TOUGHER THAN THE REST
Sampson’s Cougars put on another display of elite tenacity with blowout win vs. Texas
Scrappy isn’t a favored compliment in modern basketball. Players would prefer to be described as skilled.
But scrappiness is one of UH’s skills.
Kelvin Sampson’s Cougars play basketball on an advanced-tech court like they’re playing on dirt with hula hoops and jump ropes.
Dust flying everywhere. They attack the ball relentlessly. Hands, feet, elbows, knees, the Cougars will throw whatever it takes to make the game difficult for an opponent.
Saturday, it was the Texas Longhorns’ turn to get caught in the dust storm. As you might imagine, it wasn’t pretty.
The Cougars treated a standing-room-only, record crowd of 7,904 at the Fertitta Center to a dirty beatdown of the Longhorns, who simply couldn’t handle UH’s pressure.
UH’s oppressive defensive attack might not be Nolan Richardson’s trademarked “40 Minutes of Hell,” but it’s hell for 40 minutes.
Ask the Longhorns.
“They out-toughed us,” Texas guard Max Abmas said after he was held to 2-of-14 shooting and 10 points below his average in the 82-61 rout.
The Cougars jumped on the Longhorns inside and out and on both ends of the floor, holding Texas to its lowest scoring output this season. The 21point margin of victory is tied for the third-best for the Cougars in the series history, behind Phi Slama Jama blowout wins in 1981 and ’83.
UH had 13 steals, seven blocked shots and bodychecked UT into its worst shooting game of the season.
You could tell by the way Sampson and his coaching staff were at several points in the game — all standing, barking instructions or mimicking defensive stances to players on the court — that they wanted this one.
We’re talking Texas, and the three staffers seated closest to the Cougars players on the bench all played for Sampson at Oklahoma. They have that Red River Rivalry in their blood.
Sampson downplayed the victory.
“We’ve won too much to be excited about winning,” Sampson said.
On to Iowa State. The 10thranked Cyclones will be at Fertitta Center on Monday night, with first place in the Big 12 Conference on the line.
Sampson knows that his team must continue to get better to contend for a national championship. There is a long way to go. The Final Four is almost two months away.
Charles McClelland, the SWAC commissioner and former TSU athletic director, announced on CBS just before the game that the Cougars currently hold a No. 1 seed and are ranked No. 3 overall.
Barring a late-season collapse — UH has six games remaining before the Big 12 Tournament — the Cougars are almost certainly headed to the South Region, where the regional semifinals and final will be at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.
Sampson and Co. aren’t thinking anywhere near that far ahead. They were locked in on the Longhorns.
After taking a 40-27 lead at the half, UH forced a turnover on the first possession of the second half, leading to a Jamal Shead 3-pointer to begin a 13-2 run, and the rout was on.
With officials allowing a more physical game, the Longhorns didn’t stand a chance.
“They’re really relentless on the glass, and they’re a physical team,” UT coach Rodney Terry said. “If you give them second-chance opportunities, they really crack you on the glass, it’s going to be a long night for you.
“You gotta stand your ground. These guys are elite.”
UH, which won the rebounding battle 45-34, thanks to a whopping 17 offensive boards, attacked offensively with the same vigor as its always stout defense, putting up the second-most points it has scored in a Big 12 game.
L.J. Cryer, who was off last week, making just 4-of-17 shots in wins over Oklahoma State and Cincinnati, led UH with 26 points and six 3-pointers.
Shead was all over the court, contributing 16 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, six steals and two blocked shots.
UH is 19-1 when it makes 40% of its shots. If the Cougars were more skilled at shooting, they would be virtually unbeatable. UH is 255th in the country (out of 351) in field goal percentage and 145th on 3-pointers.
Good thing they hold teams to the fewest points and the worst field-goal shooting.
They’re this tough, this unyielding defensively, despite not having a rotation player over 6-foot-8. They are much more than scrappy.
“The most overrated thing in basketball is how tall you are,” Sampson said. “It’s your toughness level. You’re competitiveness level. It’s not getting on the ground for a loose ball, it’s being the first on the floor.
“There is a huge difference in playing hard and competing. Every team we play against plays hard. But they don’t all compete. Our kids compete.”