Cougars trying to avoid letdown
AAC frontrunner has won 8 straight but not overlooking test posed by E. Carolina
Pay no attention to where East Carolina is in the American Athletic Conference standings.
That’s the message from University of Houston coach Kelvin Sampson for Wednesday night — or any night and opponent for that matter — as the fifth-ranked Cougars play the Pirates at Minges Coliseum in Greenville, N.C.
The Cougars (15-1) are on eight-game winning streak and reside alone in first place in the AAC, three games ahead of Wichita State and Memphis. East Carolina (7-6), which has lost five in a row, is at the bottom of the 11-team AAC.
Along with being in position for a third straight AAC regularseason title, UH is in the discussion for the No. 1-seed line in the NCAA tournament.
“We don’t approach anybody any different than anybody else,” Sampson said. “If you watch us practice, and you watched my approach to practices, it doesn’t matter who we play. It wouldn’t matter if we would play (top-ranked) Gonzaga Wednesday night. Our preparation is not going to be any different. It’s our next game. That one counts as much as any other one.”
ECU presents challenges, beginning with 6-7 junior forward Jayden Gardner, who had 29 points and 19 rebounds in the only meeting against UH last season.
“We couldn’t guard him in a phone booth,” Sampson said. “We have to find out how we are going to guard him.”
Gardner is coming off two of his best games of the season, having scored 23 points against Central Florida and 26 points on 11-of-16 shooting against Tulsa. For the season, Gardner is averaging 17.1 points and 8.1 rebounds.
In hindsight, Sampson said Gardner should have been the AAC’s preseason player of the year, an honor that went to UH guard Caleb Mills, who struggled with injuries all season and transferred to Florida State in early January.
Sampson has been watching Gardner since he was in high school and playing for Team Loaded, an AAU team from North Carolina. On that same team? Former UH guard Nate Hinton, who is now playing for the Dallas Mavericks.
“He’s a load,” Sampson said of Gardner. “Our focus is getting a good game plan together on how we want to attack him and contain him if we can.”