Houston Basketball Lands Elite Forward From Transfer Portal
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With Houston losing a total of nine players from last season’s team, coach Kelvin Sampson staff have no choice but to take experienced players from the transfer portal.
Earlier on Saturday, the Cougars got a commitment from former LSU guard Dedan Thomas Jr., who is one of the most sought after guards in the portal.
Houston continued its momentum when Kent State’s standout forward Delrecco Gillespie announced that he would be joining the Cougars for next season.
Delrecco Gillespie Joins Houston
Houston’s junior forward Joseph Tugler is the only returning big man for the Cougars, and while he will greatly improve with a healthy offseason, UH needed to address its interior scoring problem.
Gillespie fits that role nicely as the majority of his game is scoring in the paint.
He had a breakout final season at Kent State, and he earned a First-Team All-MAC selection by averaging 17.7 points and 11.3 rebounds per game.
Standing at 6-foot-8 and 230 pounds, Gillespie is a matchup problem down-low and he will be that interior scorer that Houston didn’t have last season.
While a majority of his baskets come from open dunks or contested layups, he also has great touch for a big around the rim, and he can hit fade-away hook shots just like former forward J’Wan Roberts.
While he probably won’t have the green light from behind the arc at Houston, he can make threes when left open.
Another way he fits right into Houston is that he is ultra-aggressive on the defensive side of the ball, and he is very athletic for his size.
Last season, he averaged 1.2 blocks and a steal per game, which will only improved after an offseason with the Cougars’ staff.
One major thing that Gillespie will need to improve on is taking care of the basketball.
In his final year at Kent State, he averaged just under three turnovers per game, which simply is too many to work in Sampson’s system.
Nonetheless, Gillespie is known as a hard worker, and his former head coach Rob Senderoff only had great things to say about his decision to come to Houston.
”[He is] a great kid with a thirst to get better who has improved every year at Kent State,” Senderoff told basketball analyst Jeff Goodman. “He is a rebounding machine who fits their style as a player. And, he is a winner who cares about winning first and foremost.”
Gillespie no doubt will thrive once he gets his footing at Houston, and his paint presence and rebounding ability will greatly improve the Cougars’ roster.
Ashton Grissom is a staff writer for Houston Cougars on SI. He is currently a senior at the University of Houston and majoring in Sports Media Production with a minor in Marketing and Spanish. He also works for two student organizations: The Cougar and CoogTV. You can find Grissom on his Instagram (@ashtonagrissom8) or Twitter (@ashtongrissom8).