Double Point Guard Lineup Of Milos Uzan & Kingston Flemings Gives Kelvin Sampson’s No. 2 Houston Team Another New Edge

Kingston Flemings attacks the rim with same conviction in which a bird migrates. It’s just in his nature. He is going to find a way to get into the paint, to test and stress the other team’s defense. “He’s so aggressive getting downhill and making plays for others,” University of Houston assistant coach Anthony Goldwire tells PaperCity. “But also he has the ability to make plays for himself too.

“. . . He has a nice pull-up. He’s been exhibiting his nice pull-up game. And he’s athletic getting into the paint. He’ll finish on you. Turn it on and dunk on you.”

Flemings is a freshman point guard, the best high school player in basketball-rich Texas last season. He’s joined the most intense program in college basketball, one with a returning point guard in Milos Uzan who helped drive Houston within a bucket of the national championship. Some coaches might see that as a natural pecking order, experienced returning starter and his talented freshman backup. Kelvin Sampson, UH’s Hall of Fame level coach, sees opportunity. The chance to play two point guards together.

“We’re going to be on the floor together a lot this year,” Uzan says of Flemings and him.

Whether Flemings begins the season as a starter or spends all season coming in off the bench, the double point guard lineup with Uzan and him is likely to finish a lot of games together. In part because of how well their two games complement each other. When Flemings is getting into the paint, Uzan can slip out for an open 3-point look (he shot 42.8 percent from three last season), taking some of the long distance pressure off Emanuel Sharp, one of the purest shooters in college basketball who will be sliding into UH’s lead guard, No. 1 scoring option role. When Uzan gets into the paint for one of his patented floaters (a shot that drove Kansas crazy in Allen Fieldhouse last January), the 6-foot-4 Flemings can use his athleticism to track potential rebound chances.

Two point guards are better than one and this double point guard lineup will help drive the freshly-anointed AP preseason ranked No. 2 team in America in many ways. Kelvin Sampson isn’t running a democracy with his beyond elite program. It’s a dictatorship of one with the best players playing no matter their class, experience status or ranking. With Sampson deciding who’s best.

This basketball lifer of a coach is clearly intrigued by what Kingston Flemings has been showing in practice, how the freshman is able to get into the lane consistently against some of the best defenders in the college game.

“More importantly Kingston’s ability to get into the paint,” Kelvin Sampson says when I ask about Flemings’ finishing at the rim. “Getting into the paint is just as important as finishing at the rim. His athleticism can open up some things for others. . .

“Kingston’s basketball IQ, that means something too.”

When Flemings or Uzan get into the lane, it forces a defense to react and often collapse in. Both the senior and the freshman have shown the knowledge to know what to do with the basketball when that happens. Whether it’s a drop off to big men JoJo Tugler and Chris Cenac Jr. or a pass out to Emanuel Sharp, whose only completely open threes this season may come on kick outs and fast breaks as opposing teams concentrate on trying to stop him first.

“He’s a great, great passer,” Uzan says of Flemings. “He’s really good at getting downhill. And I think that will help me out a lot, just spacing the floor out and making the right read. I’m excited for him. He’s going to be really good.

“. . . He’s super quick. Super explosive.”

Kingston Flemings, Student Of Basketball

Part of what makes Kingston Flemings’ UH teammates pumped about the unique skills he brings to the program is the way the freshman carries himself. Like he’s no big deal, just one of the guys. This is characteristic of Kelvin Sampson’s entire historic Fantastic Four freshmen class, but Flemings takes that even further. Houston assistant coach Kellen Sampson tells PaperCity that Flemings is “the most natural leader” he’s ever seen as a young player.

He’s ready to play point, to assist one of the most proven point guards in college basketball in Milos Uzan.

“The biggest thing for him is his IQ,” Goldwire says of Flemings. “He’s very inquisitive about everything. It’s great for me because I like for him to come back and ask. I don’t always want to have to be the one that always tells him what to do. I want him to kind of give me his vision. . .

“The biggest thing for him, this system, his high school team played a little bit of the same kind of system that we play. So that made it a little more easier for him coming in. But just his overall IQ.”

Kingston Flemings is such a student of the game that he asked Kellen Sampson, who served as the lead recruiter on the point guard for UH, to send him videos and clips of plays to challenge him during his recruitment. Flemings asked to be tested. “That dude is absolutely in love and infatuated with basketball,” Kellen Sampson says.

Is it any surprise that this hoops nut is ready to be part of a double point guard lineup?

“I feel like it works great,” Flemings says of the two point guard lineups. “One of us on ball, one of us off ball. Learning from (Uzan) has been great. I mean he’s been at the NBA Combine, everything like that. Just had a great year. So I think just learning off him.

“And our games complement each other. We don’t play the exact same. We’re both guards, but we can play at the same time. Both good passers, both good shooters.”

Kingston Flemings worked with UH director of men’s basketball sports performance Alan Bishop, the Jack Reacher of college basketball training, to transform his body to be able to take the pounding of a Kelvin Sampson college basketball season as an 18-year-old. After ending his last high school season at 170 pounds, the 6-foot-4 Flemings is now up to 192 pounds, with much of that gain centered on muscle building.

“He’s a great, great passer. He’s really good at getting downhill. And I think that will help me out a lot, just spacing the floor out and making the right read. I’m excited for him. He’s going to be really good.” — Milos Uzan on freshman point guard Kingston Flemings

Milos Uzan’s Shooting Camp

At the same time, Milos Uzan worked on honing his already good jump shot, trying to make his outside shooting even more of a consistent weapon. How’s that going? Kelvin Sampson actually stopped practice to compliment Uzan’s improved shot.

“Probably two weeks ago, he just stopped practice and told me he thought I was a better shooter right now than I was last year,” Uzan tells PaperCity.

When the relentless demanding Kelvin Sampson is interrupting practice to hand out praise, you know you’re doing something significant.

The double point guard lineup with Uzan and Flemings both on the court at the same time is just one of the options that Sampson will be able to deploy on what should be the most talent deep team he’s had at Houston yet. Two is better than one? When the two are both this talented that simple equation takes on new meaning.

In this case, two should mean the ball keeps moving, finding UH’s plentiful scoring options, stressing the defense the way a hometown visit stresses a Bachelor contestant’s chances. Get ready for Houston’s Double Point Guard Lineup.

It’s no gimmick.

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.