Inside Houston’s Emotional Championship Moment — A Beyond Proud Kelvin Sampson, J’Wan Roberts’ Ultimate Warrior Flex, a Sneak Attack & the Sweetest of Big 12 Titles

ORLANDO, Fla. — Emanuel Sharp uses J’Wan Roberts as a blocker, staying hidden behind the 6-foot-7 warrior who does so much heavy lifting for this No. 1 Houston team, giving Kelvin Sampson no chance to see what is coming. As the University of Houston’s 68-year-old basketball lifer of a coach continues to dance in a circle of his delighted players, Sharp bursts out from behind Roberts and dumps a single plastic water bottle over his coach’s head as everyone roars. Sampson tries to use point guard Jamal Shead as his own human shield, but Sharp is sprinting over to the little fridge, grabbing another water bottle and soon more guys are getting into the act, dousing Sampson again before he can get out the door.

“I got you! I got you!” Sharp screams as Sampson finally escapes to the hallway. Soaked. Happy. And so proud.

“We know how he tries to get out of it,” Shead says later of the championship soakings. “We’ve been through these before. So we had to surprise him a little this time.”

Mission accomplished. And then some. This special Houston team — maybe the toughest and most determined Houston team ever — does not just surprise their coach with a water attack that Christopher Nolan would have appreciated the plotting of on clinch night. They complete their stunning (and very surprising to all the doubters who still somehow don’t seem to realize what this Hall of Fame worthy unicorn of a coach and this UH basketball program are really all about) run to a Big 12 regular season championship. In their very first year in the unquestioned best basketball conference in all the land.

By taking over in the second half to beat UCF 67-59 on Wednesday night in the city that Mickey Mouse calls home, these Cougars reached their own Magic Kingdom. By winning their 14th game against only three losses in America’s toughest league, Shead, Roberts, LJ Cryer and Co. have guaranteed themselves at least a Big 12 co-championship.

And this now 27-3 Houston team can win the Big 12 outright by beating Kansas at home at 3 pm Saturday or by seeing Iowa State (13-4 in the Big 12, one game back, after a comeback win of their own) fall on the road at Kansas State in a game which tips off two hours earlier and should be all but over by the time UH’s game gets going.

But no matter what happens on Saturday, these Cougars are already Big 12 champions. In year one.

“I just want to say I’m proud of my teammates,” Shead says. “Everything we’ve overcome with injuries. . . Coach isn’t the easiest person to play for. But he pushes you to the best of your limits. . . Everything we’ve been through since June.”

These Cougars have been breaking out of huddles by shouting “Big 12 Champs!” together for months now. And Jamal Shead, the best point guard leader in America, a man who figures to win Big 12 Player of the Year honors on Sunday night, cannot help but think about those chants with the sweet reality of it here.

“We speaked it into existence,” Shead says. “Just proud of my teammates. Our journey here is a testament to what we’re doing now.”

Big 12 Champs! Everyone can shout it now.

Kelvin Sampson leaves this game, Houston’s eighth straight win in a league where streaks like that are not supposed to be possible, marveling over the incredible fight of J’Wan Roberts, a man who grew up on the Virgin Islands who’s turned himself into one of the all-time great Houston Cougars. Over all sports.

“Don’t forget J’Wan’s toughness,” Sampson tells PaperCity. “He can’t squeeze his hand. He can’t shake your hand.”

Sampson shakes his head, the coach who’s built a unique legacy on toughness marveling over just how damn tough one of his guys is.

“He played this whole game,” Sampson continues of Roberts, who received seven stitches in the webbing of his right hand just four days ago. “That’s why we had to go away from him in the second half because he got (the ball) stripped and the guy came down and popped his stitches.

“And we were afraid they’d opened up again.”

These Cougars have been breaking out of huddles by shouting “Big 12 Champs!” together for months now. And Jamal Shead, the best point guard leader in America, a man who figures to win Big 12 Player of the Year honors on Sunday night, cannot help but think about those chants with the sweet reality of it here.

J’Wan Roberts, Bloodied Big 12 Champ

Yes. J’Wan Roberts played down the stretch with his largely unusable right hand bleeding again under the black wrap covering it. And he still played every single minute of that second half and 38 of the 40 minutes overall.

Big 12 Champs! And literally bleeding to do it.

Then there is center Ja’Vier Francis coming back from a left ankle injury that had UH associate AD for sports medicine John Houston frantically working on it on a table in a back hallway of UCF’s on-campus arena. And not just coming back. Coming back to help completely shift the game Houston’s way.

“Ja’Vier stepped up,” Kelvin Sampson tells PaperCity. “I was really proud of Ja’Vier in that second half. I’m always proud of J’Wan. I’m always proud of Mal. LJ (Cryer) has earned my respect.”

Sampson is talking in the hallway outside the visitors locker room at Addition Financial Center now. It’s long after the sneak attack water dousing and Houston’s coach has changed into a simple gray hoodie sweatshirt for the trip back to the Bayou City. He’s not the Screaming Coach so many see on TV in this moment. He’s the Proud Coach thankful to have this team, and these guys, for what will be one of his last seasons in coaching.

Back out on the arena floor, UH assistant coach Kellen Sampson — the proud son who will take over as head coach when Kelvin Sampson does retire at some point in the next few years — is hugging Lysa Shead, Tamica Cryer and every other UH player mom, grandma, brother or sister in sight. Kellen Sampson still marvels at the relationships his dad builds with his players.

“We don’t celebrate until there’s something to celebrate at Houston,” Kellen Sampson tells PaperCity of the scene. “But these guys would run through a wall for (Kelvin Sampson). He knows they love him. And they know why he pushes them so hard and takes them to a place of discomfort. When you reach a checkpoint — and that’s what this is — when you reach a checkpoint, you’ve got to live in the moment.

“I think that’s why these guys continue to run through a wall. We’re always where our feet are. We won a Big 12 championship tonight. That’s something to celebrate.”

Big 12 Champs! Built on an unbreakable bond.

https://twitter.com/UHCougarMBK/status/1765574213883097108

LJ Cryer, the Baylor Transfer, Turned UH Energizer Bunny

On this night, the Cougars clinch on the endurance of LJ Cryer, who arrived at Houston from national championship proven Baylor and immediately started to marvel at just how intense and running relentless UH’s preseason conditioning program is. Cryer had never seen anything like what Kelvin Sampson and every-day orchestrating director of sports science Alan Bishop demand in the summer.

And there Cryer is against UCF, pouring in 19 of his game-high 25 points in the second half, rising to the moment when so many others feel like their legs are deader than most of the relationships on Love Is Blind.

“I feel like I can go forever now,” Cryer, who hits more threes himself (five) than the entire UCF team makes (three), says.

Kelvin Sampson, who plays offensive coordinator for most of this second half, calling for plays from the sideline, keeps dialing up sets to get the ball in LJ Cryer’s hands. That is how much trust he has in this transfer who’s played for him just this one season.

“What he’s done is become more than just a shooter,” Kelvin Sampson tells PaperCity of Cryer. “When he got here, I thought he was just a shooter. Now he’s a player. He’s a playmaker. He’s a scorer. He’s tough. That’s a tough little dude.

“I’m so proud of him and how far he’s come. From June to March. You know, Ja’Vier’s really improved. Emanuel’s really improved. But I’m not sure the most improved player on our team is not LJ.”

Big 12 Champs! From June to March. And still pushing for more.

“Don’t forget J’Wan’s toughness. He can’t squeeze his hand. He can’t shake your hand.” — Houston coach Kelvin Sampson on J’Wan Roberts

Shead, who is fighting through knee tendinitis, plays 39 minutes and 10 seconds against UCF, resting for exactly 50 seconds of game time. But UH’s own Point God still wants to win the Big 12 outright, with no sharing. He still wants to beat a Kansas team that is the only squad to run away from the Cougars a little bit (for one game) in the entire league.

That is a drive — and a rest debate — for another day though.

This night is about a team that just won’t stop fighting. Just won’t give an inch. No matter how many important players it loses to injury along the way. This Big 12 championship is about a truly nationally elite Houston basketball program showing all the haughty blue blood programs (and blue blood media devotees) that this championship culture can more than jump to the top rated conference in America.

“I think it’s just validation,” Kellen Sampson tells PaperCity in a clearing out arena, another once hyped arena where Shead, Roberts, Cryer and Co. crushed another entire student body’s court storming dreams. “Not that we hadn’t proven ourselves on the big stage. But this was proving ourselves night in, night out. It’s awesome proof of concept of what we do and how we bend and mold these guys from the first Monday in June all the way to the end.

“It works.”

Houston basketball and Kelvin Sampson work in any conference, against any elite team — against a supposed army of elite teams — at any time.

“That was beautiful,” Lysa Shead tells her son. Jamal Shead is grinning wider than ever now, enjoying time with his family who’ve made it to every single one of his games this season (at mom’s insistence and early-on directive). J’Wan Roberts is squishing some of his loved ones in the closer-than-close hugs the big man heart of this team specializes in. You can bet he doesn’t even feel that throbbing hand (or his hurting knee, that hasn’t gone away either) during these few moments.

Meanwhile, Kelvin Sampson is back in that hallway, so damn proud of them all.

Big 12 Champs! Everyone can shout it now. Go ahead and do it. Seasons like this, teams like this, deserve to be treasured. In the moment. Even as they’re still making more history.