Lifting The Phog — Why This Kelvin Sampson Houston Team Is Ready For Prime-Time Moments Like At Kansas Now

LAWRENCE, Kansas — University of Kansas’ historic Allen Fieldhouse is one of sports’ true cathedrals, a place that belongs right up there with Fenway Park, the old Yankee Stadium and Madison Square Garden. It is also typically where Top 10 teams go to lose. Kelvin Sampson’s University of Houston program found that out last season when a third ranked UH team went down in The Phog 78-65 after getting absolutely blitzed in the first half. But this Saturday evening on ESPN at 5:30 pm, this Houston team is playing to show how far it’s come this season.

This is the most high-profile national radar game these seventh ranked Cougars have played since they lost two of three in the marquee Players Era Festival in Las Vegas Thanksgiving week. It’s another potential prove-it moment. But this Houston team is much different now than the team that couldn’t find a way to close out games against Auburn, Alabama and San Diego State in the season’s first month.

This team wants the big moment now. It’s no longer afraid of it. It’s ready to seek it out. To embrace a high-stakes close game.

“We were in that spot earlier in the year in our three losses and I don’t know if anybody really wanted it,” UH assistant coach Kellen Sampson tells PaperCity. “Somebody needs to want it. Jamal (Shead) always wanted it. Rob Gray wanted it. Corey Davis wanted it. (Marcus) Sasser wanted it. (Quentin) Grimes wanted it.

“Those guys wanted the moment and that’s why they had success.”

This game at the storied home of one of college basketball’s longtime blue bloods is certainly a MOMENT. It will not determine how far Kelvin Sampson’s team goes this season, or decide anything in the Big 12. But it’s a MOMENT. If this 15-3 (7-0 Big 12) Houston team loses, the tired (and false) narrative that these Cougars haven’t beaten any significant team will come rushing back to the forefront.

But it’s not about proving any of the national doubters wrong. For this team, it’s more about driving home what everyone inside the program is seeing. How different this team is. How prime time it’s become.

Kellen Sampson sees that 69-68 win at UCF last Saturday as a more significant step than many realize. Not because sixth-year power forward J’Wan Roberts hit the last shot to let Houston pull out a gut-check win. Because Roberts asked for the last shot. Loudly and emphatically. All but demanded it in a UH timeout huddle.

J’Wan Roberts wanted The Moment.

“What was cool is J’Wan wanted it before we got to the huddle,” Kellen Sampson says. “And kudos to Coach Sampson, we work our special teams stuff so much that everybody in our huddle knew exactly what we were going to run (to get Roberts the last shot). J’Wan was coming from the sideline to our huddle and was like, ‘Hey, run that specific action. I want it. I’m about to Game these guys. I’m about to send everybody home.

“And J’Wan’s evolution from being an insecure kind of player — he was certainly not comfortable being confident — to all of a sudden in a big, big moment, down one, he wants it.”

“We were in that spot earlier in the year in our three losses and I don’t know if anybody really wanted it. Somebody needs to want it.” — UH assistant coach Kellen Sampson

Embracing The Cauldron

Beating UCF at Addition Financial Arena is not the same as beating Kansas at The Phog, of course. Bill Self being 25-4 against Top 10 teams at Kansas’ home is not an accident. But players on this particular UH team wanting the moment now matters.

There is no doubt Roberts, LJ Cryer and Emanuel Sharp (who will play this game after sitting out the Utah game with that nagging right foot injury as PaperCity first reported) all want the big moment. With new starting point guard Milos Uzan and sixth man supreme Terrance Arceneaux becoming more and more comfortable, this is not a group that shies away from the moment anymore.

That were those November Coogs. A much less connected team.

“Their chemistry amongst each other is one of the areas where we’ve improved significantly,” Kellen Sampson says. “. . . Listening to Los (Uzan), Eman, LJ, Terrance, the guards. . . listening to them communicate adjustments in practice, they’re all speaking the same language now.

“Listening to how J’Wan and Jo(Jo Tugler) and Ja(‘vier Francis) communicate to the guards, everybody is speaking the same language.”

This is a different team now. One that is ready for big moments. That doesn’t guarantee anything. Especially at Kansas. But it is a significant transformation. This Kansas game, as much as anything, is a chance to show that to the college basketball world.

This is not a group that shies away from the moment anymore. That were those November Coogs. A much less connected team.

When I ask Kelvin Sampson about Terrance Arceneaux’s defensive impact against Utah (four blocks and three steals), his response is telling.

“We’ll see how he plays next game,” Sampson says, not ready to give Arceneaux credit yet.

At Kansas is that next game. A MOMENT. A chance to show the world what this University of Houston team has been building together.