Written by Joseph Duarte | Houston Chronicle
Kelvin Sampson’s office is a museum of basketball memorabilia. Walls covered with photos and awards. Basketballs that commemorate milestones sit neatly on a shelf. A wooden box on a nearby table displays championship rings from a 33-year college coaching career. From his third-floor window, Sampson, 67, has a bird’s-eye view of the rebirth of the University of Houston men’s basketball program.
“This program needed to hit rock bottom because they deserved to. This place didn’t have a foundation. We had to start from scratch."
What Sampson heard, or specifically did not hear, left him wondering if the cycle would end. One of the first proposals for the development facility included a basketball court that the men’s and women’s programs would share, separated only by a black curtain. When recruits came for visits, Sampson and his coaching staff would show them campus, the coaches’ offices and “nowhere else.” And no one even thought about going to Hofheinz Pavilion, where time had seemingly stood still for decades. Lights in the arena stayed on 24/7 because officials feared they might not come back on.
“When we brought him here, honestly, there was nothing,” Houston president Renu Khator said. “We had no resources, no tools. All we had to sell him was a dream.
“He’s the coach who makes the impossible possible.”
On the court, Sampson inherited a roster with only five players following the defection of a couple star players within weeks of him being hired. Houston went 13-19 in 2014-15, Sampson’s only losing season at UH.
“This program needed to hit rock bottom because they deserved to,” Sampson said. “This place didn’t have a foundation. We had to start from scratch.”
Houston won 22 and 21 games the following two seasons, both times qualifying for the National Invitation Tournament. The breakthrough came in 2017-18 when the Cougars went 27-8 and made the NCAA Tournament, beating San Diego State before a buzzer-beating loss to Michigan in the second round. That taste of the postseason was just the beginning.
“By Year 3, we were on the fast track to Year 4,” Sampson said. “It was a matter of time before we broke through.”
The first NCAA trip was followed by a school record 33 wins in 2018-19 (UH led Kentucky in the final minute before falling in the Sweet 16), and the Cougars were in position for another high seed when the coronavirus pandemic cancelled the postseason in 2020.
In 2021, with the entire NCAA Tournament played in the state of Indiana due to COVID-19 concerns, the Cougars beat Cleveland State, Rutgers, Syracuse and Oregon State to advance to the Final Four for the sixth time in program history. Houston lost to Baylor in the national semifinals, but the message had been sent loud and clear: the Cougars were back on the national map.
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