HOUSTON (SportsRadio 610)- With 12:41 left to play and his team leading by 11, Kelvin Sampson tried to steal a breather for his best player, Jamal Shead, with the under 12-minute media timeout looming.
Sampson watched Iowa State shave six points off that lead before Shead barely had enough time to grab a sip of water, prompting him to ask for time before the media stoppage arrived. Shead was subbed back in and didn’t come out again.
“He was the guy that was not gonna let us lose tonight,” Sampson said after Monday’s 73-65 win over the sixth ranked team in the nation.
“Sometimes the most simplest thing is to keep the ball in your best players hands and put him in position to turn the corner and go make a play, so that's what we did. We kept the ball in our best players hands, and he delivered time and time again.”
On a night when the Cougars’ leading scorer, L.J. Cryer, shot just 2-of-10, Shead stepped up and scored 26 points, 20 in the second half, against the nation’s third best defense, per KenPom. He connected on 6-of-10 field goal attempts, and knocked all but one of his 13 free throw attempts, to go with six assists.
"Offensively, he makes everything go for them,” Iowa State head coach T.J. Otzelberger said. "He sets the tone for their defense. He commands the game, he's got tremendous character, his competitive spirit you can feel. Guy goes to the foul line and just cashes in. He's a winner.
“To play 37 minutes and 39 seconds and give what he gave on both ends every possession, it's amazing. It's nothing short of amazing."
Houston is 23-3 this season, 10-3 in Big 12 play, on the shoulders of the nation’s best defense. It hasn’t always been pretty offensively, but the Cougars entered Monday’s game 16th in KenPom’s offensive efficiency metric.
Against a team that forces 18 turnovers per game, Houston gave it up just nine times on Monday, a hair above their 8.7 season average, fourth best among 361 Division I teams, and no one touches the ball more than Shead.
“He’s like another coach,” Houston guard Emanuel Sharp said. “Just having him on the floor, just knowing he can create shots for you and the rest of your teammates, it’s kind of like having a safety net.”
Sampson said Monday he’s probably closer to Shead than any other player on his team, mostly a by product of him being the point guard, but he’s also coached him for four seasons. Shead was a reserve on Houston’s 2021 Final Four squad, and he took a backseat to first round pick Marcus Sasser the last two seasons.
He’s elevated his game as a senior.
“It’s nice to have the best point guard in the nation,” Sampson said.
Shead is a finalist for the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Award, and he’s on the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Watch List, but should be in the conversation for National Player of the Year? Sharp thinks he has a case.
“I feel like he’s a great candidate for it. You see what he does. His stat lines are crazy. There's not something that he doesn't do. He scores, plays defense, he gets steals, he gets rebounds, he's one of the best passers, so he's just he's a great all-around player.”