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New York Times
08-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Houston heartbreak: Kelvin Sampson and the Cougars forced to deal with another cruel ending
SAN ANTONIO — In late October, Kelvin Sampson sat down on his couch in his office and the phone rang. It was an old buddy who used to sell insurance and served as Sampson's volunteer assistant at Montana Tech. Sampson had a guest, so he didn't answer, but the memories started flowing from his first head coaching job, in the Frontier Conference in the early 1980s. Advertisement For away games, his volunteer assistant didn't travel when they'd take the van because there wasn't enough room. But he did when they had access to the 1966 Trailways bus that the Orediggers shared with the Butte Copper Kings, a farm league team for the Milwaukee Brewers. 'They got it in the summer. We got it in the winter,' Sampson said. 'But I remember the first championship, we beat College of Great Falls, and they were the best team in the league, and we were the worst team in the league. Then, by our second year, we were the best team, and we beat them at their place to win the conference championship. That was a big deal.' Sampson smiles. He always thinks back to those days when his buddy calls every preseason. This game has given him a lot of great stories to tell. Really, he's only missing one. On Monday night at the Alamodome, the final box to check was right there for the 69-year-old. What a perfect setup. Sitting on 799 wins, with a team that had lost only one game since the start of December. A team that, per tradition, visits the Sampson house every night before home games to eat dinner — with Karen Sampson's famous chocolate chip cookies for dessert — and play UNO at the kitchen table before it's time to go upstairs for film. This team was different, because it always hung around longer than the others. This team felt different, all the way until the end. That ending? The Sampsons have been hiding from the possibility for weeks, Kellen Sampson admitting on the eve of his father's first national championship game appearance that 'there's an unspoken bond between us about what we're doing. Neither of us are dumb enough to speak on it yet.' Neither had shed a tear last Sunday when they made the Final Four — something they very much did when they made it in 2021 — and that was because they didn't want their players to think they'd arrived at the finish line. They wanted them to know those tears would be reserved for Monday night. Happy ones, ideally. Advertisement And until a ball bounced hopelessly at the feet of Emanuel Sharp, it felt like it was the only possible outcome. Houston played a game on its terms in Monday night's championship against Florida. Tough, rugged, hard to score. The type of game the Cougars always seem to win, with one of their program guys making a play when they need it most. Houston led for all but 17 seconds in the first 39 minutes of the game, but two Alijah Martin free throws put the Gators on top with 46 seconds remaining. Sampson drew up a play his team had practiced hundreds of times before, setting up a scenario very similar to the one in the Sweet 16 against Purdue that would give us even more reason to celebrate the old ball coach. As he had that night in Indy, Sampson used LJ Cryer as a decoy, running a play that looked like it was designed for the star guard, only to have it set up for Sharp, who had been the big shot maker throughout March. The hope was that it would draw a long closeout, giving Sharp a chance to either sidestep for a 3 or drive to the basket and send the game to overtime. Sharp thought he had enough of a window to get the shot off, but Walter Clayton Jr. recovered so quickly that when Sharp left his feet, he had nowhere to go and dropped the ball. It bounced cruelly four times in front of him while the seconds ticked, and the championship that was right there just slipped away. Florida 65, Houston 63. Sampson, hands on his hips, stared straight ahead at the spot on the floor where it all went wrong — saying later it was incomprehensible they couldn't get a shot off — and then he turned to congratulate the Gators and walked straight off the floor blankly staring ahead. It's never easy to close the book on a season, especially when you're so close you can almost feel the scissors in your hand. Advertisement 'You know the pitfalls,' Sampson would say back in October about the chase. 'You know how difficult it is. You know where the landmines are. And the distance between where you are and winning it, there's so many landmines.' Houston had sidestepped every one in the NCAA Tournament until that final minute, pulling off what seemed inconceivable by rallying from 14 down to beat Duke two nights earlier. In a cruel trust, the Cougars led the Gators by 12 in the second half in this one, nearly pushing it to 14 when sixth-year forward J'Wan Roberts missed a lefty jump hook he almost always makes. 'So much has just got to go right to get here,' Kellen Sampson said, 'And it did. And then you're up 12, and you're generating some momentum. … Thought we were so close to getting it into the open water.' Eventually, the Sampsons will watch the tape and wonder what they could have done differently. But in the present, Kelvin Sampson had to immediately turn reflective in the right way. He has always said the hurt is for his players when the end finally arrives. For guys like Cryer, Roberts, Ja'Vier Francis and Mylik Wilson, who spent a combined 15 years at Houston, they don't get another chance. Sampson does. And when the Cougars finally all arrived in the locker room, Sampson told them how proud he was, singling out Sharpe for the defense he'd played on Clayton, Florida's star guard who had the worst shooting game of his season. 'This team had the character and the toughness and the leadership,' Sampson said. 'This team is built to win this tournament. And that's why it's so disappointing we got here and had a chance and just didn't get it done. It wasn't for lack of effort, it wasn't the lack of cohesion. The championship night can be a tough enemy sometimes. That was a tough loss.' While Sampson addressed his team, his wife Karen waited outside the locker room with Galen Robinson, the point guard on the team that broke Houston through to its first NCAA Tournament under Sampson in 2018. Robinson had his arm around Karen, who leaned forward and watched 'One Shining Moment' play on a small television. Near the end of the montage, when her husband popped on the screen, Karen closed her eyes. Advertisement Inside the locker room, daughter Lauren Sampson sat on the floor in a corner, pulling lanyards collected on this run from her purse and putting them in a pile. 'Florida's good, but these kids are good,' Lauren said, a tear streaming down her left cheek. 'These kids deserved it. They just did. My dad deserved it. He deserved it. He just did.' Standing several feet from her was her brother, the coach-in-waiting of the program, who doesn't want to slide over to the head seat until his father wins on Monday night. 'I think there's a pretty good feeling that it's not a matter of if, it's when,' Kellen said. 'And the best thing that we can do is keep building teams that will give us a lick at the pinata. We took an awesome lick at that thing this year and thought we busted it open. And we would have been the one that got the candy confetti on us.' Kellen was already replaying what could have been. If they'd just rebounded a little better or executed a little cleaner down the stretch or one of those Roberts hooks or Milos Uzan floaters or Cryer runners that almost always go in hadn't rattled out. 'Win 35 games,' he said, 'and you feel like s—.' Because his father will be 70 by the start of the next season and because it's already in writing that Kellen will be the next coach, the younger Sampson is asked how much sand is left in the hourglass on his dad's career. 'Nights like tonight will rejuvenate him,' Kellen said, 'and he'll be full of piss and vinegar.' On Sunday afternoon, Kellen said that he and his dad would eventually reflect on this season and what they accomplished, probably on the 14th hole of a golf round. Once they figure out their roster for next year and finish up with the transfer portal, those rounds will happen. They will make their annual lake trip this summer. Next fall, Sampson's old assistant will call and he'll start to think back to those Montana Tech days and tell whoever is around to listen to what it was like back then. Advertisement And then he'll walk downstairs to coach another team that he'll inevitably turn into one of the best in college basketball. 'We're not that far off,' Kellen said, about an hour after Houston was one shot away from the title. 'And a lot of these guys will use the sting and pain of this, and we'll load the wagon up and give it another go next year.' (Top photo of Kelvin Sampson: Bob Donnan / Imagn Images)
USA Today
06-04-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Houston coach Kelvin Sampson shares funny Jud Heathcote story ahead of National Championship
Houston coach Kelvin Sampson shares funny Jud Heathcote story ahead of National Championship Hear this funny story from Kelvin Sampson's early coaching days related to former Michigan State head coach Jud Heathcote Kelvin Sampson with a Jud Heathcote story. (By the way, did anyone notice Houston using Jud-style play signs from the bench last night? They weren't on paddles, but basically the same thing.) — Jim Comparoni (@JimComparoni) April 6, 2025 Kelvin Sampson is one game away from winning the National Championship, but on Sunday he was able to share a story about how one former Michigan State basketball coach impacted his career. Sampson led Houston to an improbable comeback against Duke on Saturday night to advance to the National Championship game on Monday. Sampson has experienced a ton of success while at Houston and is now one win away from the highest achievement of them all. But it wasn't always like this for Sampson, who a long time ago coached at Michigan State as a graduate assistant under head coach Jud Heathcote. Following Sampson's time at Michigan State as a grad assistant, he took the head coaching job at Montana Tech. He had a rough first season, where he said the team won only four games. But upon completing his first season, Sampson said he got a call from Heathcote congratulating him on the successful first season. Here's a snippet of the story from Sampson during his media availability on Sunday: "Jud calls up and says 'hey Kel, I just want to congratulate you. You're the only coach in captivity that could have possibly taken Montana Tech from obscurity to oblivion. Got to go, Kel,''" Sampson said with a chuckle during his press conference. "True story." Check out the complete video below: Houston will face Florida on Monday in the National Championship game from San Antonio, Texas. The game is scheduled to tip off at 8:50 p.m. ET and will be televised on CBS. Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan State news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Robert Bondy on X @RobertBondy5.
USA Today
29-03-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Kelvin Sampson's history with former Tennessee basketball head coach Jerry Green
Kelvin Sampson's history with former Tennessee basketball head coach Jerry Green No. 2 seed Tennessee (30-7) will play No. 1 seed Houston (33-4) Sunday in the Elite Eight of the 2025 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. Tipoff between the Vols and Cougars in the Midwest Region final is slated for 2:20 p.m. EDT at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. Kelvin Sampson has served as Houston's head coach since 2014. He also served as a head coach at Montana Tech (1981-85), Washington State (1987-94), Oklahoma (1994-2006) and Indiana (2006-08). During Sampson's tenures at Oklahoma and Indiana, former Tennessee basketball head coach Jerry Green was his director of basketball operations. Green was hired by Sampson in 2005 with the Sooners and would retire in 2007 after the two went to Indiana. Green coached the Vols from 1997-2001 and was one of Tennessee's most successful head coaches, compiling a record of 89-36. He guided Tennessee to four consecutive 20-plus win seasons and four straight NCAA Tournament appearances. Green was named SEC Coach of the Year in 1998 and led the Vols to a 2000 SEC regular-season championship. Tennessee and Green advanced to the Sweet 16 in 2000. Sampson began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Michigan State under head coach Jud Heathcote during the 1979-80 season. He was also an assistant coach in college at Montana Tech (1980-81) and Washington State (1985-87), and in the NBA with Milwaukee (2008-11) and the Rockets (2011-14). In his head coaching career, Sampson has reached the Final Four in 2002 and 2021. He has also been named a two-time AP Coach of the Year (1995, 2004), while winning four Big 12 Tournament championships and three Big 12 regular-season titles.
Yahoo
15-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Second half surge leads DSU women to NAIA Tournament win
MADISON, S.D. (KELO) — The Dakota State women outscored Montana Tech by 19 in the second half to overcome a first half deficit and win 81-63 in the first round of the NAIA Tournament. Dakota State trailed by as many as seven in the first half. In the final moments of the second quarter, Montana Tech led by six. The Trojans answered with a Lilli Mackley three and a Tabor Teel layup to close the half on a 5-0 run and trail 35-34 at halftime. Dakota State hit ten threes in the second half and shot 63% from the field to pull ahead by as many as 23 points. They'd go on to win by 18. The Trojans will now play Governors State (Illinois) in the second round of the tournament Saturday night. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
