SAN ANTONIO — It’s not common to feel cheated taking a team to the Final Four, but that’s exactly how Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson felt in 2021 when the Cougars earned a trip to championship weekend in the midst of a global pandemic.
“We had to stand in line to get tested before every time we went outside the building to come in,” Sampson said of the 2021 tournament, which had all 68 teams playing in Indiana. “It felt like we were going out to the yard in prison because they took us over to Victory Park to let us run around on the grass…that was a different time.”
While that trip was different, this trip to the Final Four for Sampson is satisfying as his team felt the love from a sea of Houston fans who showed up at the Alamodome on Friday for the team’s open practice.
“For those kids, for them to get that experience…that’s what this is all about,” Sampson said. “It’s a reward.”
If anyone associated with the program should be rewarded, it’s Sampson, who this weekend will coach in the third Final Four of his career (he took Oklahoma to championship weekend in 2002). Sampson arrived in 2014, a season after a witness counted 43 fans (the “official” count was 2,833) at a 2013 pre-conference home game against Alcorn State.
Sampson has posted nine winning seasons in his 10 years at Houston, posting 30 or more wins in four of the last six seasons. In a college environment where the transfer portal leads to overhaul of rosters on a yearly basis, Sampson has assembled a roster where most of his players stick with him through his tough love approach to coaching.
“At first, I didn’t know why he was screaming at me so much. I don’t know why he ran me so much,” said senior J’Wan Roberts, who has been with the program for six years. “I didn’t know what it was until I saw that he only wants the best for me. He always wants me to go out and play to the best of my ability.”
Roberts says Sampson fills the role of “a second father” in his life.
“I can honestly say that he taught me so much from 17 years old to 23,” Roberts said. “He put so much blood, sweat and tears into the program, into us, to want to see us do good. Just being a vet, I try to do the best to lead by example and try to make him proud.”
Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson directs players during a Final Four practice session at the Alamodome on April 4.
Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images
Four Black coaches have led their teams to Division I men’s NCAA tournament national championships (John Thompson in 1984, Nolan Richardson in 1994, Tubby Smith in 1998 and Kevin Ollie in 2014). Sampson, a Native American born into the Lumbee Tribe in North Carolina who is a member of the Black Coaches Association, will attempt to join the ranks of coaches of color with a national title.
To get that chance, Houston will have to get past Duke, which boasts a storied history and the newly crowned college basketball player of year in Cooper Flagg.
Asked about Flagg, Sampson thought back to the talented freshmen he has coached against over the years: Carmelo Anthony, Gary Payton, Sean Elliott, Jason Kidd and Paul Pierce.
“This guy is right up there with them,” Sampson said. “It’s hard to say what he’s not good at.”
While winning the championship is the obvious goal for Houston, Sampson is happy that this time around — four years after the 2021 bubble title pursuit — his team is getting a genuine Final Four experience.
“I’m really proud of this team,” Sampson said. ”They should be rewarded for what they’ve accomplished.”
