UH guards Jamal Shead (1), Emanuel Sharp (21) and L.J. Cryer (4) celebrate Wednesday's win at UCF, which assured the Cougars at least a share of the Big 12 regular-season championship.
ORLANDO, Fla. — There wasn’t a raucous celebration on the court. The University of Houston Cougars were too cool for that.
They saved it for the locker room, where they chanted, danced, and dumped a cooler on head coach Kelvin Sampson.
That’s what champions do.
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The Cougars are champions, again, having clinched at least a share of the Big 12 Conference title with a 67-59 win over Central Florida on Wednesday night.
The Knights put up a good fight in trying to take down the No. 1-ranked team in the country. They led for the first 28 minutes of the game before succumbing.
Sampson put up almost as a good fight in trying to escape the cold dousing he knew was coming.
“He’s a professional, he’s won a lot, so he understands how to get outta there,” senior guard Jamal Shead said.
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Sampson said age caught up with him and his players got him.
Yeah, these Cougars eventually get you.
Somewhat taken out of their normal locked-in focus by a host of distractions, including a video call with a teammate who was back in Houston being prepped for surgery, the Cougars started slow and seemed to be ripe for the picking.
“It’s like we were everywhere but the game tonight, but once we locked in at halftime …” Sampson said. “The first half, we just weren’t very good. Not taking anything away from UCF, but we didn’t play with a lot of pop, didn’t have enough juice.”
Sampson challenged his senior leaders, Shead and J’Wan Roberts, to challenge their lesser experienced teammates to step it up.
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The Cougars “tightened the screws” in the second half, championship style. They outscored UCF in points off turnovers 22-4 and second-chance points 20-10.
Unlike the football program, whose head coach pooh-poohed his poor team’s chances against the big bad boys of the Big 12, Sampson built his program to compete with the very best.
His Cougars have proved they are the best of the best, winning at least a share of the conference title in their first year in the Big 12, the most difficult college basketball league in the country.
UH, which improved to 14-3 in league play Wednesday, closes at home against Kansas on Saturday and will stand alone as the regular-season conference champion with a win over the Jayhawks.
“We knew what we were getting ourselves into,” Roberts said of the move to the Big 12. “But Houston’s been a winning program for a long time, so it didn’t really matter which conference we ended up in.
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“Once we travel with our DNA and our toughness, I feel like we can beat anybody in the nation.”
UH has arguably the most impressive résumé in the country; thus, the No. 1 ranking.
“We’re not 27-3 because we have the best team,” Sampson said. “Because you’re ranked No. 1 doesn’t mean you have the best team. We’re ranked No. 1 because we’re ranked No. 1.
“There’s some other teams out there that are just as good as or better than we are. That's for fans and media to debate. For us, we kind of jump into our little cocoon and stay true to our virtues, core beliefs and habits.”
Sampson said the Cougars played Wednesday with just 6½ of their top 10 players. Three rotation players are down with season-ending injuries. The half is Roberts, who played with a bandage covering a cut that required seven stitches in the web of his right hand. He managed to score 12 points and grab seven rebounds with the use of one hand while playing all but one minute and two seconds of the game.
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Shead, who added 16 points and a game-high eight assists and three steals, rested for just 50 seconds. L.J. Cryer, who led all scorers with 25 points, his third straight 20-point game, had two breaks during the contest that totaled 1:28.
Oh yeah, the Cougars deserved to celebrate this come-from-behind win that earned them their fifth conference title in the last six years.
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“It’s a great feeling. It’s the same feeling every time, but this one felt a little bit extra special because we weren’t supposed to be here,” Shead said.
OK, Jamal, hold on now. UH was picked to finish second behind Kansas in the Big 12 preseason coaches poll, so obviously, the Cougars entered the season with everyone’s respect.
One signature trait of Sampson’s teams is they play like they are the only ones who believe in them.
The postseason will be more of a challenge because of the significant injuries. But the Cougars are mentally tough.
They will be a tough out. And they will do some dancing in the dance.
That’s what champions do.
UH could also back into the solo conference title if Iowa State loses at Kansas State on Saturday. Shead said he is not interested in what the Cyclones do.
“If they win, they win. If they lose, they lose,” he said. “Our destiny is in our hands.
“We’re just gonna focus on Kansas now and just do what we do and lock in our way.”
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