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Culture / Sporting Life

JoJo Tugler Blames Streetball For His Foul Trouble, But Houston’s Unique Force Is Already Adjusting and Gaining on Cooper Flagg In the Impact Metrics

Is Another Jump Coming For Tugler and No. 10 Houston?

BY // 01.15.25

JoJo Tugler played more streetball growing up than anyone else on Kelvin Sampson’s University of Houston roster. Those blacktop battles helped produce one of the most instinctive players in all of college basketball, a one of one game changer who blocks shots almost equally well with his right and left hands. But Tugler is finding that all that pickup basketball is forcing him to make one significant adjustment to the more rigid college game.

That’d be having referees.

“That’s why I get in foul trouble,” Tugler tells PaperCity. “I played outside so long, that’s what it was. I played outside too much. Especially in Louisiana. It got bad right there. There’s no refs. There’s no ref. You the ref. Whatever you say goes, you know?”

Especially when you’re JoJo Tugler, an imposing now 6-foot-8, 230-pound force with a 7-foot-6 and a 1/2 wingspan. Who do you think’s ever calling a foul on JoJo Tugler in a pickup game? “I never got fouls,” Tugler says, a wide smile spreading across his face.

Forty three games into his still young UH career, the 19-year-old Tugler is learning things don’t quite work like that in college basketball. In his first year as a starter, Tugler has fouled out of two games and been straddled with four fouls in four other games. Foul trouble’s prevented him for being even more dominant. Tugler is currently averaging 2.5 blocks and three offensive rebounds in only 21.3 minutes per game heading into Wednesday night’s Big 12 battle against West Virginia at Fertitta Center (7 pm on ESPN+).

But there are signs Tugler is getting more used to what college refs expect and how the games are called. He’s been whistled for five total fouls in the last two games, allowing him to play 24 and 26 minutes. Tugler put up 13 points, 10 rebounds, two blocks and two assists for his first double-double in the Cougars’ last game at Kansas State.

“He’ll have a lot more double-doubles if he stays out of foul trouble,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson says.

More JoJo Tugler is a frightening thought for UH’s future opponents. Tugler already ranks fourth in the country in the  Bayesian Performance Ratings, which measures a player’s defensive and offensive performance to measure his overall impact analytical. That places Tugler behind only college basketball superstars Johni Broome (Auburn), Cooper Flagg (Duke) and Kam Jones (Marquette) in the entire country. Flagg, the likely No. 1 pick in the upcoming 2025 NBA Draft, has a BPR of 9.72. Tugler comes in at 8.34, ahead of ever-lauded Kansas big man Hunter Dickinson, who ranks fifth.

If you are the company you keep, JoJo Tugler is in a very good place.

Teams are already starting to game plan around Tugler’s ability to completely wreak games on defense. TCU coach Jamie Dixon admitted that he specifically instructed his team not to challenge Tugler and give him a chance to block shots. And still watched UH’s unicorn shift that game with two out-of-nowhere second half swats that triggered the Cougars’ fast break.

“I’m going to find a way to get mine,” Tugler says. “I don’t be worried about no game plan.”

“It’s what I love. It’s just something that I grabbed at. It caught my eyes good. It caught me. So easy, I was just walking outside one day, see a basketball goal. Tried to play with it. They let you play with it, you know? I just loved it.” — JoJo Tugler on basketball

JoJo Tugler has worked on his offensive game for Houston. (Photo by F. Crter Smith)
JoJo Tugler has added a hook shot to his offensive game for Houston. (Photo by F. Carter Smith)

With Sampson’s No. 10 Houston team having two of the best shooters in college basketball in LJ Cryer and Emanuel Sharp, an ultra experienced play-making forward in J’Wan Roberts, a sixth man scorer in Terrance Arceneaux and rapidly adapting point guard Milos Uzan, Tugler isn’t required to do a lot of offensive heavy lifting. But he is a rigid as a Swiss watch maker on keeping his schedule of putting in extra shooting every day with UH assistant coach Kellen Sampson. Tugler’s only taken eight 3-pointers in Houston’s first 15 games, but he shoots hundreds of them every week, putting up shots after practices, before games, almost every chance he gets.

Tugler knows he is playing the long game, buying fully into Houston’s player development prowess to build for his future. At UH. And likely in the NBA.

“I know I can improve everything,” Tugler says. “I feel like I can improve on everything. That’s how I feel. I know I can improve my shot, my jump shot. I need it. I need everything. You need everything in basketball. Everything.

“Got to get better. Keep feeling like that.”

That places Tugler behind only college basketball superstars Johni Broome (Auburn), Cooper Flagg (Duke) and Kam Jones (Marquette) in the entire country. If you are the company you keep, JoJo Tugler is in a very good place.

JoJo Tugler Lives Hoops

This is what happens when you have one true love. For JoJo Tugler, that’s basketball. It’s the game that’s always spoken to him. Oh, he played some football. Outside of course. No league. No rules. No adults. Just skying over his more earth-bound friends to catch passes. “Wide receiver,” Tugler says when asked what position he played best. “I was good for real. I was a star.”

But football could never compete with the pull of basketball. Nothing could.

“It’s what I like,” Tugler tells PaperCity. “It’s what I love. It’s just something that I grabbed at. It caught my eyes good. It caught me. So easy, I was just walking outside one day, see a basketball goal. Tried to play with it. They let you play with it, you know?

“I just loved it.”

The University of Houston Cougars beat the Jackson State Tigers on opening night of the 2024-2025 season at the Fertitta Center,
JoJo Tugler gets an open shot from a sweet pass, courtesy of UH point guard Milos Uzan. (Photo by F. Carter Smith)

Talking to JoJo Tugler is unique too, He doesn’t give AAU circuit answers. He’s not thinking about how what he says will make him look or trying to be something he’s not. He’s just JoJo, a basketball-obsessed savant who sees things on the court almost naturally that many others miss.

“If you need to find Jo, he’s one of three places,” UH assistant coach Kellen Sampson tells PaperCity. “His mom’s house, his apartment or Guy V. Lewis (developmental facility). He is really kind of a simple guy.”

If you’re this good at what you love, why complicate things? Unless you need to in order to reach another level. Refs are a complication. But JoJo Tugler will figure out how to play within their boundaries. He must. It’s basketball. And Tugler loves staying on that court for as long as he possibly can.

 

No outlet covers University of Houston basketball throughout the entire calendar year with more consistency and focus than PaperCity Houston. Without any subscription fees or paywalls. Ever. For more of Chris Baldwin’s extensive, detailed and unique insider coverage of UH sports — stories you cannot read anywhere else — bookmark this page. Follow Baldwin on the platform formerly known as Twitter here.

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