As Houston’s L.J. Cryer chases NCAA history, he’ll always be more than a trivia note to his former coach

SAN ANTONIO — The sting is still evident in Scott Drew’s voice. It has been two years since L.J. Cryer walked into the Baylor coach’s office and told Drew their basketball marriage had ended. 

OK, enough with the flowery language: It was a transfer, the cold, hard kind we’re used to these days. After three seasons of developing Cryer into an emerging shooting guard, Drew got the call he didn’t want to answer in 2022. 

“Most people can relate,” Drew explained Sunday to CBS Sports. “It’s like a boyfriend, girlfriend relationship. Whenever it breaks up, it hurts, and you feel like what could I have done better? With us — and probably other programs — that are not used to not losing guys, the first couple especially you’re hurt and disappointed.”

Those days still marked the nascent stage of the portal, when coaches were still surprised — and wounded — that a player they developed would take all that work to another program. In this case it was an in-state Big 12 rival closer to home. Cryer is from Katy, Texas, 30 miles west of the Houston campus but 170 southeast of Baylor’s home in Waco. 

The reasons? They don’t really matter at the moment. Houston is in the national championship game for the third time ever after a miracle comeback against Duke in a national semifinal. Cryer led the Cougars with 26 points, adding to a tournament resume that has put him in the conversation for most outstanding player of the Final Four. 

But Cryer stands out most in the lead up to Monday night for a couple of reasons.

• He used that Baylor opportunity to become the Cougars’ leading scorer this season (15.6 points). 
• He is one game away from becoming the first Division I player to win national championships at two different schools.

“It’s definitely cool to make history at two different schools,” Cryer said. “But if I could have done it at the same school I preferably would have done it that way.”

That’s where the reasons for the transfer can’t help but bleed out. Cryer mentioned mental health at least three times during Sunday’s media availability. It has been five long years for the graduate senior and Big 12 scholar-athlete of the year. While his game has steadily improved, his past drips with perspective.

Part of the reason he transferred from Baylor was to be more of an on-ball player — translation, point guard. Except that Jamal Shead was entrenched last season, and Milos Uzan arrived from Oklahoma this year to mostly take control of that position.

Simple answer/solution: Cryer brings the ball up enough so he is satisfied. And Uzan has already called his teammate the best shooting guard in the country. 

Don’t get it twisted, the 6-foot-1 Cryer had been a loyal soldier at Baylor — trudging through the 2020-2021 COVID-19 season when he mostly sat on the bench watching Baylor’s first national championship in 2021. Drew and he cried and hugged at times as coach and player. 

But … 

“That was something that wasn’t brought up to me,” he said. “Looking back I felt like if they would have redshirted me [in 2021] things would have gone a little bit smoother. Coming in as an 18-year old and stuff and having expectations to play, then when you get a bunch of DNPs (did-not-play lines in the box score) … it really messes with your mental.”

Two years later, after 56 games and 768 points at Baylor, word emerged that Cryer was transferring on the day of the 2023 national championship game. After scoring 30 against Creighton in his final game at Baylor in the NCAA Tournament. 

Five championship rings are stored at his parents’ house — two each for conference championships at Houston and Baylor, one for a national championship with the Bears.

L.J. Cryer’s career college statistics

Cryer is still coming to grips how to view that title ring in a season he played 20 games, started none and scored all of 67 points.

“There’s a lot of narratives out there. Some of them, I try not to pay attention to them. Some of them, you’re going to hear it,” Cryer said cryptically. “I feel like if I get this one there isn’t much more you can say.”

Drew weighs in: “The grass is always greener on the other side,” the Baylor coach said. “You never know what the money, how that incorporates into things.

“I can tell you for coaches who have been in profession for a while and aren’t used to losing guys, it does hurt. You beat yourself up first and foremost.”

The transactional nature of the game has long since taken over. Kentucky coach Mark Pope had to go to the portal to repopulate almost his entire roster that made it to the Sweet 16. Former Drake coach Ben McCollum won the Missouri Valley with four Division II transfers, then left to Iowa.

Adapt or die. There is no room for sentiment. 

Houston doesn’t typically traffic in those waters, but when a player of Cryer’s caliber shows up on your doorstep, you don’t say no. His offensive skills may be the difference in a national championship. These Cougars are as balanced as any team Kelvin Sampson has had at Houston — both offensively and defensively. 

At Houston, Cryer has become the offensive dagger in a drawerful of defensive knives. 

 “With the way the portal’s going I don’t think he’ll end up being super unique [as a transfer],” Houston director of operations Lauren Sampson said of Cryer. “Wanting to go somewhere else does not mean necessarily something was wrong at the previous place. That’s not what this era is.”

In this tournament alone, Cryer has both tied his career high (30 vs. Gonzaga) and his season low (five points vs. Purdue.) But he has learned the toughness it always seems to win in these situations. Houston was much more used to the type of game it won against Duke. Coming in, the Blue Devils led the country in victory margin (21.1 points per game). 

Since March 8, the Cougars have had to eek one against Baylor, almost blew a 14-point lead against Gonzaga, did blow a 10-point lead to Purdue and rallied back from double digits against Duke in a Final Four win for the ages. 

How do you pick against them at this point? The Cougars still haven’t lost a regulation game this season. 

“Houston’s been in a lot of close games. Duke hadn’t,” Drew said. “That matters.”

The gravity of the Cougars’ latest comeback is still being realized. 

What hurts Baylor more: Of Houston’s most played opponents all time, it has its best record against the Bears (.719). The Cougars have won the last four. Cryer played in three of those. 

Lauren Sampson knew Cryer had loosened up during this season’s team photo. Usually, players scatter after the shoot. Cryer was taking selfies, messing around. To her, he was taking stock of his last year as a college player chasing his second championship at a second school in the same conference.

“It told me [he] was going to soak this year up,” she said. “[He] was going to get the last ounce of this year, ‘This is my hard last. There is no more option.’ ”