J’Wan Roberts played in 173 games in college. His career record was 149-24. Ja’Vier Francis played in 128 games at UH. He went 114-14. LJ Cryer played 77 games in the last two seasons at Houston. He went 67-10. Between regular season and tournament titles in the AAC and the Big 12, and Regional titles ahead of the Final Four, J’Wan cut the nets nine times. Ja’Vier cut the nets seven times. At Baylor and UH, LJ cut the nets seven times.
Together, they played in 448 games, went to five Final Fours, and were part of 24 NCAA Tournament wins.
And that’s what UH had to replace Monday night. Replacing J’Wan and LJ as starters on last year’s team would be a Herculean effort for two excellent college players. But Kelvin Sampson went with true freshmen Kingston Flemings and Chris Cenac.
Flemings had played in 0 college games. Cenac had played zero games in college. They’ve never won anything, never cut a net, been to a Final Four, or even played garbage time in a 1-16 matchup.
The 2024-25 team overcame adversity and pulled off a half-dozen miracles because they were incredibly experienced. They’d seen every situation before. This new team doesn’t have much of that. Add to it, Emanuel Sharp and Milos Uzan are moving up a chair. Their responsibilities have grown, and they are being asked to do things they’ve never done. They will struggle with that at times. And then, they have to help three freshmen jump in the microwave and get ready to contribute heavily in Big 12 play for a team with a barn-sized target on its back.
So there’s no point in overreacting to an ugly opener. There will be plenty of other ugly games, and UH will lose some of them. And that’s ok. November and December games are building blocks, mini-progress reports to see if the growth achieved in practices and individual workouts is real. The freshmen will each have bad games over the next eight weeks. They’ll look overwhelmed, out of place, and at times, maybe like they are regressing. And some starters will look the same.
And that’s ok, too.
Enjoy the maturation. Judge for yourself: Can this team improve from what you saw Monday night to the FSU game at Toyota Center? It will not be linear, but everyone will be able to see their accumulated growth. Even more important, when they get into December —with just four games in 28 days —how much do they improve from the Noles to the start of Big 12 play on January 3? Last year, Kelvin’s December Reeducation Camp worked wonders for Milos Uzan and the entire roster, helping them deal with the funk of the Las Vegas trip.
In Monday’s postgame press conference, Emanuel said the freshman had improved immensely in the last two weeks. In that time frame, they played the scrimmage in New Orleans against Ole Miss and the exhibition in Rosenberg against Mississippi State. Kelvin Sampson has been intentional with his preseason scheduling the last few years: the Angelo State, Montana Tech, and Dallas Baptist exhibitions were replaced a year ago by the 2022 Duke scrimmage, and the exhibition games against State and Texas A&M. For this freshman class, that experience will be invaluable come January. For now, they need to play against the Lehighs, Towsons, and Oaklands to get more time on the floor, work through things, and build confidence.
But for all the work-in-progress, there was a lot to get excited about. Kelvin joked a few times in his 800-win ceremony and in the postgame presser about how poorly his team had played. But he sees that as an opportunity: a chance to watch film and learn, to build teaching points in individual film and workout sessions, and to get more from his squad from now until Saturday afternoon.
Kelvin Sampson loves to win and has now done it 800 times. But where he really gets enjoyment is the teaching process, seeing his hand-picked guys grow into their roles and become a championship-level team. From last night’s opener until the national title game, he’s got 22 weeks to mold them.
