Kingston Flemings Shows His Maturity By Choosing Winning Over Dueling Darius Acuff and Milos Uzan Rediscovers His Swagger — Inside a Kelvin Dance Worthy Houston Win

NEWARK, New Jersey — University of Houston wonder freshman Kingston Flemings could have made it about him. Instead, he made it about Houston and soon Kelvin Sampson, Flemings’ 70-year-old Hall of Fame level coach, is bursting into the locker room, shouting “Who do y’all got?” and starting an impromptu dance party that spreads to everyone on the team.

So much for the duel. Giant Ws mean so much more.

Flemings and Arkansas freshman Darius Acuff Jr. have something of a natural point guard rivalry, which dates back to AAU and summer basketball. Flemings and Acuff even memorably played one-on-one in the Allen Iverson Classic Top Elite 1v1’s competition last May. That history added to the drama of No. 8 Houston vs. No. 14 Arkansas with arguably the two best freshmen point guards in America (with Louisville’s Mikel Brown Jr. also deserving a spot in that discussion) facing off in the most significant game of a power-packed nonconference weekend.

“I don’t know the full history,” UH assistant coach Anthony Goldwire tells PaperCity. “But I know they’re both playing great as freshmen. There was something this summer or something. . . But these nights are going to be like that because he plays for Houston.

“We challenged Kingston not to have a personal battle, but to make sure we win the game. We need you to play within our culture to win the game.”

Maybe another star teenage point guard would have made it about the duel, about his own hype reel. But not Kingston Flemings. UH’s poised, smooth, paint terror of an 18-year-old point guard did everything he could to make sure his team won the game, putting up 21 points, five assists, six rebounds and three steals while only committing one turnover in 36 minutes with the best-plus minus rating in this high-octane game. But Flemings never made it about himself. Instead, Houston’s 94-85 win centered around the most complete team effort of the now 11-1 Cougars’ season.

So much for the duel. Giants Ws mean so much more.

Kelvin Sampson’s team won because this Houston team has so many good guards. Too many for Arkansas to have any hope of containing once UH started spacing the floor and running what the coaching staff calls its Ghost actions. “We Ghosted and we got some baskets,” Sampson says. “Then we Ghosted and got to some middle ball screens. Our spacing was excellent.”

Acuff did what he could ( a game-high 27 points, seven assists, five rebounds and a game-high four turnovers), but this Houston team simply had too many pieces with its newly Hall of Fame nominated coach pulling the strings.

University of Houston coach Kelvin Sampson tells @PaperCityMag that he’s never as annoyed with Emanuel Sharp’s crazy difficult shots as it looks on the sideline. “Any time we got in the paint, we dropped Emanuel behind for the kick out and kept him back because of his range,”… pic.twitter.com/2KdTh7NRd4

— Chris Baldwin (@ChrisYBaldwin) December 21, 2025

Emanuel Sharp (22 points, 16 in the second half), Milos Uzan (13 points) and Ramon Walker Jr. (12 critical points off the bench), who’s turned himself from a good story to an important player on one of the best teams in America, particularly excelled with all the space having so many elite guards on the floor at the same time creates.

But true freshman guard Isiah Harwell (two run-triggering first half threes) and Chase McCarty (an important second half three) also benefitted. It seemed like Kelvin Sampson’s team could get any shot it wanted. The Razorbacks couldn’t keep Flemings out of the paint no matter how many defenders John Calipari sent at him. Flemings darted in and found open shooters. He drove right for the cup, hitting twisting layups around two Hogs. And even when he got in and missed at the rim, there was true freshman big man Chris Cenac Jr. (nine points, seven rebounds) tipping it back in.

“We challenged Kingston not to have a personal battle, but to make sure we win the game. We need you to play within our culture to win the game.” — UH assistant coach Anthony Goldwire

Attempting to guard Flemings and this Houston team is like a 60-year-old trying to excel at TikTok. Someone is going to leave frustrated. And more than a little baffled.

“It can be for sure,” UH assistant coach Kellen Sampson tells PaperCity when I ask if this could be the best offensive team in the entire Sampson Houston era. “We’ve got a lot of guys that love putting in the work. And I think it starts there. And we’ve got a lot of good pieces that complement one another to do so.

“And the biggest thing is this group can play faster than maybe some other teams. But last year’s team was Top 10 in the country in offense.”

The standards at Kelvin Sampson’s University of Houston program are so high that reaching to be the best of the era requires doing something historic. Flemings, Sharp, Uzan and Cenac are already making this arguably the most entertaining UH offense, playing fast while knowing there is still so much left untapped with this particular group.

Milos Uzan Mans Up

Having Uzan and Flemings playing together in this Double Point Guard lineup is a big part of that. Sampson leaves New Jersey excited about the force Uzan played with, how he pulled up for that cold-blooded three from the top of the key.

“Big,” Kelvin Sampson tells PaperCity of Uzan’s performance. “He had a swagger today I hadn’t seen. He needs to play with a swagger. I get on Milos. Sometimes you can walk around thinking, ‘Oh, woe is me.’ Well, that’s your fault. Sometimes you’ve got to nut up and be a man.

“I thought he was a man today.”

“He had a swagger today I hadn’t seen. He needs to play with a swagger.” — UH coach Kelvin Sampson on point guard Milos Uzan

This the kind of game that required a man, an Elite Eight worthy matchup in the Never Forget Tribute Classic. Calipari vs. Sampson. Flemings vs. Acuff. SEC vs. Big 12. But it’s not about duels. Not about the hype. It’s about getting what both Kelvin and Kellen Sampson essentially called the biggest win of the season for this still growing team.

“We’ve been on these guys a little bit about they got to prove,” Kellen Sampson tells PaperCity in a locker room that’s empty of everyone but Kellen and his ever-enthusiastic 5-year-old son Kylen, two Sampsons getting ready for another post W happy road trip home. “You wear the jersey. But you’ve got to prove you belong in the jersey.

“They’ve got to prove they’re ready to bear the cross that comes with wearing the jersey. You know, wearing that Houston jersey comes heavy sometimes. There’s a lot that comes with it. There’s a lot of responsibility.”

In this prize fight of a late December basketball game, Flemings and Cenac prove to be plenty worthy.

The long, wide, windy back corridors of the Prudential Center might present the longest path from the locker room to the interview room you will ever get. That walk gave Sampson plenty of time to think about his team, about how it’s not close to how good it can be. 11-1 and still room for so much more. Controlling everything against Arkansas despite only getting two minutes of JoJo Tugler, UH’s unicorn of a defensive force and naturally instinctive passer, in the entire second half.

The celebration is sweet. Dancing Kelvin never fails to deliver. More importantly, it’s earned. You do not get many chances during a season — even as much as this Houston team wins, which is more Ws than anyone else in the college game since 2017 — to have a locker room party like this. You have to do something of significance. This one qualifies. Even by the Houston Sampson standards.

Earned by maybe the best trio of guards in college basketball today — Sharp, Uzan and Flemings. Not by some one-on-one battle.

So much for the duel. Giant Ws mean so much more.