University of Houston Athletics
Shelton Hopes To Shoot Houston To The Top
2/3/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 3, 2004
Being knowledgeable, playing smart and shooting the ball well are the trademarks for University of Houston junior guard Bryan Shelton.
Shelton has been playing basketball since he was four years old. That is when Edith Shelton was looking for a way to get her son more active. First, she signed him up for a soccer team in the fall. When the season was ending in November, she signed up Bryan to play basketball.
When Bryan's father went to see one of Bryan's games, he was not too happy because Bryan "wasn't too good. " Determined to improve his son's skills, Darriel Shelton had his son do drills to improve his ball-handling skills. First, he had Bryan dribble around chairs in the kitchen. Then he would make him dribble up and down the street using his left hand. Soon, Bryan found that he was the best player on his team. " By the time I was seven, I could shoot a left-handed lay-up," Bryan said. "I was having fun being the best player on my team." He continued playing both sports until he was in intermediate school when he realized that he was going to have to choose one over the other. "It wasn't a very difficult choice because I saw the fan support that basketball attracted and it was played indoors where there's air-conditioning," Shelton said. "It's tough running up and down the soccer fields during the heat of summer." Shelton began playing for AAU teams throughout the Houston area and ultimately played for the Houston Select team in the summer. That experience helped Bryan to increase his knowledge and his continued hard work improved his shooting ability. "It's important to know how to play the game," Shelton said. "Size, strength and speed are important, but they can only get you so far. Knowing how to play can give you a distinct advantage over your opponents." By the time he was a freshman at Clear Brook High School, he had the distinction of being the first freshman to play for the varsity team. "We came within one game of going to the playoffs that year, but lost our final game against Port Arthur Lincoln and Emmanuel McElroy," Shelton said. Shelton averaged 10 points per game as a sophomore and was a Second-Team, All-District 24-5A selection. He went on to average 14.4 points and make 55 treys as a junior to earn First-Team, All-District 24-5A. He concluded his high school career averaging 18 points per game and was a First-Team, All-District selection for the second straight year. The following year, he enjoyed the highlight of his young career when he helped Houston advance to the 2002 NIT as a freshman.
"It was my first year in college, and it was nice to see the support from the entire city when we made it to the NIT," Shelton said.
Houston had a veteran team that season and Shelton was the only freshman player on the squad. But, the Cougars had to overcome a much-publicized suspension of four players midway through February and forced Shelton into the starting lineup.
"I had a lot of older players around me, and the coaches did a really good job of keeping us really focused on the game instead of the distractions around the court," Shelton said. "We were determined to stay together as a team and turn it into a positive."
Shelton started three of Houston's last six games. He scored a career-high 15 points in his first start at South Florida. He also came off the bench to replace an injured George Williams in the quarterfinals of the Conference USA Tournament. He scored nine points to help the Cougars defeat Memphis and advance to the semifinals of the tournament.
Last season, Shelton found himself in opposite circumstances. Instead of a group of veterans around him, he was one of the most experienced players on the team. Houston's overall inexperience led to a lot of growing pains for the team.
Yet, the Cougars proved resilient with a mid-season rally and joined the race for Conference USA's National Division. Shelton emerged as Houston's starting point guard and ended the year having started 26 games.
He also was named the Houston Alumni Organization's Scholar-Athlete award and was a member of the C-USA Commissioner's Honor Roll for the second straight year. He and Cougars enter the 2003-04 season determined to prove Conference USA coaches wrong after they picked Houston 14th in their preseason polls.
So far, the Cougars have exceeded those expectations and Shelton has emerged as one of the top three-point shooters in Conference USA.
"When someone doesn't pick you to be successful, it only makes you work hard to prove people wrong," Shelton said. "It also helps things to fall into place because if you prove them wrong, it can lead to increased fan support and media coverage."
Just like his freshman year.
