Houston Basketball: Fitting in new transfer addition Milos Uzan from Oklahoma Sooners

Kelvin Sampson and the Houston Cougars got better over the weekend. That plan, much like Sampson, comes by way of Oklahoma. This time? It’s new point guard Milos Uzan.

Entering the weekend, Houston had lost generationally talented point guard Jamal Shead to the NBA Draft. Shead won the Big 12 Player of the Year, Naismith Defensive Player of the Year, and was a consensus First Team All-American. Shead, who stands at just 6’1,” left behind gargantuan shoes to fill… but Sampson, assistant Coach Quannas White, and the Coogs have a plan to use Milos Uzan as the next engine to run the ship.

Uzan visited campus in person on Saturday, and committed before the night was over. Per reporter Joseph Duarte, who spoke with Uzan’s father, they didn’t even have to entertain any other offers: 

On Monday, Locked On Coogs broke down the fit Uzan and the replacement he will be. What’s interesting is that the Coogs are vividly opting to replace the playmaking ability of Shead instead of the scoring. 

Shead was able to give Houston whatever they wanted last season. You need him to get 25 points? Done. 11 assists? Done. Guard the best guard on the other team? Done. Houston’s looked at their 2024-25 roster and decided that the most valuable thing to replace was combination of playmaking and passing.

Milos Uzan is elite at getting two feet in the paint and finding teammates. He has great vision and he can put the ball wherever he wants to on the floor. Surrounded with returning sharp shooters LJ Cryer and Emanuel Sharp, along with short roll threat J’Wan Roberts, Houston may not need to find a new score first guy. Those three guys alone combined for 36.5 points per game last season… and Houston allowed an NCAA best 57.6 per game to entire teams. Then add in two four-star recruits guard Mercy Miller and Chase McCarty, you could see Uzan hit double-digit assists across Big 12 wins without question. And that’s before he gets a single lob to returning starting big man Ja’Vier Francis or his reserve Jojo Tugler, 

Uzan may fully hit his pro potential as a pro point guard in Houston. Obviously, he’s a brilliant passer that will have a ton of options to find. Uzan averaged 20.8 assist rate at Houston, but what was far more impressive was the qualitative look at how difficult his needles were to thread.

Where Houston will help Uzan, and where he may turn himself into a pro, is by getting more physical on the defensive end. Houston and Kelvin Sampson won’t play guys with less than stellar defensive efforts, and that in and of itself raises the bar. We saw him sit five-star, one and done lottery pick Jarace Walker for undisciplined closeouts. We saw Cryer develop into a more physical player in his first year in Houston. Will we see the same thing out of Uzan?

Lots remains to be seen, but it’s safe to say Houston will be a favorite yet again next year. They returned four of their five starters, appear to be returning most of their bench unit, and have two of the top 100 recruits in America. But if Uzan can grow, they may very well be more than a favorite.