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HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — To say that L.J. Cryer loves the game of hoops is quite an understatement.

“This boy would not put a basketball down,” his mother, Tamica Cryer, said. “He was always dribbling in the kitchen, and we’d never complain about it. Even though sometimes it was annoying, you just constantly heard the basketball dribble.”

He eventually took his skills outside the house.

“Before he could drive, it was always, ‘Mom, could you take me to the gym?’ I never said, ‘No,’ no matter how tired I was or how much I had going on,” his mom said.

Cryer turned into a star at Katy’s Morton Ranch High School and signed with Baylor, where he was part of the roster that won it all in 2021.

In 2023, he traded in the Baylor Green for Cougar Red and came back home. Now in a leadership role, he’s determined to use that experience to bring a title to the University of Houston.

“He was a freshman, and now he’s a leader of the team. It’s just a different atmosphere, and we’re just excited,” his father, Lionel Cryer, said. “What makes it so special is he’s playing here in his home state, hometown. That’s what really makes it special.”

While he certainly makes noise on the court, that all changes when he takes off that #4 jersey.

“I feel like his humility is so underrated. For someone that is so accomplished, everything that he has, you’d expect more of a presence, I guess you could say, but he’s always going to be even-keeled and give it his best,” Jordan Lewis, L.J. Cryer’s girlfriend, said.

Just like in his youth, his family will always be by his side.

“He worked so hard for this moment, so whatever God has for him, he has for him. We’re just looking forward to these next couple of days,” his father said.

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