OKLAHOMA CITY—While the uncomfortability sets in for everyone around and the lights dim, Kingston Flemings is in his element. mind starts to turn. Flemings’ mind is spinning at an unprecedented pace, and he’s fired up about it.
Anywhere else Flemings goes, he’s Houston’s star guard and a future NBA Draft pick. Here, though, he’s a part of a group that’s gathered in an effort to solve a problem and walk away with a feeling of satisfaction once it’s done. Some are here for the social hour–and Flemings can talk, too–but the Houston point guard is also set on finding a way to scintillate his mind.
Anyone around can tell that Flemings is in the right place.
“That’s like his personality,” Houston forward Chase McCarty told Basket Under Review in regard to escape rooms. “He wants to learn. He wants to get better and smarten his brain every day.”
When Flemings got to Houston, McCarty–a member of his freshman class–was the one who introduced him to the setting. He says that he had heard of escape rooms and that they always sounded interesting to him, but he’d never gone to one before McCarty invited him.
Now that Flemings has been, he said that he would recommend going to anyone who asked him. The Houston guard isn’t like anyone else, though, he’s more inquisitive and more set on finding solutions. That's why the escape room fits him so naturally. He may recommend it to others, but he's inevitably going to get more out of it than whoever is around for him to recommend it to.
The escape room is the type of place where Flemings can detach from reality and a safe haven of sorts where he can truly let his mind work. Now that the lights are off, it’s time to think. Time to be Kingston Flemings and get to the bottom of things. Time to end this process with a tangible answer as to how to solve the problem he's been given. When he talks about the activity–which Houston’s players do for weekend fun–he almost lights up.
“It’s fun just going in there, just trying to work together to get out of a place,” Flemings told Basket Under Review. “It's fun for sure, it's hard. Some of them are harder than others, but it's a preferred fun.”
The black sweatsuit covers Flemings’ frame as he sits alone at his locker and refers to his “little arguments.” The arguments aren’t sparked by maliciousness, nor are they even sparked by a disagreement in a lot of cases. The ones Flemings refers to are sparked by a general curiosity that he approaches life with, which propels him to invite disagreement for the sake of learning.
There’s not many topics that Flemings won’t probe in on. Even if he doesn't probe, he says there’s not often anything that’s not of great enough significance for him to wonder about. That’s why his mini arguments are important. That’s why he remembers them.
“He’s very curious and I think that’s what’s good about him,” Houston forward Chris Cenac told Basket Under Review. “He’s definitely that type of guy, for sure.”
Flemings says his curiosity has manifested itself plenty on the basketball court recently. Flemings watches players do things that are unique to their specific games and is always set off by it. When Flemings spots something interesting, he makes an effort to learn the why behind it and wonders if it could help him. Cenac says he notices that Flemings is always talking with him about things that he can improve on as if he's an average freshman point guard in the BIG 12.
The freshman guard could be complacent these days and wouldn’t suffer all that much, but he’s not. That’s why Houston coach Kelvin Sampson has gravitated towards the San Antonio, Texas, native so quickly. The 16.4 points, 5.3 assists and 3.9 rebounds as well as the unanimous selection to the All-BIG 12 First Team aren’t enough for Flemings. He wants to know how to be better. He wants to capitalize on whatever conclusions he comes to.
Sampson doesn’t only notice that about his star point guard, though. He notices his depth and how valuable a conversation regarding Flemings’ perspective can be. Flemings noticed early on that Sampson is a conversationalist and felt that he could connect with him.
Flemings says that he asked Sampson about the Jim Crow Laws and his perspective on them recently. He admits that when he thinks about something, he has trouble holding back from saying it. McCarty says he’s been thrown off by the depth of Flemings’ questions. It’s not as if Flemings just does that in order to hear the sound of his own voice or make the other person in the conversation feel important. He just wants to know more than what he already does.
“He’s a very good conversationalist," Sampson said prior to Houston’s trip to Oklahoma City. "He likes to talk about things. He likes to ask questions… he’s just a well grounded young man. Very mature in some ways, but naive in other ways. That’s being a freshman though.”
Finding McCarty and Flemings on a Wednesday night is hardly reminiscent of Where’s Waldo these days. Oftentimes they’re easily spotted bringing it as freshman for one of the nation’s most physical teams on national television. When they’re not, though, they’re together working through the Bible as members of a study group.
The pair of Houston freshmen spend more time together than perhaps any duo of Sampson’s current players, and they believe these are their most important moments.
All of Houston’s sampled players indicate that their time spent investing in their spiritual growth as a unit has helped it perform on the floor. At this point, it’s become a real faith culture. Despite their relative inexperience, Flemings and McCarty are at the forefront of it.
Flemings hasn’t spoken all that much about his faith yet publicly, but the ideas relating to it and confirming it are ones that he has more questions about than just about anything.
“Stay by faith, learn more about it, because you can always learn more, learn more and more,” Flemings said. “Honestly, just being around [teammates], I learned a lot.”
The Houston guard says his Wednesday-night study group has prompted him to take a closer look into his faith than he’s ever taken. He says he’s always believed in God, but that he’s taken a significant step towards gaining a deeper understanding of what it means to have faith since he’s arrived on Houston’s campus.
Perhaps others of Flemings’ pedigree would declare that they are self-sufficient and would accept complacency, but his chase for knowledge has coincided with his growing understanding of faith and has strengthened his own.
It appears as if Flemings didn’t expect this chase for faith to net the results it already has in his likely one-and-done season, but here he is asking the right questions and leaning in.
“Obviously there’s always someone who knows more than you,” Flemings said. “Being around them and them teaching me is always a good thing.”
Houston big man Cedric Lath knew throughout the spring and early summer that someone “big time” was coming in for this Houston team. He didn’t know what his new freshman guard would be like, though.
Lath has seen the deep, introspective side of his young point guard at times. Flemings, though, has always known that he’s had to enter others’ worlds rather than trying solely to enhance his own by stimulating his mind. As this group’s star point guard, Flemings has had to have his finger on the pulse of its locker room.
It appears as if he does.
“He's definitely a great teammate though to be around,” Lath told Basket Under Review. “I go and say funny, goofy. And outside of basketball he don't want to take anything serious and he loves to play.”
If his play is any indication, Flemings has found the perfect mix of dial in on the floor, intellectualism off of it and a patented lightheartedness off of it. Flemings is ranked No. 3 in KenPom’s National Player of the Year power rankings list, is ranked in nine of his efficiency categories and is Houston’s most efficient qualified 3-point shooter.
Flemings’ awards are unbelievable at worst and stunning at best, as well. Flemings was named to the AP All-America Third Team, a unanimous All-BIG 12 freshman selection. He's doing this for the No. 5 team in the country. On top of that, his greatest achievement to date may come when his name is called during the NBA Draft this spring.
There generally appears to be a rolodex of thoughts running through Flemings’ head as he goes through his day-to-day life searching for answers. Flemings, though, always appears to have them when he’s running the show for this Houston team.
“I did not realize he was this good,” McCarty said. “He's only expanding his game. He's a natural scorer, a natural playmaker for others, he has a knack for passing the ball and putting a ball in the basket.”
