Getting Jarreau in tune big plus
Transfer helps Cougars achieve ‘unbelievable’ rise
As driven, focused and engaged as Kelvin Sampson can be, the Houston basketball coach finally managed the time to soak in what the Cougars are accomplishing. A No. 9 national ranking in the Associated Press poll, which was released earlier this week, got his attention.
“I had my hallelujah moment,” Sampson said. “When I went home (Monday night), my wife (Karen) made me have one. I hadn’t seen her all day. I was extremely busy. I finally got home about 8, and she said, ‘Stop. Your team is in the top 10 in the nation. That’s unbelievable.’
“I said, ‘It is, isn’t it?’ And we just smiled and had a hug and fist pump, and that’s cool. But I’m happy for these kids. They’ve worked so hard. And I’m happy for our coaches.”
It is Houston’s first top-10 ranking since the 1983-84 team finished No. 5. That was a season when Akeem (as he was known then) Olajuwon and Michael Young were running up and down the court at Hofheinz Pavilion en route to a national championship game appearance against Georgetown.
“Definitely a step in the right direction,” said guard Corey Davis Jr., who leads
the Cougars with a 15.5 scoring average and is the American Athletic Conference Player of the Week. “This program has so much good history, and to see us put the basketball program back to where it once was means a lot.”
The Cougars’ national ranking will be on the line Thursday at struggling and short-handed Connecticut (13-11, 4-7), which has lost three of its last four games but is 12-2 at home. Connecticut had a rotation of only seven players in its 78-71 defeat at Memphis on Sunday. UConn’s best player and leading scorer, Jalen Adams, is out for the season with a sprained knee.
Even though the Huskies have suffered injuries, they possess size in 6-10 Josh Carlton, 6-9 Eric Cobb and 6-8 Tyler Polley. Guard Christian Vital averages 14.0 points for a team that is second in the AAC in 3-point field-goal percentage (.354).
“Playing on the road regardless of who you’re playing is always tough,” said 6-5 sophomore point guard DeJon Jarreau, who was instrumental in Houston’s 65-58 home win over No. 25 Cincinnati on Sunday by scoring a seasonhigh 16 points. “Especially now. Since we’ve become the team we’ve become, everybody is coming out wanting to see their team beat us, so when we play away, it’s going to be hard because they want to beat us so bad. We have to keep playing how we play.”
In his breakout game against Cincinnati, Jarreau came off the bench to replace Galen Robinson Jr. and scored 14 of his points, including 11 straight at one point, in the final eight minutes. Jarreau’s penetration to the basket and excellence in transition helped Houston up its record to 23-1, 10-1 in conference for sole possession of first place in the AAC and extended its winning streak to eight games.
“It felt great to come out and play my type of game and show everybody what I can do,” said Jarreau, who added eight rebounds and five assists. “But credit to my teammates, because while (the Bearcats) were worried about the (UH) shooters and extending their defense, that just gave me a lane to drive in and make plays happen.
“That’s my type of game, and once they collapsed, I know how to distribute the ball to my shooters. I took what they gave me, and it worked out. That’s my game — getting out in transition, coming off pick-and-roll making plays. That’s what I do best. I’m trying to extend my game more, but in a nutshell, that’s my game. Transition, slashing, making my teammates better, getting out and running.”
Davis has seen the vintage Jarreau, who prepped at a New Orleans high school before beginning his college career at Massachusetts, along with current teammate Brison Gresham. Davis played high school ball in Lafayette, La., before playing at San Jacinto College.
“DeJon is a kid that once he gets comfortable in a situation, he becomes himself,” Davis said. “I’ve seen DeJon play since we were in high school, so I’ve seen what he’s capable of, and it’s not anything close to touching the surface.”
A highly rated recruit out of McDonogh 35 College Prep, Jarreau basically went from March 2017 to November 2018 without playing a competitive basketball game. After transferring from UMass, he enrolled at Howard College last year and did not participate in basketball while redshirting.
Once he was eligible to play for the Cougars, Jarreau had a rough go at the beginning. The liberal studies major was dealing with the death of a grandmother and cousin in the fall. And after playing 24 minutes in the opener against Alabama A&M, Jarreau missed the next seven games for an unspecified violation of team rules as well as suffering a severe finger injury and bruised knee in practice.
“It’s just taken him awhile,” Sampson said. “When he first got here, he was all over the place. But he’s become a good practice player. DeJon was a turnover machine early, and now he’s learning to run his team and be more vocal. He’s nowhere close to being as good as he’s going to be.
“He’s had to learn to not always force it. This isn’t a one-on-one game where you just try to beat your man for 30 seconds. He’ll get off the ball, move it. That’s the thing he’s doing better.”