Speaker 1: It's knocked off the Baylor Bears a couple of nights
back ten straight twenty win seasons at the University of Houston.
The all time god of coaching, Kevin Samson joining us
here on the show. Coach, good afternoon, Thanks for joining us. Congratulations.
It seems like just yesterday you and I were sitting
atop that dump known as the Hawfie Pavilion, thinking, oh,
you're going to fix this right away, And it took
a couple of years, but you got us there. Congratulations
on another ten twenty one season for you and your squad.
Speaker 2: It does seem like seemed like a long time ago,
but yet you and I both still remember it, so
oh yeah, something about our cognitive state.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's still a.
Speaker 2: It's been a beautiful ride, wonderful journey, and can't wait
to see what the future holds.
Speaker 1: It feels like to me that you have had to
balance a lot of aches and pains with your roster
the last three or four weeks, with guys getting some
time starting second halves, not playing in certain sections of
the games. Where is the state of your squad right
now injury wise? And is this kind of a look
you don't want to ask for injuries for anything, but
it's giving you an opportunity during this time to check
out some different combinations.
Speaker 4: Am I correct on that.
Speaker 3: No, that would be accurate. I think health wise, we're
about as good as we've been.
Speaker 2: Sitting Emmanuel down for a week or so or at
least two games, I think really helped him. The only
reason he did not start the second half was he
had to retape his ankle, so he was late getting
out to the bench at halftime, so we started Terrence.
Speaker 3: No big deal. Terrence played good.
Speaker 2: When Emmanuel got back out, we stuck him in and.
Speaker 3: He went out and played well too. So I think
our team is progressing.
Speaker 2: The great thing about your team is the season goes
on is everybody settles into a role. It's a lot
easier to define your role and goes on before before
the season starts, or even early in the season, because
you're still learning your team. You know, we have a
brand new point guard. It means everybody's game was going
to change a little bit. But my loss has done
an excellent job of fitting in and doing it his way,
and I'm really proud.
Speaker 3: Of that young man.
Speaker 4: You have mentioned. I was gonna ask about models right away.
Speaker 1: You had asked, talked about him from the first time
you got him on your campus to where he is now.
Was there a certain turning point or was that just
I've got a young man, very talented, but me coaching
him and others coaching him in his life are two
different animals.
Speaker 3: I would agree with that one hundred percent. Every coach
is going to be different, you know.
Speaker 2: And however, the previous coach handled my loast was exactly
the way it should have been. Every coach is different,
but every coach is right and the way he does
his own thing. Thing with Milos with us is adapting
to our culture, you know, just on a day to
day basis, UH, individual development, UH, position workhouts, team workouts.
You know, we build we build our team through through
those three areas. You know, we we work you out
individually as it applies to how we defend and play offense,
and your position workouts is.
Speaker 3: Usually defense and then offense, and then.
Speaker 2: The team workouts kind of a smaller's board of everything.
But he's he's a smart kid. I think he's gotten
tougher and more competitive, and I think he's embraced that.
Speaker 3: He enjoys that. But like every basketball player in the country.
He's not perfect. He still has some.
Speaker 2: Things he has to work on, some some uh pensis
he needs to climb over.
Speaker 3: But a lot of that stuff is individuals, you know.
It's you know, as.
Speaker 2: A basketball coach, you can put your team together, but
as an individual, you have to conquer your own demons,
and I think he's done a great.
Speaker 3: Job of that.
Speaker 1: You've got so many young men that have obviously bought
into your system, and if they don't buy in, they
usually go somewhere else. Juwan continues to play great. Tuggler
has even advancing from from last year.
Speaker 4: I want to go to.
Speaker 1: Malik Wilson for a second, because you know, and look,
you and I could have a deep conversation about kids
that jump with the portal as fast as possible, kids
that are jumping because of nil or they're not getting
playing time or whatever. Well, he could have done that.
He's stuck around. He gets his minutes. He's had some
impactful games for you in the time you've asked of him.
But tell me about a young man like that that said,
you know what, I'm not getting there.
Speaker 4: Maybe I should be playing more.
Speaker 1: Maybe I've got to get on the good side or
bad side, one way or the other, but he stuck
it out and he has been able to give you
what you needed in those times where you needed Wilson
on the floor.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think the biggest thing with Malie Matt is he
enjoys being part of a team. His ego doesn't drive him.
You know, everybody wants to everybody wants to be in
a winning program, but not everybody wants.
Speaker 3: To to win. The way the program is set up,
a lot of kids have a com up beside it.
I want to win, but I want.
Speaker 2: To win if I getting the most shots, or the
most minutes or the most of this. So as individual,
we don't have those kind of kids in our program.
And you're right, sometimes it allows kids to go make
a choice and go somewhere else. You know, Tron Mark,
Caleb Mills, Damien Dunn all transferred and and that was
the best decision for them. And that's okay, that's the
that's college basketball today. It's no it's no mark against anybody.
Kids to look for better opportunities. But Malikas is unique. Uh.
He's from Rayville, Louisiana, which about as small town as
you can get. I think he was raised with small town,
small town values by his mother. He's got a very
close knit family. They wanted him here. I remember when
he was going through his process. His mother called me
and she said, Coach Sampson, uh, I want Malik to
stay with you. And I said, well, we absolutely want
him to stay here. We brought him in. I sat
down and was very honest with him about the way
I saw his role being. I didn't think he would
be a starter, but I thought he would He could
develop and come off the bench and be part of
a winning team and have that, you know, for the
rest of his life. You know, Malik's been part of
an NCAA tournament Sweet sixteen conference championship. Was he starter
and the leading score on those teams? No, but he
has no ego. He wants to be part of a team.
We don't beat Kansas without Malik. He scored eighteen points
in that game. Boys at that don't let that cloud
your future also on him, that was that was probably
a one off. But he still does things that impacts
winning for US. Is athleticism is a factor, his defense
as a factor.
Speaker 3: And his personality and his heart as a factor.
Speaker 2: I absolutely love and respect elite Wilson a lot.
Speaker 1: Well, I think you should recruit the Raval area because
my close friend Elvin Hayes is from there, so there
must be some sort of pipeline over there.
Speaker 3: Well, we're two for two from Rayville. We'll see.
Speaker 2: We'll monitor that area closely going forward to see if
we can go three for three.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to ask a big picture question for
Kevin Sampson with us here on the program. Kevin, when
I was calling college basketball twenty years ago, when you
brought transfers in, you always were I'm not saying in
every situation, but you are always leary about the transfer
because he's transferring for some reason. It feels like to
me in twenty twenty five, as your sport changes, and
we've talked about this on numerous occasions, do you have
to kind of shake off that, Well, there must be
a reason why, and maybe what you do instead of saying, well,
why did you leave is compared to why do you
want to come now?
Speaker 4: What do you want to play for us? Is?
Speaker 1: Does the mentality change a little bit or do you'd
still have to do the deep dive as to why
a particular young man wants to leave a school and
all of a sudden wants to come play for Kelvin
Samson the University of Houston.
Speaker 3: Well, absolutely, you have to do your due diligence.
Speaker 2: But port of Moser, the head coach at Oklahoma, is
a very very good friend of mine. He's in his
assistance have been through here spending time with us in
the summer, exchanging ideas. I've known Porter since he was
at Loyola in Chicago when he took that program to
the final four.
Speaker 3: So I picked up the bone and called Mosure.
Speaker 2: And I know that had the potential to be an
uncomfortable situation, but I think I think it speaks to
our relationship with each other.
Speaker 3: And he had nothing but great thing to say about Milos.
Speaker 2: He knew he was going to leave, and he thought
that it would be an adjustment, but he was worth
the gamble. One of the things that helped Milos is
his dad was a very successful high school coach in
Las Vegas, and Milo's played for him. And I think
the key thing Matt was Milos chose us. He did
his research, He went through and said what program can
I go to and be the best version of myself
I can be? And when we when we had started
to have an initial conversations, he made that very clear
to me, Coach Amson, I want to come to Houston.
Speaker 3: We didn't have to recruit him.
Speaker 2: He chose us, and all the conversations we had with
him was about him getting better and the reasons why
he wanted to get better in the areas that he
felt he needed to improve in. So he came in
here with the right attitude. H He has surrendered to
the culture of the program. He has fit seamlessly in
with our kids because like all the all of our kids,
he's a great human beings, outstanding person. So you know,
Mylos's best days I think are still ahead of him.
Speaker 3: We still wanted him to be a little bit more
aggressive in the shot clock.
Speaker 2: His defense in space is getting better, but there's still
a lot of work to do for him and all
our players as we continue to push push on through
this season.
Speaker 1: Farlet your on the last time I think you were
in Tucson, I called the game you were coaching in
Oklahoma and I was calling Utah games. Am I correct
on that you guys even played there? Since then?
Speaker 3: Right? No? That was Andrew Bogus here.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you had given Kevin. You had
Kevin book out Oklahoma. I remember him very very well.
Let's get to your squad has gone to Kansas and
played you have played at Iowa State. There are some
ferocious arenas in the Big Twelve. But my guess is
your team is mature enough to not worry about the elements.
Just appreciate the big crowd. And I don't know what
you want to put on it if it was just
one game, but you went to Allen Fieldhouse. There are
a lot of great basketball players, Kevin that have been
in that building that have completely been shell shocked by
the moment. So going to Tucson, while again great basketball team,
they've got just a couple of blemishes in the conference,
that should be nothing in terms of a overwhelming.
Speaker 4: Moment for your squad going in that building on Saturday.
Speaker 3: Well, I wouldn't say nothing.
Speaker 5: I mean, that's I coached in the Pac Ten against
coach loud Olsen's teams with Damon Stanemyer, Khalid Reeves, Sean Elliott,
Steve Kerr.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's that's that's up there with all the
great basketball arenas in the country. They do have a
great home court advantage which is why they never lose.
I don't think I think they're undefeated at home this
year in the conference.
Speaker 3: I think that's right.
Speaker 2: But you know, when you go on the road and
you're playing at Houston or at Arizona or at Kansas,
if you win, it's an unbelievable win, but if you lose,
it's not the end of the world. You're planning a
team that probably should win this game at home, But
for us, it's an opportunity to take a step forward
and see if we can compete at that.
Speaker 3: Kind of atmosphere with the team that's fighting for the
league championship.
Speaker 2: This year they got they got an outstanding team, great
depth up front. Coach Lloyd has done an unbelievable job there,
Caleb Love, Jaylen Bradley, kJ Lewis del Orso good back court.
Speaker 3: So two really good teams.
Speaker 2: One of them's gonna win, one of them's gonna lose,
and whicheverone wins, we'll move on down the road, and
which everyone loses, they'll do the same thing.
Speaker 3: Can get to the.
Speaker 1: Next And lastly, what's the one thing you want to
see from your squad between now and the end of
the season that thinks it will be the determining factor
about how you go deep in the tournament, and obviously
Weird would like to get you back to the final four.
What is there anything you're looking for still at this
point or do you feel like just maintaining what you
have brought to the program you started talking to the
kids about when you first got together during the summertime.
Speaker 3: Well, I think all coaches this time.
Speaker 2: Of year, Matt, your biggest concern is the things that
are out of your control, and that's help. You know,
Baylor took a huge hit when they lost their center.
You know, you're gonna look around the country. Everybody's got
kids out, seems like, and we've certainly been through that
with our program. And so we pray for good We
pray for good health, and just keep working on the
things that's got us to where we are.
Speaker 3: I mean, we're twenty what is our record? Twenty and four,
twelve and one in the league.
Speaker 2: There's some things we need to get better at, some
areas we need to shore up, but you're always trying
to work to get better. You watch film, you identify
problem areas, and you go out there and do the
best you can to clean them up. But when you're
playing good teams, you're not gonna shut these teams out
and they're not gonna show two out.
Speaker 3: It comes down to depth on the bench.
Speaker 2: I think one of the strains of our teams is Malik,
Terrence and j b Are coming off the bench. Those
three guys, yeah, have all contributed to winning for us,
and then the other guys just keep working.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 2: It's a you know you're gonna lose games on the
road in the Big twelve, does all teams do, and
but your your ability to bounce back and get to
the next one. And we're only about three or four
weeks away from getting to the conference tournament, so you
just want to keep playing well this time.
Speaker 3: Of the year.
Speaker 1: Kevin, thank you for the time. It's always safe travels
to Arizona. We really appreciate. Congratulations and yet another twenty
one season, I think one hundred weeks in the top
twenty five. Outstanding accomplishments for you and your organization, your squad,
your staff, and we wish you the very best coming
up in the next couple weeks.
Speaker 3: Okay, thanks for having me
Speaker 4: On man, you got a Kelvin Sampson with us here.