Sampson to ensure UH stays scrappy
A day after the University of Houston basketball team slid into the top 10 of national polls for the first time since the Phi Slama Jama days, coach Kelvin Sampson made sure his squad didn’t get too high on itself.
After 30-plus years of coaching, he knows that while being rewarded with the No. 9 spot in the country is nice, it’s not going to help the Cougars win games.
And winning games is what they are after.
At 23-1, UH deserves its ranking. The team has earned the attention it is receiving and the praise being heaped on it over the last few weeks.
But Sampson was quick to remind the Cougars, who at 10-1 are alone atop the American Athletic Conference, what being overconfident and feeling entitled can do a team.
He met with them Tuesday at 7:45 a.m. and had a printout with large bold words.
“Society wants you to believe you are the chosen one, that you’re special,” the paper read. “The moment you do that, you lose.”
It’s the emphasis for the day and for the foreseeable future for the Cougars.
“Everybody is telling them how great they are,” Sampson said. “They are social media kings. We have a lot of basketball left, though.”
The ranking is a point of
pride. It helps Sampson’s quest to put the forgotten program he rescued on the map with the best of the best.
But a top-10 ranking isn’t a championship.
“I want to win the conference title,” Sampson said. “Five years ago, we were the worst program. Not the worst team. We had some players. But the worst program — it was bad here. Nobody cared. To go from that to winning the conference, that would really mean something.”
Sampson wasn’t ushered into the coaching world by being a standout at a Division I school or by having a big-name mentor. His urge to prove something trickles down to his team.
Over the years — from taking over a Montana Tech program that never had posted a winning season to turning things around at programs like Washington State and Oklahoma — Sampson has carried a chip on his shoulder.
Success doesn’t remove it.
“Everywhere I’ve ever been we’ve had a chip on our shoulder, and we need that,” Sampson said. “Look at us now. Look at the top 10. We aren’t ‘supposed’ to be there. Who invited us to this party?”
It’s not something he will let his team forget. And it will be the driving force behind the Cougars’ continued success this year.
Sampson has rebuilt the UH basketball team and done it his way. He knows how he wants to win and doesn’t stray from that. He has drawn criticism for not recruiting some of the top players available.
“There are a lot of kids that score a lot of points, so it’s assumed ‘Houston will recruit him,’ ” Sampson said. “There are some of those kids you would rather coach against than coach because of their attitude and their work ethic.”
Sampson won’t apologize for that. He has built the Cougars’ identity on fundamentals and hard work. It’s not a complicated method.
Defense, rebounding, taking care of the basketball.
Sampson would rather have a player who dives for every loose ball than one who can rattle off 30 points a game. He’s set in his ways at this point and will take the wins and losses that come with those ways.
It all goes back to his first coaching job at Montana Tech, where he inherited a team full of mathematicians and engineers. He was 24 years old and making $11,000 a year. Along with coaching, he and his wife Karen were in charge of housing at the school.
He’d get phone calls at all hours of the night to break up fights on the weekends. Then he would get in the gym with his team and find ways to win games.
“Those teams in Montana, they weren’t always the most talented guys, but they played for each other,” Sampson said. “They were great teammates.”
That’s what he looks for now. He wants players who want to buy in, not ones who want to stand out.
That’s what he has now. And it’s working.
It doesn’t get easier from here. A top-10 ranking makes the Cougars marked men. If teams weren’t gunning for them before, they will be now.
Sampson hopes that creates some adversity for his team. Being undersized, being from a nonpower conference and being underdogs suits the Cougars well.
Sampson is happy his team is finding success. He remembers what he calls the “dark days” at Hofheinz when 90 percent of the arena was empty.
From an apathetic fan base to sold-out crowds at Fertitta Center.
From losing seasons to a 23-1 record and No. 9 ranking.
It’s not enough yet, though. Sampson still has plans for the Cougars, and they are ready to follow through.