The names on the backs of the University of Houston jerseys seem to change each season.
But the man pacing up and down the sideline and the success of the Houston Cougars basketball program have not pivoted in the least. A model of consistency and dominance, Kelvin Sampson and UH have accomplished something no other men’s program can boast, as the Cougars head into their unmatched seventh consecutive Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Tournament.
The second-seeded Cougars will take on No.3 seed Illinois in a South Region Sweet 16 matchup tonight at the Toyota Center. But as routine as Sampson has made taking UH to the Sweet 16 over the years, the veteran coach doesn’t view it that way at all.
“The only thing I know is every year, I have a different team,” Sampson said this week to the Defender. “You start over every year. It doesn’t go year to year. There is a period at the end of every year.
“Then you have a capital letter on your letter, or next sentence, or the next paragraph, or the next chapter. Really, the next chapter. You just finish it, the chapter. And each chapter is marked by the year. Seventeen-Eighteen, that chapter ended. So we have to start a new chapter.”
But while each season has a beginning and middle, the ending has been astoundingly the same, with the Cougars poised to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.
They have been a mainstay even as they stepped up to competitive levels from the American Athletic Conference (AAC) to the Big 12. Along the way, the roster has turned over with players like Jamal Shead, J’Wan Roberts, LJ Cryer, Marcus Sasser, Ja’Vier Francis, Terrance Arceneaux, Quentin Grimes, and Fabian White taking their turns leading this way.
Last season, Cryer, Robers, Arceneaux, Francis, and Mylik Wilson played key roles in helping the Cougars reach the national title game, along with this season’s breakout star Emanuel Sharp.
This season has seen Milos Uzan, JoJo Tugler, Ramon Walker, Sharp, and a couple of freshmen in Kingston Flemings and Chris Cenac Jr. pick up the mantle for the Cougars.
The names keep changing, but the level of success has remained the same.
“We have a system here, so it’s not like we are just pulling names out of a hat,” said Sampson, whose team is ranked fifth in the country. “We really evaluate the kids that we want to coach, that we want to go to battle with. We’ve always been pretty good at that through the years, through the decades really, now.”
Sharp, a fifth-year senior, has been a beneficiary of the consistency of Sampson’s program. He has been to the Sweet 16 in every year of his eligibility, which is rare.
In past years, Sharp has been more of a complementary player with Cryer, Sasser, and Shead taking their turns as leads. But Sharp is the leader and more of the focal point this time around.
“It just speaks to what Coach and the coaching staff have built at the university and the type of program that they have here year-in and year-out,” Sharp said to the Defender. “It just shows how important having a culture is. I think it’s passed down to each team. That’s why — you know, we lose four or five guys every year, but we’re able to come back and have a great season year after year. It’s because we play the same way each year. The players change, but the culture never changes.
“There is no guarantees that it’s going to work because you have to go out and recruit and you have to evaluate. Then you have another period at the end of the year, then you start over again. It’s not a continuation.”
– Kelvin Sampson
“New guys come in, the older guys pass down what they learned from the older guys, and it’s just an endless cycle of learning how to play hard, learning how to compete, learning how to form a bond with your teammates, and creating a family atmosphere. It’s just led to us having a great team this year.”
Sampson has twice led the Cougars to the Final Four, only to come up short against the Florida Gators in the national championship game. The way the Cougars have played so far this NCAA Tournament – blowing out Idaho and Texas A&M in the first two rounds – many believe this could be their year.
Iowa upset No.1 Florida in last week’s second round, spoiling an opportunity for the Cougars to get revenge on the Gators potentially in Saturday’s regional finals at the Toyota Center. Now, the Cougars will have to get past Illinois and then the winner of the Iowa-Nebraska matchup to reach the Final Four.
The possibility of making it through seems even stronger this year because the Cougars have the comforts of playing in the Sweet 16 just a couple of miles away from campus at the Toyota Center.
While the three Big Ten teams – Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska – competing with UH for the right to move on to next week’s Final Four had to fly into Houston on Tuesday, the Cougars took a quick bus trip over to check into the team hotel.
They will play in an arena they are familiar with, in front of a crowd that will be extremely Cougar-friendly tonight and, perhaps, Saturday if they advance to the Elite Eight.
“I’ve never been in this situation before,” Sampson said. “We are going to try to treat it as normal as possible.”
While Sampson has never enjoyed the comforts of home during the NCAA Tournament, he has been on the other side when playing Auburn in Birmingham and Purdue and Tennessee in arenas close to their homes. The Cougars came out victorious each time.
So forgive the veteran coach if he isn’t feeling a little more relaxed in the comforts of home.
“It shows you how much homecourt advantage doesn’t guarantee success,” Sampson said. “But we have proved we can go win on the road in those environments. There are four teams good enough to win this thing.”
Illinois is chief among them. The Illini have considerable size on the Cougars, starting with their 7-foot-1 twins, Tomislav and Zvornimir Ivisic, along with talents like David Mirkovi and Keaton Wagler.
Illinois is one of the top-scoring and offensive rebounding teams in the country.
“Brad has done a really good job with his roster, putting the right guys in the right spots,” said Sampson, whose program has had five 30-win seasons in a row to cement UH as a perennial power. “They are all difficult to guard. They play at a great space. They play five out, they force you into switches, and they take advantage of it if you can get caught in rotations or if you are late somewhere, they make you pay.
“It’s an unbelievable challenge to try to get ready for. But they are really fun to watch. They’ve got super smart players. They have a great plan, they are really skilled, and they all make 3s.”
