K ANSAS CITY — Kalifa Sakho, the 6-foot-11 transfer center who is being counted on to be a key player in No. 2 Houston’s front-court rotation, quietly underwent a surgical procedure on his back in August, PaperCity has learned. But Sakho is already back practicing and playing without the pain that forced him to sit out practices throughout the summer and early fall.
“He just got it bothering him in June,” University of Houston coach Kelvin Sampson tells PaperCity when I ask about the procedure. “But he’d be two days on, day off. Two days on, day off. We finally we shut him down to see if shutting him down would help. Then we realized, you know what — we just need to go in and do the procedure.
“So now he’s back to 100 percent.”
Sampson is also now declaring reigning Big 12 Defensiv