What QB Whisperer Case Keenum, a Rehabbing Fred VanVleet, a Timely JoJo Tugler & UH Hall of Famer Kelvin Sampson Coming Together Says About Houston

The Fertitta Center isn’t Kansas’ historic Allen Fieldhouse, which received the ESPN College GameDay fawning (rightfully so in this case) for its 1,000th game this weekend. It’s not Dodgers Stadium in 1965 with Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax waiting to take the mound (something Kelvin Sampson manages to work into an analysis of his University of Houston team). But what it is — what it’s been turned into by Sampson and his program — is one of the best places in the entire country to watch a high-level college basketball game.

If you know, you know. And NFL quarterback veteran (and proud Cougar) Case Keenum, Houston Rockets point guard Fred VanVleet and 7,000 more get another reminder of this as Sampson’s team dismantles Cincinnati 76-54. It’s the kind of the day that shows off the possibilities. For this UH athletic program and the place it can (and should) occupy in the city’s sports consciousness. For Sampson’s talent-packed team that’s only starting to resemble what it can become even though it’s 19-2 and the only team besides undefeated Arizona with less than two Big 12 losses.

University of Houston athletic director Eddie Nuñez reveals that Kelvin Sampson will be inducted into the school’s Hall of Honor, telling PaperCity it will take place in an elaborate October gala. Imagine a hot ticket UH night in the days before Willie Fritz’s football team hosts UCF on October 3rd, packed with Cougar dignitaries before the NBA season begins, giving some of Sampson’s former Houston stars a real chance to attend? (The actual date of the gala hasn’t been finalized yet, but that’s a possibility.)

Another is driven home by how excited Case Keenum is to see what Conner Weigman, the former Texas A&M five star quarterback recruit turned UH 10-win season driver, can do in his second season in Fritz’s program. Keenum, the NCAA record shattering QB at Houston turned 14 year NFL veteran, has become something of a quarterback whisperer later in his career. Keenum mentored Texans QB C.J. Stroud in his record-setting rookie season, Stroud’s best season as a pro by far. And he mentored young Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams in his breakout season this fall.

Keenum knows quarterbacks. And he sees plenty of something in Weigman, someone he’s spent a good amount of time with.

“Good people man,” Keenum says of Weigman. “I was proud of him battling through what he went through at Texas A&M. “And making the decision to come back home, I thought it was the perfect decision for him. Play a lot of ball, get developed as a quarterback and have a successful future.

“Not just here at UH. But on the next level as well.”

Another major possibility, maybe even a national championship race shifting one, jumps out in the return of JoJo Tugler, Swat Man. UH’s unicorn, the reigning Lefty Driesell (national) Defensive Player of the Year, blocks three shots in the Cincinnati clamp down. Including an out-of-nowhere swat of athletic guard Jizzle James that helps set the tone for holding the Bearcats to 20 points in the first 20 minutes.

“JoJo’s timing is starting to come back,” Sampson says. “The thing you can tell is he wasn’t blocking any shots for a while. JoJo’s an elite shot blocker. There’s a reason why he’s the Lefty Driesell Defensive Player of the Year. But he didn’t block shots for a while. Because he didn’t have his timing.

“So he’s chasing this rabbit. He’s chasing that rabbit. And chasing that rabbit. So just stay patient with him.”

“Good people man. I was proud of him battling through what he went through at Texas A&M. And making the decision to come back home, I thought it was the perfect decision for him. Play a lot of ball, get developed as a quarterback and have a successful future.” — Case Keenum on UH quarterback Conner Weigman

Tugler had the foot he first broke late in his freshman season reput back together before this junior year, getting multiple screws put in it to stabilize it and reduce the pain. That set him back from months, completely robbed him of an offseason. Now Bionic JoJo is starting to show himself.

So is Houston’s second unit with Isiah Harwell (13 points) and Mercy Miller combining for 20 bench points, each logging almost 18 impact minutes. And backup center Kalifa Sakho, who had back surgery in August as PaperCity first reported (major surgery that required the removal of a disc) delivers 14 minutes of Sampson level defense.

Yet even with all that and two potential NBA first round picks in freshmen Kingston Flemings and Chris Cenac Jr. (13 points, including three 3-pointers in the game’s first 14:12) on the Fertitta floor, VanVleet finds his experienced basketball eyes keep drifting over to Kelvin Sampson on the sidelines. Sampson may be the best show in one of college basketball’s true on-campus arena gems, even in a game his team largely completely controls from start to finish.

“Coach is a lot more intense in person than he is through the TV,” VanVleet laughs to PaperCity.

One of the greatest undrafted player success stories in NBA history (out of Wichita State), VanVleet understands the power of hard work and intensity. He digs this.

Houston Sports Coming Together

VanVleet is friends with the son of new UH Board of Regents chair Jack Moore and the rehabbing guard wanted to check out the Fertitta scene and show support for another high-performing team in the city. Kelvin Sampson goes over to talk to VanVleet after the game with his daughter Lauren Sampson, UH’s do-everything chief of staff. This is what the Sampsons do. Welcome people into their world and expand it.

This is what Houston sports can be, with one of the largest cities in America becoming smaller as teams and coaches on different levels and often different sports, root for each other. Case Keenum does not just show up at games when he can with his wife Kimberly and their kids. He is a season ticket holder for both UH football and UH basketball, insisting on paying for his own seats even though he could get freebies whenever he wanted.

“To know he has that much pride in UH,” Nuñez says of Keenum. “And he’s seen it at the highest level and done the right way. And for him to recognize what Coach (Fritz) is building here and how to build it, it means a lot. Because he understands what we have right now here at the University of Houston is really special.”

UH QB great Case Keenum to ⁦@PaperCityMag⁩ on Willie Fritz, 10 win season: “It’s so fun to watch. The definition of staying the course and really trusting Fritz and what his culture is. I was really proud of Conner and him battling through. He played so good. Shawn Bell..” pic.twitter.com/2OJHwsbkTQ

— Chris Baldwin (@ChrisYBaldwin) January 31, 2026

Willie Fritz is in the Fertitta Center for the Cincinnati game too, toting one of his grandkids around. UH football has a large group of recruits in the house. What the Sampsons and his program have built in this arena where the Cougars almost never lose (120-7 all-time) helps other UH programs too. It’s good to have a place, an atmosphere, where everyone wants to be.

“You know it’s amazing where we are today,” Tilman Fertitta, the billionaire ambassador who always believed in the power of this university in the Third Ward, tells PaperCity. “And where we were just 10 years ago. It’s great to come back. And it’s really exciting to see this.”

Fertitta is back in Italy for the Cincinnati win. (Don’t be surprised to see him make an appearance at the rapidly approaching Winter Olympics.) But he appreciates the scene that the arena that bears his name has become. Joe Espada’s happily experienced it too, becoming the second straight Astros manager to take in a game at this UH slice of paradise (with Dusty Baker having come to see Kelvin Sampson several years ago). Fred VanVleet follows Chris Paul and Eric Gordon in making a UH hoops game.

“JoJo’s timing is starting to come back. The thing you can tell is he wasn’t blocking any shots for a while. JoJo’s an elite shot blocker.” — UH coach Kelvin Sampson

Sampson knows what his program’s built here. But he’s not satisfied.

“This ain’t the 1965 Dodgers with Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax,” Sampson says. “And we’re not playing the Giants with Juan Marichal.”

No, but it’s still pretty special. As just about any game at the Fertitta Center can show you these days.