How Kelvin Sampson Pushed Milos Uzan and Freed Up LJ Cryer To Bring Dominant Houston Basketball Back

As Kelvin Sampson turns the corner towards the locker room after one of those overpowering wins that have marked his remarkable run at the University of Houston, he notices point guard Milos Uzan on the side of the hallway, talking to a reporter. “Good job today, Milos,” Sampson says as he walks by.

Uzan nods. After a beyond intense week of getting relentlessly pushed by Sampson in practice (and then pushed some more), a Good Job is no small win. Few coaches in any sport on any level break their players down and build them back up quite like Kelvin Sampson. And nothing can quite prepare you as a player for what it’s really like. This is something you need to go through to really understand. A one of one experience. Like getting caught in a derecho.

“It’s definitely hard in the moment,” Uzan tells PaperCity. “But I think you’ve just got to go back to your Why. I came here to be the best version of myself. And to win. So I know what it is when I’m going through it.”

Many concentrate on the breaking down with Kelvin Sampson. J’Wan Roberts getting upset enough in a timeout huddle that UH director of men’s basketball sports performance Alan Bishop, a hulking man who would have been a great extra in one of those Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone 1980s action movies (perhaps playing one of Commando’s crew, Cobra’s cop buddy or a gunner in the platoon in Predator), feels compelled to put a hand on Roberts’ side to try and calm him is easy enough to see (that happens in Saturday’s 79-51 dismantling of a good Butler team that handed 8-1 Mississippi State its only loss).

What isn’t publicly noticeable is all the ways Kelvin Sampson builds his players back up, regularly boosting their confidence. The regular late night phone calls he’d have with Jarace Walker during the McDonald’s All-American’s one NBA prep season at UH, calls that Walker cites for making him understand the game much better. Watching extra film with Jamal Shead throughout last season, one-on-one sessions that helped complete Shead’s incredible transformation from a lightly regarded three star recruit to the best college point guard in America. The way he’d talk to Quentin Grimes about being a good teammate, things Grimes used to adapt to playing well with the ball dominant Luka Doncic in the NBA this season. The uncommon bond he has with J’Wan Roberts, with the player far from home in the Virgin Islands leaning on the man he calls Samps for life lessons that have nothing to do with basketball, to the point where Roberts often talks about considering his head coach to be practically another family member.

All the confidence infusing Kelvin Sampson does with his Houston players isn’t something the TV cameras are ever going to pick up on like a sideline rant. But it powers that smackdown of Butler too. It comes through in the way Uzan looks to score more, to get into the paint more and try to stress the defense. It’s clearly apparent in how LJ Cryer excels with the ball in his hands, how this senior shooting guard’s been empowered to create good shots for himself and others. Sampson didn’t just come up with the wrinkle of having Cryer become the primary ball handler (essentially the defacto point guard) when Uzan is out of the game. He made Cryer believe in it.

So yeah, there are going to hell weeks when every practice seems like an exam. Or an examination of your basketball soul. But it’s not for nothing. It’s leading somewhere better.

“I understand what it is,” Uzan says. “It’s a blessing for sure. He sees something in me. So I’m just taking on the challenge and trying to get better every day.”

Sampson pushes Uzan to be more aggressive in getting into lane and attacking early in the shot clock in the week between those two losses in three games in Las Vegas and the Butler beatdown in the Big 12-Big East Battle game. It is no coincidence that six of Uzan’s 11 shots come within the painted area against the Bulldogs, with several layups and floaters near the basket. This is a more efficient version of University of Houston’s new starting point guard.

“It’s not easy to come in here and be the point guard after what we’ve seen around here for the last 10 years,” Sampson says. “There’s a tendency to want to rent. He’s got to realize he owns this. That was a big part of my message all week. Some nights he’s going to have to get 20. And he can.

“He’s that good. What you saw (against Butler) is what we see a lot. We hadn’t seen it in a game yet, but that’s part of his growth.”

Another part of Uzan’s growth is how much video he’s watching in Sampson’s program. He spent extra time last week going over situations and plays with associate head coach Quannas White, who works with the guards, and reviewing things some more with first year graduate assistant and former player Ryan Elvin.

“I watch a lot of film with Q,” Uzan tells PaperCity. “I watch a lot of film with Ryo. Those two definitely help me. Being able to see what shots I missed, and where I could have improved at. See what we’re good reads — it definitely helps.”

It’s all part of the evolution of a point guard in Kelvin Sampson’s program.

LJ Cryer, Secondary Point Guard?

LJ Cryer is a 23-year-old graduate senior who played three years in Baylor’s national championship program and is now eight games into his second season at Houston. But he’s still learning plenty from Kelvin Sampson. You don’t age or experience out of Samps’ demands and relentless expectations. Sampson is still pushing Cryer, giving him more ball handling and decision making responsibilities. What started out as something of a necessity — with Uzan largely completely taken out of the Alabama game with foul trouble, Sampson made Cryer the primary ball handler to trigger a second half surge — is quickly growing into a staple of this very different Houston team’s offense.

Watching that play out more against Butler in the Fertitta Center stands, Cryer’s old high school coach at Morton Ranch in Katy (Khris Turner) and his dad (Lionel Cryer Sr.) are both taken back to younger LJ.

“What people don’t realize is that LJ really likes to pass the ball a lot,” Lionel Cryer Sr. tells PaperCity. “He’s not a kid who wants 100 shots. He really wants to be a point guard.”

“I understand what it is. It’s a blessing for sure. He sees something in me. So I’m just taking on the challenge and trying to get better every day.” — UH point guard Milos Uzan on Kelvin Sampson pushing him.

Having Cryer bring the ball up creates headaches for defenses that find it much harder to deny him shots. A big part of UH’s 51 point second half against Butler is Cryer getting free for 18 points, hitting seven of his 10 second half shots, while playing lead guard for large chunks of the stanza.

“It changes things up for me because when I’m taking the ball up, the ball’s in my hands, I kind of can control where I want people to go,” LJ Cryer says. “I can kind of control what I want to do with it. Where as off the ball, I’ve got to kind of wait, to be more patient when I’m off the ball.

“I feel like it’s harder for other teams to guard me whenever we’re mixing it in, because now I’m on the ball and they haven’t seen me on the ball much.”

Finding the best ways to use his players, getting the most out of their talents, is one of the things the ever tinkering Kelvin Sampson enjoys most about coaching. He still sees much more in Milos Uzan, the point guard who he picked in the transfer portal as much as Uzan picked Sampson and UH. Maybe things that Uzan doesn’t even see in himself yet.

“If you ask Milos, that’s probably one of the reasons he chose to come here,” Sampson says when I ask him about Uzan’s development. “He wanted to be challenged to the point where he could find out. He’s a much better player today than he was a month ago. And I think he’ll be a better player a month from now than he is today.

“Because I’m going to keep on him. It’s not easy being good now. It’s not easy.”

Milos Uzan admits as much in the hallway a few minutes later. When you’re caught up in The Weather, which is how UH assistant coach Kellen Sampson sometimes describes his father’s overwhelming role in the program, you’re going to feel some bumps in stormy times. This new UH point guard didn’t come to Houston for easy though.

“Coach emphasized this entire week, I’ve got to be more aggressive. Just play more free. It takes more pressure off L, E and T,” Uzan says of Cryer, Emanuel Sharp and the quickly growing Terrance Arceneaux. “. . . Just playing more aggressive helps out the offense.”

Kelvin Sampson is already down the hall, But his words, his lessons, still can be heard in his new point guard’s.

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