Kelvin Sampson Reveals Two Notable Injuries for Houston Cougars

The No. 5 Houston Cougars just suffered their biggest loss of the season to the No. 14 Kansas Jayhawks by 13 points on Big Monday, and the Cougars have now lost three in a row for the first time since 2017.

It hasn’t been an easy time around the program during this brutal stretch of facing three of the best teams in the country in quick succession. Most of the college basketball world was expecting Houston vs Kansas to be a great game, but ultimately it did not live up to that. As good as Kansas has been at Allen Fieldhouse, Houston has not lost by double digits since 2024.

While there were various reasons why the Cougars did not play well against Kansas, the situation became much more clear during coach Kelvin Sampson’s post-game press conference. Houston had just run out of steam. That was shown in the second half where the Cougars just shot 32% overall.

Houston Was Not Healthy

Houston Cougars basketball — Houston Cougars guard Emanuel Sharp (21) reacts to an injury during the game against Kansas Jayhawks inside Allen Fieldhouse on Monday, Feb. 23, 2026. | Evert Nelson/The Capital-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The now Naismith Hall of Fame Finalist mentioned how proud he was of the team, even though they ultimately ran out of gas in the second half.

“We got some good looks, but just didn’t make any shots. Sharp guarded his butt off and played 35 minutes Saturday. Milos played 38. That’s why I took them out with eight minutes to go because they had no legs. They were done,” Sampson said.

Both senior guard Emanuel Sharp and senior point guard Milos Uzan are incredibly important members and leaders to this team. Houston needs them to play at a high level, and that was just not possible against the Jayhawks. At the end of the day, nobody in the program overreacts. All this will help them in March Madness.

“We’re not going to go jump off the bridge just because we lost this game. After the game on Saturday, I knew what we were walking into tonight,” Sampson said.

He repeated he took out Uzan and Sharp because they had nothing left.

Sampson revealed in Wednesday’s media availability that Uzan was a game-time decision and has been dealing with a couple of ankle sprains, one on each leg at different times. Head athletic trainer John Houston didn’t think Uzan would play, but Uzan gave it a go, and Sampson believes he did the best he could.

Uzan could not properly plant and move his foot.

For Sharp, his injury was his hip.

“Emanuel couldn’t move, just immobile. He had two bad falls against Arizona, and then he had a really bad fall where we had to go on the court and help him off. Those two guys were obviously less than 100%,” Sampson said.

That probably had something to do with the Kansas game being the worst of the season for Sharp. He was just 1/10 from the field with five points. Uzan only got seven shots off and scored seven points.

With how hard and physical Houston typically plays, it was difficult for the Coogs to sustain that just 48 hours after a 40-minute battle against No. 2 Arizona.

“You don’t go through this gauntlet like we did,” Sampson said. He’s right. No other team has arguably had to go through a more difficult stretch in college basketball than this.

“I knew this was going to be a hard game for us after that Arizona game back in October. It’s going to be a hard game for anybody that’s gotta play at Iowa State, Arizona, at Kansas. Especially the Arizona Kansas turnaround from a Saturday to Monday,” Sampson said.

The Cougars scheduled two days off on Tuesday and Wednesday with no practice in order to recover from their injuries. Sampson said both Sharp and Uzan would not have been able to practice anyway. Houston will hope this reset of sorts works well for the future.