Bill Raftery Marvels Over Kelvin Sampson’s Consistency, While an All-Time UH Great Wishes He Could Have Been Coached By Him

Bill Raftery thinks he first met Kelvin Sampson while Sampson was coaching Washington State. But the 82-year-old legendary broadcaster allows that there is a chance that he met University of Houston’s coach earlier when Sampson was just starting out as a grad assistant for Jud Heathcote at Michigan State. Raftery spent a lot of time around Heathcote’s program, which had Magic Johnson at the time. Raftery doesn’t remember that younger than young Kelvin Sampson. But he sure remembers the Washington State one.

“I think you grow in this profession,” Raftery tells PaperCity. “You learn the adjustments that have to be made. Tendencies. But his standards and his principles haven’t changed. Not his basics or his fundamental core.”

Bill Raferty saw that same Kelvin Sampson at Washington State where he won at a place almost no coach wins. Watching Sampson coach Houston to a blow out of West Virginia just a few days after a dismantling of Baylor, Raftery found himself marveling over the same things that struck him about Sampson all those decades earlier at Washington State.

About how a Kelvin Sampson team exposes an opponents’ flaws with the ruthlessness a Smart Mirror shows in revealing skin blemishes. There are KGB agents who are more forgiving.

“They test you every single possession,” Raftery says. “If you’re not ready for that test, it’s going to be a long night. I hope everyone appreciates what he’s built here.”

Raftery looks around at the Fertitta Center, the buzzing on-campus arena in The Third Ward that’s one of the best scenes in all of college basketball. It is interesting that Raftery brings up the idea of appreciation. For Kelvin Sampson’s brought that up himself recently — to a couple of reporters after the win at Baylor and in his press conference after the wipeout of West Virginia.

“Like most programs like ours, you become a little bit of a victim of your success,” Sampson says. “I noticed that when you win a lot, you get a lot more people shooting at you. There’s no appreciation for it.”

This younger — starting two freshmen (wonder point guard Kingston Flemings and big man Chris Cenac Jr.) and relying on two more in its Top 8 rotation (emerging sixth man Isiah Harwell and redshirt freshman Chase McCarty) — UH team is somehow off to a 16-1 start (4-0 in the relentlessly unforgiving Big 12). That is two games better than last year’s experience-packed national championship runner-up team stood after 17 games (14-3). It is a game better than Jamal Shead’s senior season Big 12 champions found themselves after 17 games (15-2). It matches the 16-1 one start that UH got off to in super talent Jarace Walker’s one season in Houston back in 2022-23.

Do UH fans grasp the real magnitude of this run?

Bill Raftery will tell you that college basketball insiders do. “Kelvin’s consistency is what stands out,” Raftery tells PaperCity.

UH Great Dwight Davis’ One Wish

Season after season after season, the mega winning just keeps going and going. The University of Houston will show off some of its rich basketball legacy pre Kelvin when early 1970s star Dwight Davis’ No. 42 jersey is retired at halftime of UH’s 5:30 pm Sunday (ESPN) home game against Arizona State (10-7, 1-3 Big 12). The man nicknamed Double D looks like current Houston basketball unicorn JoJo Tugler, getting far above the rim, in some of those black and white photos from the early ’70s.

“They test you every single possession. If you’re not ready for that test, it’s going to be a long night. I hope everyone appreciates what he’s built here.” — Bill Raftery

Dwight Davis is a huge Kelvin Sampson fan, having become an early advocate for the now Basketball Hall of Fame nominated coach and program reviver.

In fact, the dynamic and athletic Davis wonders if his NBA career (he was the No. 3 overall pick in the 1972 NBA Draft) would have turned out better if he had the demanding Sampson as his college coach.

“I would have loved to have Kelvin as a coach,” Davis tells PaperCity. “I think I could have even done more. Because Kelvin has a way of motivating. I see some of his players like Ja’Vier Francis and J’Wan Roberts. He got more out of those guys than I think 99 percent of college coaches could. He taught them how they could be effective.”

Kelvin Sampson is still teaching, 37 seasons in as a college coach, almost five decades into coaching overall. While everyone else marvels over Flemings, the 19-year-old point guard who can get into the lane at will and unleash creative passes that sometimes even catch his teammates off guard, Sampson sees how he can help this 2026 NBA Lottery Pick To Be get better.

“Kingston’s still got a long ways to go,” Sampson says. “I’m not in his fan club like most people.”

“I would have loved to have Kelvin as a coach. I think I could have even done more. Because Kelvin has a way of motivating. I see some of his players like Ja’Vier Francis and J’Wan Roberts. He got more out of those guys than I think 99 percent of college coaches could.” — Dwight Davis on Kelvin Sampson

Sampson is always building for the next challenge, knowing where his team needs to be for March. This Houston team is still growing, still learning each other. Even as the relentless winning continues.

“You can really see the improvement,” UH senior guard Milos Uzan says of Cenac, the 6-foot-11 freshman, and JoJo Tugler getting used to playing with each other on the frontline. “Them dudes is fighting for double doubles between each other. They’re getting a lot better together and they’re helping the team get better too.”

Bill Raftery sees the same thing he’s seen from Kelvin Sampson teams since the Washington State days. Walking with Raftery after a game is an interesting experience. Houston athletic director Eddie Nuñez comes over to Raftery to express his appreciation for all his voice has given to college basketball. An autograph collector stops him with two glossy photos for the man with the signature Onions call to sign, each with a different special pen.

Raftery amiably obliges, brightening up when he sees Ian Eagle is in the second picture. Soon, this legendary voice will be walking up the tunnel, heading to his next Fox assignment. “Kelvin’s still Kelvin,” Raftery says. And Houston and college basketball are both better for that.

No outlet covers UH basketball throughout the entire calendar year with more consistency and focus than PaperCity Houston. For more of Chris Baldwin’s extensive, detailed and unique insider coverage of UH sports — stories you cannot read anywhere else, stay tuned. Follow Baldwin on the platform formerly known as Twitter here.