Jarace Walker Knows Houston’s Elite Program Truths — Rolling Over Texas Is Expected and NBA Guys Coming Back to See Kelvin Sampson Almost Means More

The second half hasn’t even started yet and Jarace Walker is straining to be heard over the noise, the excitement, the big-time atmosphere that is University of Houston basketball’s every day. So Walker repeats himself, wanting this to be heard over the din of UH v. UT at the Fertitta Center.

“I want to see them win the whole thing,” Walker says. “I want to see them win the whole thing.”

Walker flashes his million dollar smile (or his $27 million smile if you want to be precise), a Top 10 NBA pick who still treasures his connection to Kelvin Sampson’s University of Houston program. And Walker knows what only those truly steeped in this program are able to grasp.

Sweeping Texas is sweet. Nice. And completely expected. It may be a monumental deal for longtime UH devotees used to dealing with the haughty, often sneering superiority of Longhorn fans. It may be eye opening for those in Houston who still don’t quite quite realize the truly rarefied air Sampson program operates in (which still includes more in the media than you’d think), those swayed by things like Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud, the most popular athlete in Houston by a landslide right now, wanting to be around it.

Houston dominating Texas 82-61 in a CBS national showcase produces plenty of good feelings. But it’s not close to this program’s be all. If the University of Houston beat the University of Texas in football, it’d produce absolute hysteria. If Dana Holgorsen had been able to pull it off last fall, he’d still be the UH head coach. If UH beat UT in football, the school’s billionaire believer Tilman Fertitta would be going crazy.

But this isn’t football. This is Kelvin Sampson’s UH basketball program. And in basketball, the University of Texas is the little brother. And the gap only seems to get wider and more Houston slanted every season. Jumping to the SEC may help the University of Texas find a few easier games in basketball. These Longhorns certainly won’t lament not having to take regular beatings from UH, which this delicious rare transition season opened up a brief window for.

Fertitta is happy after UH 82, Texas 61. But he certainly does not seem surprised.

“It’s great,” Fertitta tells PaperCity. “I think it just shows what a great program we have, the unbelievable job that Kelvin has done. To beat Texas on CBS national TV at the Fertitta Center is a great feeling.”

Sweet. Nice. And completely expected. Kelvin Sampson’s UH basketball program does not get bullied. It bullies. Jarace Walker knows this. So do Marcus Sasser, Kyler Edwards, Nate Hinton, Hakeem Olajuwon and all the other former UH athletes who come back to campus for this one (including Cougar athletics’ modern pied piper for good Tank Dell).

“Jamal (Shead) isn’t going to let ’em lose,” Walker says of his point guard buddy who posts a 16 point, 11 rebound, six steal, six assist, two block line.

Neither is J’Wan Roberts, who hugs his teammates in the tunnel before the game, comes out as intense as a rabid raccoon, displays his underrated passing skills out of the post and nearly brings down a CBS camera with the ferocity of one of his late game dunks. Neither is LJ Cryer, the natural scorer who pours in a season-high 26 points and only misses four of the 13 shots he takes. Neither is one Kelvin Sampson, who coaches his 1101th game like he coached the first 1100. With no letup at all.

“We’ve won too much to get excited about winning,” Sampson says after beating UT by 21 points and never leading by less than 17 in the final 18 minutes of the game. “I hope you don’t take that the wrong way. We expect to win.”

Even UT fans almost seem to expect this result. There is a surprising lack of burnt orange (or any shades of orange) in a lit, rocking Fertitta Center for this national TV game. Any worries about Houston fans selling tickets in droves to big money Texas backers turn out to about as reality based as Bigfoot. There were significantly more Kansas Stare fans in Fertitta for that Big 12 matchup than Texas backers in this one. Maybe fickle UT fans know what’s coming.

Kelvin Sampson beats Texas. Always has. He’s now 20-9 against UT as the head coach at Oklahoma and Houston. He’s brought those expectations, his expectations, to The Third Ward, made wins over the school that still looms as the boogeyman for many UH programs seem almost routine. This may be one of his greatest gifts, another one of the many remarkable Sampson feats.

Houston basketball doesn’t need to prove anything against Texas. Sweeping the Longhorns this season — the only season UH and UT are likely to play in a non-tournament setting for a long, long time — is not even that imperative for recruiting purposes. Because Houston basketball’s NCAA Tournament success and that roll call of professional players eager to come back to the program speaks for itself there.

“We’ve always been able to recruit high level kids, high character kids,” UH associate head coach Quannas White tells PaperCity. “I don’t think it’s an advantage to win against Texas schools. We have a really good program. It’s not just about beating Texas schools. . .

“Just the winning that we’ve been doing, even in the American (Athletic) Conference. You look at Jarace Walker (a McDonald’s All-American who chose Houston). We wasn’t in the Big 12, right? And he still signed here. They just love our culture. They love our play and how Coach hands down freedom to our guys. Then the development thing. That’s the biggest thing recruits look at. They all have their goals of reaching the NBA.

“And they know we do a really good job of developing our guys and preparing them for that.”

Jarace Walker, Marcus Sasser and the Tradition of UH Stars Returning

In some ways, Walker, Sasser, Edwards and Hinton all being in the Fertitta Center — choosing to spend the NBA All-Star break back with the college program that developed them — means even more than UH 82, Texas 61. Especially Walker, who has no real natural ties to the state of Texas, returning at his first chance.

“If you think about it, Jarace is from Maryland,” White says. “But all those guys, no matter if they’re not from Houston, they all come back because of everything they got from this program. It speaks volumes. If they didn’t have a good experience, then they wouldn’t come back. This just doesn’t happen everywhere. You have to have something really special.

“And we have something really special going on at Houston.”

If sweeping UT this season opens more people’s eyes to this, all the better. But the truth is Jamal Shead is as pumped up to play in front of his guys (Walker, Sasser and Edwards) as he is to get another chance at Texas, the near hometown program that never gave him a real look in recruiting. The ones who came before you matter in Kelvin Sampson’s Houston program. You’re forever linked.

“Those are my boys,” Shead says. “We’ve been through so much over the years. And them coming to watch us play is always an honor.”

Sasser came in Friday night, Walker took an early morning Saturday flight to be here for this game. “Them being back is not the start of our communication,” Shead says. “I talk to those guys weekly. Jarace almost every day. Marcus almost every day. Kyler almost every day. We stay in touch. Those are my brothers.”

“We’ve won too much to get excited about winning. I hope you don’t take that the wrong way. We expect to win.” — UH coach Kelvin Sampson

Shead keeps expanding his circle of joy, bringing along as many as he can. And make no mistake, the nation’s third ranked team plays with plenty of joy. Yes, this now 22-3 Houston team expects to win. In a game against a 16-9 (5-7 Big 12) Texas team that doesn’t operate on the same plane. In every game. Yes, Shead, Cryer, Roberts (nine points, seven rebounds, four assists), Emanuel Sharp (15 points) and Co. take the detailed scouting reports UH’s topnotch coaching staff put together extremely seriously.

That is how you limit the impact of UT’s 3-point bombing center Dylan Disu (just two threes made) and hound the Longhorns lifeline guard Max Abmas into 2 for 14 shooting. That is how you frustrate Texas into its lowest total point total of the season.

But the joy still comes out when Sampson’s Cougars are cutting off an opponent’s passing lines, disrupting with the zeal of would be Silicon Valley maverick, getting out into the open court and turning the havoc worthy of that new Twisters movie into open threes and dunks. Houston terrorizes Texas to the tune of 13 steals with Shead and Sharp combining for 10 of those.

Even Dora keeps a better hold of her stuff around Swiper.

“We watch a lot of film and put in a lot of preparation time,” Shead says. “Those six steals are about being in the right spots.”

“All those guys, no matter if they’re not from Houston, they all come back because of everything they got from this program. It speaks volumes. If they didn’t have a good experience, then they wouldn’t come back. This just doesn’t happen everywhere. You have to have something really special.” — UH associate head coach Quannas White

Now Houston is in the right spot to secure a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament (again) and in position to take sole possession of first place in the best basketball conference in America with a home win over Top 10 (and still undervalued) Iowa State in a Big  Monday ESPN showdown.

So much for Kelvin Sampson’s program needing any type of Big 12 transition year.

“Before the year started, people talked about Houston not being a fit for the Big 12,” UH senior forward J’Wan Roberts tells PaperCity. “Houston’s not supposed to be in the Big 12. We heard all of it. But we know that any conference that we play in, we’re going to be pretty good. We’re going to be OK. Because we play hard.

“We’ve been a good program for a very long time. Being No. 1 in the Big 12 I wouldn’t say is a surprise because we that type of program.”

One that turns games that everyone else wants to hype up into routine wins. You get the idea Kelvin Sampson’s already moved on to Iowa State by the time he reaches Houston’s locker room.

“We were solid,” the coach says of the 21-point rollover of Texas — and you can almost hear the shrug. “I don’t think we were great at anything today. Just pretty solid at everything.”

Sweeping Texas is sweet. Nice. And completely expected. That’s a special gift of its own.