Said head coach Kelvin Sampson of the Cougars’ recent turnover woes, “I saw some passes tonight that in 30-something years of coaching I had never seen before.” | File photo
The Cougars are enjoying a four-game winning streak, but they are still far from a finished product.
A big weakness in the past couple of games, head coach Kelvin Sampson said after Houston’s win over UT-Arlington, have been the giveaways they have been gifting to their opponents.
“Turnovers and fouls, that’s it,” he said following the 71-63 UH victory. “Our guards’ composure tonight, poor. I saw some passes tonight that in 30-something years of coaching I had never seen before.”
Against the Mavericks on Wednesday night, the Cougars had 16 turnovers, which led to 14 points for UTA in a game where they struggled to put the ball in the basket, shooting only 28.3 percent from the field for the entire game.
“The only good thing about our turnovers was that the passes were so bad that they went up into the stands,” Sampson said. “Had they been live-ball passes, we would have been in trouble.”
The struggles for Houston go beyond Wednesday’s game.
“We’ve turned the ball over 33 times in the last two games,” Sampson said.
In the game against South Carolina, Houston turned the ball over 17 times.
“It comes down to decision making,” Sampson said. “You got to be a basketball player, just make the right decisions, don’t lose your composure.”
For many of the players on the team, this is the first time they are playing heavy minutes at the collegiate level, and they see every game as an opportunity to improve and gain experience.
“My turnovers were (because of) composure; we just got to keep it together,” junior forward Fabian White Jr. said.
With every mistake, comes a lesson, and Houston is looking to clean up their sloppiness as the month progresses.
“We just got to keep getting better, (with) IQ,” sophomore guard Nate Hinton said.
