After last year’s 13-19 season, University of Houston basketball Head Coach Kelvin Sampson is determined to see major improvements on the court as well as in the team’s win-loss record. He plans to use the experience that last year’s players gained as well as utilize UH’s newest transfer players.
Coach Sampson aimed to recruit players that would improve his fast paced offense and also had good playing experience.
“We’re going to play as fast as we can,” Coach Sampson said. “Knowing how you’re going to play, you have to go recruit players that fit your system. You don’t just arbitrarily grab somebody and say “hey we want to play fast so you come play for us”.”
These specifications led to Houston gaining junior guard Ronnie Johnson (Purdue), junior center Kyle Meyer (Eastern Florida State College) and sophomore guard Rob Gray Jr. (Howard College).
Each player will fit into the team system in their own way, but they are prepared to adjust to different roles than which they held at their former schools.
With 10.8 points per game, Ronnie Johnson was the second leading scorer at Purdue during the 2013-2014 season. Coach Sampson plans to develop Johnson into more of an assisting point guard than a scorer.
“I don’t think that [Johnson] will be our second leading scorer.” Coach Sampson said. “That’s not what I got him for. I want him to push up the court. I want him to facilitate and initiate the offense more. We’re trying to teach Ronnie how to be a better point guard. Right now he’s a better player than he was a point guard, and at Purdue he was a better player than he was a point guard.”
Johnson seems to enjoy these changes that Coach Sampson is placing on him.
“I like [the system] a lot. It’s different from Purdue.” Johnson said. “We run a lot of NBA stuff, a lot of NBA plays and you just go through your options. It’s a good setup for any guard and really anybody.”
Experience is something Coach Sampson wants his players to thrive on and Johnson aims to prove that he can provide just that.
When asked what he can bring to the team Johnson stated,
“Leadership. I’m really competitive and experienced also. I’ve played against a lot of great guards like Trey Burke. A lot of good guards that are in the NBA now like Marcus Teague and Gary Harris. So yea, Experience.”
On the other hand, Rob Gray Jr. feels that his roll with the team will amplify his strengths.
“I feel like Coach Sampson tries to utilize everyone’s strength and one of my better strengths is scoring.” Gray said. “I feel like he’s going to use me a lot to score the ball and get me in situations where I can score as well as makes plays for other people.”
Gray’s thinking makes since as this would allow Ronnie Johnson to embrace his new role as a facilitator. If Gray can be a consistent scorer, it would aid Johnson’s assisting role and spread the floor to open shots for other players as well.
Speaking of spreading the floor, Kyle Meyer feels that is his specialty and plans to use it to give Houston’s offense an advantage.
“I think I spread the floor [really well].” Meyer said. “Chicken (Danrad Knowles) and I are the only ones as big as we are and can rebound the way we do and step out to the perimeter, so I think with me having a little more size than [Knowles], we both can be that type of player to spread out the floor.”
Coach Sampson considers Kyle Meyer to be one of the better players on the team and plans to utilize all of his strengths. Meyer believes his strength is spreading the floor, but Coach Sampson sees something different.
“The thing I like about Kyle (Meyer) is that he does not have a lot of great strengths. He’s very athletic and also a great rebounder, but there’s not one thing in the game of basketball that he’s not pretty good at. He’s a pretty good shooter [and] he’s a pretty good passer. A pretty good pick and roll defender [and] pretty good rebounder. But what he’s really good at – he’s a great team player. He understands how to make this team better and he understands how to fit into a team.”
Based off of Coach Sampson’s words, Cougar fans can expect to see a lot of Kyle Meyer on the court this season.
The biggest thing Coach Sampson is ecstatic about is the depth on the roster. With the amount of work his players received last season combined with the experience he received from his transfers, Coach Sampson feels like Houston’s depth is going to be an advantage that other teams do not have.
“There’s a difference between depth and depth. You may have 15 players on your team, but only six can play [well].” Coach Sampson said. “We’ve got good depth. We’ve got 13 guys on the team and I feel comfortable with those guys.”
Sampson has full confidence in his team and expects them to be a better team than last year. He also anticipates these improvements to be more than a one year deal.
“I think all three [transfers] are going to be good players for us,” Sampson said. “And the good thing about those three guys is that there all back next year too.
Cougar fans should look forward to a better team than last year’s squad. With the help of returning players and the newest transfers, the 2015-2016 Houston Cougars basketball team will aim to bring more to the table than a 13-19 win-loss record.
