Kansas is a screw job away from being 0-2 in the Big 12. TCU is a screw job away from being 2-0 in the Big 12. Tech, Baylor, and Kansas State are 2-0, while BYU, Oklahoma State, and WVU are 0-2. Everyone else, including Houston, is 1-1.
The 2024 Big 12 basketball season will be a year of who can move on from a loss and move forward. Or what The Cougar sports editor (and GoCoogs contributor) Starns Leland wrote about in mid-November, “So what. Now what?” That’s the phrase Kellen Sampson used to connect with Terrance Arceneaux as he started to come on, before his season-ending injury.
So what. Now what?
the daily #162 | 1/13/2024 | Archives
Home teams are 9-5 in the Big 12 this season and have won by an average of 12.6 ppg (7.6 if you take out UH’s 35-point win over WVU and KSU’s 25-point win over UCF). But the season’s first week proves there are road wins out there. Teams will get beaten by 25 on the road and then turn around and upset a top-5 team (UCF). And teams with previously great records (BYU 12-1 entering league play) that lose two in a row convincingly (by 11 at home to Cincinnati and by nine at Baylor).
Every Big 12 staff will preach their version of So what, now what?
In the AAC, players knew the day after a loss would be total hell—seemingly never-ending film sessions, crazy endurance drills, and pushing players to the limit. There was a psychology to it: Kelvin Sampson wanted to ensure his players knew they never wanted to go through that again. And he’d remind them of it, sometimes, during games.
Kellen Sampson said recently that Kelvin is the “psychology coach.” Former UH point guard (and CATS rock star) Galen Robinson told us Tuesday night that Kelvin is the “chief psychologist” on this team. Here are his thoughts and memories from the aftermath of losing a game:
But does that change in the present? Kelvin Sampson won’t change his philosophy, but he adapts. He was the first UH coach to embrace NIL and has been the smartest about the transfer portal (although David Rehr has been pretty good, too). Kellen told Starns and me before the season that they won’t have the luxury of going “scorched earth” after a loss. That’s because of the grind of the Big 12 but also because losses won’t be held against them going forward. They know a less-impressive win or a loss won’t knock them down a few lines in the bracket.
This week, Kelvin Sampson gave the players off Wednesday, the day after returning from Ames. The NCAA mandates one day off each week for players, but scheduling it (and then keeping it) the day after the Iowa State game shows some restraint. After Thursday’s practice, players said it was intense but manageable.
The players put a lot of pressure on themselves; sometimes too much, coaches tell them. They’ll need to shrug off a loss and move on to the next one in this league. Kellen called this one of their major challenges this season. Now, after starting 14-0, can the Cougars shake off a close road loss and regroup? The message is that it’s ok to mess up, have a bad shooting night, or want to have a few plays back. But it cannot be a mushroom cloud that turns into two or three straight losses because the players can’t let go of Iowa State.
The ‘so what, now what?’ mentality isn’t just for losses. Kelvin said after the players showed up Sunday after the WVU blowout win, he did not spend much time on it. Everyone involved in the program says Kelvin is the most consistent from day to day, and he moves on quickly from every game, win or loss.
Saturday in Fort Worth is a significant challenge: TCU is 12-3, and this game will be a quad-one opportunity for both teams. Can Houston bury the game in Ames and be laser-focused on the Horned Frogs?
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I had 30 minutes off-camera with Kellen Sampson. We talked on the second floor of the Guy V. Lewis Development Facility in the player dining area. Outside of a formal setting, he’s much more relaxed just chatting…
