Kelvin Sampson
Kelvin Sampson (born October 5, 1955)
Current position: Head men’s basketball coach
Current team: Houston Cougars
Current conference: Big 12 Conference
Montana Tech record: 73–45 (.619)
Washington State record: 103-103 (.500)
Oklahoma record: 281-107 (.724)
Indiana record: 43-15 (.741)
Houston record: 264-79 (.770)
Overall record^: 764-349 (.686)
Career Accomplishments:
- NCAA National Championships: 0
- NCAA Tournament Appearances: 19 (1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024)
- NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen: 8 (1999, 2002, 2003, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024)
- NCAA Tournament Final Four: 2 (2002, 2021)
- NIT Championships: 0
- NIT Appearances: 4 (1992, 2004, 2016, 2017)
- Big 12 Regular Season Champion: 1 (2024)
- AAC Regular Season Champion: 4 (2019, 2020, 2022, 2023)
- Big 12 Regular Season Champion: 1 (2005)
- Frontier (NAIA) Regular Season Champion: 2 (1984, 1985)
- Big 12 Tournament Champion: 0
- AAC Tournament Champion: 1 (2021)
- Big 12 Tournament Champion: 3 (2001, 2002, 2003)
- Frontier (NAIA) Tournament Champion: 1 (1983)
Awards:
- AP Coach of the Year: 2 (1995, 2024)
- NABC Coach of the Year: 2 (2002, 2024)
- Henry Iba Award: 2 (1995, 2024)
- John McLendon Award: 2 (2021, 2024)
- Ben Jobe Award: 1 (2022)
- Big 12 Coach of the Year: 1 (2024)
- AAC Coach of the Year: 4 (2018, 2019, 2022, 2023)
- Big Eight Coach of the Year: 1 (1995)
- Pac-12 Coach of the Year: 1 (1991)
Coaching Career (head coach, unless noted):
2014-present | Houston |
2011-2014 | Houston Rockets (asst) |
2008-2011 | Milwaukee Bucks (asst) |
2006-2008 | Indiana |
1994-2006 | Oklahoma |
1987-1994 | Washington State |
1985-1987 | Washington State (asst) |
1981-1985 | Montana Tech |
1980-1981 | Montana Tech (asst) |
1979-1980 | Michigan State (grad asst) |
Kelvin Sampson Facts
- Kelvin Dale Sampson
- Born October 5, 1955
- Hometown: Laurinburg, North Carolina
- Alma Mater: UNC-Pembroke (BS, 1978) / Michigan State (MA, 1980)
- Is of Native American descent and is the only Native American head coach to lead a team to the Final Four
- Played basketball, football and baseball at Pembroke High School (NC)
- Captained of his HS basketball team, playing for his father John W. “Ned” Sampson; went on to play at D-II Pembroke State (now UNC Pembroke)
- Started his coaching career as a graduate assistant under legendary Michigan State head coach Jud Heathcote
- Spent one year as an assistant at NAIA Montana Tech before taking over as head coach in 1981
- Went 73-45 overall in four seasons as the Orediggers’ head coach
- Moved up to Division I in 1985 as an assistant to Len Stevens at Washington State; took over as head coach two years later
- Went 103-103 during his tenure at WSU, leading the Cougars to the NCAA Tournament in his final season (1994-95)
- Took over the Oklahoma program in 1994, leading the Sooners to the postseason in each of his twelve years as head coach (11 NCAA Tournaments, 1 NIT); made it to the Final Four in 2002
- During his time in Norman, Sampson got in some trouble for making excessive recruiting phone calls
- Hired in March 2006 to become the new head coach at Indiana, a position he would hold for less than two full seasons
- Resigned in February 2008 amid another NCAA scandal surrounding excessive calls and text messages; the NCAA gave Sampson a five-year show cause
- Moved to the NBA for the next six seasons, spending three years each as an assistant with the Milwaukee Bucks (under Scott Skiles) and Houston Rockets (under Kevin McHale)
- Acting Houston Rockets head coach for 13 games during the 2012-13 season, leading team to 7-6 record
- Returned to the college ranks in April 2014 when he was hired as the new head coach of the Houston Cougars
- Led the Cougars to an at-large bid in the 2018 NCAA Tournament after falling short in the AAC Tournament final
- A year later, Sampson’s Cougars claimed the outright AAC regular season title and won his second straight AAC COY award
- Reached career victory #600 in January 2019 (first 73 wins came at the NAIA level)
- In 2021, Sampson led the Cougars to their first NCAA Final Four in nearly 40 years; Sampson won the John McLendon Award
- Won 31 games in 2022-23 and earned a 1-seed in the NCAA Tournament
- In 2023-24, the program’s first year in the Big 12, the Cougars were outright Big 12 champions; earned a second-straight 1-seed in 2024; Sampson was named AP COY and NABC COY for the second time in his career, and Big 12 COY for the first time
Kelvin Sampson Coaching Tree
- Mark Adams (Central Connecticut)
- Alvin Brooks (Lamar)
- Bobby Champagne (North Alabama)
- Talvin Hester (Louisiana Tech)
- Bob Hoffman (Mercer, UT-Pan American)
- Brad Huse (Montana State, Jamestown College)
- Ray Lopes (Fresno State)
- Ray McCallum (Detroit Mercy)
- Eduardo Nájera (Texas Legends)
- Don Newman (Arizona State, Sacramento State)
- Jason Rabedeaux (UTEP)
- Bennie Seltzer (Evansville, Samford)
- Rob Senderoff (Kent State)
- Travis Steele (Miami OH, Xavier)
- Jimmy Tubbs (SMU)
^ overall record includes head coaching positions at the both the NCAA and NAIA levels