With Teams Hunting Kingston Flemings, Big 12 Guru Fran Fraschilla Imagines How Good the Star Freshman Could Get With a 2nd Season Under Sampson

Trying to keep University of Houston wonder freshman point guard Kingston Flemings out of the lane is like thinking you’re going to catch an eel with your bare hands. It’s not happening. So teams are hunting Flemings on defense, attacking the 19-year-old where they think he’s most vulnerable, trying to make Kelvin Sampson’s team pay on the other end of the court and wear UH’s offensive engine out.

“They’re not playing Kingston differently offensively,” ESPN’s Big 12 guru Fran Fraschilla tells PaperCity. “They’re playing him differently defensively. They’re attacking him. Arizona made him guard some switches where that put him on (Ivan) Kharchenkov, 6-7, 230 (pounds). I think it’s more defensively. That’s where they’re trying to go at him.”

Hunting matchups is a common tactic in basketball. With Flemings sharing a backcourt with Emanuel Sharp, one of the best one-on-one defenders in college basketball, a force Sampson likens to a Deion Sanders-like shutdown corner, and Milos Uzan, who hounded BYU star Richie Saunders into 1-for-8 shooting in a memorable UH road win, teams targeting Flemings instead is not surprising. Still, it makes Fraschilla imagine how good Flemings could become on defense with another year of seasoning in Kelvin Sampson’s program.

“Even a (LJ) Cryer became a good defender (under Sampson),” Fraschilla says. “And certainly Jamal Shead did. And unfortunately for Coach Sampson, we’re only going to see Kingston this year at Houston. We won’t see the continuous improvement that you see with a three star.

“Like a Jamal Shead who turned out to be an NBA player. That’s the difficulty of having a young man this talented. That you can recruit for your program because he wants to play for a great program.”

“They’re not playing Kingston differently offensively. They’re playing him differently defensively. They’re attacking him.” — ESPN Big 12 expert Fran Fraschilla

You get one run, one season, one shot with a Kingston Flemings, who is projected to be a Top 6 pick in the June 25 NBA Draft, in college basketball. While Fraschilla may want to imagine what a defensive terror Flemings could turn into with more seasons of Kelvin Sampson coaching, the UH coaching staff is embracing the time they still have to coach him.

The improvement that still can be made as this 23-5 Houston team pushes for a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament and fights to get back to another Monday night in April. The next step is Saturday morning’s 11 am home game vs. an improved Colorado team.

“All of these young guys across the landscape, every college basketball fan dreams about what these guys could be in their later years,” UH assistant Kellen Sampson tells PaperCity. “And that’s fun. And that’s certainly wishful. But we don’t have that luxury. We’re in the here. We’re in the now. And we’ve got to collectively get to the solution phase as fast as possible.

“It’s not well when Kingston. . . No, no. Everything we do is present tense. And try not to focus as much on the past. And nobody has the luxury of talking in the future. We’re in the midst of it right now. We’re in the middle of the crockpot right now. We’re still cooking our way towards becoming the best we can become.”

One of the ways this Houston team can become better at not allowing teams to hunt Kingston Flemings on defense at will. During Houston’s first three-game losing streak in nine years — one built on the gauntlet of playing No. 4 Iowa State, No. 2 Arizona and No. 14 Kansas back-to-back-to-back — the other team has dictated the action far too often. Forced the matchups it wanted.

“That’s what teams are going to try and do — they’re going to try and find the mismatch just like us,” Uzan says. “I think it’s important that we’re in gaps and helping so it’s not an island out there. I think that’s something we’ve got to continue to work on. Knowing that it’s just not one-on-one.

“We’ve got to be all help loaded. Five on five.”

This is how Houston’s best defenses always have been under Kelvin Sampson — a group, a fist rather than five separate fingers. That is what Kellen Sampson wants to see come back, the sense that any defensive issue is everyone’s issue.

“If teams are choosing to take an individual approach to how they’re playing us, collectively it’s on us to get it back to five on five,” Kellen Sampson says. “If teams are making decisions to try and make it a one-on-one scenario, we don’t point a finger or isolate that person. It’s a collective approach. How are we all going about solving the issue.

“As a group we’ve got a lot of pride, as a group there’s a lot of collective swagger, and the answer is never simply one guy.”

ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla to @PaperCityMag on Houston’s three game, elite team losing streak: “Well listen, this is uncharted waters. This hasn’t happened in nine years, three in a row. . . They’ve got to put things in perspective. . . They will go into the Big 12 Tournament… pic.twitter.com/cZj1TBFMnO

— Chris Baldwin (@ChrisYBaldwin) February 25, 2026

Kingston Flemings, Record Breaker

One of the things that makes Kingston Flemings a defensive target is how much he’s doing offensively. The teenage phenom already has broken Rob Williams’ all-time University of Houston freshman scoring record for a season with a number of games still to play. It makes sense to try and wear him out on his weaker end of the court.

Some of the best players in the NBA are routinely hunted on defense. Steph Curry’s faced it throughout his career. James Harden’s been a favorite target of opposing offenses from back to his Rockets days. Trae Young is doomed to be forever hunted, with his size contributing to his well-documented defensive challenges. Almost no one thinks that will be the 6-foot-4, near 200-pound Flemings’ eventual NBA fate.

Which is why Fran Fraschilla imagines a further Kelvin Sampson-schooled Flemings. That will not — and  essentially cannot happen — in the financial reality of the NBA today. As Fraschilla well knows. But Kellen Sampson will tell you the defensive transformation is coming anyway.

You’d better try to get Kingston Flemings on defense now. Because before long, you will not be able to do it.

“There’s nothing within the game of basketball he’s not going to be good at,” Kellen Sampson tells PaperCity of Flemings. “There’s nothing from an ability standpoint he can’t do. And moments like we had — those eights days (of the Top 10 losing streak) — are going to accelerate quickly everybody’s capabilities.

“When you’re constantly eyeball to eyeball with another heavyweight, regardless of the outcome, you’re going to improve.”

Kingston Flemings still can make another leap. At Houston. In the matter of weeks he has left in college basketball. Go ahead and hunt him. While you still can.