Kingston Flemings’ Fearless Wisdom and Kalifa Sakho’s Growing Reach Show How Much Better Kelvin Sampson’s Now No. 2 Ranked Houston Team Can Get

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Auburn’s last real chance at beating Houston, at toppling a top ranked team in the land that seems to be barely getting started, sees Tigers guard Tahaad Pettiford finally slip past Kingston Flemings only to be met by the 6-foot-6 Isiah Harwell and the 6-foot-11 Kalifa Sakho. Which is a lot like losing a bounty hunter by stepping into a SWAT van.

Harwell extends his arms straight up, not giving Pettiford a chance to draw a cheap foul, and the man from France uses his reach, which is plentiful (Sakho’s wingspan measures in at 7-foot-4), to block Pettiford’s pump fake setup shot from behind with one second left. Pettiford, a former five star recruit himself, will throw his arms up in disbelief. But Kelvin Sampson’s monster of a team is real. Even if it’s still in its infant stages in many, many ways.

It ends with Houston jetting out of Alabama with a 73-72 win, with Sampson’s team having controlled most of the second half to take a 73-66 lead with less than three minutes remaining and then overcoming its own  crunch time learning lesson foibles to turn back the Tigers four times on that endless final possession. University of Houston still nonsensically drops to No. 2 in the rankings after beating a Top 25 team — really Auburn is probably a Top 15 team in talent — in a beyond tough road environment while showing how much better it can get.

Yeah, it’s not bad being Kelvin Sampson right now.

“As good as the Houston Final Four team was last year with guys like LJ (Cryer) and J’Wan (Roberts) carrying the load,” ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla tells PaperCity after calling this game. “This team could be every bit as talented in February and March because of freshmen.”

Oh, those freshmen. True freshman point guard Kingston Flemings puts up 22 points, seven assists, five rebounds and a block of Pettiford on that final Auburn possession, somehow outdoing himself yet again. True freshman power forward Chris Cenac Jr. gets 18 points (missing only three shots all game, including one free throw) and nine rebounds as Sampson makes the versatile 6-foot-11 game changer the hub of Houston’s offense early, taking advantage of a matchup UH’s coaching lifer sees from an Auburn starting lineup change. Then there’s Isiah Harwell, logging a season-high 21 minutes in UH’s most important game to date, playing with force.

This Houston team is already winning with freshmen.

“That’s huge,” UH senior point guard Milos Uzan says. “For them to come out early in the season and be able to play in this type of stage and perform like they did? That’s huge. They’re only going to get better too. That’s big time.”

Sampson is not babying anyone (you don’t come to Houston if y0u want to be babied) and his team is 4-0, with the most talented players thrown right into the fiercest of competitive fires. “We are a work in progress,” Sampson says. “But it will do a lot for their confidence. Coming on the road front of 17,000 going crazy and putting a team on the free throw line 33 times and still winning. . .

“That’s not easy.”

Just how much better can this already top two ranked Houston team get? Consider that reserve forward Chase McCarty, one of the purest shooters on the roster, is 1 for 12 from three.

“You know Chase is really a good shooter,” Sampson says. “I don’t think he’s made a shot all year. Maybe one. But he continues to get good looks. Eventually those will go in.”

Just how much better can this already top two ranked Houston team get? Consider the two key guys on that last defensive stand. Sakho underwent back surgery this summer to deal with a bulging disk (as first reported by PaperCity) and didn’t do anything for eight straight weeks. Harwell missed essentially the entire summer to give his hurting knee time to get better.

But there they are in the din of Legacy Arena, with Auburn coach Steve Pearl smelling blood, coming through when Sampson’s Cougars need them most. “When we evaluated him on film that was one of the things we thought he could do,” Sampson says of Sakho sliding over and staying with Pettiford, long arms at the ready, as the speedy guard made his move towards the basket. “But he’s just had bad luck with injuries.”

How much better can last season’s national championship runner-up become in its get back followup season?

Consider that Emanuel Sharp and Milos Uzan, two returning standouts from that team, shoot a combined 9-for-26 from the field against Auburn.

“The good thing about Milos and Emanuel is their best days are ahead of them,” Sampson says.

Money Milos and The No Fear Freshmen

Uzan still hits the biggest single shot of this game, rising to bury a wing three off a Flemings pass with the remorseless, no-hesitation approach of a professional hitman. This is what Milos Uzan does for Houston. Still.

“He’s got a reputation for doing that,” Sampson says. “We’re playing in Tucson against Arizona last year and he hit one in a similar situation. In Lubbock against Texas Tech, similar situation. The fact that he has his confidence to do that.”

Money Mills may be all the rage in Houston sports at the moment, but Money Milos is a more proven, longer running show.

“I think Kingston Flemings is wise beyond his years. He was sensational.” — ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla

Some guys just want big shots. This particular Kelvin Sampson UH team is starting to look like its full of them. Steve Pearl, the 38-year-old head coach who took over when his dad retired as Auburn’s coach just 42 days before the season began, leaves his day in Birmingham talking about how he feels his Tigers “were the better team.”

Jesse Plemons may have been of sounder mind in Bugonia. Then again, it is easy to understand how Auburn believers could be driven a little batty by these losses to Houston in Birmingham. In that 2023 NCAA Tournament game, it’s Tramon Mark dropping 20 points on Auburn in the second half after telling Jamal Shead not to worry, leading a roaring comeback that leaves a Tigers crowd stunned in this same arena. Then on a NFL Sunday in an early non-conference power showdown in the Battleground 2k25, it’s Kingston Flemings darting here, no there, getting any pull-up jumper he wants in just his fourth college game.

“I think Kingston Flemings is wise beyond his years,” Fraschilla tells PaperCity. “He was sensational today. If anything, down the stretch he might have deferred even a little too much to the older guys. It’s great for him to have two co-pilots out there like Emanuel and Los. But I think he’s going to end up the being a guy they want the ball in his hands down the stretch of big games in January and February, And he plays so well off the two veterans.

“It’s hard not to be impressed with him.”

Kingston Flemings plays like he expected this. Like everything he’s doing is the most natural thing in the world. And he has company in Chris Cenac. And probably eventually, when that knee totally heals, in Isiah Harwell.

“Them dudes is ready for sure,” Uzan says. “I see them dudes as ball players. I don’t look at them as freshmen.”

Of course, even Flemings needs help on that last stand. With reigning Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year JoJo Tugler (who Sampson notes came in too crazy fired up for this game — “Level 5, JoJo doesn’t need to go any further, but he was extra hyped today, silly fouls”) and Cenac both fouled out, Harwell and Sakho slide over. “All I did is watch videos of JoJo (on defense),” Sakho tells PaperCity of the time he spent off his feet, recovering from the back surgery. “I’m trying to be like JoJo.”

The long-armed block is a thing of beauty, a sign of how much farther Kelvin Sampson’s growing Houston team can still reach.