Tramon Mark 100 Percent Commits to Returning for UH, Star Guard Marcus Sasser is Excited But Still Looking at NBA

Sitting side by side by side on three plush recliners in Jim McIngvale’s furniture store, Tramon Mark, Marcus Sasser and Jamal Shead look very much at home. This very well could be the best backcourt in college basketball next season. Maybe even a national championship worthy backcourt.

If Mark, Sasser and Shead stay together at the University of Houston.

Tramon Mark, the ultra talented guard from Dickinson, is quick to commit to next season.

“I’m definitely coming back,” Mark tells PaperCity. “For sure.”

Sasser is a little less certain. While Sasser talks excitedly about what Houston can do next season, he admits that he is still considering things.

“I’m still not 100 percent decided,” Sasser tells PaperCity. “I’m still looking at a few things.”

The sharp shooting guard recovering from a broken foot says he wants to get feedback from the NBA on how it regards his game, something that underclassmen can do while maintaining their college eligibility. UH coach Kelvin Sampson often encourages his players to get NBA feedback, believing that the more information they have the better.

Just having Shead, the 19-year-old who emerged as one of the nation’s top point guards this season after Sasser and Mark both went down with injuries, and Mark, who may possess the most NBA upside of all the potential UH returnees, together will make for a top level starting backcourt. But Shead, Mark and Sasser together could push things to another level.

One Marcus Sasser seems to be very aware of.

“I think we could win a national title,” Sasser says as a smile spreads across his face. “We’re going to have a lot of talent.”

Sasser talks with pride about what Shead and the rest of the Cougars did without him and Mark, advancing all the way to the Elite Eight. “I saw them every day in practice, so I knew how hard they worked,” Sasser tells PaperCity. “A lot of people were surprised, but in the back of my mind I knew the culture would come through.”

Sitting next to Sasser in Gallery Furniture for a Name, Image and Likeness autograph session deal set up by McIngvale, the furniture dealer turned Houston do gooder known as Mattress Mack, Tramon Mark is equally excited by the idea of cutting down nets on a future Monday night.

Hopefully, April 3, 2023 in NRG Stadium (the Final Four is in Houston next season).

“That’s most definitely the goal,” Mark says of winning a national title. “But we’re not thinking about that right now. We’re just trying to get ready. But that’s definitely a goal for sure.”

Tramon Mark and Marcus Sasser On Their Injury Journeys

Mark tells PaperCity that his surgically repaired left shoulder is “feeling good” and that he’s starting to do more almost every single day. He’s quick to credit longtime University of Houston trainer John Houston with keeping him on track.

When I ask Mark how much more of his game he still has to show, the guard with some James Harden pace to his game is quick with an answer.

“You shall see,” Mark says. “You shall see.”

While Marcus Sasser may not be 100 percent certain he’s returning yet, he is sure his time on the bench watching this last season, part of it spent with his foot in a boot, will help make him an even better player.

“I learned a lot of things,” he says. “Seeing it from the bench is always a different view. Kind of slows the game down. I learned a few things for when it’s time to play again.”

“I’m definitely coming back. For sure.” — UH guard Tramon Mark

Sitting with Sasser and Mark, two guys he expected to play with all last season, cutting it up as only teammates can, Jamal Shead gets excited all over again.

“I wish we could play next week,” Shead says. “I can’t wait to play with these guys again.”

Watching his younger teammates, essentially his ex-teammates now though he’d never think of them that way, Fabian White Jr. gets caught up in what a University of Houston basketball program that he helped bring back from the dead can do next season.

“I think they can win a national championship,” White tells PaperCity. “That was the ultimate goal this year. I think with all the pieces they have coming in, they can make a deep run.

“Or a further run than we did this year.”

With Jarace Walker, the best high school power forward in America, and fellow Top 100 ranked recruits Terrance Arceneaux and Emanuel Sharp, set to join Shead, Mark, reserve guard Ramon Walker Jr., front court battlers J’Wan Roberts and Reggie Chaney and young forward Ja’vier Francis, there is plenty of excitement around this UH team.

Kelvin Sampson has long known he’d need to replace Kyler Edwards, Josh Carlton, Taze Moore and Fabian White from this year’s Elite Eight team.

Of course, Marcus Sasser returning would make that potentially much easier. Sasser is the guy capable of scoring 20 points in a Final Four game when no one else could get going. In many ways, the 6-foot-2 guard from Red Oak (just outside of Dallas) — the product of a true Texas basketball family who got overlooked by many of the so called power conference schools coming out of high school — is the perfect symbol of this UH program.

While there is no 100 percent certainty on the future, Tramon Mark, Marcus Sasser and Jamal Shead do look awfully comfortable right next to each other. It’s something that UH fans attending this autograph hangout cannot help but notice.

Of course, being at an NIL autograph session with his teammates does not mean Sasser is staying. Guard Robbie Armbrester, who has already entered the transfer portal seeking a school where he has a better chance of playing, is also hanging out with the group at Gallery Furniture.

Still, these Cougars guards are enjoying the moment. And the idea of what could be to come.

“Marcus knows what we can do,” Shead says.