coach Q(uannas White). And Ryo. I get to see what I could have done. What was good, what was bad. I think film’s definitely good for me.”

It’s no coincidence that two of the players Elvin ended up being closest with during his playing days at UH are Marcus Sasser and Quentin Grimes, two guys who have found success in the NBA. Gym rats and hoops knowledge seekers tend to gravitate towards one another. Both Elvin and Uzan grew up being coached by their dads and they both love to study basketball.

Miss a game at the Fertitta Center when JoJo Tugler’s playing and you’re liable to miss something memorable. Of course that’s been true of Kelvin Sampson’s teams for years.

Learning on the job is part of the deal in Kelvin Sampson’s exacting program. Whether you’re the next point guard after the incomparable Jamal Shead, the new grad assistant or even a unicorn.

“I try to be the best every moment I’m on the floor,” Tugler tells PaperCity. “When my card is pulled, I’m gonna D-up. I’m going to try and D-up. When it’s my time.”

More telling time is coming for this now 7-3 and 15th ranked Houston team, one that is ranked behind Iowa State (No. 3) and Kansas (No. 8) in the Big 12 and seven SEC teams (No. 1 Tennessee, No. 2 Auburn, No. 4 Kentucky, No. 6 Alabama, No. 7 Florida, No. 12 Texas A&M and No. 14 Oklahoma) in the current AP Top 25. That would be the first (and perhaps last) 20 game Big 12 schedule, one that will present plenty of prove-it opportunities and obstacles. That starts December 30 at Oklahoma State for Houston.

First, there’s a Texas A&M-Corpus Christi team that likes to press teams full court and pulled within three points of Purdue in the second half, before losing to the Boilermakers 90-73 in the season opener, to finish the non-conference season for Houston on Saturday. Just don’t expect it to be much of a quiet game. Not at the Fertitta Center. Not with Kelvin Sampson’s program.