Houston basketball coach Kelvin Sampson held a media session Thursday morning prior to the Cougars’ home game Saturday against BYU.
Saturday’s game at the Fertitta Center tips off at 1 p.m. Both Houston and BYU are coming off of wins in its respective Big 12 Conference openers, with Houston (9-3, 1-0) winning at Oklahoma State on Monday and BYU (10-2, 1-0) defeating Arizona State on Tuesday.
Behind double-double from J’Wan Roberts, Houston prevails in Big 12 Conference opener
Here are a sampling of some of Sampson’s thoughts from Thursday’s media session:
(Saunders, who had been out of action since suffering a concussion in BYU’s game on Dec. 14, returned on Tuesday and had a career-high 30 points and made six 3-pointers in BYU’s 76-56 win against Arizona State in its Big 12 Conference opener.)
“He’s a different player than he was last year. I was looking at our scout report last year versus last year. Last year, he was more of a guy that was a secondary guy.
“This year, I’m sure through hard work and having a new coach (Kevin Young), he’s got a different role and he’s suited for it. He’s a tough kid, I really like him. Good size, really good shooter, athletic, good player.”
(BYU comes into Saturday’s game having won four straight games, punctuated by the conference-opening victory on Tuesday.)
“Their length in the backcourt, I think, is excellent with (Egor) Demin and the (Kanon) Catchings kid. They’re both around 6-(foot) 9, they’re long, but they’re skilled. They both can get 20 in different ways; Catchings is a threat behind the 3-point line, Demin is a decision-maker. … They’re extremely well-coached, really disciplined.
“I think part of their strength is their two 5’s, (Fousseyni) Traore and (Keba) Keita, and they have different strengths. Keita is probably a better shot-blocker, probably the better vertical athlete, and Traore is probably more of a traditional low-post player that can catch and score, but they complement each other so well.
“And BYU is the number one defensive rebounding team, so it’s hard to get offensive rebounds against them. They have a lot of kids on their team that can get 20 to 30 on any given night, their 5’s are positioned really well for their team, they’ve got two pros in Catchings and Demin, and (Dallin) Hall and Saunders and (Trevin) Knell, all those guys can really shoot.
“They’re dangerous, they’re dangerous. This is a team that went on the road last year and won some big games. … They’ve got a lot of those same guys back and they’ve added some really good talent, so BYU is good. I think they’ve got a chance to be really good as the season goes along.”
(There are four Big 12 teams already with at least 10 wins in Iowa State, UCF, BYU and West Virginia, which may have gotten the biggest conference win so far by prevailing at Kansas on Tuesday. Houston and Baylor each have nine wins as well.)
“There’s parity in every league; there is no super teams. Everybody thinks their team is great and shouldn’t lose; well, I’ve got news for you, your team’s going to lose. We can play really good Saturday and lose; that’s how good BYU is. We can go on the road and beat a good team.
“I don’t think there’s a super team in this league. The team that seems to be playing the best right now, now whether they are or not I don’t know because I don’t get to see all of them, but I do know from firsthand experience how good Iowa State is, they seem to be really playing well. The other team that’s playing really, really well is BYU. I have not seen UCF, the first time I saw Arizona State was preparing for this BYU game, so I don’t know enough about the league. … Set your clock and ask that exact question at this time next year, because parity has been here for a long time.”
“This is a great basketball league. The best teams in our league can compete for the national championship; I don’t know whether they can win it or not, but they can compete for it. … If you want to see a league with parity, go look at the SEC, they’re all good, every one of them. Is that parity? I don’t know, it’s just great, you’ve got about 10, 12, 15 teams in that league that, if you put them in somebody else’s league, they probably win it.”
(While Cryer has been putting up points as the Cougars’ leading scorer, having scored at least 17 points in five of Houston’s last six ballgames, his defense has also shown significant progress over the course of the season.)
“Experience. Everybody’s system or how they teach defense is going to be different. One of the best defensive teams that we’ve played against was that Baylor team that won the national championship (Cryer was on the 2021 Baylor team that won the national title), they were really elite, but our defense is different from theirs. … He just had to learn the way (Baylor coach) Scott (Drew) did it is different than I do it, which is different than (Oklahoma State coach) Steve Lutz does it or (Kansas coach) Bill (Self) or whoever, doesn’t matter. But LJ in his second year is much more experienced, understands.
“And he’s done a good job of helping our new guys. Milos (Uzan, a junior guard who transferred in from Oklahoma over the offseason) was in the same position from June through October as LJ was last year, so just going through that, LJ was able to help Milos a lot better just like Jamal (Shead) helped LJ last year.”
(Uzan scored 12 points in the Cougars’ conference-opening win Monday at Oklahoma State.)
“I still think he’s got a lot of room to grow, and I still think he passes up too many shots early in the clock. Obviously, we had a plan or way we wanted to attack Oklahoma State; a lot of times the shot we’re going to get is the kick out, but just being ready to shoot it versus throwing it back in, little things like that.
“But Milos is a great kid, as all our guys are. Easy to coach, pleaser, wants to do well, prideful, those kind of guys usually have steady growth and I think his play reflects that.”