Coach Kelvin Sampson has had quite the journey to wind up coaching the Houston Cougars. Under his term, Sampson has returned the Houston program from its depths to the top level of College Basketball. Now, Houston and Kelvin Sampson take the next step together as they join the toughest conference in College Basketball.
On July 1st The University of Houston officially joined the Big 12 conference along with UCF, BYU and Cincinnati.
It is a move that will tremendously increase the revenue of the school while drastically altering both its successful Football and Basketball program.
The Basketball program specifically has been recently revitalized by Coach Kelvin Sampson.
Sampson has returned the Houston program to similar heights seen in the Phi Slama Jama days, winning the American four of the past five years, winning the American conference tournament twice, earning a 1 seed in the Tournament last year, and making the Final Four in 2021.
It has been a winding road for Sampson to get where he is, and it has been a similarly winding road for Houston to get where they are as well.
Both the coach and the program are arguably in the best state they have ever been. Now, they face the difficult challenge of entering the toughest basketball conference in the country in joining the Big 12.
Sampson’s Road to Houston
Kelvin Sampson started as a head coach in the 1987-88 season at Washington State, just a handful of years after Phi Slama Jama Houston years and just two years after Guy Lewis retired.
Sampson got the Washington State job at 32 and after 7 years and an exactly .500 record, he moved on to take the Oklahoma job.
Kelvin Sampson really started to make his name at Oklahoma in what was back then the Big 8 and then the Big 12 conference. The Sooners made 9 straight NCAA tournaments to start his tenure culminating in an appearance in the 2002 Final Four. He coached at OU for three more seasons before he left for the team that beat him in the Final Four, IU.
Sampson’s stay at Indiana was meteoric; burning brightly before quickly disappearing.
His team with Eric Gordon and DJ White was fun and had promise, but ultimately never had the chance to succeed. An NCAA investigation and other things eventually consumed the 2007-08 IU season, and Kelvin Sampson was forced to resign before the season ended. Dan Dakich took over as the interim coach and the wheels fell off.
Later on, Sampson received one of the harshest penalties the NCAA has ever given out. Kelvin Samspon received a five year show cause penalty for impermissible texts and phone calls. Yeah, five years.
It is hard to imagine what the public’s reaction would have been now in the era of Transfer Portal, NIL, tampering, etc. to a punishment for a seemingly small offense. Back then people were still offended and the fact that Coach Sampson lied to the University and to the NCAA about his infractions was enough to force him out of the College community for half a decade.
Kelvin Sampson disappeared into the NBA assistant world coaching for the Milwaukee Bucks and the Houston Rockets for his five year absence before being hired at The University of Houston.
After being named Coach of the Year twice at Oklahoma, being hired and fired from one of the biggest brands in College Basketball, and serving a five year sentence, Sampson had returned to College Basketball with an opportunity to revive another historic program.
Houston’s Road to the Big 12
Houston Basketball has a succinct but distinct history.
The program started in 1950 with Coach Alden Pasche playing in the Missouri Valley Conference.
After a brief and unremarkable spell by Pasche a coach by the name of Guy Lewis took over in 1956. Coach Lewis would shepherd the program for the next 30 years from the MVC to Independent status to the Southwest Conference. Along the way he would win 592 games, make 14 NCAA tournaments and have 5 Final Four appearances.
None of those seasons were more famous than the Michael Young, Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon teams nicknamed Phi Slama Jama.
Houston reached its peak with Phi Slama Jama in 1981-84 making three straight final fours.
In 1983 Guy Lewis and the Cougs lost to NC State in the National Title game on Lorenzo Charles’ game winning dunk leading to the Jimmy V running moment.
The next season the Cougars made it back to the National Championship but lost to Coach John Thompson, Patrick Ewing, and Georgetown.
After back to back Title game defeats Houston would have back to back disappointing seasons eventually ending with Guy Lewis retirement in 1986.
What followed Coach Lewis was a desolate wasteland for Houston basketball. Coaches like Alvin Brooks, Ray McCallum, and Tommy Penders couldn’t make it work. There even was a brief and awful Head Coaching stint for Clyde Drexler (19-39 in two seasons).
The Cougars would make the tournament just four times in the twenty eight years after Guy Lewis. Houston was an 8 seed or worse in all of them and didn’t win a game in any of the appearances.
However, the desolate wasteland transformed into fertile soil when Kelvin Sampson took over in 2014.
Sampson took a few years to get back to the promised land, but he has delivered since then.
Houston has made the past 5 NCAA tournaments thanks to Sampson. Houston had made 1 NCAA tournament in the 20 years before that.
Before Sampson, the Cougars hadn’t made it out of the first round of March Madness since Guy Lewis. Sampson has led them to 3 Sweet Sixteens, two Elite Eights and made the Final Four in 2021.
The 2021 Final Four was the sixth final four in program history and the first one from a coach other than Guy Lewis. It was Sampson’s second (2002 Oklahoma) and was an official announcement that he was back to being one of the best coaches in College Basketball.
Both Houston and Kelvin Sampson were back at the top tier of the sport.
So, what’s next? The top conference in the sport.
Welcome to the Big 12
Houston has had three 30-win seasons the past 5 seasons and gone 149-26 (.851) overall.
The haters would say those numbers have been inflated by the easy schedule of the American Athletic Conference.
Sampson and the Cougars have an opportunity now to prove the haters wrong.
Kelvin Sampson and the Cougars will now enter the conference with recent National champions Baylor and Kansas. It’s a conference that features a coaching giant in Bill Self and one in the making in Scott Drew. Meanwhile, it’s a conference that chews up successful coaches.
Shaka Smart couldn’t make it work at Texas like he could at VCU and now at Marquette.
Porter Moser might be in the middle of figuring out the same thing at Oklahoma after his success at Loyola Chicago.
Jamie Dixon can’t escape a season in the Big 12 without double digit losses.
Before his unceremonious exit, Bob Huggins had more success in the vaunted Old Big East than he did in the Big 12 with West Virginia.
Other new coaches are already vying to be at the top of the conference with Bill Self and Scott Drew in TJ Otzelberger at Iowa State, Rodney Terry at Texas, and Jerome Tang at Kansas State.
It is a densely competitive field with no off-nights.
It is also the next logical step for Houston and Sampson.
After making it back to the Final Four, Houston and Sampson want to finally reach the true pinnacle of College Basketball: winning a National Championship.
Making the jump to the Big 12 will help elevate the program nationally.
Sampson has been able to recruit decently well, landing recruits like Jarace Walker (who was Houston’s first Top 10 pick since Hakeem) and transfers like Baylor’s LJ Cryer and Temple’s Damian Dunn. However, Sampson is better known at developing talent rather than recruiting it. Houston only had three guys on their team last year who were ranked in the Top 100 as recruits. This move will help them to land more of the 4 and 5-Star recruits, and if Sampson can develop those guys… watch out.
The elevated view of the program nationally still hinges on continued success. If Houston struggles in the Big 12, it will be all too easy for the haters to write off their success based on their previous conference schedule.
Houston was once at the top of the mountaintop in College Basketball. The Cougars had an All-time great Coach in Guy Lewis and produced All-time great players like Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler.
Kelvin Sampson was once the next big Coach in College Basketball as one of the first successors to Bob Knight at a blue-blood in Indiana. Sampson had risen the ranks from Montana State to Washington State to a Final Four in Oklahoma. Everything fell apart from NCAA sanctions and it has been a 15 year odyssey for Sampson to return to the height of the sport.
After Coach Lewis, Houston was lost in the wilderness. Coach Sampson and Houston worked together to escape that wilderness.
Coach Lewis and Houston were as close as you can get to winning it all. By moving to the Big 12, Houston hopes it gains enough juice to win the whole thing under Kelvin Sampson.