J’Wan Roberts & Kelvin Sampson’s Remarkable Hug Gets Scott Van Pelt SportsCenter Love, But Ramon Walker Jr.’s Own Heartfelt Message Carries Future Meaning

J’Wan Roberts and Kelvin Sampson’s tearful Senior Night hug captured the sports world’s collective heart, showing how great the uncommon bond is between University of Houston’s sixth-year power forward and its 69-year-old basketball lifer of a coach. Scott Van Pelt couldn’t help but feature it on his SportsCenter (and any Scott Van Pelt SportsCenter is always the best SportsCenter), talking to Sampson live on air about the touching moment. But Ramon Walker Jr.’s own overlooked Senior Night moment could mean even more to next season’s UH team.

For when Walker took the microphone after Houston’s win over Kansas — Sampson’s third straight win over the Jayhawks in this new Big 12 rivalry — he delivered his own heartfelt message with meaning. “I wouldn’t want to play anywhere else,” Walker told the Fertitta Center crowd to cheers.

“Of course, of course,” Walker tells PaperCity several days later when asked if UH is really the only place he’d want to play if he were to get another season of college basketball eligibility. “This is a family here.”

This could be relevant because of the way Walker’s right hand injury is healing. Or more accurately how slow it appears to be healing. The valuable reserve and Sampson culture setter hasn’t been able to play in a game since December 10th. Walker hasn’t even been cleared for contact yet heading into the undisputed Big 12 champ’s regular season finale at Baylor Saturday night (9 pm ESPN), meaning he’ll miss his 22nd straight game as Houston attempts to go a perfect 10-0 in true road games. Walker’s only played in eight games all season and for only one minute in one of those.

Logically that raises the idea of a medical redshirt even though no one in UH’s program is officially going there yet. Kelvin Sampson did say in his small media availability before the Kansas game that Walker is the one senior who could possibly return next season. Which could be a boon for a Cougars team that is bringing in one of the nation’s top freshmen classes to join other talented expected returners. No one in Kelvin Sampson’s program is thinking about next season right now though. And Walker hasn’t yet been officially ruled out for Houston’s tournament games to come.

Walker did think about how J’Wan Roberts definitely played his last game at Fertitta as he watched the other night.

“You just think about what he did and how he did it,” Walker says. “I feel like that’s where your emotions come from. When I got here my freshman year, J’Wan was just like (getting) 10 minutes here, 11 minutes there. Now he’s turned into the heart stone piece of our team.

“We depend on him to win games. And he wills us to win games. He stayed down. He was patient. And I really applaud that. Anybody would have left if they were in the situation he was. But he didn’t. He just stayed down. Now he’s reaping the benefits.”

Those benefits should include a Big 12 First Team nod for Roberts when the conference awards are revealed on Monday — if there’s justice in college basketball awards. But that full tears hug from Sampson, with some of those closet to Houston’s coach saying that they’ve never seen him get quite that emotional before a game, is its own priceless award too. When Karen Sampson calls her son Kellen Sampson over to ask if he’s ever seen Kelvin that emotional before a game on Senior Night, he’s ready.

“He certainly wasn’t for me,” Kellen Sampson cracks of his own long ago Senior Night, drawing laughter. “. . . Not like that.”

Ramon Walker and The Dive

Ramon Walker Jr..has his own emotional moment with his family on his possible first Senior Night. “My grandmother’s down here,” he says. My sister, my brother. My mom, dad. That’s where the emotions come from. And they’re going to get to see me graduate.

“So just thinking about that stuff too.”

Walker is set to graduate and walk across the stage to get his diploma May 10.

“You just think about what he did and how he did it. I feel like that’s where your emotions come from. When I got here my freshman year, J’Wan was just like (getting) 10 minutes here, 11 minutes there. Now he’s turned into the heart stone piece of our team.” — Ramon Walker Jr. on teammate J’Wan Roberts

He already has something big hanging in UH’s basketball facility. That’d be the giant framed photo of Waker diving on the floor in the Wichita State game in that remarkable 2021-2022 Elite Eight season, the first game after both Marcus Sasser and Tramon Mark were lost to freakish season-ending injuries.

“We always talk about never losing our chip,” Kelvin Sampson says. “That’s a big deal internally here. But the picture that defines that is Ramon diving on that floor for that ball at Wichita State. Shovels it to Kyler (Edwards). Kyler dishes it off to Josh (Carlton). Kyler gets an assist. Josh gets a credit with a made basket.

“But Ramon got his picture on the wall.”

In Kelvin Sampson’s elite program, that may be the biggest award of all.

“It just shows me how much that play means to him and the program,” Walker tells PaperCity. “That was a crazy game to play and we had to find a way to win.” Ramon Walker’s grandmother Linda Stinson is happy that picture is on the wall too. Truth is you could put some of the plays Walker made late in that wild overtime NCAA Tournament win over Texas A&M last March in pictures on the wall too. They’re certainly framable.

Ramon Walker watches UH’s games in sweats on the bench these days, his surgically repaired hand still not ready to take any hits. He waits and tries to make the most of seeing the game from a different perspective. Kelvin Sampson doesn’t forget him though. You don’t forget about a culture setter like Ramon Walker.

You get the idea that Houston’s coach doesn’t want to ever see Walker play for any other college program either.