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In a moment during the NCAA Tournament, Houston, the top-seeded team, was well on its way to a significant victory over No. 16 seed Longwood, providing insight into why the Cougars have become so dominant under Kelvin Sampson.
Late in the game, when Houston was leading by a large margin, Mylik Wilson failed to close out on Longwood’s DA Houston, who managed to make a 3-pointer over him.
Longwood coach Griff Aldrich recollected, “They were up 30, and I thought DA barely got the shot off. And Sampson’s screaming at Wilson like that’s an emergency. ‘Get out there!’ It’s like, damn. I thought he was out there.”
Sampson’s coaching style demands excellence regardless of the score or time remaining in the game. The results have been impressive: Houston clinched the Big 12 regular-season title in their debut year in the league, secured a No. 1 seed in the tournament for the second consecutive year, and advanced through the opening weekend for the fifth consecutive time.
The exceptional season, which concluded with a Sweet 16 loss to Duke and an ankle injury to All-American guard Jamal Shead, enabled Sampson to narrowly beat out UConn’s Dan Hurley for his second Associated Press Coach of the Year award, as announced on Friday.
Shead remarked, “He coaches 40 minutes of a 40-minute game. I think that’s what makes us good.”
Sampson garnered 23 out of 62 votes from the national panel that votes for the weekly AP Top 25, with balloting closing before the start of the NCAA Tournament. Hurley, whose top-seeded Huskies are set to face Alabama in the Final Four, finished second with 21 votes.
Lamont Paris of South Carolina received eight votes to secure the third spot. T.J. Otzelberger of Iowa State and Danny Sprinkle each received four votes. McNeese State’s Will Wade and Kyle Smith both received one vote.
Sampson becomes the 10th coach to win the AP coach of the year award multiple times, and only the fourth to achieve it at different schools. The 29 years between his awards surpasses the gap of any other coach.
The themes of accountability, consistency, and hard work at Houston are rooted in Sampson’s upbringing in North Carolina. Raised by hardworking parents, Sampson inherited their strong work ethic and passed it on to his players.
Houston’s transformation under Sampson has been remarkable. Before his arrival in 2014, the team had made just one NCAA Tournament appearance in 22 years. Despite a challenging start, Sampson’s leadership laid the groundwork for the team’s resurgence, leading to numerous accolades and successes on the court.
Reflecting on his coaching journey, Sampson expressed gratitude for his first team at Houston, which faced adversity but never gave up. He emphasized the importance of perseverance, a quality he instills in his players, regardless of the circumstances.