Dan Ninham
Special to ICT
The No.1 men’s college basketball team in the country is headed by an Indigenous coach for the first time in history.
Kelvin Sampson, Lumbee, is in his ninth season at the helm of the University of Houston Cougars, who are ranked first by The Associated Press for the NCAA Division I men’s team.
The Cougars, 9-0, remained “firmly entrenched” at the top of the AP rankings for a second week – the first time since the program’s “Phi Slama Jama” days in the 1980s led by player Hakeem Olajuwan, AP reported.
“I play how I see the game,” Sampson told ICT this week. “I coach how I see the game. I made mistakes when I was a younger coach. I made more mistakes then than I do now. I got better as I got older.”
“I got knocked down and I got up every time,” he said. “I learn from mistakes.”
Sampson earned his 700th career win earlier this season. His son, Kellen, is an assistant coach for the Houston program and his daughter, Lauren, is director for basketball operations.
Inspired by family
Sampson was positively influenced by his parents and his grandparents growing up in Pembroke, North Carolina, a community in the heart of Lumbee country in Robeson County, about 90 miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean.
“Growing up my father was a basketball coach,” Sampson recalled. “He had a nine-month contract and the other three months he had four jobs. He did what he could do to help his family.”
“We were around high achievers. Everyone looked the same. We were Lumbee,” he said.
The hard work ethic and humble beginnings of the Sampson family pushed Sampson to succeed. He pursued higher education and began work on a doctorate, but he questioned if he could get a job.
He was a college player and began college coaching in 1980, assisting Jud Heathcote with the Michigan State University men’s basketball program.
Sampson and his wife Karen made the decision to move to the west beginning as an assistant coach, and he eventually became head coach at Montana Tech. His career path also took him to head coaching jobs at Washington State University, the University of Oklahoma and Indiana University, and he earned assistant coaching jobs in the National Basketball Association with the Milwaukee Bucks and Houston Rockets.
Sampson recently talked about his coaching legacy and program growth with Rhossi Carron, USG Media host. Watch the episode here:
Sampson is a here-and-now coach. He prepares for the task at hand, he said.
“Someone talked about our next game being against nationally ranked Alabama,” he said. “I said our next game is against North Florida, not Alabama.”
The Houston Cougars defeated North Florida 76-42 on Tuesday, Dec. 6, and faces nationally eighth-ranked Alabama in Houston Saturday, Dec. 10. North Carolina A&T will be in Houston the following Tuesday, Dec. 13, and Houston is on the road to face nationally third-ranked Virginia on Saturday, Dec. 17.
“The next game is most important,” he said. “It is not more important than you are. Every game is an opportunity for us to compete. I never coached a game I thought we could lose. Every game is important,” said Sampson.
“We are 9-0. If we beat Alabama we are 10-0 … if we lose are 9-1,” said Sampson.
What’s ahead
Sampson addressed his future as the leader of his team and program in Houston with ICT.
Rumors early in the season speculated that his son, Kellen, might get an opportunity to follow in his dad’s footsteps
“A young man can coach and I don’t want to hold up someone else’s opportunity,” said Sampson. “When I walk away from this, it will be someone else’s turn. I’ll go on my way.
“I had my time, and the game goes on.”
But he’s still got his eyes ahead.
“I tell the players to close their eyes and visualize this is the way I like my team to play,” said Sampson. “This is how I was raised and look through my lens in how I get my team to play.”
When congratulated on being ranked number one in the AP polls a week ago, Sampson acknowledged: “Always climbing the mountain. Hard journey ahead.”
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