Houston’s Iceman — Emanuel Sharp Makes Jim Nantz Marvel, Jarace Walker Crow and Even a Coach’s Wife Breathe With Cooper Flagg Approaching

In the happy chaos of Kelvin Sampson’s University of Houston team bursting into the Final Four, Jim Nantz seeks out Emanuel Sharp on the confetti-strewn Lucas Oil Stadium court. “Man,” Nantz says as he clasps Sharp on the back. “You’ve got that ice in your veins.”

Sharp grins. Nantz isn’t wrong. If there is anyone who’s going to not feel the pressure of a win-or-cry-your-way-home NCAA Tournament game, it’s going to be Emanuel Sharp. Need someone to hit a 3-pointer with your life on the line? Sharp’s a good choice. He won’t buckle and he won’t let a miss haunt him.

Hey, it’s your life.

“He’s always been like that,” Derrick Sharp, Emanuel’s pro player dad, tells PaperCity. “He’s always had no fear. Feast or famine, he’s just going to keep believing in himself.

“He’s a confident kid. And it’s coming out at the right time.”

Just in time for Houston’s Final Four semifinal (7:49 pm Saturday night, CBS) with America’s most hyped team Duke and NBA No. 1 overall pick-to-be Cooper Flagg. Flagg is the overwhelming favorite to win the Most Outstanding Player award at this San Antonio Final Four (technically it’s for the most outstanding player of the entire tournament). Some national sports commentators have even been openly speculating that Flagg could win the MOP even if Duke loses in the national championship game (as if the Blue Devils beating a 34-4 Houston team that’s lost once — by one point — since the end of November is a given on Saturday night).

But for all the Flagg mania, no one collects trophies like Houston’s Emanuel Sharp. The shooting guard just won the MOP for the Midwest Regional after winning the Most Outstanding Player wrestling-style championship belt the Big 12 awards at its conference tournament. Last season, Sharp even won the Halal Guys Showcase MVP for his performance against Texas A&M in one of those November standalone games, getting a gaudy giant necklace that Flavor Flav would appreciate.

“He’s always been like that. He’s always had no fear. Feast or famine, he’s just going to keep believing in himself.” — Derrick Sharp on his son Emanuel

If there’s an award being handed out, Emanuel Sharp will usually nab it. Sharp is actually a little sheepish about this and quickly volunteers that a number of teammates could have easily been given those awards instead (point guard Milos Uzan could have won the Big 12 Tournament MOP, JoJo Tugler could have been the Midwest Regional MOP, All-American guard LJ Cryer is the engine that makes everything go, etc, etc…). Sharp says he’s just lucky to be on such a good team.

It is Sharp’s Stuart Scott cool-as-the-other-side-of-the-pillow threes that bury Tennessee in the Elite Eight. He hits three of them in the last six minutes of the game. The first pushes a slightly wobbling No. 1 seed Houston team back up 13 points. The second makes it 56-42, repelling the Volunteers’ last real push. The third is an exclamation that sends the last of an overwhelming Tennessee crowd to the exits, out into a rain that still has to feel better than what Sharp pelts them with.

Emanuel Sharp is so calmly cool that he even makes Karen Sampson, the coach’s wife whose seen it all and grown conditioned to dread what could go wrong, feel like she can fully watch. With Sharp hitting those three shots — one seemingly after the other with a Mylik Wilson three thrown in — Karen Sampson doesn’t need to pace by a concession stand or look away.

“Those two threes from Eman, that gave us breathing room,” Karen Sampson says. “And I looked around and saw some Tennessee fans leaving.”

A Houston team that found itself searching for a closer early in the season in the wake of all-everything point guard Jamal Shead moving onto the NBA, now has four them in Sharp, LJ Cryer, Milos Uzan and J’Wan Roberts, who bullies Tennessee’s frontline early in UH’s Elite Eight win before being hindered by foul trouble. Kelvin Sampson’s team will need them all playing well in this Final Four.

“Coach Kellen (Sampson) was telling us to be fearless,” Sharp says. “And we learned from that Gonzaga game to not try and play keep away and let the time run out. We’ve got to go score. And that’s what we do.”

Emanuel Sharp,  Built For The Final Four Stage?

The son of two former professional basketball players who both starred in Israel, Emanuel Sharp’s been born and built for this in many ways. His dad Derrick Sharp tells Emanuel he’s the scorer, not the shooter, in the family, reminding him to drive and attack the basket whenever possible (which Emanuel Sharp does against Purdue in the Sweet 16 when he gets to the free-throw line seven times). Justine Ellison Sharp brings the fiery passion, the notion of playing like you’re used to dominating.

“Just trust your work,” Derrick Sharp says. “With all the things he’s been through, he’s just really locked in mentally. He gets it from me and his mom and he’s worked for it.”

Just call him Iceman.

“Eman’s cold,” former UH McDonald’s All-American signee turned Top 10 NBA Draft Pick Jarace Walker tells PaperCity before stepping over a little barrier at his former teammates’ urging to the join the UH celebration after the Final Four clinch.

“Coach Kellen (Sampson) was telling us to be fearless. And we learned from that Gonzaga game to not try and play keep away and let the time run out.” — Emanuel Sharp

Walker played his lone season at Houston with Sharp, Terrance Arceneaux, Ja’Vier Francis, Ramon Walker Jr. and of course J’Wan Roberts from this UH Final Four team. Everyone’s played with J’Wan. Hoopers know fearless hoopers.

“He never backs down,” Walker says of the Sharp he knows.

This Houston guard certainly won’t be scared of any Final Four moment vs. Duke. Whoever the 6-foot-3 Sharp guards in Duke’s long starting lineup will likely have a number of inches on him (it wouldn’t be a surprise if Sharp even gets a few possessions on the 6-foot-9 Flagg as Kelvin Sampson shows the 18-year-old Duke star different looks and UH switches). “It will be good to get out there on the court with them and compete,” Sharp says.

No need to get hot about it.