Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Very pleased for the first time this year to spend
ten twenty minutes with one of the finest human beings
and basketball coaches you will find in this great country
of ours. We say hello to Kelvin Samson, head coach
of our Houston Cougar's is Saturday, we take it on
Florida State inside Tota Center. Coach, thank you for the
time as always, and I gotta give with the NBA
because every time you guys play, we're playing too. So
I have been boredom of seeing you in person. And
(00:22):
from all looks of things, Vegas was a good trip.
I know you want to go three and oho, but
what great competition you face there that players are a tournament.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yeah, good to talk to you too, Matt Thomas.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Yeah, that was a.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Good trip in a lot of ways. I don't know
that I can say that we left there playing great.
But you know, November basketball is it is what it is.
You're throwing some new guys out there, You're trying to
mesh You're building chemistry your defense, You're figuring out can
(00:59):
we do this or can we do that? You know,
the players are still trying to find themselves and as
coaches We're still looking at what's best for this team.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
You know, you can practice for four or five, six.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Weeks, but until you get in the game and see
how the other coaches are defending you or the actions
they're running that you're struggling with, and you can go
back and try to work on it or and fix it.
I think we're still in that stage right now.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
But I like this team, Matt.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
I'm excited about where we can be as time goes on.
You know, we're in December now, so we've got to
make it start making some hard decisions on whether it's.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
What we're doing or personnel.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
But that's the fun part of coaching, is trying to
solve the issues as they pop up and at the
same time seeing these young kids we have developed and
grow and and.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
I'm really really proud of our leadership we have on
this team.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
Calvin, you have been able to adapt with the times.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Some of it very good, some of it allows you
part of the world that is college athletics. You have
two amazing young freshmen, Flemings and Senek, who have helped
you out. But knowing you for as long as I have,
you know that freshmen make freshman mistakes and sometimes they
need to grow and maybe it's halfway into conference play
before they can do that. And I don't want to
talk about the two young men Chris and Kingston by themselves,
(02:28):
but just in general, are you, Kelvin Samson, having to
adjust how you treat your freshmen because of the fact
that your recruiting classes are as phenomenal as ever. You're
having another great one here and you have with these guys.
Have you had to change a little bit about your
philosophy about playing time, way you teach. Maybe you're teaching
faster knowing that these guys have got, you know, big
(02:51):
time aspirations beyond obviously helping the University of Houston winning
a national championship.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Well, I think it goes the way back a little deeper.
Matt and the kind of kids they are, the backgrounds,
you know, we want to help them develop and be
the best they can be so they can get to
the next level, whatever that level may be. It's not
always the NBA, and there's a lot of basketball played
(03:18):
around this world, you know. Uh Malite Wilson and jay
One Roberts popped in when we got back from Vegas.
They were on their way back to Malite was flying
back to Budapest and Hungary. That's where he's playing. Jay
One is playing in Berlin and Germany, Justin gorm Baby
and White, Josh Carlton, Coyler, Edwards taj More normally leaving
(03:44):
somebody out. You know, they're they're playing professional basketball. Rob
Gray is doing really well. But for some of these guys,
they do want to play uh in the NBA, and
the adjustment. The adjustment is I think more patience than
anything else there because they're going to make the mistakes
(04:05):
that you know freshman may. But we still have championship
aspirations now. Whether or not we can be champions, I
have no idea, but I know that developing these kids
and throwing them in the deep end early gives us
a much better chance later. Maybe not see the results today,
(04:25):
but I think down the road it's really going to
help them but also help us. But Joe Emmanuel Sharp, Monos, Juzan,
Jojo Tuggler, Ramon Walker, Mercy Chase said, Cornell, you know,
we've got a lot of returning players and and just
(04:48):
watching these kids go against those guys.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Every day is really is really helping them.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Our practices are you can be intense. You you've seen
them right, but but it's it's been helping these freshmen
make their mistakes and then when they come to get
in the games they've had, they have that experience to
build off.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Calvin Samson our guests here on the Matt Thomas Show
with Ross again. You've ag going to play Florida State
coming up this Saturday inside Tota Center. Already finishing off
a trip to Las Vegas. Have a visit to a
Brooklyn coming up soon to take on Arkansas scheduling too. Look, uh,
you know, I love who you're playing, what you're playing
(05:29):
for the non conference edge schedule, have you been able
to quantify that as to man that does payoff for
us in January and February or as look the Big
twelve just a different animal in itself.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
No, there's always got to be a balance for the
for how we schedule. But I h Syracuse is a
good team. They beat Tennessee last night, Notre Dame beat
Missouri last night. A lot of times, if we don't
play well but still win, lot times, you may say,
(06:02):
well that team wasn't that good. You may not have
the information and know whether that's the true statement or not.
But I knew that Notre Dame was a good team.
Missouri is a good team. We played Tennessee so we
know they're good and they lost to Syracuse. So all
these teams are are good enough to beat you, and
(06:24):
if you continue to get better, we're good enough to
beat them too. But you're right about the Big Twelve.
We saw Iowa State out in Las Vegas. They're really good,
Kansas Kansas, Kansas, They're I mean, they're always outstanding, Texas
(06:46):
Tech b YU. But general, the strength of this league
this year is is teams like Oklahoma State. Uh is undefeated,
they won some big games. So it was Colorado.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Dolorado's much improved.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
You know, we had a good win in Birmingham against Auburn.
You know, an Auburn beat Saint John's the other day,
and Saint John's is a good team. Auburn's a good team.
So if you're playing quality teams, you know you want
to be playing good enough to win the game.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
But you also know that there's.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
A lot of things out that we can get better at.
And our hope is that the schedule we're having we're
playing now can put us in a position when we
get to January and conference play, we're able to go compete,
whether it's at home or on the road with teams
that are and I think the best conference in the country.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
This year for sure.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
We bragged about your freshman minute ago.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Let's get to Emmanuel a little bit, shooting thirty seven
percent from three uzan just a great ball distributor per usual.
You're getting thirty plus minutes from him, Jojo. As long
as foul trouble has become an issue, has been as
good as expected for you. You you mentioned them to
go about your rotation. Are there some serious questions right now?
Are there a few more minutes to be shaved or
(08:06):
added to a couple of guys? How competitive right now? Internally?
Is it with your guys that feel like can go
about eight or nine deep comfortably?
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Here?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
We've been playing nine, you know, solid nine. But you know,
I could go down to eight or they could stay
at nine. It just depends on how these kids continue
to develop. You know, I was watching Duke and who
was that they were playing?
Speaker 4 (08:32):
That was a hell of a game.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
That was a hell of a game. But those teams
are playing seven or eight.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Yeah, depth always sounds better always sounds good, but at
the end of the day, coaches are gonna play who
they who they think can impact winning uh in the
minutes that they get by. Last year we had Terrence
and Elite that came up to bench some nights. Terrence
had it uh and the other nice Malif had it.
(08:57):
So you say, well, we're not gonna to play on
both which ones playing the best? And so because you
don't want to take your best players off the floor,
especially if they're not in foul trouble and it's a
topping game and maybe they don't need to come out,
So you have a tendency to play your main guys
up front. As I think is where we're still a
work in progress. Chris is a freshman, still makes freshman place.
(09:23):
I don't say mistakes, just he makes freshman play.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Uh. He's playing a position.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
He's never played, so it's not an easy, easy transition
for him. You know, everybody wants to play a position down.
Fives want to be fours, fours want to be threes,
threes want to be twos, and twos want to be ones.
Ones are just ones are I guess they're only ones
that are happy because that's what they are, but he's
(09:50):
playing a position he's never played. Probably stands out more
defensively than offensively. He played really good against Auburn, maybe
not so good against Tennessee, but that's you know, that's
a board you're gonna have to ride with with those guys.
You know, Kingston was really good against Tennessee, you know,
(10:10):
not very good against Notre Dame, and probably just averager
below against Syracuse. But I know that that when we
decided to do this, that that's part of the deal
is you're gonna have a little bit of a roller
coaster effect. But uh, Jojo, Milos and Emmanuel, they're also
dealing with different roles.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Last year, Emmanual was probably.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Our third and some Nice our fourth option. This series,
some Nice is our first or second, so that's a
different role. Milo's was usually our fourth or fifth option
last year. This year is our first or second, so
that's a different role. Kingston was at bringing Brenham High
School in San Antonio, Chris was at Lincoln Academy in Missouri,
and Isaiah Harwell was at Wassatch Academy coming off of
(10:55):
the a CL So that that has our team a
little bit kind of in a you know, patience mode,
where we just got to keep plugging, keep showing up
every day with the right work ethic being a pay
attention to learn, follow instructions, be attentive, and figure out
(11:15):
how we can take a complete possession the offense to
the defense, defense to the offense and then just continue
to repeat that over the course of five minutes or
six minutes or seven minutes, and we're still working toward that.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Farlot you run.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
I want to go back to the Auburn game because
I thought that was even though it was in mid
November game. The game was technically in neutral site, but
you know, Birmingham and Auburn that's right around the corner. Ah,
that got some here in some guys chests going on
that road and getting that victory.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
Would you not agree?
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Yeah, especially the two freshmen.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Changston was outstanding that day, and so was Chris. You know,
Chris is struggling with his shot, struggled offensively here and there,
but the one thing he's been solid with is rebound.
And if you can find one thing that can be
your baseline, then you can grow from there. I said, Chris,
You're you're rebounding is keeping you on the floor, don't
(12:11):
don't let up in that area, and now we can
just start building off that, you know, whether it's defensively
or offensively, or making the right play, helping Jojo if
he's out of position, or if somebody gets beat off
the dribble, reading it early and getting over and being
a rem protector. There's so many things that don't show
(12:33):
up on the scoreboard that you want to freshman to
be able to do. You take a guy like JVR
Francis or Jay One Roberts or some of the really
good uh baits we've had, for granted, but they were
in there.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
You know.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
For Jay One it was his third, fourth, fifth year.
Same thing with Javier his third excuse me, second, third,
or fourth year. You know, these guys aren't going to
be as good as those guys. You know, the pro
aspirin isues. Notwithstanding, that's down the road. You're not a
pro today. You're a college player and you're inexperienced college player.
(13:08):
So don't say, well, he's an NBA player. He's not
an NBA player. We don't have an NBA player on
our team. We have guys that could be one day,
they're certainly not today. They're college guys trying to trying
to fit into a system that can help them understand
what it takes to win. Impact winning and being a
player that finds out or figures out what is it
(13:30):
that I'm good at and how can I build from here.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
So but that's the beauty of coaching. That's what my.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Staff and I hang our head on and we'll just
continue to work at it. I don't have any aspirations
long term with this team right now. We just come
in every day with these young kids, the veteran guys
and trying to get them to mess and be a
good team.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
Kevin, thank you for the time, friend. The Tona Center
has been super cold this year, so.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
You may want to wear like a heavy sweater because
it's going to be pretty chilly for that Saturday night game,
even though the roof on it. But so be prepared
for that. Best of luck against the Seminoles. And is
great talking with you as always.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Okay, Matt, thanks for having me. You got it.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Take care of yourself. Kevin Sampson with his University Houston
head coach. We're taken his Cougars over to Tota Center
this Saturday for a game with Florida state,