Now that everyone has had a night to sleep on it, are we all ok? You good? Pick yourself up and dust yourselves off. The bandwagon wasn’t moving fast enough to hurt too much when a lot of fans jumped off last night.
That loss sucked, just like they all do, but it was the second game of the season. I know losing is rare here, but you must credit Auburn. They are an extremely talented, tough team led by one of the best coaches in the country.
The UH team you see today isn’t the team you thought it was coming into the season. Not yet. They aren’t there. Overall, there is experience and depth, but each player’s role differs slightly from before. They’re learning.
Losing Jamal Shead isn’t just losing the best player on the team or a good point guard. It is all losing his innate skills, leadership, and ability in the clutch. There are many different things he did that have to be replaced. He was a consensus All-American in the hardest position to play in the sport. There isn’t a Costco to go stock up on guys like him.
Replacing elite players is routine for this program. Last year, it took time for guys to settle in after replacing Marcus Sasser, Jarace Walker, and Reggie Chaney. The year before, it took time to settle in after replacing Fabian White, Kyler Edwards, Josh Carlton, and Taze Moore. The year before, it was the loss of DeJon Jarreau, Quentin Grimes, and Justin Gorham.
This team has the talent and depth to grow like those teams did. The difference between the past years and 2024 is the difficult games began with the second game of the season. A year ago, UH was playing TAMU-Corpus Christi at home. Two years ago, it was Oral Roberts. Last year, UH did not play a team like Auburn until game 11, against A&M at Toyota Center.
Houston did not play well for much of the night. There were some quality runs of play where they looked good, and some stretches were not good at all. But that is the sign of a team trying to figure things out. They will be inconsistent. Fans have to accept that.
Fans want non-stop winning. So do I. But Kelvin Sampson builds for March, and this loss is a great early-season wake-up call. The loss provides the film to show the players all the weaknesses Auburn exploited. There is no hiding behind “a win is a win. This sets the stage for tough lessons in the upcoming days.
I wouldn’t expect a quick fix because It will take a little time. Luckily, UH has a few weeks before facing a ranked team when the Coogs play Alabama in the opener in Vegas. Until then, I will just do what I always do: watch a new team grow into a monster when the money is on the table.