A healthy freshman decides to redshirt to further develop. An exciting recruit mostly rides the bench for two seasons, but doesn’t look to transfer. A highly coveted talent stays with one school for his entire career, even two years after graduating. In the modern era of college hoops, defined by player movement and team-hopping, these things are all rarities — and they all apply to Houston Cougars forward J’Wan Roberts.
Roberts is a throwback, a unicorn, captain of the “Is he still playing college basketball?” team. He has been with the Cougars for more than half a decade, steadily improving every season. He has put his trust in Kelvin Sampson’s program, and he is beginning to make history as a result.
On Monday night, when Houston beat Jackson State 97-40 to open the 2024-25 campaign, Roberts became the winningest player in Fertitta Center history, passing former point guard Jamal Shead. He now holds a staggering home record of 63-3 with a full season ahead of him.
“When my career is said and done and I look back and think about all the kids that I’ve coached, J’Wan will always be one of my favorites,” Kelvin Sampson tells Hoops HQ. “He’s such a great young man… He’s the perfect face of your program because he’s so good in all the areas that have nothing to do with basketball. And those are the kids that get you through the tough times during the season, which inevitably you’re going to have.”
Roberts arrived at Houston in 2019, a year after the transfer portal was established and two years before NIL started. As the dynamics of the sport have shifted, Roberts has chosen a more traditional path: remaining with one school instead of transferring to pursue a better opportunity or larger deal. Even in Sampson’s program, which is known for its high retention of players, Roberts’ story stands out. Over the past five seasons, he has gone from redshirt freshman, to limited bench contributor, to permanent starter, to breakout star, to the face of the team. He has embraced the Cougars’ unique culture and blossomed into one of the top players in the country.
“[Coach Sampson] gets you to a space where you never thought you could have been,” Roberts says. “He’s going to coach you really hard. I would say that’s the best coach I’ve ever had in my entire life.”
Roberts was on Houston’s radar as early as 2017, when he was just 15 years old and playing at Shoemaker High School in Killeen, Texas. A year later, he became the first member of the Cougars’ 2019 signing class, which also included point guard Marcus Sasser. But while Sasser started almost right away, Roberts agreed to sit out his first season to get adjusted to the level that Sampson demands from his players. It is increasingly unusual for freshmen to go this route — redshirting just for the sake of development. For Roberts, that year, however challenging, proved crucial.
“I got a glimpse of what it really is, and there’s a lot of work that you have to put in to get to that level,” he says. “Watching it on TV, I just thought it was pretty easy. But being under Coach Sampson, I adapted to the culture and what it takes to be a top school in the nation.”
Roberts wasn’t promised a bigger role going forward, but he stuck with the Cougars anyway. For the next two seasons, he played sparingly off the bench, posting 2.5 points and 4.4 rebounds in just 13.5 minutes per game. As a junior, he finally cracked the starting lineup and shined for a Houston team that went 33-4. With averages of 10 points, 7.7 rebounds and 1.3 blocks, Roberts was named AAC Most Improved Player.
Last year, Roberts continued to thrive despite Houston’s jump to the more competitive Big 12, earning All-Conference Third Team honors. He also moved into the program’s top ten in games played, wins and rebounds.
“J’Wan is what’s right about college basketball,” assistant coach Kellen Sampson says. “It can still go well. You can still invest in a 15-year-old, build a two-year relationship with him, get him to come to your campus and he ends up being your favorite player you’ve ever coached. There’s still something heartwarming and endearing about college basketball when you hear stories like J’Wan Roberts. Never once did we worry about him transferring. Never once did he hold us hostage for max NIL. He just always believed and it’s always gone right.”
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TV ratings are on the upswing, but adjusting the schedule will make them soarLike all college athletes, Roberts was granted an extra season of eligibility as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now in his sixth and final year, he is the unquestioned leader of the Cougars, not just for what he brings to the floor, but what he has come to embody off of it: persistence, consistency, commitment. “There’s nothing J’Wan hasn’t experienced,” Kellen says. “There’s not a single person on our roster that he can’t relate to.”
Roberts is the ideal person to lead a Houston team with championship aspirations. Shead is gone, but the four other starters from last season are back, including fifth-year senior L.J. Cryer, who made the preseason All-Big 12 First Team alongside Roberts. Expectations are extremely high for this group; Houston is among the favorites to reach the Final Four and was ranked No. 1 in KenPom’s preseason ratings. Roberts is tapping into all of his experiences — the wins, the losses, the constant changes — to ensure his squad lives up to the hype.
“When I first came in, I was doing a lot of learning, a lot of watching, a lot of asking questions, messing up a lot,” he explains. “But that’s the first step toward success: failure. You have to fail to get where you want to get in life… As the years [have gone] on, I’ve just gotten more confident in myself, more confident in my teammates, and gotten to that role where I feel like they can count on me and trust me. Basically playing that big brother role.”
The Cougars have entered the past two NCAA Tournaments as a No. 1 seed, but lost both times in the Sweet Sixteen. They are currently ranked fourth in the country with their first big test coming up on Saturday: a clash with No. 11 Auburn at the Toyota Center.
Roberts will likely become the program leader in all-time wins later this month or in early December. His main focus, though, is on delivering Houston its first men’s basketball national championship.
“It’s definitely going to be a fun year,” he says. “Since I’ve been here, we’ve been trying to reach this one goal that we haven’t reached yet. Just going into this year, I feel very confident about this team and what we can accomplish. Expect to see the Coogs play hard every night, like we always do. And hopefully, at the end of the year, we bring back something that we’ve never won before.”
