By Chris Schumerth | @ChrisSchumerth

Sports Capital Journalism Program

INDIANAPOLIS — It is not an exaggeration to say that if Milos Uzan had not shot 6-for-9 from the 3-point line against Purdue in the Sweet 16, the University of Houston men’s basketball team would probably be home by now, ready to watch the Elite Eight from their couches rather than the Midwest’s No. 1 seed and the nation’s best defensive unit trying to claw its way back into the Final Four for the first time since 2021.

Indeed, if just one of those six 3’s had rimmed out or gone long or wide, his layup with 0.9 seconds to play would not have been enough to knock off the Boilermakers. But he did make six instead of 5 3-pointers against Purdue, and therefore his slip toward the basket after inbounding to teammate Joseph Tugler – who smartly got it right back to him — was one of the most uncontested, highest-percentage game-winning baskets you’ll ever see this deep in the NCAA Tournament.

“I was trying to hit (LJ),” Uzan said about the play, “and then JoJo just made a great read…(LJ) was able to draw 2, and (Tugler) slipped, and he just made a great play to hit me back.”

Uzan, who played his first two collegiate seasons at Oklahoma, one of Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson’s former schools, was the only player the team added from the transfer portal before the 2024-25 campaign. He’d started an eye-opening 56 games as a Sooner, including all 32 during his sophomore year, and his scoring average improved from year one to year two. But the now 45% 3-point shooter’s percentage had notably dropped below 30% during Uzan’s sophomore season.

“Milos’s father was his high school coach,” Sampson explained, “and in talking with his dad, I could tell they were looking for something very specific, and we felt like we could help him. We also felt like he could help us. We didn’t need a shot-first point guard. We needed a distributor…He knew he’d get pushed and find out how good he really was if he came to Houston.”

Uzan was later asked what he was looking for, and here’s what he said: “There was…a level that I haven’t tapped yet. I knew playing alongside (LJ Cryer and Emanuel Sharp), it would push me to that level.”

After breaking his nose in October and missing three weeks of practice due to the injury, Uzan’s season didn’t exactly get off to a blazing start. He had nights like a two-game stretch against Troy and Toledo when he shot 1-for-7 against Troy and 3-for-13 against Toledo (with only one 3-pointer in the 2 games).

“I don’t think Milos had an identity yet,” Sampson said about Uzan’s relatively-slow start with the team. “One thing I noticed about him is he doesn’t foul very much. We foul. I wish we didn’t as much as we did, but we do. I got on him about fouling. I said, ‘Son, why don’t you just try fouling somebody? So I had Mylik Wilson … out there playing point guard one day. I said, ‘Every time Mylik puts the ball in his left hand, I want you to try to steal it. Now, if you happen to run into him, that will be all right. Mylik can handle it.’ But I was just looking for ways to get him more aggressive. That was not his nature, but I think that’s part of why his father wanted him to come to Houston. He needed that. He wanted that.”

At the offensive end, Uzan has executed his role as a distributing point guard by averaging 4.4 assists a game (he had six against Purdue), and he didn’t so much as score 20 or more points in a game until he got 22 in a win over Texas Tech in late February. Three weeks after that, in a game that was not unlike the win over Purdue, Uzan led his team in scoring with 25, including 4-for-6 shooting from 3) as the Cougars came from behind to beat Arizona in the Big 12 Conference Championship.

What determines games like the Big 12 Championship and the Sweet 16 game when Uzan knows he needs to put up shots and score for his team? “I want to come in every game aggressive,” he clarified. “Try to throw the first punch. I saw my shot was falling early, so I just wanted to keep shooting. And that’s what the staff and my teammates encourage.”

With the pressure of a late-tournament run immediately in front of him, much of the country is now watching. And those fans may just discover how good Uzan can become with the prospect of another season of development still available to him in Sampson’s system. Because whether he’s a point guard or a combo guard, the guy can play.

Just ask Purdue.