Mylik Wilson and Ramon Walker Jr. Show Why Houston Remains a Special College Basketball Anomaly — The Ones Who Stayed Aren’t About to Accept Losing

Mylik Wilson isn’t a star at the University of Houston and never will be. He’s a valuable reserve, but his minutes aren’t guaranteed game to game. Not in Kelvin Sampson’s relentlessly demanding nationally elite program with more depth than a Titanic dive. Nothing is given to Wilson, he must earn everything. Every day. ESPN is never going to build a pregame package around Mylik Wilson, but he’s exactly the type of player UH associate head coach Quannas White thinks college basketball should be promoting.

For Mylik Wilson stayed. Even when everyone outside Houston told him to go.

“What I hope — especially in this landscape of college basketball and guys transferring all across the country — is that they look at a guy like Mylik who could have gone to a mid-major school and probably been the best player, but what was more important to him was his teammates,” White tells PaperCity. “Guys that he’d been here at Houston with for two years. And the coaching staff.

“In a lot of ways him staying here is bigger than just NIL or trying to just go be the best player on another team. He wanted to have a long lasting memory with the guys that he’s been with for two years to accomplish something bigger than something individual.”

Wilson could have transferred to a mid-major after last season and a productive NCAA Tournament run. Many thought he should have transferred. He could have been a sure starter at such a program. But Wilson told PaperCity he planned to return to UH for another season on the night the Cougars were heartbreaking eliminated by Duke in the Sweet 16 after Jamal Shead went down. And he never wavered from that vow.

Now with Houston an uncharacteristic 4-3 heading into Saturday afternoon’s Big 12-Big East Battle game against Butler at Fertitta Center (4:30 pm, ESPN2), and Kelvin Sampson looking for more leadership from experienced starting guards LJ Cryer and Emanuel Sharp, Wilson and another One Who Stayed are pushing to make sure the bench gives more.

Senior wing Ramon Walker Jr. could have jumped into the transfer portal in search of more playing time like so many players in his position around the country do after last season too. But like Wilson, Walker found the decision simple.

“It’s family,” Walker says when I ask what drove him to stay. “Everybody in this program and staff, everybody that works with the basketball team it’s all family. Being here as long as I have, it’s just building those bonds and connections with our coaches, our players, it feels like family.

“You always stick with your family.”

It’s late on a Thursday when Walker gets into this, after going through a beyond grueling Kelvin Sampson practice week that followed those two losses in three games for the Cougars in the Las Vegas NIL tournament. He submerged himself in the cold tub at UH’s Guy V. Lewis Development Facility to attempt to recover. Walker is tired and spent, every player on the team felt the weight of this week at one point or another, but he is no less determined.

Mylik Wilson and Ramon Walker didn’t come back to lose. They came back to be part of something special, for the chance to be on a team that can do something truly historic for UH basketball. Three close loses — two to Top 10 teams, two in overtime — is not changing that mission.

“I feel like we just have unfinished business,” Wilson tells PaperCity. “Like last year with Jamal going down. . . I feel like we still could have won the game. Like I said, we still have unfinished business and we’re just trying to get to Monday night. And I feel like we have the team to do it.

“How deep it is. And the veterans we have.”

“What I hope — especially in this landscape of college basketball and guys transferring all across the country — is that they look at a guy like Mylik who could have gone to a mid-major school and probably been the best player, but what was more important to him was his teammates.”— UH associate head coach Quannas White

Mylik Wilson, Ramon Walker — The Bench Mentors

This sense of a greater purpose, of putting the team over the I, has Wilson and Walker working to help speed up true freshman guard Mercy Miller’s adjustment to the college game. That may end up costing them playing time. But it will make Houston better. And that’s what matters more to both Wilson and Walker.

“Just trying to help out the freshmen,” Walker says. “Mercy can do a lot for us. . . (Reserve center) Ced (Lath) is still figuring some things out. Even JoJo (Tugler). JoJo is still figuring some things out. Just trying to be a voice that they can listen to and that they can benefit from. I feel like that will help them in the long run.”

“You always stick with your family.” — Ramon Walker Jr.

Wilson’s been the primary backup point guard for much of this early season. He’s improved his 3-point shooting to the point where he’s hit five of his seven attempts from distance in the first seven games. Wilson is never going to be a volume 3-point shooter on this Houston team. Defense is still his No. 1 thing. Few 6-foot-3 guards have Wilson’s hops and shot blocking ability. And his long arms can create turnovers. But he can now hurt opponents who leave him open on the perimeter too.

“I just try to get up a lot of reps, just try to shoot extra every day,” Wilson says of his shot transformation. “You can see the difference in the shot just by putting the work in.”

White, who works with the guards every day in Kelvin Sampson’s program, has seen Mylik Wilson embrace the work more and more. The easy way would have been to transfer, but Wilson didn’t want that path. He chose to stay, to go against the quick bolt culture of college basketball in 2024.

“He’s an outstanding kid and he’s going to make a huge impact on this year’s team,” White says.

Wilson and Walker are both still at Houston, both still fighting for every minute of court time while putting a greater goal first. If you think this UH program is in trouble because it’s lost a few games earlier than usual and is no longer in the Top 10, you may not be looking at the right thing. The Guys Who Stayed show something else.

“I think we are in the process of finding that identity,” Walker says. “But we’re not far off. As a whole, we could all play better. Just carrying the things that we work on in practice over to the games, I feel like that will take care of everything.”

Walker shrugs, wipes his face with a towel, a long day not over yet. This is what he wanted though. What he chose. If he was interested in an easy path, he wouldn’t have stayed.