Next Step Wichita Truths For UH — Peak Kelvin Sampson Is Only In ‘The Middle Of His Prime’ In Kellen Sampson’s View, Ja’Vier Francis Saves a Win and LJ Cryer’s Over It

KANSAS CITY — Finally back at his locker after the fun picture mugging, net cutting and confetti dropping, LJ Cryer has already moved on. To the University of Houston guard who may be as obsessed with winning everything all the time as much as Kelvin Sampson, this Big 12 Tournament championship needs to become an afterthought.

Like now.

“I don’t know,” Cryer tells PaperCity, interrupting his own more standard rote answer in its first sentence. “I’m already over it honestly. Ready for what’s next.”

What’s next is a No. 1 seed (the third straight for Kelvin Sampson’s increasingly peerless program) in almost certainly either the Midwest (Indianapolis) or the UH preferred (0f these two choices) West (San Francisco) Regional when the March high holy NCAA Tournament bracket is revealed at 5 pm this Sunday evening on CBS. UH will almost assuredly start with a Thursday first round game in Wichita, Kansas — and with a win over a 16th seed, a Saturday second round game.

In many ways, the real March has just begun. It’s not that sweeping through the Big 12 Tournament after ripping through the grueling Big 12 regular season, going a combined 22-1 against some of the best competition college basketball has isn’t satisfying.

Kelvin Sampson pulled his grandkids Maisy Jade and Kylen out of the stands, with his wife Karen, to celebrate before Shaq settled into DJ mode across the street. This 69-year-old basketball lifer of a coach makes sure his players get their moments of joy. No one can appreciate how hard what this 30-4 Houston team did is better than this veteran of 36 college coaching seasons (and still counting).

“Validation, I don’t know,” says Karen Sampson, who knows how Kelvin Sampson reacts to things better than anyone else on the planet. “Exciting, exciting. And without (injured ankle resting) J’Wan Roberts, everybody else had to step up. That’s what’s exciting, look at all the people that stepped up. All these guys.

“We needed everybody.”

Including Kelvin Sampson himself who scrapped the entire offensive game plan UH came into the Big 12 championship game with and replaced it with something completely new at halftime (racing to the locker room even before Arizona’s put back slam at the buzzer had completely dropped through the net to do it). Sampson went to an offense that feigned screens (ghost screens) to give Houston’s talented guards, point guard Milos Uzan in particular, room to operate in the middle of the floor and get the matchups UH could exploit.

“Sometimes you’ve got to matchup hunt,”Sampson tells PaperCity. “Sometimes you’ve got to go look for matchups and that’s what we did.”

Uzan would score 17 of his career high 25 points after Sampson’s complete overhaul on the fly, the kind of thing other coaches marvel over.

When Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark takes the microphone during the official Big 12 championship trophy and raves about what having Sampson in the league means to him, Kellen Sampson feels a sense of pride of his own. That more and more people are finally getting it.

“He’s the most talented individual I’ve ever been around,” the lead UH assistant tells PaperCity of his dad. “It’s so rewarding for me as his son when other people see how gifted he is. And to recognize how gifted he is. Yes, he’s brimstone, fire, competitive energy and comes across as this. But that man is so gifted. He’s so talented. He has such a unique way of connecting the dots.

“He’s in his prime. I don’t know any other way to say it. He’s in the middle of his prime. And it’s awesome he gets to keep doing this.”

Kelvin Sampson will do it in this NCAA Tournament with an all-together national championship super contender that keeps finding answers. In just the three days of this Big 12 Tournament that means true freshman guard Mercy Miller coming off the deep bench to energize a lethargic favorite in the opener against Colorado, 6-foot-3 veteran guard Mylik Wilson turning himself into a rebound and block master (13 rebounds, two uber highlight blocks) with Roberts out in a demolition of BYU and backup center Ja’Vier Francis saving the win over Arizona with JoJo Tugler in foul trouble in the championship game.

“He’s in his prime. I don’t know any other way to say it. He’s in the middle of his prime. And it’s awesome he gets to keep doing this.” — Kellen Sampson on Kelvin Sampson

A March Dunk To Remember

Francis’ offensive rebounding (five) and his heads up aggressive dunk off a broken play with UH clinging to a two point lead with the clock inside 45 seconds are double title savers.

“I tried to hand it off actually,” Francis of just about sweetest almost misfire you’ll ever see. “It kind of bounced around. And it was just a loose ball, grabbed it.”

And UH completed another emphatic takeoff. Because Francis went right to the rim. Strong.

With much more to come. Which brings us back to LJ Cryer. Who’s already so over it.

“I mean I didn’t come to Houston to win the Big 12 Tournament championship,” Cryer tells PaperCity, with the locker room having already largely quieted down. “I came here because I felt like they were going to help me win the big one.

“. . . Now it’s the real tournament.”