Refocused Jarreau ‘ready to go’
Sampson says senior guard worked hard to improve after backsliding last season
As the University of Houston went through the scouting report, coach Kelvin Sampson already had an idea who hewanted to draw the toughest defensive assignment.
Sampson said senior guard DeJon Jarreau “set the tone” the next day with his lockdown defense on Boise State’s leading scorer, Derrick Alston Jr., in the Cougars’ 68-58 victory Friday. Alston, the Mountain West Conference’s preseason player of the year, went 0for-6 from the floor in a scoreless 32 minutes.
“He wanted that assignment,” said Sampson, whose No. 17 Cougars play No. 14Texas Tech on Sunday in Fort Worth. “He embraced that challenge. You could tell he was ready to go.”
The performance was a good start for Jarreau as he enters his final collegiate season. Sampson called Jarreau the Cougars’ “most improved player” during the offseason and said he was motivated to put a difficult season in the rear-view mirror.
Jarreau, a 6-foot-5 guard from New Orleans, briefly put his name into the NBA draft pool this summer before deciding to stay in school.
“I think it’s good to get feedback” from the NBA advisory board, Sampson said. “When he got the feedback, he showed it tome. It wasn’t real pretty, but about what I thought, and it should have been what he thought.”
Sampson said he had several “man-to-man talks” with Jarreau during the offseason. The 65-year-old coach was brutally honest in his assessment.
“I don’t think last year went theway hewanted it to go, obviously,” Sampson said. “DeJon didn’t have a good year. He’s got to play better.”
“I was very honest with him about his demeanor, his expectations for himself,” Sampson added. “Humility is an important part of everybody’s life. When you start thinking you are a little better than you are, that’s when life gets in the way, sometimes in a good way. Sometimes you need to be put in your spot, and I think that was (last season) for DeJon and his motivation for this season.”
A year after being named the Sixth Man of the Year in the American Athletic Conference, Jarreau saw a slight uptick in scoring (8.7 to 9.0 points per game) last season, but his field-goal percentage plunged (from .471 to .374) and his turnovers skyrocketed (63 to 85) last season as he moved in and out of the starting lineup.
Still, he has posted consecutive 100-assist seasons, and he has a chance to be just the eighth player in program history to reach the mark in three straight seasons.
While there’s no disputing Jarreau’s basketball IQ and athletic ability, Sampson said the “crazy stuff on the court drives me nuts.”
That doesn’t mean Sampson wants to change anything.
“You don’t necessarily want to take that fromhim,” Sampson said. “He’s a little like one of those quarterbacks that’s going to throwa couple of interceptions, but he also might throw five touchdown passes. If yougo messing with his interceptions, you might take away his touchdown passes. There has to be a balance there.”
Through two games this season, Jarreau is averaging 7.5 points and 6.5 assists but shot only 25 percent in wins over Lamar and Boise State.
Sampson said Jarreau has a “different focus” to go along with his leadership role as a senior who has been on back-to-back AAC regular-season championship teams.
“I think he is focused on chasing one rabbit,” Sampson said. “Last year if I put DeJon in the gym and let 10 rabbits loose, I don’t think hewould catch any of them. He would be chasing one and, out of the corner of his eye, he’d see another one and leave (to) go chase that one. Before he got to that one, he’d see another run and go chase that one. I think he was trying to catch too many rabbits last year and didn’t catch any of them.
“I think this is going to be a good year for him. He desperately wants to do well. We’re all pulling for him.”