Houston basketball team receiving directions during a time out, during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Sunday, October 26, 2025 in Houston, Texas. |Gillian Wisniewski/The Cougar
Houston men’s basketball’s once firm lead in the 2025 national championship game against Florida slipping away was difficult for it to digest on all fronts.
A 42-30 lead with less than 20 minutes remaining wasn’t enough to prevent a second-half surge from the Gators, and from witnessing orange and blue confetti rain down inside the Alamodome.
Florida stormed the floor in jubilation, the same one Houston still stood on, grappling with history slipping away from its clutches.
The pill was even more challenging to swallow for those who knew there was no running it back, that it was their final time donning a Cougars jersey.
Four veterans in forwards J’Wan Roberts, Ja’Vier Francis and guards L.J. Cryer and Mylik Wilson played their final collegiate games, signaling the end of an era for a group with 454 combined games at Houston.
For coach Kelvin Sampson, who boasts 40+ years of coaching experience and enters his 12th season in Houston, faces on the team changing year-to-year is nothing new.
But it’s been a while since the faces who were brought in were this young.
Aside from graduate forward Kalifa Sakho, who transferred from Sam Houston State University, the four other newcomers happen to make up Houston’s highest-ranked freshman class in program history, and No. 2 nationally.
The class is highlighted by forward Chris Cenac Jr., the No. 6 player nationally in 2025 and one who provides a unique skillset that hasn’t been exhibited in any big man of the Sampson era in Houston.
In the backcourt, San Antonio native, guard Kingston Flemings joins the program alongside guards Isiah Harwell, ranked No. 13 nationally, and Bryce Jackson, a standout from Houston’s Shadow Creek High School.
It will be the youngest Houston team Sampson has coached since joining the program, but one that still has leaders throughout–some who were already there and others stepping into those shoes for the first time.
Three of them started in Houston’s national title defeat to Florida, with each one earning 2025-26 Big 12 preseason honors, among other nominations.
Redshirt senior guard Emanuel Sharp is the longest-tenured of the three, entering his fifth season with the program, having witnessed plenty of teammates come and go, yet remaining a pillar of the Cougar culture.
Last year, he averaged 12.6 points per game and led the team with 50 steals, showing aggression on both ends of the floor.
He set a career mark with his 40.7% 3-point percentage, and was one of the top marksmen in the Big 12 Conference. His 87 3-pointers were second on the team, only exceeded by senior guard L.J. Cryer’s 123.
Senior point guard Milos Uzan opted out of the NBA Draft to return for his fourth and final season. In his first year at Houston, Uzan ranked 11th nationally with a 3.0 assist-to-turnover ratio.
He spent his first offseason and first half of the campaign gradually learning what it took to excel under Sampson’s hard-nosed program, becoming a more confident player as the season went on.
His confidence will now be looked up to, with a new point guard to take under his wing in Flemings.
Junior forward Joseph Tugler, the reigning Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and the Lefty Driesell Defensive Player of the Year, finished 11th nationally with 77 blocks and returns for his third season.
Tugler had been held out of practices throughout the summer as he recovered from a foot injury, but was recently cleared ahead of Houston’s exhibition game against Mississippi State.
One of the bigs sharing the position group with Tugler, Cenac and Sakho is redshirt junior Cedric Lath, who it the third-longest tenured Cougar and enters his fourth season. Lath logged 20 appearances last season and averaged a career-best 1.3 rebounds per game.
Sophomore guard Mercy Miller and redshirt sophomore Kordel Jefferson broke into the backcourt rotation, appearing in 22 and 14 games, respectively. Both scored in Houston’s first-round matchup of the NCAA tournament against SIU Edwardsville.
Graduate guard Ramon Walker Jr. is set to return after undergoing right-hand surgery last December after falling during pregame warmups, which sidelined him for the remainder of the season.
Redshirt freshman forward Chase McCarty is poised to make his Cougar debut this season after learning on the sidelines for a year. At the same time, redshirt sophomore Jacob McFarland seeks to return from a leg injury that kept him out all last season, and a second surgery that he had late in this offseason.
A season that ended one half short of a national title now gives way to one built on redemption.
While some of the names have changed, the expectations are still the same, as Houston enters the season still carrying the standard that has come to define the program.
sports@thedailycougar.com
