Culture >> Talent

https://twitter.com/houstonfan00/status/1508204347041075203?s=21&t=oG1BcCVfAFLOk7c6VmWSkw
But we will soon have BOTH! It’s scary hours!

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Also mark didn’t even play this year lol. Taze was unranked btw

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Culture & Talent is even better :thinking:

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Yep. If Sasser and Mark returns next season will be silly dominant.

Not only will we have the lockdown defense, we will also have shotmaking which we didn’t have much of the last 2 tournaments

Culture+talent= cougars. We are gonna do well in B12, definitely one of the best schools in that conference.

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What if Edwards were to change his mind

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The more players that run it back the better.

Streakiness was the main problem and with our guard rotation next year he can just focus on defense and catch and shoot, the NCAAT experience he has is also a nice touch

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We didn’t have shot making with Grimes and Sasser?

I don’t think he will, but if he does he may have a tough time keeping his starting job if our incoming freshmen live up to their billing. Of course you never can guarantee that a freshman will be ready for big time college ball, regardless of their high school accolades.

When Kyler went through senior night, it told me he would be moving on. There’s really no reason for him to stay. I doubt he is an NBA level player, but I could see him making good money somewhere.

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I’m obviously a spoiled fan, as I only started following UH Basketball in 2019, so I’ve only ever seen this program mostly winning.

However, one thing I’ve been hearing (at least since Armoni Brooks left for the NBA in 2019) is that we don’t have actual shooters and/or talented enough players that can get us over the “hump”.

What is that “hump”?

It could be anything…it could be winning over a talented Memphis team at home; it could be closing out a difficult away game @ Alabama; it could be creating & finishing plays (and making free-throws) that ultimately decide whether or not you win and advance in a tournament, game, etc.

I believe culture is EXTREMELY important in creating stability and fostering an environment where you can develop talent in a measurable way that you can reproduce.

But at what point does talent play a factor?

After the 1st loss at home vs Memphis, Sampson emphasized that having NBA level talent makes a difference (referring to Duren), and noted that we didn’t have any of those on our team…when we first lost Mark & Sasser, he mentioned that culture is valuable, but doesn’t score in games & make up for talent (putting into perspective that there was going to be a drop off in scoring talent without those 2 players).

In the words of our beloved Andy Yanez from the Pawd Slamma Jamma Podcast, what say you?

Enjoy this era in UH basketball. You never know when it will end…but it is special and we cannot take it for granted.

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Talent is always a factor. Culture can help drive it to perform better, and it can mitigate its effectiveness when the opponent has more.

Regardless, Sampson will never take talent at the expense of the culture. He’s obviously always trying to get the most talented players who will be good fits. It’s not like he’s choosing to roll with untalented players and only recruiting projects. Lol

Culture puts you in the conversation but talent + culture wins it all.

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Recruiting top HS talent requires lots of $$$ and exceptional fan support. Hopefully our move into the Big12 will allow us to become more competitive in talent procurement against other top programs such as Kansas, Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky, Villanova, Memphis, Baylor, UCLA, etc.

Of course CKS may choose to concentrate more on the transfer portal - taking guys who can best utilize our player development program to enhance their personal skills to be able to play professional ball.

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Umm, we had Grimes and Sasser last year and I would have loved to have either Saturday…if Sasser returns, and I think he will, he will be our main gunner since Sharp will be an unproven freshman still in development stage.
Our ace in the hole could be sophomore Walker who I think will be a lot less shy to shoot next year…

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I think we are just now becoming attractive to one and done type kids. In reality, we have one notable player in the NBA in Grimes.
But I do think our future NBA prospects are getting better. If he stays healthy and works with coach Sampson Jarace Walker will be really good at the next level…

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Culture I think determines the floor, talent determines the ceiling. Our floor these days is the second round of the tournament talent determines if we are a title contender or not.

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That’s a GREAT way to describe it.

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I thought Josh Carlton was considered a top 100 recruit. When he picked Conn over Cinn, USC,
Providence, Maryland, and Kan St. There are several top 100 recruiting sites!

We now seem to be an annual Sweet 16 program, at a minimum.

To be Final Four we need more talent.

Next year we seem to have the talent.