Fabian White, Jamal Shead Refuse to Let Houston Suffer an Auburn or Illinois Stumble — Grabbing March Like a Cougar

Beating the Conference Tournament Blues

BY Chris Baldwin // 03.12.22

FORT WORTH — These first conference tournament games for the big favorites can be just as much of a sludge as trying to watch that Sex and the City sequel series or cleaning out your gutters. Some things are a little torturous by their very nature. Villanova needs a fierce rally to beat a middling St. John’s team by a point. No. 1 Auburn falls to Texas A&M in its first SEC Tournament game. Big Ten No. 1 seed Illinois takes its coveted double bye — and promptly turns around and loses to Indiana in its first game in Indianapolis.

This is the way it goes it in college basketball’s power conference tournaments, where motivation and a sense of urgency can be hard to come by for the top seeds. So Kelvin Sampson’s University of Houston team is hardly in foreign ground when it trails a not much over .500 Cincinnati team 37-27 early in the second half in a half asleep Dickies Arena.

The early conference tournament blues spare few. But on this March Friday, Houston has something that Auburn and Illinois do not. The Cougars have Fabian White Jr. and Jamal Shead, two battlers who don’t know how to give in. Or give up — and save it for the NCAA Tournament, which is really what everyone truly cares about.

White, the graduate senior forward who’s been taking on the Quentin Grimes go-to scorer role for this Final Four followup team, and Shead, the 19-year-old point guard who’s become the ultimate connector for a team of veteran transfers, refuse to take the easy way out. There will be no quick bus ride back to Houston. These two will find a way — and then figure out how to bring the rest of their teammates along.

“We just came together and we were like ‘This is not us, ‘ ” Shead says when I ask about the moment when the game turns, when this UH team has to decide how much it wants to fight. “We’ve got to do better as a group. Somebody had to spark us up.”

Two important somebodies do and Houston responds to that 10-point deficit by going on a dominant 35-12 run. The now 27-5 Cougars end up winning 69-56 to advance to Saturday’s AAC Tournament semifinals against Tulane. Despite the doldrums and the drama, Sampson’s team still gets its 23rd double digit victory of the season, a remarkable feat for an injury-hit, depth-lite squad. One that should mean something on Selection Sunday if the committee does its job right and seeds Houston appropriately (nothing lower than a fifth seed).

Settling isn’t a University of Houston basketball thing. On a day when Auburn, Illinois and North Carolina all go down as high seeds in a conference tournament, the Cougars make sure they find a way to win.

Jamal Shead University of Houston Cougars defeated the East Carolina Pirates 79-36 Saturday, January 22, 2022 at the Fertitta Center. Kyler Edwards had 25 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.
Jamal Shead is becoming a point guard leader for this Houston team. (Photo by F. Carter Smith)

This win over Cincinnati is not going to determine UH’s March fate. This American Athletic Conference Tournament is much more important for a team like SMU, which finds itself at the make-it-or-not whims of the selection committee, than tournament lock Houston. The Mustangs’ 83-58 demolition of Tulsa and win No. 23 in the quarterfinals should be enough to get Kendric Davis, Marcus Weathers and Co. into the field of 68. But SMU may still need to beat Memphis a third time in Saturday’s marquee super stakes semifinal to be absolutely sure they’ll get their dancing shoes.

The Cougars have no such angst. But this is still a Kelvin Sampson team. The North Carolinas of the world may be able to shrug off losing in the conference tournament. But Sampson’s UH program isn’t built like that. Instead, it is a program of hard work, a program where no loss is acceptable.

The UH Way — and Conference Tournament Truths

You don’t win 138 games over the last five years — second in the entire country to only Gonzaga — by giving anything away.

“We just got to keep winning,” White says. “We don’t want to lose and have to go back home and be sad on Selection Sunday. Our mindset is to keep playing games as long as y’all let us.”

“They’ll be a tough out. That’s a team that can play in the Final Four.” — Cincinnati coach Wes Miller on Houston

The only game Houston coach Kelvin Sampson may be all right with losing is a game of Candyland against his granddaughter Maisy. There are few coaches who make better halftime adjustments than Kelvin Sampson and his assistants Kellen Sampson, Quannas White and KC Beard. In both strategy  — and attitude.

In this conference tournament opener, the the big adjustment is rather simple. Get Fabian White the ball.

“Once we got to halftime, we just came up with a new plan,” Kelvin Sampson says. “We said, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to play through Fabian.’ And on our pick and roll coverages, instead of pushing up we’re going to stay at the line of scrimmage.”

That tweak effectively shut off Cincinnati’s lifeline 3-point bombing. The Bearcats would launch 19 threes in the second half — and miss 16 of them. Meanwhile, White would score 11 of his 18 points in the last 20 minutes, the third time UH’s unconventional go-to scorer has terrorized Cincinnati coach Wes Miller’s team this season.

“You’ve got to tip your cap for Fabian White,” Miller says. “We had a ballot to vote for Player of the Year in the league and that’s who I would have voted for. He just wasn’t on the ballot.”

Only one player can be nominated per team and Houston’s coaches elected to put game changing big man Josh Carlton on when the nominations were due weeks before the end of the regular season. It’s a testament to how balanced this Houston team is that the Cougars legitimately could have had three or four legit different Conference Player of the Year nominees.

Including Jamal Shead. In his first tournament game as Houston’s starting point guard, Shead puts up a nifty 15 point, seven assist, five rebound, one turnover line. He delivers the flair — see the in-the-air, behind-the-back pass to J’Wan Roberts for an easy layup. He delivers the fire, telling his teammates that their early play is not worthy of Houston. And he delivers the promise of much more to come.

“Jamal is one of those kids that’s so talented,” Kelvin Sampson says. “He’s got a lot of talent. But sometimes he’s got to want to be great. Can’t settle for being good.”

Settling isn’t a University of Houston basketball thing. On a day when Auburn, Illinois and North Carolina all go down as high seeds in a conference tournament, the Cougars make sure they find a way to win. As Fabian White and Jamal Shead will tell you, it’s what they do. It’s why it’s never wise to prematurely count a Kelvin Sampson team out in March.

“They’re going to be really tough for anybody in the country to beat,” Cincinnati coach Wes Miller says when I ask about this Houston team’s potential NCAA Tournament ceiling. “. . . They can beat anybody in college basketball. I have the utmost respect for Kelvin Sampson, what he’s built there.

“They’ll be tough. They’ll be a tough out. That’s a team that can play in the Final Four.”

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