What Kelvin Sampson said about Cincinnati, Houston point guard Milos Uzan

Houston basketball coach Kelvin Sampson held a media session on Thursday in advance of Saturday’s home game against Cincinnati.

The Cougars (24-4, 16-1 Big 12) can claim the outright conference title with a win or an Arizona loss at Iowa State, also on Saturday. Houston has currently won 20 of its last 21 ballgames, including Monday’s 69-61 victory at Texas Tech, which avenged the Cougars’ lone Big 12 loss at home to the Red Raiders.

Sampson talked about Cincinnati, passing Lefty Driesell on the all-time college basketball coaches wins list and the development of junior point guard Milos Uzan.

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On the play of Cincinnati sophomore guard Jizzle James

(James is the son of former NFL running back Edgerrin James and leads the Bearcats in scoring with 12.6 points per game.)

“One of the things that Wes (Miller, Cincinnati’s coach) did was open up the offense, and put the ball in Jizzle’s hands, and (senior guard) Day Day Thomas, and those two guys have become their big offensive weapons. They’re shooting most of the balls, and the other three guys are all really athletic and really talented in (junior forward Dillon) Mitchell, (fifth-year forward Aziz) Bandaogo and (junior guard Josh) Reed.… James and Day Day are both excellent one-on-one players, they both can get to their shot.

“We spent (Wednesday and Thursday) watching their game at Iowa State, their games against Baylor and West Virginia; they were in position to win just about every game they’re in, they’ve had some bad luck. Jizzle, last year, was their point guard; this year, he’s more of their combo guard, two guard that can really shoot.

“We didn’t see this last year, a lot of things he’s doing now, so kudos to him and kudos to Wes for recognizing we’ve got to change something, and great move of going to Jizzle and Day Day and just spreading the floor and drive it. It’s still the hardest thing to do in basketball, defend the great offensive players, especially one-on-one players in space, because you’ve got to figure out where your help’s coming and if they get cooking, how are you going to adjust?”

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On passing Lefty Driesell on the all-time Division I college basketball wins list

(Sampson moved into sole possession of 17th in NCAA history among coaches with at least 10 years at the Division I level. Sampson, who now has 788 wins, passed Lefty Driesell, most famous for his tenure at Maryland, then in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Sampson remembered watching Driesell’s Maryland teams while growing up in North Carolina.)

“I remember coaching against Lefty; he was the head coach at Georgia State. … He was a great coach and a trend-setter. He was the first one to start ‘Midnight Madness (at midnight on the first day of practice a team can have per NCAA rules),’ and the very first ‘Midnight Madness,’ his team went out at midnight and worked out and I think he turned it into something where he would let the students come.

“I always loved basketball, I loved watching basketball and when I was growing up, you didn’t have a lot of games and the NBA only played on Sundays, there was no cable. So it was the ACC and Jefferson-Pilot Insurance Company sponsored the ACC basketball games, so Saturdays were for watching the ACC and Sundays was the NBA, so watching all those ACC coaches, I kind of cut my teeth watching those guys.”

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On the continued development of Houston junior point guard Milos Uzan

(Sampson remarked it took a while for Uzan to adjust to the Houston style of play after transferring from Oklahoma in the offseason, but Uzan has come into his own as a playmaker and as a facilitator.)

“I think one of the best things I did when we recruited Milos last April, was that I grabbed my phone and called (Oklahoma coach) Porter Moser, and Porter’s a really good friend of mine. … I asked him, and it’s not an easy question to ask, but Porter and I have a good enough relationship to where I felt like I could, so he gave me an extremely, extremely honest assessment of Milos and the things we thought we could help him with.

“I kind of gathered the ideas I had from talking to Porter, and Porter really helped me with that. But as far as a moment, there was no moment; it’s like asking the moment I thought I was a good coach, I don’t know. I just know the three weeks he was out in October (with a nose injury) really slowed him down. It took him a long time to get back and it took him a long time to get his confidence to not get hit because of his surgery. … It just took him a long time in November, but once we got to December, it got better.”