How Kelvin Sampson Keeps His Houston Players Humble — This Coach Hates Entitlement, Fights It By Making Sure Top 5 UH Gives Back In a Taking NIL Era

Cedric Lath isn’t thinking about playing time or where he fits in on a star-studded University of Houston basketball team when a woman far from home undergoing cancer treatment wraps him up in a tight hug. LJ Cryer certainly isn’t mulling over how he can raise his game in what many expect to be an All-American season for him as he brings slices of Star Pizza over to a waiting family. JoJo Tugler and Jacob McFarland, the two tallest waiters/busboys you’ll ever see, are not worrying about NIL money or anything like that as they clear several tables of dirty paper plates.

This is how Kelvin Sampson’s University of Houston basketball team spends one of its rare free nights before the preparations for a season of supersized expectations shift into high gear. Giving back, serving and spending time with the residents of Hope Lodge Houston, which provides a free place to stay for cancer patients getting treatment in Houston, through the Coaches vs. Cancer program. Soon en0ugh, UH will begin a season where it’s ranked in everyone’s preseason Top 5. The Cougars just landed one of the Top 10 recruits in the country in Isiah Harwell, and that’s just the first step in what could be Sampson’s own version of a Fab 5 recruiting class. Practice for Sampson’s 36th season as a head coach begins on Wednesday afternoon.

But to Kelvin Sampson, this evening is as important as any of that. Maybe more important when it comes to what he wants his players and his program to be all about.

“I’m anti entitlement,” Sampson tells PaperCity. “I don’t like being around entitled people. And I think part of our responsibility is to use the platform we have.

“. . . Opportunities to make sure these guys stay grounded. Sometimes I have a tendency to think like a parent with them. Because their parents trusted me with an awesome responsibility. They sent their sons to play for me. I don’t want them to just. . . I would hate to think that we would be so shallow that the only thing they learn at the University of Houston is to be a better basketball player.”

So Cedric Lath finds himself wrapped up in a big hug by a cheer mom from Louisiana who doesn’t know anything about him except that the tall kid (Lath’s 6-foot-9) from the Ivory Coast of Africa has one of kindest smiles she’s seen in a while.

“I have kids from 29 to 10 at home,” says Amanda Williams, who is undergoing treatment in Houston for the second type of cancer she’s faced and staying at Hope Lodge. “And grandkids. So I got a little emotional when I saw all these guys serving. With their hearts and their smiles. So I found the tallest guy in the room and asked him if I could have a hug.”

Lath gives Williams that hug with a giant smile, not even completely grasping just how much it means to her. “That was a nice moment,” Lath tells PaperCity. “You know sometimes you need to show love to people. We’re all here for this. The least we can do is try to help people.”

Most of the cancer patients and their family caretakers staying in the Hope Lodge have no real sense of UH basketball before this pizza party. They have no idea that this is one the top college basketball teams in the country. They just know that they’ve met some new very courteous tall buddies who are helping brighten their day.

“So many in this room will somebody have an opportunity to do something for the American Cancer Society or a Hope Lodge or a St. Jude’s hospital or a Ronald McDonald House,” Kelvin Sampson says, looking over at his players. “I want them to be like ‘I remember when my coach took me to something like that.’

“And that’s all I want them to do. When you have a chance to pay it forward some day, make sure you do.”

On this day, Sampson’s players are certainly into helping out. Senior wing man Ramon Walker Jr. looks he’s an experienced restaurant worker, the way he takes charge and oversees the pizza distribution, making sure those Star Pizza slices get to the Hope Lodge residents while still hot. “I just spent a lot of time in the kitchen helping out at home,” Walker laughs. Freshman forward Chase McCarty does not let the walking boot he’s wearing due to a case of plantar fasciitis in his right foot slow him down. McCarty might be hobbling around the room in that boot, but he seems to be there whenever a table needs something.

“The boot isn’t anything compared to what these people are going through,” McCarty says. “These people are receiving cancer treatment. For sure, I can be out here as well.”

McCarty comes in as a Top 100 recruit in the country, a 6-foot-6 small forward with impressive 3-point range who Kansas, Tennessee and Texas Tech all also went after. But you’ll hear no trace of entitlement in his voice. Not in Kelvin Sampson’s program. Not on this basketball lifer’s watch.

“I’m anti entitlement. I don’t like being around entitled people. And I think part of our responsibility is to use the platform we have.” — UH coach Kelvin Sampson

Kelvin Sampson Refuses to Let NIL Change the Identity of His Program

This may be the NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) era in college sports, when every star football and basketball player seems to have a number, where the starting quarterback of a 3-0 team walks away over a monetary dispute, but Kelvin Sampson refuses to let compensation determine his players’ attitude.

“I use these opportunities,” Sampson tells PaperCity. “That’s why I’m so thankful I have (director for basketball operations) Lauren (Sampson). Because she comes to us with these opportunities. . . I never ever think about NIL stuff with these kids. Because I don’t change.

“If I don’t change that means they better not change. You know my antennas will be out. But it’s our second (full) year (completed) with the NIL — it hasn’t impacted our program in any way. We haven’t changed. We’ll keep doing what we do.”

In Sampson’s program that means winning at an immense level, developing future pro players and giving back. Kelvin Sampson credits former University of Oklahoma, Illinois and Florida coach Lon Kruger with telling him about Hope Lodge and former longtime University of Missouri coach Norm Stewart with getting Coaches vs. Cancer going in the first place. To Sampson, he’s just following in the footsteps of those who set the path. But this is personal to Sampson too. He lost his mom to cancer.

Kelvin Sampson does not just show up at Hope Lodge, give a short speech and sign a few souvenir little basketballs. This is no token charity appearance. Sampson goes around the large dining room and talks to every single family at the pizza party. By the end of the evening, he knows where they are all from and most of their stories.

Every family certainly leaves with a memory of University of Houston’s coach.

One of the cancer patients is a former University of Oklahoma student who went to school in Norman while Sampson coached the Sooners.

“He was a really great coach at Oklahoma,” the woman tells her teenage daughter.

“That was a long time ago,” Kelvin Sampson shoots back with a laugh.

Another of the cancer patients staying at Hope Lodge is the brother of Ken Critton, who played for Sampson all the way back at Washington State. Sampson figures out the connection as soon as he gets to Jerry Critton’s table. Then he makes a video on Jerry Critton’s phone of them together to send to his former player, a hard-nosed rebounder in the Kelvin Sampson mode who Sampson jokes with his brother he told to never shoot.

“He remembered when he played for him,” Jerry Critton says. “Where he played. He remembered (Ken’s) wife. She was a musician. He really remembered it all. I was impressed.”

Hearts Out, Minds Open

Sampson may be determined to keep his players from becoming entitled, but he’s not asking them to do anything he doesn’t do himself. This coach pours his heart into this visit to the Hope Lodge — and his players cannot help but see it.

“It just shows you not to take anything for granted,” LJ Cryer says. “It gives you another perspective on life. Whenever you think things are hard, there’s other people who have it harder.”

Nothing in Kelvin Sampson’s program comes easy. Even Eddie Nuñez, UH’s new athletic director, seems to be embracing this. Nuñez jumps right in there with Sampson’s UH players, clearing and busing table after table, wearing the same purple latex gloves they are to keep the cancer patients safe.

“To have Eddie, your AD, running around busing tables that says something,” Lauren Sampson says.

Nuñez will tell you this is one of the best nights he’s had in his first month as the University of Houston’s athletic director.

“For me, just being able to be part of it,” Nuñez tells PaperCity. “I love being able to be involved with them. To watch our student athletes give back. . . They’re picking up the table. They’re serving food. That’s what it’s all about.”

Eddie Nuñez’s own beloved father died from cancer after his senior year playing basketball at the University of Florida, a loss that almost made Nuñez step away from his own dreams. This means something more to him too.

“You know sometimes you need to show love to people. We’re all here for this. The least we can do is try to help people.” — UH center Cedric Lath

None of Kelvin Sampson’s players know any of this subtext. This will be one of the preseason Top 5 teams in the country. But on this night, these players are largely anonymous. Just seen as helpful young men. When someone asks Jacob McFarland, how tall he is, he happily answers “Seven feet.”

“Nothing,” Amanda Williams, the hug mom, says when I ask what she knew about Houston basketball before this pizza party. “Zero. But now I want to be their team mom. They have a new fan for life. I’ll be rooting for them all season.”

Tugler scoots by, carrying two plastic plates of pizza for another table.

“It’s a good feeling helping out people,” Tugler says. “Everybody likes helping out people. Especially in this program. I never turn down helping out somebody.”

Kelvin Sampson isn’t listening at this moment. But he’s certainly watching his guys whenever he can. Taking note. Looking for any sign of entitlement. Doing what he’s always done.