Kelvin Sampson Pushes Houston to Be His Best Defensive Team Ever — and Jamal Shead Is Already Challenging Himself

Kelvin Sampson could have been a great poker player if fate took him in that direction. University of Houston’s athletic program savior rarely shows all his cards. And when I ask if this particular UH basketball team can be the best defensive team he’s ever coached, Sampson quickly dismisses it as largely too early to know. But the truth he’s been telling his players that it’s in reach, pushing them to reach a level no other Houston team — or any Kelvin Sampson — has ever gotten to defensively.

Which is saying a lot for arguably the best defensive program in college basketball today.

“Coach Sampson has said before about us being one of the best defensive teams he’s ever had,” UH shooting guard Emanuel Sharp tells PaperCity. “Especially when everybody’s firing on all cylinders, I think we can be the best defensive team.”

Houston currently leads the nation in scoring defense (limiting opponents to an average of 50 points per game in its 12-0 start). Point guard Jamal Shead and Co. are also rank first in the country in field goal percentage defense, holding opponents to 34.8 percent shooting. Last year’s Houston team, with two first round NBA draft picks in Jarace Walker and Marcus Sasser, ended up second in the nation in scoring defense, allowing an average of 56.5 points per game and holding opponents to 36.4 percent shooting (second in the country) during the regular season. The 2021-22 Houston team that made it to all the way to the Elite Eight, despite crippling injuries, finished seventh in the country in scoring defense, giving up an average of 58.9 points per game. Houston’s breakthrough 2020-21 Final Four team ranked second in America in scoring defense, allowing just 57.5 points per game.

Sampson’s best Oklahoma team — the 31-5 Final Four team in 2oo1-02 — finished 40th in the nation in scoring defense, letting up 64.6 points per game (playing in the Big 12 rather than the AAC). Kelvin Sampson has detailed how he thinks he’s become a significantly better coach as a result of his NCAA-forced NBA sabbatical pre Houston — and that includes how he approaches defense.

It’s still early in this season and Houston’s defense  will face serious tests soon — including against Penn, an elite 3-point shooting team, Saturday at Fertitta Center and at Iowa State, which ranks fourth in the nation in offensive efficiency, in the Cougars’ first Big 12 road game on January 9 — but this UH team has the chance to be Kelvin Sampson’s defensive master class.

“Just the want to do it,” senior forward J’Wan Roberts says when I ask what drives this particular Houston defense to be the best. “We know we’re not a first shot team. We’re not trying to do we score, they score. We live on stops.

“Just having a swagger to ourselves. If our offense isn’t going, our defensive will get us going. Shot clock violations, steals, blocked shots — that gets us hyped. Knowing that every night when a team plays against us, it’s going to be a hard night for them.

“Just going into the game with a chip on our shoulder that we’re the No. 1 defensive team in the nation. We hold our hats to that.”

In some important ways, key players on this Houston team are driven by how the Cougars faltered down the stretch defensively (by their lofty standards) last season. Including giving up 89 points to Miami in that season-ending Sweet 16 loss.

“Last year was good, but towards the end of the season we fell off a little bit on defense,” Sharp says.

Shead and Roberts both also bring up the end of last season as being defensive drivers. Of course, Shead will tell you that the number of new players in the rotation — whether it’s experienced transfers like LJ Cryer and Damian Dunn 0r a true freshman like power forward JoJo Tugler — helps too.

“I think the fact we have a lot of new guys who are pretty scared of Coach Sampson,” Shead tells PaperCity of what makes this particular team so good on defense. “Especially since we aren’t scoring anyway. We’re having trouble scoring. So defense has been our No. 1 option really.

“And we’re doing it at a really high level.”

UH consistently plays defense at another level under Kelvin Sampson. But even this basketball lifer admits he can try more with the personnel on this team.

“We’re 12 games in,” Sampson says of the best defense possibilities. “I think it’s too early to start throwing crowns on people. We’ve got to keep working. We have been working on some secondary defenses. Some different things.”

In reality, the best defense Sampson ever coached is a debate that likely will never be definitively answered. This Houston team is liable to give up more points per game playing in the best conference in college basketball (the Big 12) than the recent elite defensive teams Sampson coached in the AAC did. But it could still be a better defensive team. Raw numbers won’t determine it. In reality, this team’s defense should be graded by what these Cougars achieve. How far they go. How much they frustrate Big 12 offenses and other ultra elite teams in the NCAA Tournament.

The bigger picture may be much more simple though. Kelvin Sampson has already achieved the impossible. In a basketball world where everyone is obsessed with scoring, Houston’s coach has his players fixated on defense, driven to become better and better at it. These Cougars are pushing each other to guard better, to rotate more crisply, to help with more authority.

It turns out a little challenge can go a long way.

“Coach Sampson has said before about us being one of the best defensive teams he’s ever had. Especially when everybody’s firing on all cylinders, I think we can be the best defensive team.” — Emanuel Sharp

Houston Thrives On Disruption

One thing that sets this particular Houston defense apart is Shead, Cryer, Sharp and Co.’s ability to disrupt an offense, to force turnovers and create havoc like a tornado ripping through the land. UH currently ranks fifth in the nation in steals per game with Sharp getting four himself in the Cougars’ last game — that 72-37 throttling of Texas State.

That is a sign of a former 3-point specialist’s own defensive growth.

“He just got tired of getting scored on,” Shead says of Sharp. “The emphasis is we play defense. This program, we play defense. And he’s just getting used to the culture and playing to it.”

Shead credits Sharp’s improved defense with setting up the wing man’s emergence as a regular starter. “When he started being in that starting lineup, it wasn’t because he was scoring the ball,” Shead says. “It was because he was guarding the other team’s three man or two man really well. Coach rewards what he thinks is important to our culture.

“And E-Man is just doing a really good job of playing to it.”

Sharp is partly pushed by the defensive want-to he sees all around him, the drive to be collectively great on that end of the court.

“I think it’s just the effort all around,” Sharp tells PaperCity. “Last year’s team, we weren’t all connected together at the same time. So with all of us this year putting in full effort — with all five guys on the court being connected at the same time — that’s what makes us such a good defensive team.

“When we’re all going hard at the same time.”

One potential advantage this UH team has over the one last year that faltered somewhat defensively down the stretch is superior depth. This Houston team can go nine deep (even with uber talented sophomore forward Terrance Arceneaux’s season-ending Achilles injury and J’Wan Roberts lingering knee issue dealing blows to that depth). While last year’s team boasted top line talents in Walker, Sasser, Tramon Mark and Shead, it wore out as the season went on.

“Most definitely,” Roberts says without hesitation when I ask if this can be the best defensive team he’s ever been on. “Just based off our bench too. Not even the starting five. Just having five guys come off the bench who play the same way. Coach always says we have 10 starters. Just because you’re not starting the game, doesn’t mean you’re not a starter.

“Just having depth. Having guys we can trust who come in the game and play the same role as the starting five, it just gives us a lot of confidence.”

“Just going into the game with a chip on our shoulder that we’re the No. 1 defensive team in the nation. We hold our hats to that.” — UH forward J’Wan Roberts

Shead, arguably the best defensive guard in college basketball (UH associate head coach Quannas White and other observers will tell you there is no argument, Shead owns that title), spearheads this defensive force as both the chief disruptor and top lockdown defender. But Shead is challenging himself to do more on this end of the court.

“I try to be,” Shead says of being the best defensive guard in America. “. . . But (Texas A&M star) Wade (Taylor IV) had 34 on me. So we’ll see if I can keep that title. If not, we’re going to try to get to that.”

Shead knows the push cannot stop. Not if this Houston team is going reach the rarefied air that Kelvin Sampson is telling his players they can. The best defensive team Sampson’s ever coached? It’s within reach.