Last year, I wrote about Mylik Wilson splitting the stone in two.
“A stonecutter hammers away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow, it will split in two. It was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.”
The stone and quote were in the players’ area on the second floor of the Guy V. Lewis Development Facility.
After renovations, the quote was redone but is now back on the wall.
The fact that it is called a development center, not a practice facility, is a clue. The fact that the players see the parable each time they exit the locker room is a clue. The fact that Sampson has repeatedly taken three-star guys and made them national names is a clue.
Almost every player eventually surrenders to the Sampson molding and goes on to do great things. No one fits that description quite like Mylik Wilson. With a strange-looking shot and a stranger journey – from Rayville, Louisiana, down south to Louisiana-Lafayette over to Texas Tech, and then down to Houston – fans’ expectations were always low with Mylik. The coaching staff did not know how to coach him initially but settled on some modifications to his shot and then set about to instill confidence.
As Mylik was hammering that stone, coaches were hammering it to build his confidence. It would have been easy to focus on others, but the staff knew he would make winning plays when given the chance. Repetition helped his shot to keep improving, and the coaches’ encouragement went a long way with the quietly tough Wilson.
Through three Big 12 games, Mylik is 9/12 from the floor (3/5 from three). Not bad for the guy that’s eighth on the team in minutes. For the season, Wilson is shooting 52% (53% from three) and is the top rebounding guard on the team. He was 4/6 with five boards against TCU.
“I think the guy that really came in and gave us a spark tonight was Mylik,” Kelvin Sampson said after the game.
The UH guards struggled to penetrate in the first half vs. TCU, but after some adjustments at halftime, Mylik started turning it on. He played 13 minutes in the second half because he found ways to get past his man half. That opened up the offense, as other defenders were forced to react.
“That little split second of them reacting (to Mylik penetrating) gives whoever they’re guarding – let’s say L.J. – while the man that’s guarding him is reacting, L.J. can just slide, and he has a wide-open look,” Galen Robinson said on CATS! “Or Emanuel! And you wonder how a guy that’s shooting 50% – how the hell is he open? It’s crazy, but that’s just ball instincts.”
Wilson was +11 in the second half, second highest on the team behind J’Wan Roberts.
“Mylik wasn’t a very good shooter when he got here, and he’d be the first to tell you, but I am so proud of this young man,” Kelvin said. “I am so proud of him because he has made himself into that shooter.
“Mylik has earned the right to make those shots. When he made that shot in the left corner, I thought about the one he made at Iowa State last year toward the end of the game. He’s put in so many hours and hours at the gym.”
I’ve attended around 100 practices since Mylik has been on campus. He’s often the last guy in the gym following practice, getting in extra individual work with associate head coach Quannas White. Hundreds of shots, every day, without complaint or recognition. During his redshirt year, Mylik struggled with his odd-looking release, one always different than the next. But he kept grinding.
What he never had to worry about was his defense. Last year, he ran the white team, wearing out Jamal Shead in practice. Mylik struggled in games early in the season before he started to play well in the second half of the Big 12 schedule. He always knew his athletic ability and defensive tenacity could get him on the floor, but making shots would keep him there.
“I know the work that I put in over the summer and now,” Wilson said. “Just staying in the gym, having the confidence, and just shooting it. Just shoot it.”
Mylik has found the confidence the staff wanted him to have, and he’s at 99 or so blows into hammering that stone. It’s about to split.
