As Texas basketball makes trip to Houston, can Rodney Terry lure city's talent to Austin?
Texas men’s basketball coach Rodney Terry understands how pivotal the recruiting pipeline between Houston and Austin used to be for the Longhorns. Heck, he helped open the spigot.
From 2001 through 2013, Texas coach Rick Barnes leaned heavily on players from the Houston area to help turn his program into a national power. Terry served as one of Barnes’ lead assistants from 2002 to 2011 before accepting his first head coaching job at Fresno State.
A native of Angleton, just south of Houston, Terry helped mine some major talent from that area; from 2001 to 2014, Texas signed five players from Houston-area high schools who would eventually see action in the NBA: TJ Ford (Fort Bend Willowridge), Daniel Gibson (Houston Jones), DJ Augustin (Fort Bend Hightower), Sheldon McClennan (Houston Bellaire) and Isaiah Taylor (The Village).
More: Dogus Balbay, the Texas basketball energizer of old, finds his way back home | Bohls
That list doesn’t include several All-Big 12 players who didn’t reach the NBA, such as Aldine's Gary Johnson and Rosenberg Terry's Dexter Pittman.
“Over the years, we’ve had a lot of success with the guys from Houston,” Terry said.
Texas makes its recruiting point in Houston
And it all started with Ford, the All-American point guard who led Texas to its only Final Four appearance of the modern era in 2003. His arrival opened the doors for the flurry of Houston-area recruits, and he remains close to Terry and the UT program.
“TJ made it cool for guys to want to come to Texas,” Terry said. “Prior to that, a lot of guys were leaving the state and going all around the country to different programs. But he made it cool to stay here, and he excelled here at a very high level.
“Guys could see themselves being here without having to go across the country to North Carolina; they didn't have to go to Kentucky. They could get everything they wanted — big-time basketball, big-time college experience, live in a great city and enjoy an incredible network of alumni — they can have it all here at Texas.”
Since Barnes left Texas after the 2014-15 season, that pipeline has all but dried up. Texas has signed one player from the Houston area (Donovan Williams from Fort Bend Elkins) who spent time in the NBA, and he played just two seasons at Texas before transferring to UNLV.
More: Texas basketball's elusive home win places NCAA Tournament within Longhorns' sight | Bohls
Kelvin Sampson: Houston rejuvenation has improved recruiting
The rise of Houston under head coach Kelvin Sampson coincided with the departure of Barnes from Texas. Sampson, a veteran coach who took over the Cougars in 2014, immediately leaned on the surrounding talent to rebuild a program that had made just four NCAA Tournament appearances since the retirement of legendary head coach Guy V. Lewis in 1986.
Fueled by area talent, Sampson led Houston to 22 wins in his second season and had the Cougars back in the NCAA Tournament by his fourth. Houston hasn’t had fewer than 20 wins or missed the NCAAs since 2018 season, excluding the 2019-20 pandemic season.
“We've been recruiting the best players out of the city (Houston) for eight years, and we've been getting our share of them,” Sampson said on SportsTalk 790 AM radio this month. “We recruit inside-out; Houston is always our first priority.”
Sampson’s rosters reflect that approach. He’s had three players from the Houston area — Danuel House (Fort Bend Hightower), Damyean Dotson (Houston Yates) and Quentin Grimes (The Woodlands College Park) — reach the NBA, a significant number for a program that didn’t compete in a Power Six conference until joining the Big 12 this season.
He’s also regularly filled his roster with rank-and-file players from the Houston area. This year’s team, which enters Saturday's home game against Texas with a 21-3 record and a No. 3 ranking in the latest Associated Press poll, has four players in the regular rotation from Houston: Joseph Tugler of Houston Cypress Falls, LJ Cryer of Katy Morton Ranch, Ramon Walker of Pearland Shadow Creek and Ja’Vier Francis of Westbury Christian.
Sampson takes particular pride in signing the winners of the Guy V. Lewis Award, a uniquely Houston prize named in honor of the coaching legend that recognizes the top high school player in the area. Sampson has signed five of the past seven winners while shutting off a recruiting valve that once flowed to college bluebloods such as Kentucky and Duke — each of which signed two of the first five award winners.
More: Dylan Disu gets first Big 12 player of the week award after big week for Texas basketball
Rodney Terry: We want Houston players, presence
Terry wants that talent to flow toward Austin once again. He signed two players from Houston last recruiting cycle, Chris Johnson (Fort Bend Elkins) and Devin Pryor (Cypress PSAT-XEA Academy) — the first time the Longhorns welcomed two Houston players from the same class since Terry was an assistant to Barnes more than a decade ago.
The UT coach wants to retain a presence in Houston even if his program can’t maintain its recently renewed series with the Cougars. Saturday’s game will be the Longhorns’ first visit to the University of Houston since they lost 73-71 in the first round of the 2013 College Basketball Invitational. With Texas leaving for the SEC on July 1, the brief renewal of a conference series between the former Southwest Conference rivals will last just one season.
Neither Terry nor Sampson has committed to keeping the series alive in nonconference, and Sampson spoke of the difficulties of scheduling marquee nonconference games once the Big 12 expands to 16 teams next season after his team’s overtime win over the Longhorns last month in Austin.
In December, Texas met LSU as part of the Halal Guys College Basketball Showcase, a four-team nonconference event at Houston’s Toyota Center. Terry hopes to keep playing in such nonconference games in Houston, especially since the city’s talent pool isn’t drying up anytime soon.
“Would we like to continue to play in Houston? Absolutely,” Terry said. “Obviously, being in Houston, a very fertile recruiting area that every year is going to have elite-level players, we love for those guys to be able to see us up close and in person.”
Saturday's game
Texas (16-8, 5-6) at No. 3 Houston (21-3, 8-3), noon, CBS, 1300
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas basketball wants to reopen recruiting pipeline from Houston
