Sampson impacts 1st-round opponent
Cleveland St. coach remembers advice that helped career
A 23-year-old graduate assistant, Dennis Gates was in his first week on the job at Marquette when Kelvin Sampson visited the Wisconsin school.
Sampson, then the coach at Oklahoma in 2003, had just been named head coach of USA Basketball’s Under-21 team and wanted his close friend Tom Crean, the Marquette coach, to join his staff on the national team.
“At this point, I’m working relentless hours,” Gates said. “I wanted to prove to Coach (Crean) I’m going to be the best GA in the world.”
Gates had done research on other minority basketball coaches, particularly Black coaches in Division I, on how they climbed the ladder and any advice they might give.
Gates was asked to drive Sampson the 75 minutes from Milwaukee to Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. He had briefly crossed paths with Sampson a few years earlier as a player when he was recruited by Oklahoma. Instead, Gates signed with Cal and was a point guard on NCAA Tournament teams in 2001 and 2002.
“I made sure I took the long route so I would have an extra 15 minutes along the way,” Gates said.
During the drive, Gates and Sampson struck up a conversation. Gates admits he wanted to ask Sampson “a million questions” and gain insight into the coaching profession.
“I didn’t know what he was going to say,” Gates said. “I knew it was going to be memorable. I didn’t know it would be so impactful.”
But Gates also wanted to make sure the trip was not memorable for any other reason.
“I was nervous,” said Gates, now the head coach for No. 15 seed Cleveland State, which plays secondseeded Houston on Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. “I kept both hands on the steering wheel. Lord forbid if I got a ticket or anything else. He probably wouldn’t have sent me that book. That means I did a good job.”
A short time later, Gates received a package in the mail. Inside was a signed copy of “Kelvin Sampson: The OU Basketball Story.”
The inscription read: Dennis!
Keep working – you will be a great coach one day! Always Do Your Best!”
The book currently sits on a shelf inside Gates’ office. It has followed him to every stop, as a GA at Florida State through a decade of assistant jobs at Cal, Northern Illinois, Nevada and Florida State. Gates landed his first coaching job at Cleveland State in 2019 and this season led the Vikings to the Horizon League title and the third NCAA appearance in school history.
“One of the most inspirational things I’ve received from outside of my mentors,” Gates said.
Ever since, Gates said Sampson has “definitely put his arms around me and gave me words of encouragement” when the two crossed paths.
Some of Gates’ early inspirations came from a pair of Hall of Famers — George Raveling and John McLendon. He also learned while sitting on the bench as an assistant under Leonard Hamilton at Florida State.
“In my mind, I wanted to be just like George,” Gates said.
From Sampson’s book, Gates learned of climbing the career ladder. After Sampson was a GA at Michigan State for Jud Heathcoate, he was an assistant at NAIA Montana Tech before his promotion to head coach.
Three decades later, Sampson is one of 15 coaches to lead four different schools to the NCAA Tournament: Washington State, Oklahoma, Indiana and Houston.
“For me, it speaks volumes for, not where you are, but once you get through all the terrain and work, work, work and give, give, give, you’re going to get to the other side of it,” Gates, 41, said. “That process of going through it is what will make you who you are. I never gave up on myself. That book sits on my desk everywhere that I have gone. That book sits on the shelf if I didn’t have space on my desk. Ever since then, I’ve been inspired by those words.”
The advice and inspiration he received early is also the foundation for Gates, who regularly helps graduate assistants and young coaching hopefuls when he can. A social media post Wednesday that showed Sampson’s book and the message inside, Gates said, was intended for younger coaches. A convention normally held during the Final Four, an opportunity for young coaches to network, is not being held for the second year in a row due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Imagine how many coaches are where they are right now — and I’m one of them — because of me walking past somebody at the Final Four convention and rubbing shoulders,” Gates said. “That has been totally stripped away. The advice I gave in that tweet was to ask questions. You don’t have to be at the convention to ask questions. You’ve got to pick up the phone and use your ingenuity and figure out how you can ask someone questions.”
As Cleveland State prepares for Houston, Gates was asked what sticks out about the Cougars.
“Kelvin Sampson and 660 wins,” he said. “You’re talking about a guy who is a Hall of Famer.”
As for any tips on how to beat Sampson?
“They ain’t in that book,” Gates said with a laugh.