LJ Cryer Is The Big 12’s Ring Master — On The Cusp Of His 4th Major Conference Championship, Houston’s Guard Refuses to Lose Against Iowa State

Letting LJ Cryer sniff another championship ring is like dropping a bunch of tourists off at Jurassic Park, or World or whatever they’re calling it these days. It’s like giving Demi Moore a chance to make a great speech. Or encouraging Jeff Ross to roast you. You should already know what’s going to happen. If Cryer senses a title moment, a chance to add to his winning hardware, this 6-foot-1 guard is going to find a way to do it. Cryer’s dad Lionel senses it happening in real time against Iowa State as the Fertitta Center reaches a new (slightly nervous) fever pitch on a frenzied ESPN College GameDay Saturday.

Lionel Cryer already knows his son is not going to let Kelvin Sampson’s University of Houston team lose. Not with another Big 12 championship this close. LJ Cryer is the Big 12’s ring master after all, standing on the verge of his fifth major championship in college basketball. Cryer won two Big 12 regular season titles at Baylor (in 2021 and 2022) and another one in his first year at Houston last season. Now Cryer’s pushed UH within one win of clinching no worse than the share of another Big 12 championship. Which would be his fourth Big 12 ring to go with that big national championship ring he collected at Baylor his freshman season.

“It’s crazy,” Lionel Cryer tells PaperCity. “First of all, God has blessed that kid. He’s a terrific kid. He can score the basketball. We know that. Look back at his high school career (at Katy Morton Ranch). But for this kid to have four Big 12 titles in five years and a national championship, it’s a great accomplishment.

“Most people don’t see nothing like that.”

Most people can’t take over a high-level basketball game like LJ Cryer. He puts UH basketball on the brink of its second Big 12 championship in its second year in the league by refusing to let a wounded but ferociously fighting Iowa State team steal a game away. With another ring close, Cryer drops 28 points on the Cyclones, hitting 11 of the 17 shots he takes (including 5 for 7 from three), saving Houston time and time again with breathtaking shot making in a 68-59 game.

Because that’s what it take to win. To push his team to 23-4 and and an amazing 15-1 in the Big 12, three games clear of both Texas Tech and Arizona with four games to play. Kelvin Sampson’s team isn’t just on the verge of an ultra impressive conference championship repeat (and these Cougars aren’t interested in any co-championship) heading into a Big Monday rematch at Texas Tech. It’s almost making a mockery of the race. Even Lightning McQueen let his pursuers get a little closer than this.

“Winning means everything,” LJ Cryer says. “That’s just how I was raised honestly. I was raised in a winning household. Having a chance to win my fourth Big 12 ring, ending my college career off like that would be kind of the icing on the cake.

“Along with the big one. The national championship.”

Yes, even as Sampson’s Cougars stalk this Big 12 title, their goals stretch higher. This Houston team is 19-1 after that 4-3 start that included those stumbles in Las Vegas, playing as well as any team in America. Good luck finding a more complete trio of guards than LJ Cryer, Milos Uzan and Emanuel Sharp. UH’s Big Three combines to score 58 of the Cougars’ 68 points in College GameDay win over Iowa State, hitting 10 of 16 threes. Uzan puts up 14 of his 19 points in the first half as UH builds up a lead. Sharp scores all 11 of his points in the second half, including a deep step back night-night triple with 45 seconds left. And Cryer. . . well, he just keeps scoring. And then scoring some more. Title hunting.

Four on the the floor. With room for more.

“LJ Cryer has taken a huge step in the leadership department,” UH associate head coach Quannas White tells PaperCity. “You look at the game against Arizona. Him stepping up and hitting two big threes. And it’s not just the shots he’s making. It’s his attitude in the huddles His attitude out there on the floor. The way he’s talking to guys, holding them accountable.

“He’s grown here.”

“Everywhere I go, I pride myself on winning. I feel like winning is the best stat that you can have. It’s not about points and all that other stuff. It’s about winning. I feel like I contributed to a lot of winning.” — UH guard LJ Cryer

Twenty seven games into his fifth season in college basketball, LJ Cryer continues to grow, showing everyone he’s the closer this talented and deep UH team needs. Against Iowa State, with Houston committing 17 turnovers, an almost unfathomable number for a Kelvin Sampson team and a coach obsessed with limiting mistakes, clearing out the middle of the floor for Cryer turns out to be the answer to counter the Cyclones’ pressure and sideline double teaming.

“We just have this thing we call Zip Flat where now we take all the help away,” Kelvin Sampson says of his offensive strategy shift. “And you play one on one. But you have to have somebody who’s good enough to play one on one. You can’t just go eeny, meeny, miny, moe.

“You’d better have somebody.”

LJ Cryer,  Air Cast and Jumpers

This elite No. 5 UH team has LJ Cryer. That’s more than enough. Cryer wants these moments. He’s playing through an injury on his shooting hand to be there for them, refusing to even sit out one game when he aggravated the painful knuckle injury in a win at Colorado earlier this month. Refusing to even consider it.

“Any other kid, he would be out for weeks,” Lionel Cryer tells PaperCity. “But he don’t want to be out. He didn’t want to go get an x-ray. He didn’t want to get a cast. He’s like, ‘Pops, there aren’t nothing I can do about it. Whatever’s happening is happening.’ The kid played earlier this year with a 102 degree fever. His foot was bothering him when he first played against Alabama and he didn’t complain.

“He’s a tough kid. Like all my kids.”

Lionel Cryer, a football coach himself, says that last part with real pride. LJ Cryer just keeps showing up, ready to play. Cryer wears an air cast on his right hand whenever he’s not on the basketball court. Which still doesn’t stop from getting in regular extra shooting and individual work with Quannas White, The Guard Whisperer who Quentin Grimes, Marcus Sasser and Jamal Shead all swear by.

And then often showing up later at night at the Guy V. Lewis Development Center to get in even more extra shooting.

“I’m going to give him most of the credit,” White says. “That kid is a gym rat. Yeah, I spend time with him. But he comes in there even with his girlfriend Jordan and works on his game. . .

“It’s the work that he does after when he’s by himself.”

Cryer’s girlfriend is an athlete herself. She understands the mindset. LJ Cryer isn’t going to stop shooting now. Not with more championship rings in sight.

Four on the the floor. With room for more.

Tank Dell, the former University of Houston turned NFL touchdown maker, can’t help dig what Cryer is doing. The swagger he’s playing with. Dell wraps Cryer up in a big hug after this Iowa State turndown. Even NBA All-Star Trae Young, once a dominant small guard himself at the University of Oklahoma, gets a kick out of watching LJ Cryer’s bag of tricks while watching on TV in Atlanta.

Count University of Houston Chancellor Renu Khator all in too.

“I love this team,” Khator tells PaperCity. “The energy. Every single seat is full. So much energy. It’s just wonderful.”

After the College GameDay crew pulls back its set, LJ Cryer will be the one to bring everyone to their feet in this Top 10 showdown. Even the Iowa State fans who are groaning. With Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark sitting in the front row in a dapper brown suit.

“As one of the leaders, you’ve got to step up to the plate,” Cryer says. “Especially when your number’s called.

The number for LJ Cryer right now is securing Big 12 championship number four for No.  4. And the title he really wants. A national championship at Houston.

“Everywhere I go, I pride myself on winning,” Cryer says. “I feel like winning is the best stat that you can have. It’s not about points and all that other stuff. It’s about winning. I feel like I contributed to a lot of winning.”

Four on the the floor. With room for more.