Over the years, University of Houston senior guard Emanuel Sharp has had to adjust to so much.
Bouncing back from a serious injury during his senior year in high school. Getting his mind right to compete once he was healed. Getting used to the college game. Learning to take tough coaching from Kelvin Sampson. Being not just a scorer but a lockdown defender.
The biggest adjustment this season, however, has been becoming the counted-on leader of a talented but relatively young Cougars’ team. No longer can he sit back and play his game while Marcus Sasser, Jamal Shead, and L.J. Cryer handle all of the vocal leadership.
“It’s been a big step for me because I’ve never been in this position, having to lead younger guys like this,” Sharp said to the Defender during a recent one-on-one interview. “I’ve always been able to take a kind of backseat to other leaders of the team. But this year, I’ve kind of had to be on the forefront of really getting in their ears, positively and negatively.”
Sharp has clearly struck the right note and delivered the necessary messaging, as the seventh-ranked Cougars are again among the best teams in the nation and could be poised to make another run to the Final Four. UH has the talent on the floor with freshmen Kingston Flemings and Chris Cenac Jr. blending with a veteran group in the starting five and the leadership of Joseph Tugler, Milos Uzan, and Sharp to potentially win the Big 12 and make an NCAA Tournament run in March.
But Sharp’s preference is to stay in the moment and focus on what the Cougars need to do to keep getting better.
“That’s the thing, I don’t think we are even close to where we are supposed to be,” said Sharp, who shares the top two scoring spots this season with Flemings. “I don’t think we have shot the ball well in a single game, and this is supposed to be an offensive team. That is the bright side, and our defense is getting better every single game. That’s really eye-opening for us to show that we have that much room to grow.”
Achieving this level of growth and understanding for Sharp has been a part of his journey, which began when he was born to professional basketball-playing parents – Derrick Sharp and Justine Ellison Sharp — in Tel Aviv, continued in the United States, and has blossomed in his four years at UH.
Sharp has gone from a silent assassin player for the Cougars to a counted-on floor leader who still makes big shots, while also being the lockdown defender who takes on the toughest assignment each night.
Both Sampson and Sharp attribute his growth to his parents, who have taught him the game inside and out.
“He has got an awesome mother and father,” Sampson said. “Emanuel’s parents were professional basketball players, so he came in here with a huge advantage. They did a great job with him. I think that helped his transition.”
Sharp, a two-year starter for the Cougs, definitely agrees.
“It’s been great because I have two parents in my corner who know the game just as well as anybody,” said Sharp, who has citizenship in Israel, America, and Canada, where his mom is from and starred collegiately. “I grew up in a basketball household. My dad played professionally, my mom played professionally. I grew up going to all of my dad’s games, so I lived eating and breathing basketball.
“I know what they went through, so I know what is expected of me here. What I have to go through, both of my parents have been through with adversity in their lives, and they have both become very successful. So, I’ve taken that from them, and I apply it here every day.”
Their background and advice have also been instrumental in helping their son accept, absorb, and appreciate the sometimes tough coaching he has received from Sampson over the years and even now. Sharp credits Sampson for helping his game grow in ways he didn’t know were possible.
“It’s exciting knowing that we are getting better every game in and game out. A month ago, we weren’t close to the defensive team that we are today. Every game in the Big 12 is a matchup, and every night you can get got, so we look to use every game as a stepping stone to getting better.”
– UH senior guard Emanuel Sharp
“It’s been a journey for sure. I feel like he is the greatest coach of all time, literally,” said Sharp, who was the Big 12 Tournament MVP last year. “The way he gets guys to reach a version of themselves that they couldn’t get to themselves is huge. His accountability and the standards that he has for everybody that walks in the gym – not just the players but the managers, the coaching staff, every last person leading up to himself – have the same standards, and I love that about him. He doesn’t let anybody slide. He doesn’t treat anybody differently from others. We are all equal in his eyes.
“Learning from him, being able to be coached under him, learning how to take hard coaching … I feel like that has shaped me into the player that I am today. Learning how to brush stuff off my shoulders, because at the end of the day, he is giving a message that you’ve got to take the right way. So I’ve learned to take stuff the right way.”
Sharp’s teammates have taken notice and appreciate what he brings as a leader and defensive stopper.
“He brings grit, he brings leadership. He just brings that toughness that you need. He is a lockdown defender,” said Ramon Walker. “If he is not making shots, then we can count on him on the defensive end. That’s something Coach praises about him all of the time. He can impact winning, even when his shot is not going in. He just brings all of the intangibles that Coach talks about.”
Flemings, one of the top basketball and sought-after recruits in the nation out of San Antonio, appreciates sharing the backcourt with Sharp and getting a chance every day to see how he works and then goes about his business on the basketball floor.
“He is the best perimeter defender in all of college basketball,” Flemings said. “The energy he gives to it, the caring he has for every single thing … I see it every single day. I see it in practice. I’m trying to get to that point. I’m trying to bring it and get to that point as a defender. He wasn’t always like this. It took him time, too.
“Seeing the way he guards on defense and giving us a spark on offense, too. He is our leader, and watching him every day is great.”
Sharp is equally impressed by Flemings, who shares the Cougars’ dynamic three-guard backcourt that also includes Uzan. Flemings leads the team in scoring with 16.1 points per game, while Sharp is averaging 16.0 points.
“It’s been a blessing really,” Sharp said of playing alongside Flemings. “He is one of the best players I’ve played with, hands down. He makes the game so much easier for everybody, and it’s been a journey just bringing him along since June.”
Sharp has not only enjoyed the journey with talented youngsters like Flemings, but he has also appreciated the overall journey he has been on since arriving at UH as a kid from Tampa, Florida.
“It’s been a lot of learning,” he said. “I’d say these four years, I’ve learned so many life lessons and stuff that I can take to my future with me. Not just basketball, but stuff in the real world. Just lessons I’ve learned from being here in the world. Leadership, adversity, trials and tribulations, going through failure, and then reaching success. All of that is stuff I can take into the next parts of my life.”
EMANUEL SHARP
Position: Shooting Guard
Height: 6-3
Class: RS-Senior
Major: Integrated Studies
Season numbers: Averaging 16.0 points per game, shooting 43% from the field, 39% from 3-point range, has 18 steals and three blocked shots
Honors: John R. Wooden Award Midseason Watch List
X: emanuelsharp
