Milos Uzan was a key piece of the puzzle last year that fueled another Big 12 title, their first Big 12 Tournament Title, and a Final Four run that ended seconds away from a national title. Once he decided to return for his senior year, the expectations were for him to take another step forward in his game and lead the team to another national title run.
But not everything goes as planned. Milos has been good this season, but something has seemed a bit off. Something is different. The obvious change is that he splits time with freshman phenom Kingston Flemings at the point and spends more time off the ball. That change takes some time to adjust to, especially for a guy who has been on the ball his whole career.
On CATS! after the TCU game (and several others), I have talked a lot about how Milos has been playing “side to side” or east/west instead of attacking north/south. And sure, there are times that I feel like I am taking crazy pills: I am frustrated by his play while UH is sitting here 18-2. Watching some videos from the last two years, the differences became pretty clear in his two UH seasons. I think I have pretty good reasons to be frustrated.
According to CBBAnalytics.com, last year Milos averaged 3.2 points in the paint; this year, he is averaging 2.6. On the surface, that looks like a minuscule difference, but when you dig a little deeper, you find the real story. In the 2024-25 season, 31.6% of Milos’ shots were in the paint, and 38% were from 3-point range. This year, only 23.2% of his shots are in the paint, while 54.9% are from 3-point range.
What made Milos a great player last year was his ability to get to the paint. He forced the defense to react and decide. He could get to the rim if it was open, but he also had developed a killer floater as well as a strong pull-up jumper. If the defense jumped to him, he could find the roller off the pick or the big man down low. He made himself a constant threat. Take a look at a clip for the game at Arizona last year, where Milos was at his most dangerous:
I think I can speak for a lot of UH folks and say I really miss that floater. This year, he has shown he still has a great step back, but the one thing missing is his constant threat to get to the paint. He became a great 3-point shooter, not because he is just a great pure shooter, but because his attacking threat opened space for him to get clean looks from 3.
Here is his heat map from last year vs this year.
But we have been here before. This time last year, a lot of folks still had legitimate questions about whether Milos could get things going and whether UH could achieve everything they wanted.
It wasn’t until the second game in February last year that Milos took off. He settled into his role and adjusted to the heavy expectations that come with playing point guard under Kelvin Sampson. At this point last season (through 20 games and with 11 conference games remaining), Milos was nowhere close to where he ended the regular season:
| Thru 1/31 | Last 11 Games | |
|---|---|---|
| PPG | 9.5 | 13.5 |
| FG% | 44.4% | 47.1% |
| 3PT% | 37.9% | 48.8% |
Even with Milos’ struggles, this team is 18-2 and sitting in nearly the same spot they were last year. When he gets back to attacking the basket, this becomes the most dangerous team in college basketball.
This video from 840Sports is a good reminder of who Milos is:
