How One Houston Freshman Has Taken the Fertitta Center By Storm
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The Houston Cougars had a few questions surrounding their new cast of young characters.
Head coach Kelvin Sampson has built a career out of putting together veteran-heavy teams that showcase their experience through their play. This season, outside of a couple of key veterans, it feels like a lot of the players on the squad will be seeing significant action for the first time in their careers.
In his third game at the college level, Kingston Flemings is already looking like a veteran and put on a show Wednesday night in Houston’s dominant victory over the Oakland Golden Grizzlies.
Kingston Flemings vs The Oakland Golden Grizzlies
Flemings looked like a senior in his third college basketball game and posted 19 points, nine assists, and five rebounds. Flemings also took care of the ball well, recording zero turnovers in his impressive performance, something Sampson credited to Flemings’ older teammates.
“Sounds like Milos Uzan and Jamal Shead,” Sampson said. ”Jamal Shead had over 3.0. He had almost four assists to one turnover. Milos is the same way. So he’s just falling in line with all the report cards we’ve had.”
Flemings certainly passed the ball like a seasoned veteran, but so did the rest of the team. Emanuel Sharp posted four assists and Milos Uzan recorded three of his own.
“We don’t have any selfish players,” Sharp said after the game. “We’re all trying to get each other a shot. Nobody’s worried about their own points and we needed that; it helped especially tonight against their zone. We gotta move the ball, and everybody did a great job of that. Kingston [Flemings] is a great passer, and so is Milos [Uzan]. So when everyone’s moving the ball that’s when we’re at our best, when it keeps moving.”
Naturally, every team in America would have some struggles when fielding such a young, inexperienced team. Sampson is just focused on continuing to get better and is proud of what the team has been able to accomplish in just three games.
“We just keep getting better and better as we go,” Sampson said. “Doesn't mean we’re not going to lose some games. We will. Just like everybody else in America. We’re going to lose games. Everybody’s going to lose games. A lot of really good teams out there. But for us, that doesn’t matter. What matters is continuing to do what we’ve always done. Just keep getting better. We had twenty assists and six turnovers. We couldn’t do that the first night. Couldn’t do that in the second game. Third game, starting to figure some things out. I think most teams in America progress isn’t always linear.”
