Kelvin Sampson breaks down Houston's roster, led by return of Marcus Sasser

Cougar Basketball
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good article, gives some early glimpses into how sampson sees the team. article is free

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That was an incredibly insightful article. My top takeaways:

  1. I loved what he said about Jarace; specifically that he’s the 2nd best passer on the team behind Shead and that it’s a close race.

  2. He confirmed that Malik is going to be this year’s Taze Moore.

  3. Sounds like Emanuel Sharp is going to get significant minutes backing up Sasser but certainly fits in the “project” category.

  4. Francis isn’t quite there yet. Sampson said he might be a semester away, or maybe a year, but he’s coming.

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“He doesn’t need to show anybody he can score,” Sampson says. “Although let’s not over-interpret that. I expect Marcus to be our leading scorer. There’ll be nights when it’s Tramon. They’ll be nights when it’s Jamal. There may be nights where it may be Emanuel Sharp or Jarace. Marcus has got a bunch of guys around him that can make a play.”

CKS again slipping in that Sharp is good at putting the ball in the bucket

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We’re so deep. Barring any major injuries, I think we should be able to rest our guys throughout the season. If it plays out this way, will pay huge dividends come conference and big tournament time.

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I also loved how he told Jarace that he needs us more than we need him and Jarace still chose to come here when he literally could have gone to any other school. Says a lot about that kid.

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It was asking me to pay?

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Hit paywall too.

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Sounding more and more like Sharp is the first guard off of the bench.

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its not asking me for a paywall, even though i dont have an account

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Ur special lol

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If anyone is interested in reading, DM me and I’ll send you a free pass.

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A week or two ago people thought Sharp would be on bench.until we hear from CKS we just don’t know! Every time I hear either Coach Sampson say anything about Sharp it is either he reminds them of Rob Gray or he is just a scorer!

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I wouldn’t read too much into comments made this early. CKS is sending not-so-subtle messages to certain players with everything he says.

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mini summary - obviously more indepth in the article but the general points for those without a means

  • glad marcus wasnt fooled by people telling him what he wants to hear
  • sasser is a better passer than he’s shown, and can get even better, but playing him off ball with shead is better because it allows sasser to conserve energy
  • sasser will be our leading scorer, but thinks it can rotate between multiple people on a game by game basis (adds sharps name in the list of like 5 he mentions)
  • confident with sasser/shead defense, mark has to step up there
  • mylik will step into the taze moore role
  • we’ve never had a 4 like jarace, amazing passer… was honest with him that he might not be the star/ leading scorer… but we are elite at developing his areas of improvement, we can make him a complete player. a matchup nightmare
  • reggie out for a little bit, anxious to see how the team looks with powell and francis
  • roberts is a 4 but dont be surprised to see him at the 5 some with walker… says roberts isnt the “little brother anymore”
  • francis isnt ready, but when he is, sampson thinks he’ll be really special when he gets there
  • will likely have to go back to center by committee, last year was an outlier to what we’ve done anyways
  • not sure what to do with arcenueax yet, no standout skill on the outside or inside, have to focus on his development
  • shead, mark and sasser are the anchors, how the rest develop are the celing of the team
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Sharp, joining the team early for rehab was huge. Being around that culture for 6 months now.

If hes the 1st guard off the bench thats great news for us.

Cause offensively he does have more to offer than Mylik and Ramon. It was his defense that was the question mark

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Articles like this justify me paying for the Athletic. Absolutely superb.

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“Sampson chuckles and says he was not surprised. But he also wasn’t that worried, because Sasser had maintained throughout the draft process that the only way he’d consider leaving school was if he was assured of being in the top 40 to 45 picks.”

So I noticed this detail that was different from the 1st rd promise he was looking for before.

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I just bought 2, tickets to the final four for next year gambling on Houston making it!!

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What about this year?

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Interesting that he mentioned Sharp as a guy along with JW who can potentially lead the team in scoring for a given game.
I also didn’t get the impression that Francis is not ready. I read it that CKS is really anticipating to see his development. We may see some real good things from him this season.

After reading this……

  1. I think we see.Chaney, Francis and Powell all rotate at center as a three-headed monster.
  2. Sharp is my early pick to come in off the bench with Wilson for our guard rotation. His amount of minutes will be determined by his defense. Walker will be waiting in the wings to bring it.
  3. Arceneaux to see spot time to develop this season.
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