Head coach Kelvin Sampson met with the media Friday morning less than 24 hours before the game against Wichita State. Before losing the game in Wichita last year, UH had won six in a row in the series.
Below are news, notes, quotes, and info from the Zoom session:
Preseason Tyson Etienne is a “dynamic, explosive guard” that can beat you in multiple ways. Sampson says WSU’s Dexter Dennis is one of his favorite players to watch.
“Etienne is their go-to guy but this Council kid is as good as anybody.” Kelvin notes that he doesn’t start but “he’s a starter.”
On Kyler Edwards’s health, he says:
– “We’re walking a bit of a tight rope without a safety net.”
– “Just because you take a good player doesn’t mean he’s going to be a good player for you.”
– “Kyler comes from a really good family. Competitor. Warrior. Played for a really good coach…but it took him a while to adjust…you can tell he’s just getting comfortable.”
– That said, “it was huge for him to come back.”
On Emanuel Sharp: “He does some drills with us but he’s a long way from competing in practice.”
Sampson is talking about reading, in conjunction with tomorrow’s Fight4Literacy Day. As a kid, he loved Batman, Superman, and the Cisco Kid stories. “Reading…is a passion of mine. Just about anything but being able to do something like this is great” and “helps our kids understand being role models.”
On Josh Carlton’s 30/11 game Tuesday: “I don’t ever look at stat sheets during the game. You’ll see assistant coaches staring at it but I never look at a stat sheet during the game.”
On Reggie Chaney’s health:
– “I don’t remember what game…but he was playing with one hand.”
– “We couldn’t throw the ball to him for a long time” but he’s “just now getting to where he can use the second hand.”
– “Now, he’s progressing, he’s getting better, and he and Josh are a good two-man tandem.”
On his team’s offensive and defensive efficiency: “We track that our way. We’ve been top-25 for years. We make it a goal to be top-20 in the nation at both ends.”
He says “we are built to win when we don’t make shots.”
“There’s a correlation between offensive and defensive efficiency.”
On Jamal Shead playing so much in the last few games: “I don’t know how many minutes he played against South Florida…he wasn’t playing with any energy…he looked dead leg-ish.”
“You navigate games. Every game is different.”
“As far as practicing between games, this week we aren’t practicing.” He re-explains the team’s travel schedule this week with three games in a week and two road trips.
“So when you say, ‘how’s he been in practice?’ What practice? We don’t have any bodies.”
“We literally have four guards in our program and we just got the fourth one back.”
“The night we played South Florida is when I found out (Kyler Edwards) could play.”
“At 7 o’clock (the night before the USF game), I kinda meandered towards him and asked how the ankle is” and that’s when Kyler indicated he could play.
“We’re an injury away from Ryan Elvin playing 40 minutes a game.”
“We spend most of our time in the training room.” He mentions all the injuries and that Fabian still requires daily treatment following the ACL tear.
“I put a couple of baseline out-of-bounds plays for USF and low and behold, we scored on em.”
“If we can get through tomorrow, I’m giving our guys multiple days off.”
“It is what it is. We’re going to take what we have…and do the best with it.”
