Mylik Wilson Urges Houston Fans To Relax and Believe In Kelvin Sampson’s Young Team — How This Beloved Forever Coog Is Helping a New Team Win Now

Mylik Wilson knows it’s a compliment, but he still dismisses the argument. As fans come up to him during Houston’s home loss to Arizona and tell him how much this Cougar team needs his toughness and clutch bench spark, he feels like they’re missing the big picture.

“This team is still young,” Wilson tells PaperCity. “They’re figuring some things out right now. Give ’em a minute. They’ll be good for the tournament.”

That would be the NCAA Tournament, what everyone in college basketball is really playing for, shooting to be great in. So many hyped up this three-game death march of a stretch of three then Top 10 teams in a row — with two of those games on the road — for this Houston team. And then those many of those same people acted absolutely shocked when Kelvin Sampson’s squad lost the first two games of it with a mad Kansas team waiting in Allen Fieldhouse, college basketball’s version of Fenway Park and old Yankee Stadium rolled into one, in a Big Monday showdown (8 pm on ESPN) tonight to cap it off.

Wilson is playing professional basketball for Kometa Kaposvari KK in the Hungarian A Division this season, ranking in the top 10 in both scoring and assists in that European league. He came back to Fertitta Center to see his guys while he had a week off. Fabian White Jr., another early anchor for Kelvin Sampson’s Houston program who has played pro ball the last three years in Turkey, also returned for the Arizona game. These Cougars are anchoring new teams now, still impacting winning in dramatic ways. Houston ways.

“When I came back last time in November, we were like in eighth place,” Wilson says of his pro team. “Now we’re in fourth place. Playing in Europe is different than playing over here. I really had to get adjusted, learn how to help my team win. We in a good position. I feel like we can win it all.”

Wilson has no doubt Sampson’s still Top 5 Houston team can still win it all too, rare two game losing streak and all.

“Losing is part of the journey,” Kelvin Sampson says. “You’re going to lose games. Now we win around here so much that sometimes you forget we can lose too. When you’re winning 30 some games four or five years in a row, you’re winning the conference championship in one conference, you flip conferences, you’re still winning.

“You assume that it’s easy. It’s not.”

Houston’s Place In the National Championship Race

College basketball happens. Even to Sampson’s ridiculously consistent juggernaut of a Houston program. Yes, this isn’t the same University of Houston team that started four seniors and juniors, including sixth-year COVID-era senior J’Wan Roberts. And brought two other proven seniors in Mylik Wilson and Ja’Vier Francis as its first or second guard and big man off the bench. That national championship runner-up squad is a team for the ages, one that almost belongs in a college basketball museum for the way things used to be.

This current Houston team — starting two potential one-and-done NBA Lottery picks in Kingston Flemings and Chris Cenac Jr., relying on two big men who underwent major surgery and never had an offseason to work on their games in JoJo Tugler (foot) and Kalifa Sakho (back) and another five star freshman who’s coming off ACL surgery in Isiah Harwell — was never going to be that team.

“Losing is part of the journey, You’re going to lose games. Now we win around here so much that sometimes you forget we can lose too.” — Houston coach Kelvin Sampson

Which doesn’t mean this season’s Houston team cannot challenge for the national championship. Even with the two game Top 5 losing streak (Arizona is back up to No. 2 and Iowa State jumps to No. 4 in the new AP College Basketball Top 25) and the sometimes comical mini panic accompanying it, 23-4 UH remains one of the eight to 10 teams in America capable of winning six games in the Big Dance and cutting down the nets in Indianapolis.

Kelvin Sampson’s team isn’t the outright favorite — and it shouldn’t be. But it is still right there, maybe built for March more than many realize. Take it from a clutch player who’s come up big under the tournament’s bright lights.

“I can’t wait to see what Milos (Uzan), Eman (Sharp) and Kingston do in the tourney,” Wilson says.

March is made for guards. And Houston happens to have one of the best combination of guards in America.

UH can become a better team, a less jump shot reliant one by creating more turnovers and turning that havoc into transition opportunities. Kingston, Cenac and Tugler are all better in the open floor, running and not letting a defense set up. Sharp gets more open threes that way too.

“We’re having to play way too much in the half court,” Sampson says. “Way too much. We’re not scoring off our defense as much.”

Houston’s only forced eight turnovers in the last two games, less than what the best Sampson teams force in a decent half.

“We’re not turning teams over,” Sharp says. “The past two games, we’ve had three points off of our turnovers. That’s a big part of our play. We’ve got to be better in that area.’

Mylik Wilson used to excel in creating havoc with his quick hands and long arms, jolting the Cougars off the bench. He helped shock Kansas in coaching lifer Kelvin Sampson’s only win ever in Allen Fieldhouse hitting that monster three in that double overtime classic last January. Now Wilson’s doing much of the same thing for this new team in Europe, grabbing 11 rebounds in one important game, taking on much more of a scoring role.

“I’m using all the stuff I learned here under Coach Sampson,” Wilson tells PaperCity. “Every day. All the little things that wins games.”

Wilson smiles. Another UH supporter comes up to tell him how much he’s missed. This clutch winner just hopes everyone’s not missing how special this current, much younger Houston team can still be. In March. When it really matters.