LUBBOCK — As Kingston Flemings’ point total kept going up and up like a runaway stock, Lanny Smith found himself thinking of the time he scored 31 points as a freshman point guard at the University of Houston. Specifically how everyone told him that only Rob Williams, the point guard who triggered Phi Slama Jama, had ever scored more for Houston as a freshman. Until a snowy afternoon in Lubbock. Until Kingston Flemings. Until a teenage wonder point guard went off for 42.

“It definitely was something that brought back some memories,” Smith tells PaperCity. ” I remember after my game somebody came and told me I was the highest scoring freshman since Rob Williams as far as an individual game. Rob Williams, I grew up hearing his name. Him being a legend of the Phi Slama Jama team.”

It meant something to Lanny Smith to flirt with Rob Williams’ UH freshman single game scoring record. And he hopes it means something to Flemings to shatter Williams’ record (34 points) and set a new bar at 42 points.

“Rob’s name was legendary in the city of Houston,” Smith says. “There’s a history of great point guards in the city of Houston. Like T.J. Ford. T.J. was two years older than me and he was somebody that I competed against. But Rob’s name was often brought up. My high school coach Greg Wise, who is now the head coach at Yates, he played against Rob Williams. And he would tell me in practice sometimes ‘You remind me of Rob Williams.’

“Some people call me flashy. The way that I saw the floor, all the passes, the crossovers and all that kind of stuff — that was part of my game. And I had coaches who saw Rob play and would say that. Coach Michael Young played with Rob, played with Phi Slama Jama. And he was on the coaching staff when I was at the University of Houston. So I had multiple people who’d seen him play personally who would talk about him. . .

“Rob’s name always came up. So I was always conscious of the fact that he was considered one of the best guards to ever come out of Houston.”

Kingston Flemings is already entering that territory. Even though he’ll likely only be a Cougar for this one season and then enter the NBA Draft. If you don’t think Flemings’ 42 points against Texas Tech means much because Kelvin Sampson’s team lost 90-86, only their second loss in 19 games, you’re missing some of the fun of sports. The thing that ties UH players through generations and different coaching eras.

A Loss Lesson

Sure, you could worry that this loss might prevent Houston from earning a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament with so many other of the super elite teams having only one or zero losses. (It is a long season though with plenty of big swing games coming up.) Certainly, there are rare rebounding concerns with this particular UH team after Texas Tech pounded the Cougars on the glass 44-28. With Tech star JT Toppin (31 points) getting six offensive rebounds himself. Two freshman — Flemings and redshirt power forward Chase McCarty — also both lose Donovan Atwell in crucial situations, allowing the Texas Tech guard to hit two open threes that shift the game. Expecting this younger UH team to close as well as last year’s team filled with veterans J’Wan Roberts, LJ Cryer, Mylik Wilson, Emanuel Sharp (20 points, including a deep three late that gave UH a chance in the final two minutes) and Milos Uzan is unrealistic. Especially in January. Certainly not when Sharp and Uzan, the veteran returners, combine for one rebound while playing 35 and 38 minutes respectively

“Not just the bigs,” UH assistant coach Kellen Sampson tells PaperCity. “It’s everybody involved. An individual can bail you out in rebounding, but the best rebounding teams are a collective effort. Take tonight. Obviously they had a terrific rebounder (in Toppin). But they had a lot of guys contribute to the fight. . .

“We just didn’t have enough guys putting two hands on it.”

Still, UH is right there with a great chance to win in one of the Big 12’s most hostile environments.

“We just didn’t do a very good job on the boards,” UH coach Kelvin Sampson says. “If you score 86 points, you should win.”

If this Kelvin Sampson’s team continues to improve, like most Kelvin Sampson’s teams continue to get better, this loss at Texas Tech will largely become a forgotten footnote to the season. What won’t be forgotten for a long time is the show Kingston Flemings put on, the way this teenager tried to will his team to victory, made a packed arena groan and thrilled proud Cougars of old across the country.

Lanny Smith wishes Rob Williams could have seen it. Of course, Williams tragically died of congestive heart failure at age 52 in 2014 after battling drug addiction, suffering a stroke and working to help others. Smith, who scored his 31 points as a freshman against Southern Mississippi in 2004, isn’t old enough to have seen Williams play for UH himself. But he heard the stories and hope those live on.

“Rob’s name always came up. So I was always conscious of the fact that he was considered one of the best guards to ever come out of Houston.” — former UH star Lanny Smith on Rob Williams

Smith is proud to be part of a fraternity that includes Kingston Flemings and this Kelvin Sampson era of Cougars.

“I remember even this last year at the Final Four there were people who came up to me and told me how much they loved watching me play,” Smith tells PaperCity. “You can kind of leave an impact on people’s minds and their memories. Being a hometown kid, being from Houston, to do what I did at the University of Houston, is something I take a lot of pride in. .

“It’s a strong tradition. The guards across the different eras and for Kingston to come in and do this, it means a lot.”

Kingston Flemings has the type of flair to his game that a young Lanny Smith would appreciate. Rob Williams too. The crowd at Texas Tech’s United Supermarkets Arena seems to hold its collective breath every time he darts into the lane during the second half. He scores 10 points in the first six minutes of the game, 11 more in the first eight minutes of the second half. No Texas Tech player can stay in front of him. There are matadors who lose their red cape who have more of a chance.

“Sometimes on the road when you find a hot hand, you want to keep riding it,” Kellen Sampson tells PaperCity. “Force them to make an adjustment. And then everything else can kind of flow from that. They were content to let him try to do what he did. I thought some other guys had some good looks that didn’t necessarily go down.

“But that’s The King. He maxed out. He backs down from nobody. He never backs down from a fight.”

A Wowed Waiter, The Waiter and Games That Live On

A waiter at the Pecan Grill, the restaurant in the Lubbock hotel where the UH team ends up spending a lot of extra time due to the snow storm in West Texas, stops Flemings to marvel over his game. This waiter goes to Texas Tech and he can’t help but gush over Flemings’ 42-point game, as the UH star politely listens. A story the waiter proudly retells.

These are the kind of games that hoops fans cannot help but get caught up in, one that reaches across school lines and back in time.

“That’s The King. He maxed out. He backs down from nobody. He never backs down from a fight.” — UH assistant coach Kellen Sampson on Kingston Flemings’ 42-point game.

Lanny Smith knows Kingston Flemings’ dad Dee, who is a fan of Smith’s clothing line Actively Black. (Smith also founded and is the CEO of another clothing line called Active Faith that NBA superstar Steph Curry is involved with.) Smith’s been tracking this young point guard from San Antonio for a long time.

He knows the ultra competitive Flemings will be more annoyed about the loss than impressed with his own 42 point game. Smith was the same way when he played.

“I don’t really look back at games where I scored a bunch of points,” Smith says. “. . . That’s not really on top of my mind. The success we had as a team. I remember we beat Arizona, I think they were ranked in the Top 5 at the time, and we got into the Top 25 for the first time in like 20 years. I remember those moments more so than individual stats.

“In fact, me and some of my former teammates were just talking about making sure we all go to the Arizona game together (at Fertitta Center February 21). We share that moment together of upsetting that team when nobody thought we could beat them.”

Lanny Smith says he feels connected to the current Cougars because Kelvin Sampson, Kellen Sampson and Lauren Sampson have always been so welcoming. He knows Kingston Flemings will likely remember other wins more than that 42 point game in a close game. But some games live on forever. In people’s memories. In lore. In the record book. You can’t pick what people remember.

Some performances become a story of their own, linking generations.

No outlet covers UH basketball throughout the entire calendar year with more consistency and focus than PaperCity Houston. For more of Chris Baldwin’s extensive, detailed and unique insider coverage of UH sports — stories you cannot read anywhere else, stay tuned. Follow Baldwin on the platform formerly known as Twitter here.