Emanuel Sharp has played in 100 victories during his four-season career and even hard-nosed Houston coach Kelvin Sampson is impressed.
Sharp looks for win No. 101 when No. 2 Houston faces off with Syracuse on Monday in the Players Era men’s championship at Las Vegas.
The senior guard scored 15 points in Thursday’s easy 91-45 victory over visiting Rider to become the seventh player in Cougars’ history to reach the century mark.
“Yeah, I hope people around here don’t take that for granted,” Sampson said. “I’m assuming we’re going to win a few more games this year, so there’s no telling what that number will be.”
Sharp is in his third season as a starter while averaging 16 points per game for Houston (5-0). He averaged 12.6 points in each of the previous two seasons.
Sharp has knocked down 13 3-pointers this season to raise his career total to 225, which ranks eighth in school history. Former teammate Marcus Sasser (2019-23) holds the school mark of 276.
“I’m proud of Emanuel,” Sampson said. “Emanuel was a COVID recruit. We didn’t see him in person. There were two recruits that year that we recruited on Zoom. … But Emanuel’s father really liked us. You could tell he wanted his son to come here.”
As for the tournament in Las Vegas, Sampson didn’t mince words when asked about Houston’s participation.
“They’re giving us a million dollars, that’s why we’re there,” Sampson said. “I would say that’s why all the teams are there. We didn’t sign this to have a tournament where we could play each other. We signed up for this because they’re giving us a million dollars.
“If they decided to put a court down in some vacant lot and they gave us a million dollars, I’d go and play there too.”
Houston plays No. 20 Tennessee on Tuesday and a yet-to-be determined opponent on Wednesday or Thursday.
Syracuse (4-0) is first up for the Cougars and the Orange have won their first four games for the first time since the 2017-18 season.
The schedule has been soft so far and Syracuse struggled on Tuesday before posting a 78-73 home victory over Monmouth. Donnie Freeman led the Orange with 18 points and seven rebounds. He leads Syracuse with 17.8 points per game.
Guard J.J. Starling understands the Orange can improve but said he’s optimistic with the team’s start.
“Going into the tougher games where we know what we need to work on, we know where we’re clicking at,” Starling said. “It’s been a really good beginning of the season for us.”
The Syracuse schedule gets tougher with Houston followed by No. 24 Kansas on Tuesday. The Orange also will have another game on Wednesday or Thursday.
Syracuse coach Adrian Autry didn’t say anything about receiving $1 million. He just sees the chance to play against some top-flight foes.
“We got to go there, we got to compete, we got to play well, we got to win also,” Autry said. “That doesn’t change.”
The two programs met in the Sweet 16 of the 2021 NCAA Tournament, with Houston recording a 62-46 victory to reach the Elite Eight.
