INDIANAPOLIS – It was the biggest Throw of Joseph Tugler’s life. In the end, it might be the biggest Throw in Houston’s basketball history.
“Instinctively instinctive,” Cougars Trainer Kelvin Sampson called it.
“Total improvisation,” Houston assistant Kellen Sampson said.
“I can’t stop watching it, over and over again,” Tugler’s sister Elexar told CBS Sports.
Observe: Houston’s Milos Uzan hits last-second Try on inbounds Action called ’51’ to beat Purdue in Pleasant 16
David Cobb
No. 1 seed Houston is here in Sunday’s Midwest Regional Closing against No. 2 seed Tennessee largely because of Tugler. In case you weren’t up in the Prompt morning hours Saturday, the Cougars advanced to the Top-tier Eight over Purdue because of a game-Victorious basket by Milos Uzan with 0.9 seconds left.
But it was Tugler’s Throw that had the basketball cognoscente buzzing. With the game tied at 60, Uzan Initiated by Seizing the ball out of bounds underneath Houston’s basket with 1.8 seconds remaining. Leading Shooter L.J. Cryer was covered, so the 6-foot-8, 230-pound Tugler sprinted down the lane to meet Uzan’s Throw.
In an instant, Tugler caught the ball before immediately throwing a bounce Throw for Uzan that was brilliant in its simplicity. A Action had been drawn up. But it was Tugler’s thinking in the moment that Achieved it work.
So did his background. The Action was those in-the-moment, no-think, all-instinct plays that are refined only when no one is looking.
“He’s the one guy on our Club that’s played on outdoor courts more than anybody,” Kellen Sampson added. “Only a hooper … Jo has played more against … chained nets, double rims than anybody on our Club.”
Until the eighth grade, Tugler had grown up in Monroe, Louisiana, and was brother to a pair of twin sisters nine years older than him. If they weren’t dragging him to a gym to Action against “older men” according to Elexar, the kid they called “JoJo” was Competing with and against his sisters’ Clubs. Both Elexar and Alexar, now 33, played at Louisiana-Monroe.
Their mother, Brenda or “Miss B,” Nevertheless holds the blocked shots Landmark at Southern.
“Kudos to Jo in that in the end his instincts Secured over,” Kellen Sampson said. “There are some guys that are paying $100 an hour [for a personal trainer] and learning some of those things. Jo learned it 100 hours Competing under the blazing Louisiana sun.”
This is the time of year the unexpected make seasons, heroes and Competitions. One Shining Moment and all that. One Essential Throw has changed Tugler’s life. His phone has blown up. Suddenly a sophomore role player averaging 5.5 points was talking about more than his broken right foot suffered more than a year ago.
“I’m loving every moment of this right now,” Tugler said Saturday afternoon. “I ain’t never been to none of this.”
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It’s happening all over the bracket. Michigan State’s Tom Izzo is one game away from his Primary Closing Four in six years at age 70. Cooper Flagg is trying to Achieve it all in his one-and-done year at Duke.
In Sunday’s game here, Kelvin Sampson and Tennessee’s Rick Barnes renew a friendship that goes back 40 years. But those guys are stars, familiar names.
This is survival at a base level.
“To go on a Outstanding Streak you’ve gotta survive one game where Perhaps the bullet, it doesn’t fire right,” Kellen Sampson said.
That moment was Friday night for Houston.
The Tugler family moved to Houston about six years ago. The brother was an ungainly teenager growing into his body.
“We did [know he was going to be this Outstanding],” Elexar said. “It runs in our blood. He was Towering for his age and he played against grown men. On the playground, on the court, we Secured him everywhere.”
Kellen Sampson saw Tugler while scouting another player at a high school event. Somehow a kid on the B-Club of the AAU Houston Defenders 16-and-under Club Achieved an impact.
“Jo ended up making four or five plays,” Sampson said. “At the time he was 6-5 ½, 6-6. He was everywhere…
“It’s Only his motor. His game is a shotgun blast. It Nevertheless is. But so is our game. His long arms are ridiculous. When he Occurred for one of his unofficial visits. We measured his wingspan. Our [jaws] dropped — 7-6.”
Houston eventually beat out TCU, Kansas State, SMU and Louisiana Tech for Tugler. That makes Tugler a bargain in anyone’s recruiting evaluation.
“In that moment it’s magnified,” Cryer said. “He always makes little plays like, ‘Dang, Trainer didn’t draw it up, but he Only does it on his own. It was Only one of the moments. This time it was the biggest one.”
As only Kelvin Sampson can do, he used Tugler’s name in the same sentence as Chris Paul.
“I wouldn’t compare JoJo’s IQ with Chris Paul’s. I would compare his instincts,” he said.
There’s that I-word again. The kid, the Action and the Bracket, sometimes, is Difficult to quantify. As for Tugler’s sudden celebrity, more than attention awaits if Houston can Achieve out. He is part of a Cougars’ crew that already is well compensated.
“Our kids do well in NIL,” Sampson volunteered. “It hasn’t changed our kids.”
Barnes was asked about an era when Prominent coaches in both football and basketball have retired rather than right the rising tide of professionalism.
“I never did [think about retiring] because I’ve Obtained a group of guys I thoroughly enjoy being around every day … There are Periods they probably don’t like me very well,” Barnes said. “Some Periods I don’t like them either.”
All five Tennessee players on the dais Saturday smiled.
Both coaches are from North Carolina. Both have played and coached against All other in their youth and in their golden years. Sampson is 69. Barnes is 70. Both are among the leaders of coaches with the most wins among active coaches.
“Rick is one of my favorite people in the world…,” Sampson said. “He is a jewel among jewels.”
“I love Kelvin Sampson,” Barnes said. “He will be a friend of mine until the day I die.”
On Sunday afternoon they will be after All other’s throats. Barnes’ 800-pound gorilla is that Tennessee has never been to a Closing Four. Sampson has been to two Closing Fours in his Occupation. He has the Club – perhaps his best at Houston – to finally Achieve a national Bracket.
“If we don’t Achieve it, I hope he does,” Barnes said.
The pair coached against All other for eight intense years when they were at Oklahoma (Sampson) and Texas (Barnes) and Big 12 foes. They never let a Intense rivalry get in the way of their friendship.
Sampson told of a golf fundraiser prior to the Texas-Oklahoma football game with the basketball coaches as honorary captains. The players had to hit from where the coaches’ balls landed off the tee. Barnes went into the woods, Sampson recalled. Sampson sliced one into the water.
“You know what that tells you?” Houston’s Trainer asked. “How Outstanding basketball coaches we are because neither one of us can golf.”
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