First Dance, Last Dance — Kingston Flemings & Chris Cenac Feel One Shot Urgency Of Houston’s NCAA Tournament Run Right With Emanuel Sharp, Milos Uzan

The NCAA Tournament Selection Sunday show excitement is less than 30 minutes done and Chris Cenac Jr. is already heading back to the practice court. “I’m about to go there right now — actually,” Cenac tells PaperCity. “I’m about to shoot some free throws. I feel like this is going to be a time where free throws are going to be big for me. Got to make those in the clutch.”

This is the youngest team that Houston’s Hall of Fame finalist coach Kelvin Sampson has had in his remarkable run at UH. But its urgency is real — and pressing. There will be no do overs for this group, no second chances to get it right next season for so many of the players on this talent-packed roster. Emanuel Sharp, Milos Uzan, Ramon Walker Jr. and transfer center Kalifa Sakho are the seniors, but time waits for no one in college basketball in 2026. Freshman wonder point guard Kingston Flemings (a projected Top 6 pick in June’s NBA Draft) and Cenac, the 6-foot-11 multi-talent whose skills fit the modern NBA, knows this first dance is likely their last dance too.

This 28-6 team — arguably the most purely talented squad Kelvin Sampson’s had at Houston — gets one shot to do this right.

“Now you know if you lose one time, it’s the last time playing with your boys,” Flemings tells PaperCity. “So just lock it in and blowing it out. Playing for each other. I think that’s what we do when we went on that 14-0 run (against Arizona). We played for each other. Not just individual.”

This Houston team is playing more connected than it has all season going into its NCAA Tournament opener against 15th seed Idaho on Thursday night in Oklahoma City (9:10 pm tip, truTV), especially on the defensive end. Sharp, Uzan, JoJo Tugler and Co. hold a BYU team with the singular force of AJ Dybantsa to 25 points in the second half of a Big 12 Tournament quarterfinal win and then turn around and absolutely stifle Kansas  to the point where Bill Self’s team needs garbage time points to score 47 for the game.  The Big 12 Tournament Championship Game against Arizona does not go quite as well, but UH still manages to become only the second team all season to pull off a kill shot run (a 10-o or higher run) against the Wildcats with that inspired 14-0 run.

This still young team’s defense looks different. More vintage Houston.

“We went back in time didn’t we?” UH assistant coach K.C. Beard laughs. “It was awesome to see. We had some good practices leading up to this, focusing back in on things that we need to that make Houston Houston.”

First dance, last dance. One shot either way.

“Now you know if you lose one time, it’s the last time playing with your boys. So just lock it in and blowing it out. Playing for each other. — UH freshman point guard Kingston Flemings

Now No. 2 seed Houston gets the chance to get back to H-Town for a South Regional that will be held at the Toyota Center. Of course that will take winning two games in Oklahoma City with Big South champs Idaho on deck first and a matchup with the winner of seventh-seeded Saint Mary’s and No. 10-seeded Texas A&M looming in the round of 32 on Saturday if the Cougars advance.

“We’re getting better,” Houston guard Emanuel Sharp, a proven NCAA Tournament performer, says. “And it feels that way.”

UH Earned This Toyota Center NCAA Tournament Path

Make no mistake, Sampson’s squad (the fifth-ranked overall team in the country by the NCAA Tournament selection committee’s determinations) earned this coveted South Region placement with its play. Now it needs to earn making those Toyota Center games a reality by playing well in the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Paycom Center first.

It almost seems fitting that this different Houston team with two potential NBA Lottery Picks and plenty of other possible NBA regulars on its roster’s path to a Final Four return would mean going through two NBA arenas.

In many ways, Emanuel Sharp and Milos Uzan have been playing to get back to this point all season. But you can almost feel the urgency spreading throughout the rest of this roster now too.

“That’s what we did a good job of last year — everybody held each other accountable,” key bench guard Mercy Miller says. “And we’re doing more and more of that this year. Make sure we’re disciplined out there, not making silly mistakes. We know what we can do when we all put it together.

“Everybody’s on the same page.”

Kingston Flemings heaped the responsibility and the blame on himself for the Arizona loss. Chris Cenac vowed to be back in the gym as soon as he could, the high holy day of Selection Sunday be damned. And there he is, going off to shoot free throws, after a lively Fertitta Center Selection Sunday party with the fans that figures to become a new Houston program tradition.

“We’re a blue blood now,” Landon Goesling, the former UH basketball player turned NIL maestro and LinkU chief revenue officer, says as he watches Flemings, Sharp, Ramon Walker Jr., Mercy Miller and Isiah Harwell sign autographs and take pictures with a long line of fans on the concourse level, many of them kids. “We’ve got to continue to take steps as a group. Act like a blue blood in everything we do.”

Whether it’s throwing a first class Selection Sunday event that should only grow from here. Or  taking responsibility early.

Arizona might have the single best team in America this season. No one’s deeper, no one boasts more answers than Tommy Lloyd’s Wildcats. But University of Houston’s freshmen starting duo are mad at themselves for losing to that team in the Big 12 Tournament Championship Game.

Promising to be better.

“JoJo (Tugler’s) consistent,” Flemings says. “Me and Chris (Cenac) this game – we didn’t even show up to be honest. Three of the five starters did. But me and Chris really didn’t. .

“You’ve got to be consistent.”

First dance, last dance. One shot either way.

Houston freshman power forward Chris Cenac Jr. to @PaperCityMag after Arizona loss: “I learned a lot from this game. And it’s definitely going to help myself and the team for the tournament coming up..I’ll definitely be in the gym tomorrow. Got to stay disciplined. Got to mature” pic.twitter.com/VTkH64dzd2

— Chris Baldwin (@ChrisYBaldwin) March 15, 2026

This attitude is another reason no one should be sleeping on Houston this March either. “Houston is absolutely capable of getting to another Final Four,” ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla, the voice of the Big 12, tells PaperCity. “There weren’t a whole lot of adjustments they needed to make, but they’ve made them.”

JoJo Tugler putting up a career-high 20 points and 10 rebounds against Arizona’s heavyweight frontline, continuing his late season surge, earning Big 12 All-Tournament honors, matters. Chris Cenac (17 points, 14 rebounds) rising to the moment in a rematch shellacking of a good Kansas team means something. Mercy Miller playing arguably the best game of his career (13 points, seven rebounds and fearless moves galore) on the big stage stage of a conference tournament title game is future building. And that future could be as early as this March.

The Madness is here. No second chances, no safety nets now.

First dance, last dance. It doesn’t matter. It’s all the same with this increasingly tight group.

“Honestly, other than what — an NBA Finals — I don’t really think there’s nothing better playing for, competitive wise,” Cenac tells PaperCity. “I’m just going to give it my all these last games.”

One shot. One March together. No second chances.