How a Fiery Kelvin Sampson Pushed to Make LJ Cryer & J’Wan Roberts’ Returns to Houston Happen — Run It Back Starts With a Coach’s Vision

Landon Goesling figured he should give Kelvin Sampson some space after the University of Houston’s season ended with that gut wrenching 54-51 loss to Duke in the Sweet 16. Sampson had other ideas.

“After the game, I kind of thought, ‘Give it a little bit,’ ” Goesling tells PaperCity. “Kind of let Coach digest a little bit. Then in typical Coach fashion, I was in his office the next day — bright and early in the morning — to kind of game plan and strategize on what we could do.”

Goesling laughs. Anyone who thinks the 68-year-old Sampson has lost any of his fire surely wasn’t sitting sitting across from him in the days after Duke. Goesling immediately recognized how pumped up his former coach is to run it back, how tantalized Sampson is by the idea of having a rare chance to bring back four of the five starters from a 32-5 team.

Goesling is the public face (and a deal maker) for LinkingCoogs, the Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) collective facilitating deals for UH athletes, and seeing Sampson’s passion with the end of Houston’s season barely cold only increased his own drive to help make a near mass return happen. Power forward J’Wan Roberts announcing on Twitter Monday night that he plans to return to play next season under his extra COVID year became a huge first step towards making Sampson’s Run It Back mission happen. Guard LJ Cryer, UH’s leading scorer last season, committing to also returning for one final season a day later solidifies it.

Now, UH just needs to make sure junior guard Emanuel Sharp and junior center Ja’Vier Francis return as expected to reach the vision Sampson talked about at this weekend’s Final Four of having four of the five starters return. Game changing point guard Jamal Shead is expected to leave for the NBA, though he hasn’t officially declared his final intentions. Sharp could potentially still go through the NBA pre-draft process, get league feedback on his game and still have the option of returning to UH. Cryer, who is set to have surgery on his injured left foot on Wednesday, will not be physically ready to do the pre-draft process he already went through last offseason.

The extra COVID season allotted to any athlete who competed in the 2020-21 season is creating a rare opportunity for a Kelvin Sampson program used to having to dramatically reshape its roster for each new season.

An opportunity Sampson recognized and seized on early, pushing others to do the same.

“You look at our starters and there’s a good chance four of them will be back,” Sampson said at the Final Four in his Associated Press Coach of the Year press conference. “And the ones that leave usually get drafted to the NBA.”

With the opportunity to bring back four of the five starters from the Big 12 regular season champions, LinkingCoogs shifted into action, kicking off a Run It Back campaign on Monday, with the goal of raising $1 million dollars from 100 donors who contribute $10,000 each. With the money going specifically to returning as much of UH’s 2023-24 season roster as possible.

Sampson is the lead figure in the video for the campaign, standing in front of the Nike wall in Houston’s revamped basketball-only Guy V. Lewis Development Facility, and declaring, “We want to Run It Back. We want to keep this thing going.”

For a Houston program used to losing guys to the NBA Draft (eighth overall pick Jarace Walker and No. 25 pick Marcus Sasser last June; Quentin Grimes as the No. 25 pick in 2021), the chance to run it back with 80 percent of the same starting lineup may not come around again. In many ways, this offseason could represent something of a near solar eclipse rare chance.

“You look at the history of our program and we’ve lost three starters how many years in a row,” Goesling says. “Or four starters. We’ve had a new influx of guys every year. And this is kind of one of those years, we were so close.

“And we have the opportunity to bring most of these guys back. Guys who have won a Big 12 championship and know what that means. Guys who have gone far in the (NCAA) Tournament.”

The still relatively new NIL world where college athletes can earn as much as seven figures at programs with mega dollar donors makes staying in college for another season much more enticing. A player like Roberts — who played through an extremely painful knee injury for much of last season that required surgery this offseason and still averaged 9.5 points and 6.8 rebounds per game, and memorably bullied Duke early in that Sweet 16 matchup — likely would not have considered returning to play for a fifth season in a non NIL world.

“One thousand percent yes,” Goesling says when I ask if NIL played a major role in Roberts’ returning. “We’ve got a plan for all of these guys. And it definitely played a factor in there. And I’ve talked to J’Wan almost every day since the season (ended).

“That’s a guy that put his team in and earned it.”

“After the game, I kind of thought, ‘Give it a little bit.’ Kind of let Coach digest a little bit. Then in typical Coach fashion, I was in his office the next day — bright and early in the morning — to kind of game plan and strategize on what we could do.” — LinkingCoogs’ Landon Goesling

Some major college basketball programs have used NIL to help snare major recruits and transfers (see Arkansas under former coach Eric Musselman for example). In contrast at Houston, Kelvin Sampson consistently talks about using NIL to reward players who have already committed to the Cougars and put time and endless effort into the program. This Run It Back push fits right in with that ethos.

The NIL campaign centers pushing money to guys like Roberts, LJ Cryer (the Baylor transfer who quickly won Sampson’s hard-earned respect in his season in the Third Ward), Sharp and Ja’Vier Francis. With Cryer and Roberts already committing to returning for the 2024-25 season, the mission — Sampson’s vision in many ways — is off to a beyond strong start.

“We’ve had some early adopters — already since launching today,” Goesling says. “And it’s landed us one of our most prized players back in action. Long way to go. But it’s definitely a start. And I definitely think that helps.”

College Basketball’s NIL Truths

UH billionaire believer Tilman Fertitta reached out right after Houston’s Senior Day romp over Kansas to see what he could do to help bring as many players back next season as possible. Mattress Mack Jim McIngvale has been a major supporter of UH’s basketball NIL efforts from the beginning. “I’ll be the first to say it, without Mattress Mack and Gallery Furniture these first two years (of NIL), the success doesn’t happen,” Goesling says. “We’re not where we are.”

Goesling also credits Pat Clynes of Fritz Kennel for signing on to do UH’s first ever NIL deal back when many didn’t know what to make of this new college basketball reality. Of course, many outside of the world of college athletics still do not know exactly what to make of NIL and asking businesses and individuals to help essentially compensate athletes for all the work they put in.

“People have their opinions — you like, you dislike,” Goesling tells PaperCity. “But what I can tell you is this is the nature of the business. Every recruit, every standing player, NIL is at the forefront of all these athletes’ — all these kids’ — minds. Because of what it’s kind of turned into.

“And the way we do it here at LinkingCoogs, I mean it’s as good as you can get in the NIL space. We do it the right way.”

Kelvin Sampson is all in, embracing and adapting to an NIL world that helped nudge some older coaches like Jay Wright into retirement. In this case, Sampson sees it as a way to help keep the majority of the core from a team he enjoyed coaching immensely return for another season.

Run It Back? Like with most things with this University of Houston basketball program that started with Kelvin Sampson’s fiery passion too.