BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TIPOFF MEDIA DAY

October 18, 2023

Kelvin Sampson

Houston Cougars

Media Day Press Conference

KELVIN SAMPSON: I think it's fitting that I follow Curtis Shaw. Talk about full circle. I remember Curtis doing a lot of our games when I was at Oklahoma. It's probably been my welcome back to the Big 12 moment seeing Curtis. I haven't seen him in a while.

Like all the coaches, we're right in the middle of trying to figure out our teams. We all kind of know how we want to play, but you're always in contact eval, adjustment. We're not quite as good at that as we'd like to be. Maybe we should do this. This is the time to do it, then next thing you know you've got a scrimmage and then you've got another scrimmage.

So you may have 20, 25 practices, then you have a scrimmage, and you may scrap two or three things because you got exploited in a scrimmage. I've always liked that. I like playing people early that will show us what we're not very good at.

Then you have a chance to go back and work on it and go forward.

Our team is -- like all our teams, it seems like we're always replacing four starters or three starters. Normally four starters. This year we're replacing Jarace Walker, Marcus Sasser, and Tramon Mark, three outstanding players.

But we have some good players coming in, some talented kids, some young kids, kids that are going to take a while and go through some bumps and bruises before they figure it out.

But it's all part of the journey. I don't really ever get ahead of myself too much. We've got a scrimmage coming up this Saturday, and we've got an exhibition game the following Saturday, then our season opens up.

That's about as far as I have always gone. I don't look ahead to any games ahead of that because I don't know what we're going to look like then. I just kind of have learned over the years to live in the moment, and I don't say that as coach-speak or -- I heard somebody say that once. That's really the way I feel.

That's about it.

Q. Obviously you've competed against Texas a ton during your time at Oklahoma. Just wondering your initial thoughts on playing Texas this year and if you would like the opportunity to continue playing Texas once they leave the conference.

KELVIN SAMPSON: Are you from 24/7 Sports or are you from Texas?

Q. 24/7 Sports, Coach.

KELVIN SAMPSON: Because based on those questions, I thought you were a Texas guy. What was the first question again?

Q. First part of the question was obviously you've competed against Texas a ton in your time at Oklahoma. Your thoughts on playing Texas this year?

KELVIN SAMPSON: You know, I literally hadn't thought about that a lot. I enjoyed -- Chris Beard is a very good friend of mine, but so is Rodney Terry. I tried to hire Rodney Terry one time, and Rick Barnes snookered me again. Rick has always done that to me for some reason.

I pull for my friends. I enjoyed watching Rodney's success, what he did with that program last year.

But as far as looking forward to playing Texas, yeah, we look forward to playing Texas. Will we continue to play them? I have no idea. We haven't played them since I've been at Houston, so I have no idea if we'll continue to play them.

I hadn't thought about it, really. Kind of caught me off guard. Don't really have an answer.

Q. You lost guys in Tramon Mark, Marcus Sasser, and Jarace Walker, but you bring in the additions LJ Cryer, Damian Dunn. Talk about those two guys a little bit and what have you seen from them heading into the season?

KELVIN SAMPSON: Well, LJ has a huge advantage because of having played for Scott and won a National Championship and been a key player on his team.

Damian we're very familiar with because we played against them last year. I think we were 17-1 in the league, but our one loss was at home to Temple, and Damian was a big reason in that game.

When you lose a game -- the first thing coaches say is we didn't play very well instead of saying the other team played pretty good. We weren't quite good enough to win that night, but Damian was a big reason why. He's a kid that had 38 against Vanderbilt; I think he had 32 maybe at Cincinnati. This kid is a good player. He's battle tested.

The good thing about Damian is we'll get him for two years. I've always felt the second year is always going to be their best year.

But watching LJ and Damian in practice, Damian tweaked his ankle. He's been out a few days. But LJ is just an impressive kid.

We've had some really good guards. We could have five guards in the NBA this year. The last two years we've had 25th pick with Grimes, 25th pick with Sasser, Armoni Brooks is with the Brooklyn Nets. We've had a bunch of really good -- which is why we've been winning, because of our players.

LJ is a lot like those guys. He's a kid that has a nose for scoring. He's a smaller guard.

But the thing about smaller guards, they've been small guards their whole life. They know how to play when they're small. Everybody says, well, his size will hurt him. Size doesn't hurt him. It didn't hurt Sasser.

I remember we played Kentucky right here on this court a few years ago, and I can't remember what year it was, might have been '19, we started Galen Robinson and Corey Davis and Armoni Brooks. I think that was 6', 6', 6'3".

Brooks made 128 threes. I think Davis made 100 whatever. If you can shoot, you can stretch the floor, that opens things up for other people.

I think watching LJ, he's got a knack for getting his shot off.

Damian's game is different. He's got more of an old man's game, mature game. He gets to the free-throw line more. They kind of play off each other in that they both can shoot, but they also can do other things.

We've been working with LJ on expanding his game, getting him to think outside the box a little bit more.

But the guy that makes it all work, though, is Jamal shed. Jamal is just a high-level point guard. He bought in early. I think the two most probably unknown statistics about our program is we're going into our 10th year, and we've only had three point guards, Galen Robinson, DaJon Jarreau and, Jamal Shead. We've only had three.

Then every year, every coach has -- probably your top 10, these are my top 10 guys. And our top 10 guys over a nine-year period, we've only had two kids transfer, so that has a lot to do with our sis stain ability, our consistency, is that we've had consistent point guard play year after year, and our kids come back. That's been a big part.

But the other thing I'd say is our assistant coaches, our staff. I've been lucky in that they've had opportunities to leave, but we've kept -- our staff has stayed together for 10 years, and I think that's our secret sauce -- not 10 years, nine years, going into year 10. But it's been our secret sauce. I don't think our staff gets enough credit for our success. I tend to say way too much. But our staff has a lot to do with our team's success.

Q. Defensively your style of play, how are the guys adjusting to the new block charge rule that's to be enforced this year?

KELVIN SAMPSON: I don't know. We don't call blocks and charges in practice, so I have no idea. I tell them to take charges, and if I want to reward this kid for trying, I call it a charge. If I think a guy is soft and it might have been a charge and I'll call it a block. That question ain't got nothing to do with us.

Q. The AP poll was released last week, and Kansas was 1, you guys were 7, Texas was ranked, Baylor and some other teams were receiving votes. Can you talk about the challenges of playing in a conference like this night in and night out and what it takes to be successful continuously?

KELVIN SAMPSON: Well, when I was in the Big 12 before, I don't think that there's any difference in the type of league then and now. Oklahoma went to the Final Four, Kansas went to the Final Four, Oklahoma State went to the Final Four, Texas went to the Final Four. Same thing.

The difference is I was standing in that -- we had a head coaches' meeting a while ago. It was kind of like in a dog park. You've got two dogs walk by each other, kind of side eye or little one starts yapping at the big one and they start sizing each other up.

I was kind of sizing them all up. I said, it used to be you could look at a few of those little dogs and go, I can get that one, I can get that one, I can get that one. I ain't seen nobody I can get in this conference. That's the difference. They're all German Shepherds, man. Where's the Shi Tsus? Where's the Chihuahuas at? Oh, that's a Rottweiler. Oh, my God, that's a Pit Bull.

This is a tough dog park, man. So what it's going to take is -- I think, number one, you'd better stay healthy because in this league you're a sprained ankle away from mediocrity, and then don't worry about it. I don't spend one minute worrying about what league I'm in. I really don't.

As a coach, you learn to coach your team, do the best you can to get them ready to play, and then go play. You can play great one night and lose. You can play bad one night and find a way to win. That's why you just don't worry about it. What's it like going to play in the Big 12. You know, we play a bunch of good teams. I think our NCAA Tournament record is 9-3. Those teams in that NCAA Tournament are pretty good.

Last year we played at Virginia and won; we've won at Oregon. We've been pretty good, not just against certain teams, we've been pretty good against everybody.

But the difference is obvious. You've got -- are we playing 18 or 20 this year? 18, right? I should know because I get an email every single day from the Big 12 about something.

But that's the difference is you've got 18 of them.

But I think, number one, you've got to stay healthy. We lost two starters a couple years ago and we found a way to battle ourselves through it, but I'm not sure you can do that in this league.

I think number one is health and number two is continuing to develop your young guys. I think that's the key to consistency is you've still got to recruit good high school players and develop them, develop them, develop them, and then add some portal kids as needed.