What Kelvin Sampson said about Duke; Houston making its first Final Four since 2021
Houston coach Kelvin Sampson held a media session on Thursday prior the Cougars’ Final Four game on Saturday against Duke in San Antonio.
Sampson talked about the team’s journey to get this far, the Blue Devils, his coaching staff and what has really been the Cougars’ biggest improvement this season.
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Here is what Sampson said on Thursday:
On Houston making its first Final Four since 2021
“I’m really proud of this team. Every team has a journey; it has to start not knowing what they’re going to be, just kind of figure out how to stay in the moment early, in June, July, September; we start the season so early now. Of course, I’m so old now I remember when the season started after Thanksgiving. Now, you may have five guys transfer by Thanksgiving.
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“But our team this year is very much a player-led team. We have great player leadership. We have players that really care about each other and the program, and I think that’s reflected on how they have handled adversity when they went on the road. So we weren’t a great team early in the year, but I’ve seen that many times over the course of the year, your team gets better and better and better, and guys like LJ Cryer, J’Wan Roberts, Emanuel Sharp, JoJo Tugler, Ja’Vier Francis, Mylik Wilson, Terrance Arceneaux, we had all those guys back, and that really helped a guy like (first-year point guard) Milos Uzan, and he made great progress as the year went on. And I would give a lot of credit for that to our returning players.”
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On facing Duke
(The Blue Devils are led by three freshman starters in 6-foot-9 forward Cooper Flagg - perhaps the No. 1 overall choice at the upcoming NBA Draft - along with 6-7 guard/forward Kon Knueppel and 7-2 center Khaman Maluach. But Sampson noted the presence of the veteran players and coach Jon Scheyer’s role in blending them in with his freshmen.)
“They didn’t start five freshmen, they started three. The brilliance of Jon is how he insulated those guys with veteran guys and they don’t get talked about enough. (Graduate guard) Sion James, when he was at Tulane; smart, tough winner. For them to identify him, evaluate him and say that’s what we need with these three.
“Then (junior guard Tyrese) Proctor; this would be my third straight year seeing this kid. Duke came to Houston when Jon first got the job and he came to Houston and scrimmaged us in October. … I remember watching that team and Proctor’s a pro. I don’t know if Sion is or not, but he is a professional role player, exactly what they needed.
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“And I think you can get away with playing some freshmen as long as you got veterans around them. But those guys stopped being freshmen somewhere around Thanksgiving. By Christmas, they might have been sophomores, now they’re just pros, but they have a good team.
“Jon and his staff have done an excellent job developing this team. … I think they lost to Kansas early, lost to Kentucky, and that was probably part of the plan. You may lose those games; you know, people lose their mind, but people that lose their mind ain’t coaching the team, he is. I think he had a plan, but let’s throw them out there and if we have some success, fine, and if we have some failure, that’s fine, too. We want to be the best version of ourselves when we get to February and March.”
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On the coaching ability of Duke’s Jon Scheyer
“I have a ton of respect for (Scheyer). I’ll tell you how good Jon Scheyer has been, nobody talks about him replacing Coach K (longtime Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski) anymore, he’s Jon Scheyer, he’s got his team in the Final Four. I think that speaks volumes of him. Good for him.”
On how Sampson has been able to retain several experienced players
“I think our secret sauce has been our staff. Whenever the tournament’s over for us, Quannas White will be taking the head coaching position at the University of Louisiana. … He got the head coaching position there and he’s going to kill it, he’s going to be awesome. Kellen (Sampson), this is Kellen’s 11th year, Hollis Price is in his 11th year, Quannas his ninth year I think. K.C. Beard, his 11th year, Lauren (Sampson, the director of basketball operations) is in her 10th year.
“Our players look at our staff as family; all of my auxiliary staff that we have in our program, we’re former managers. I don’t take resumes and I don’t take phone calls, I hire everything from within. Everybody thinks they need to go hire the best recruiter or the best this, we develop our staff like we develop our players, and that’s culture.
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“We don’t have a lot of signs in our building, I don’t know what those signs mean anyway, but there’s one sign that you’ll see a lot in our building and it just says ‘Culture.’ So how you do anything is how you do everything right; being on time, treating people with respect, having the right attitude every day, giving great effort every day, and whatever it is you’re asked to do, and our kids are pretty good at that.”
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On what has made Houston’s offense more improved than in recent seasons
“I’ve never worried about losing players. The narrative with most guys, when the season’s over or before the next season starts, is how will you replace this guy? How do you replace Jarace Walker, Quentin Grimes, Marcus Sasser or Jamal Shead? I’ve never really worried about that. I mean, I’m going to miss them, but you know, the challenge of the coach is, OK, we’re losing Jamal, how can we get better? And I thought that’s where we had a chance to get better is be a better 3-point shooting team.
“We weren’t going to be a better defensive team; I mean, Jamal is the best guard defender I’ve ever had. It’s hard to get better, but the team can get better. You know, the name on the front of our jersey didn’t say Jamal Shead, it said Houston. How do we make Houston better?
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“Milos was a kid that shot really good his freshman year at Oklahoma in the Big 12, not so much his sophomore year. And so we tried to research, why did his shooting go down, and is that something we can develop. So we figured that out and the answer was yes, and you know, his 3-point shooting has really helped this team.
“Terrance Arceneaux off the bench. You know, he and JoJo didn’t get to play in the tournament last year because they were both injured. … Mylik Wilson has gotten better as a 3-point shooter, Terrance, and then the three starters (Uzan, Cryer and Sharp), so we collectively have more guys that can make a 3. We’ve gone from being a 3-point shooting team to a 3-point making team; there’s a difference.”
