Jim Nantz to Do Spring Break With Kelvin Sampson — Why CBS’s Voice Will Use His First March Off In 38 Years to Follow Houston and Coaching “Greatness”

Jim Nantz does not do spring break. The voice of so many of sports’ biggest moments never had time for such things. But Nantz is already plotting his 2024 spring vacation, marking it in permanent marker and letting his reps know that this one is nonnegotiable. For Nantz is committed to using his first March off in 38 years to follow Kelvin Sampson and the University of Houston basketball program.

Yes, Nantz is one of the proudest University of Houston graduates anyone will ever meet. But his ironclad vacation plans are not really about that. This is a Kelvin Sampson belief thing above all. Built around a real friendship that goes beyond just basketball and Sampson’s program winning big games for UH season after season after season.

“I have a six week stretch off next year to do whatever I want,” Nantz says. “I’ve been asked to do a few things here and there, maybe a speaking engagement. . .  I’ve turned everything down.

“Because I want to avail myself to whatever is happening with the University of Houston basketball program. I will enjoy the NCAA Tournament next year following them. I’m going to sit in the stands, wear my red, cheer. And watch Kelvin do his thing. Which is greatness.”

Nantz is certain that Kelvin Sampson is one of the greatest coaches of all time. And Nantz has dealt with all the hallowed coaches of the last 40 years, in college basketball and beyond. The voice of CBS Sports, one of the most influential people in the world of big time athletics period, someone with the means and cachet to do whatever he wants, is choosing to spend his first spring off watching Kelvin Sampson coach.

“That’s my goal,” Nantz says. In fact, even before Nantz officially announced he’d be “retiring” from calling college basketball games after the 2023 Final Four in Houston, he’d already started thinking about using the time off to follow the Cougars and their one of a kind coach.

Sampson, the 67-year-old basketball lifer of coach who brought a flat lining UH program back to national life and changed how many look at the university period, does not do pretend friends. If Sampson calls someone his friend, they really are. And people he doesn’t call friends aren’t, no matter how much they’d like to think they are.

With Nantz, there is no doubt.

“From my perspective Jim’s a friend, ” Sampson tells PaperCity. “He’s probably the most influential UH alumni there is.”

Sampson has seen that influence at work, seen it help his basketball program. But that’s not why he considers Jim Nantz a true friend. There are plenty of influential figures that Sampson deals with, some even he fosters as allies. But he does not call many of them real friends. Not even close.

Jim Nantz is in a different category.

“I love Jim Nantz,” Sampson says. “Not because he’s this or that. Just because he’s a great guy.”

UH assistant coach K.C. Beard, who has been with Sampson and the UH basketball program since 2014, has seen the friendship between Nantz and his boss grow.

“It’s awesome,” Beard says of the Sampson-Nantz friendship. “. . . (Nantz) really cares about our team. Every time he’s done our games in the past, the loves he has for this team, for the University of Houston and its basketball program, are real.

“And I know he and Coach have absolutely connected. Because. . . two passionate people about what they do.”

I will enjoy the NCAA Tournament next year following them. I’m going to sit in the stands, wear my red, cheer. And watch Kelvin do his thing. Which is greatness.” — Jim Nantz

The Authentic Bond Between Kelvin Sampson and Jim Nantz

The authentic nature of both Jim Nantz and Kelvin Sampson helped forge this friendship. With these two, it really is what you see is what you get. Albeit in very different ways. Nantz truly may be one of the nicest men in America, certainly one of the very, very nicest truly famous men in America. And Sampson is as real as it gets, a relentless taskmaster with a heart for his players that knows no bounds, a man who suffers no fools but quietly helps many behind the scenes.

Kelvin Sampson and Jim Nantz may go through life in very different ways, but the way they look at life is remarkably similar.

“From my perspective Jim’s a friend. He’s probably the most influential UH alumni there is.” — UH basketball coach Kelvin Sampson

Both men go out of their way for each other. While Nantz is building his first spring break in 38 years to follow Sampson’s Cougars through the NCAA Tournament, Sampson does not miss events that bring Nantz to Houston either. When Nantz came into town to emcee the University of Houston Hall of Honor night earlier this fall, Sampson made a long day longer to make sure he could be there.

“I tell you how influential he is,” Sampson tells PaperCity. “So I had a long day. I started at 5:30 am (that morning) and I was at the indoor football facility. Our kids ran three 50 yard sprints, down and back, down and back. They did six sets of 25 — and as a team, situps. We had individual workouts, position workouts.

“When it was over, we came (to the Hall of Honor night). Before we came, I opened up a bottle of Calling wine.”

The Calling is Jim Nantz’s own label of wine, one started with wine world staple Peter Deutsch. Sampson is a knowledgeable wine connoisseur, though few people know about that passion. Sampson may not be as wine devoted as legendary San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich (who Sampson has worked with), but Houston’s coach knows what he is talking about and what he likes to drink.

“Jim, he sends me a case of wine about every month,” Sampson tells PaperCity.

During the COVID-restricted Final Four of 2021 — when teams like Houston were largely restricted to one floor of a hotel and the arenas in Indianapolis — Nantz made sure one certain provision was met.

“We’re in the Final Four,” Sampson laughs. “Every night, there’d be a knock on my (hotel room) door. And outside of it was a case of The Calling wine. . . So I’d bring it in, share with my assistant coaches.”

For Nantz such gestures are small payment for everything that Kelvin Sampson’s University of Houston program has given him. He calls the jumper UH point guard Jamal Shead hit to beat Memphis last March his “all-time favorite buzzer beater.”

Nantz called that game for CBS, even bringing his 7-year-old son Jameson to UH’s shoot-around the night before. Jim Nantz wants his son to be around Kelvin Sampson as much as possible too. That’s how much he thinks of Houston’s coach and the lessons he imparts.

Houston players like Shead benefit from this relationship too. Shead’s gotten much more face time with Nantz than most college basketball stars, built his own bond with the legendary play by play voice. Nantz ends up introducing Shead on that Hall of Honor night, noting how many think Shead will be president — of the United States or some major company — some day.

“It warmed my heart from somebody of that nature to be such a mentor to me,” Shead says. “To talk so highly of me — it was awesome. It felt great. Really interesting to see from their perspective how they talk in front of people.”

Nantz and Sampson will be talking plenty throughout this upcoming season, UH’s first Big 12 season, as the CBS man goes through his NFL schedule, waiting for that spring break with The Coogs. And a closeup view at what he’s sure is genuine — and rare—  coaching “greatness.”