Chasing NCAA Tournament History, This Title Run Means a Bit More for Houston's LJ Cryer
SAN ANTONIO — Just one night after Baylor decisively defeated previously undefeated Gonzaga to clinch its first national championship four years ago, freshman LJ Cryer was already back in the gym, honing his skills and getting up shots.
He couldn’t face another season languishing as a marginal rotation player, logging sporadic minutes one night only to be glued to the bench the next.
Cryer arrived at Baylor during a period where the Bears boasted an abundance of elite backcourt talent. Jared Butler, Davion Mitchell, MaCio Teague, and Adam Flagler were the leading scorers on a squad that suffered a mere two losses all season and never allowed a single NCAA tournament opponent to come within nine points.
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Arriving as a highly touted recruit and barely seeing playing time "really messes with your mental [health]," Cryer admitted on Sunday. He recounted moments of tears in Baylor coach Scott Drew’s office and workouts where finding the motivation to give his all felt like an uphill battle. To this day, he wishes he had been offered the option to redshirt, which would have prepared him for the DNPs (Did Not Play).
“It definitely fueled me,” Cryer said. “That whole summer, I was working out two or three times a day, taking a lot of extra shots. I was happy we won the national championship, but I wanted to contribute to my own national championship in a meaningful way.”
While Cryer didn’t enter the 2021 title game until the outcome was firmly decided, his role in Monday night’s contest against Florida will be drastically different. Cryer is Houston’s leading scorer and their most feared perimeter threat, the player opposing coaches specifically game plan to neutralize.
Cryer is averaging an impressive 15.6 points per game. His elite 42.7% shooting accuracy from beyond the arc slightly surpasses his shooting percentage from inside it. The fifth-year senior poured in 26 points against the long and athletic Duke team on Saturday night, keeping Houston within striking distance until their top-ranked defense finally asserted its dominance, sparking a remarkable comeback from a 14-point deficit.
“Our best player, the guy that kept us in the game, was L.J.,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson stated. “He kept us in touch with them. So when the time came, we had an opportunity to get the lead down where we could put some game pressure on them.”
How did Cryer transition from a healthy scratch in 10 games as a Baylor freshman to sinking six 3-pointers against Duke in the national semifinals? The unwavering work ethic instilled in him since his childhood plays a significant role.
Growing up in Katy, Texas, Cryer remembers his cousin Sam Carter, who later played safety at TCU, staying with his family. Carter would routinely leave the house at 5 a.m. for strength and conditioning workouts, often taking a young Cryer along.
“When he went off to college, I started doing it on my own with my dad,” Cryer recalled. “When I got to high school, I used to shoot at 6 a.m. before school was open.”
Cryer was, as Sampson aptly put it, “a bucket getter in high school.” The 6-foot-1 guard was renowned as a three-level scorer and concluded his high school career with a staggering 3,488 points, the highest tally of any Houston-area public school player.
While it took longer than he desired, Cryer eventually showcased his scoring prowess in a Baylor jersey. He averaged 13.5 points per game during an injury-plagued sophomore season, followed by a breakout junior campaign where he upped his average to 15 points per game.
When Cryer entered the transfer portal in 2023, he explained to 247Sports that he was “looking for a fresh start.” He added that his time at Baylor had been filled with “a lot of ups and downs” and that he sought a program that envisioned him playing “both guard positions” rather than primarily as a scoring guard.
Sampson made no such promises when recruiting Cryer two years ago. Similar to Drew, Sampson saw Cryer primarily as a scorer rather than a playmaker.
“He told me he was going to hold me accountable every single day, especially my defense,” Cryer said on Sunday. “He said I was a terrible defender, but he was going to change that. He said, ‘We’re going to get you in good shape and you’re going to be a helluva player if you play for me.’ I trusted him.”
The addition of Cryer injected much-needed offensive firepower into a Houston program traditionally known for its relentless defense and rebounding. He might have propelled the Cougars to last year’s Final Four were it not for untimely injuries to forward JoJo Tugler and point guard Jamal Shead.
This year, he has guided Houston to within a single victory of Sampson’s elusive first national championship, navigating an obstacle-laden path. The Cougars had to overcome a challenging second-round matchup against a Gonzaga team ranked among the top 10 in most predictive metrics. This was followed by what felt like virtual road games against Purdue and Tennessee in Indianapolis. Now, Houston faces the daunting task of toppling two fellow No. 1 seeds here in San Antonio.