JoJo Tugler’s immense talent and athleticism have been evident to Cougar fans since the pre-Austrailia scrimmage on August 1st. Tugler has played a lot of minutes for a freshman and shown glimpses of what’s to come. But he’s young and makes freshmen mistakes, most notably in the foul department.
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JoJo is still trying to figure out how to make his length and wingspan an asset in Big 12 play. He gets silly fouls by not moving his feet and how he positions his hands and arms. But as he starts harnessing that length, it helps him more and more on the defensive side.
“His randomness is hard to account for,” Kellen Sampson said in the fall. “He throws Tabasco in everything.”
After every practice, Sampson works with Tugler one-on-one on shooting drills but mostly on defensive skills. Monday evening, Kellen told him, “You’re gonna get caught,” by a ref for a foul because of his hand positioning. Watch:
To his credit, JoJo loves the coaching. He wants to develop, so he chose to come to Houston to learn under Kelvin Sampson and his position coach, Kellen. Every time I’m at practice, JoJo is one of the last guys (and usually the last big man) in the gym. He works on shooting, getting to the middle for a floater or a lay-in (focusing on what he’ll have more chances to do in the next game), and defense—lots of defensive work.
“JoJo has that capability because he’s a long, great length, shot blocker, physical,” J’Wan Roberts said in an interview. “He’s just got to guard the ball better.”
“He just needs to go into the game and don’t think,” J’Wan continued. “He just needs to just come into the game and just play. If you foul one time, just tell yourself, ok, I’m not gonna do it next time. Don’t overexaggerate it again, like, ‘I gotta stop it now.’
“He just has to play and have fun. Have fun doing what you do. Don’t go into a game thinking, if I do this, what is Coach Sampson going to say? Or if I do something wrong, he’s going to scream at me. Just go in and have fun and just do the stuff that we do every day in practice.”
Tugler turned 18 last summer and is still figuring out the speed of Big 12 play. At Iowa State, he fouled out in 17 minutes; at TCU, he picked up four in 11 minutes. That game experience makes teaching, like the video above, possible. When Kellen stops a drill to instruct, JoJo usually corrects the issue on the first rep. Kellen says he has solid basketball instincts and constantly works to get better.
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