ROAD TO REDEMPTION
Back in Indiana for Final Four, Sampson reflects on lessons learned, his path to UH
INDIANAPOLIS — Kelvin Sampson was back in Indiana, a day away from finally returning to the Final Four.
The Hoosiers?
How everything ended? Sampson declined to look backward.
“There’s nothing about that that I have any interest in discussing,” Sampson said Friday, barely 24 hours before No. 2 University of Houston faced No. 1 Baylor in an NCAA Tournament semifinal matchup inside Lucas Oil Stadium.
Then he did, a little. So Sampson told another life story.
This one was about the power of always finding a silver lining. How his alternate route to the NBA — the Rockets, Daryl Morey, Kevin McHale, Gregg Popovich, Scott Skiles — allowed him to evolve as a leader and listener, eventually leading him on a path that now has the 65-year-old coach just two wins away from the rebuilt Cougars officially becoming the best team in college basketball in 2021.
“The silver lining was the relationships that I built,” said Sampson, who is 167-63 since taking over UH in 2014. “The lessons I learned. It made me a better coach. It made me a better person. … Had I not gone through those things, I don’t think I would be in the position to help the players that I have now and, just as importantly, to help the assistant coaches. Because I want those guys to go on and become head coaches. And the things that they’re learning from me — that I’ve learned from others — will help them as they go forward.”
Perseverance. Willpower. Redemption.
Intensity. Focus. Dedication. Culture and family.
They are the recurring themes in Sampson’s stories, which sometimes combine humor with personal growth, and other times hint at a much deeper and more painful story.
Sampson on his initial coaching run in the early 1980s at Montana Tech: “I was on a stipend, not a salary. I got $1,000. The reality of that hit when the financial guy said, ‘Do you want that $100 for 10 months or do you want it all up front?’ I said, ‘Wow. Let’s go ahead and get it up front so at least I can get to look at it.’ ”
Sampson on his father John W. “Ned” Sampson: “My father had a nine-month (coaching) contract. The other three months he sold World Book Encyclopedia, he sold Lincoln life insurance, he taught driver’s (education) and he worked at the tobacco market. The tobacco market was where I realized where I was living. Because when you went to the bathroom, there was three different bathrooms: white, colored and others. And then you went to the water fountain — which was an important part of that tobacco market because it was so hot and dusty — it was white, colored and others. It was very divided. Very racist. But we survived, and we achieved. My dad’s reputation was somebody that you looked up to. He was the coach.”
Sampson paused for 20 seconds after discussing his father and telling an extended story that involved the Ku Klux Klan and the Lumbee Nation, a Native American tribe.
UH’s coach became emotional, collected himself, then started speaking about his father again.
“A pretty good person to have as a role model and a hero growing up,” said Sampson, who grew up in Pembroke, N.C.
Sampson went 281-107 with Oklahoma and reached the Final Four in 2002 but was shadowed by recruiting violations.
He went 43-15 at Indiana but resigned from the Hoosiers in 2008 after more recruiting violations involving improper telephone calls.
A five-year show-cause penalty once prevented Sampson from coaching the college game.
Thirteen years after leaving Indiana, Sampson now guides the deepest, most driven and dangerous team in his seven years with UH.
These Coogs believe in and mirror Sampson — the man and the coach.
Forty minutes of relentless defense. Rebounding, rebounding and more rebounding. A selfless offense that can pound down low or light up the board for 80-plus points on a good night.
“I’m grateful to be around this group and happy to have Coach Sampson leading us. Man, he’s a great, great coach,” said senior guard DeJon Jarreau, after the Cougars held off Oregon State 67-61 in the Elite Eight. “To get this win on his 1,000th game, man, that’s just something just worth talking about and worth living. I’m happy I’m a part of that. I’m happy he’s my coach. I’m happy I came back, and the story is still being written. We’re in the Final Four now.”
Sampson’s entire life and career have been building toward this moment, this game and this stage.
He’s back in Indiana, learning from the past and making new history in 2021 with UH.