Kelvin Sampson Gets Real On NIL, UH Pride, This Season’s Remade Roster and New Rules — A Hall of Fame Worthy Coach Unplugged

Standing in front of a sprawling room full of University of Houston fans, Kelvin Sampson senses what this group needs. Some more belief. Maybe even a jolt. So he fires them up, like he often fires up his UH players. Only this is much more PG-13.

“I don’t know about this commuter school bullshit. . .” Sampson says, taking a shot at how so many have tried to dismiss Houston over the years as he moves around with the microphone in front of the room, preaching. “We’re the University of Houston. We’re the University of Houston. Don’t you take a backseat to nobody.

“Don’t talk to me about U of T. Or Texas A&M. We just played Texas A&M, right. How’d that go? We played them two years ago. Same thing.

“We have respect for everybody in this state. We have respect for everybody in this conference. But we don’t take a backseat to nobody. And neither should you. Quit acting like these teams are up here. No, they’re not. You’re up here. Start acting like it.”

It is pitch for Cougar Pride, University of Houston’s athletic fundraising. But it is also Kelvin Sampson being Kelvin Sampson. He has a way of getting everybody onboard, pumping people up to fight for the same thing. This is one of the reasons UH chancellor and president Renu Khator is grateful that the 70-year-old is still Houston’s coach heading into his 13th season.

“Coach Sampson is not just a great coach,” Khator tells PaperCity. “He’s also a great leader. Very inspirational personality. Not just for athletes, but always for everybody on campus.”

Sampson taking on the commuter school narrative that fans of opposing Texas schools like UT, Texas Tech and Texas A&M have tried to mock UH with for years is more than happenstance. Houston athletic director Eddie Nuñez debunked it earlier. This after a Cougar fan at the San Antonio Coaches’ Caravan stop came up to the AD, thinking the commuter school designation still rang out as real.

“We have over 9,000 beds on our campus,” Nuñez says. “Only one school in Texas has more than us. We’ll have 11,000 (beds) by 2027. What’s happening on our campus is instrumental to us continuing our success as an athletic department.”

“Coach Sampson is not just a great coach. He’s also a great leader. Very inspirational personality. Not just for athletes, but always for everybody on campus.” — UH chancellor Renu Khator

Houston and the $14 Million NIL Race

Kelvin Sampson also knows that Houston’s Name, Image and Likeness fundraising, it’s push to keep up in college athletics’ increasingly rich and richer arms race, is essential to allow this golden era of UH basketball (those seven straight Sweet 16s, two Final Fours) to continue to flourish. UConn coach Dan Hurley estimates that the minimum NIL budget to be a true contender in college basketball is now $14 million.

This is not some guess. It is based on what programs are spending, with Louisville and the University of Texas both projected to fork out more than $20 million on next season’s men’s basketball roster.

“We can’t maintain and sustain the success we have unless we start getting some help with this NIL,” Sampson says. “Everybody wants to win. But this is 2026. It costs. It costs. I know what Louisville is paying for their roster. I know what Arizona is paying for theirs. I know what Kansas is paying for theirs. I know what Duke is paying for theirs.

“I know what Texas Tech’s football program is paying for theirs. And more power to ’em. Great for them. But we need help.”

To Sampson, this help should come in the form of partnerships with the corporations that make Houston one of the most powerful cities in the country. “I need your help in finding corporations and businesses and companies that will say ‘You know, I like that Willie Fritz guy,’ ” Sampson tells the UH supporters of Houston’s program changing football coach. ” ‘I like that Kelvin Sampson guy.

” ‘I like the way their teams represent our university and our city.’ And we want to go out there and form a partnership with them. Not where it’s one-sided where they’re just giving to us. We want to give back. We’ve got great kids in our program. . . We’ve got great, great, great young men. We’re the perfect, perfect partnership opportunity.”

The upcoming NBA Draft in late June should only reinforce that idea. Point guard Kingston Flemings is sure to be a Top 9 pick and  power forward Chris Cenac Jr. is projected to be a Top 20 pick, each after only one season at Houston. Veteran UH guards Milos Uzan and Emanuel Sharp both could be second round picks. All four are in Chicago together for the NBA Draft Combine this week.

“They’re all going to play in the NBA,” Sampson tells PaperCity. “They’re all going to get their opportunity. Now their opportunity may be different than somebody else’s. But Milos brings great value. There’s 30 NBA teams. There’s a few teams out there that are going to love Milos. There’s teams out there that absolutely love Emanuel.

“We allow the NBA scouts to come into practice two days a week. A lot of them are my good friends. So they’ll hang around afterwards. And I’ve heard the questions and comments that they make about Emanuel. I’ve heard the questions and comments they make about Milos. And they both have value. They’re both going to play in the NBA.”

“We can’t maintain and sustain the success we have unless we start getting some help with this NIL. Everybody wants to win. But this is 2026. It costs. It costs. I know what Louisville is paying for their roster. I know what Arizona is paying for theirs. I know what Kansas is paying for theirs. I know what Duke is paying for theirs. I know what Texas Tech’s football program is paying for theirs. And more power to ’em. Great for them. But we need help.” — UH coach Kelvin Sampson

That wall of UH NBA players in the Guy V. Lewis Development Facility will have a lot more names and pictures on it soon, building on this Sampson program’s already strong NBA fraternity.

Losing four players to professional basketball and another prized freshman to the transfer portal brought one of the more dramatic roster makeovers of Kelvin Sampson’s Houston run this season. For the fourth straight season, Sampson will have a new starting point guard — this time, LSU transfer Dedan Thomas Jr.

“DJ is a really outstanding point guard,” Sampson says. “He’s going to be good.”

Kelvin Sampson on Houston’s 2026-27 Roster

This remade roster looks like a more traditional Houston Kelvin Sampson Houston roster in many ways. Besides the new point guard DJ Thomas, Houston brought in two instant impact rebounders in Kent State transfer Delrecco Gillespie (a double-double machine who had more of those than even Duke star Cameron Boozer last season) and Lamar transfer Braden East, a 6-foot-9 jumping marvel. Sampson and his elite development-driven staff also landed natural scoring guard Corey Hadnot II, a bucket getter out of Purdue Fort Wayne who could be the sixth man or even a starter, joining proven UH returnees Mercy Miller and Chase McCarty. More longterm development projects Djafar Silimana, a 6-foot-10 freshman center who is buddies with Houston’s McDonald’s 7-foot-1 All-American center Arafan Diane, and Tyus Thomas, the underdog younger brother of DJ Thomas, have also joined Houston.

In the current system, both Silimana and Tyus Thomas would likely redshirt. But with the NCAA considering adopting a five in five rule (giving every athlete five seasons to compete with no redshirts, medical or otherwise) as early as this next season, Sampson tells PaperCity that he can see games where Silimana and Tyus Thomas could both see action next season. A May 22nd meeting of the NCAA Division I cabinet will be crucial, with the new rule possibly even being approved then.

“I’m looking forward to coaching next year’s team,” Sampson says. “Rules are rules. We’ll adjust to them as we go.”

To the 70-year-old Khator, having Kelvin Sampson still around, still representing the University of Houston, is the biggest coup of all. Especially with a historic university centennial beckoning in 2027. This offseason, Sampson did not ask for any money to be added to the four-year contact extension he signed after that 2025 run to the national championship game, several college athletics sources tell PaperCity. He came back after the slightest of hesitations because he is not done with coaching. That’s all.

Sampson continues to get UH’s name out there. He attended the Dick Vitale Gala for the V Foundation in Sarasota, Florida earlier this month, alongside some of the other biggest names in coaching. He found he’s going to be inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, but he deferred induction until 2027 because this year’s date conflicted with the Vital gala’s cancer-fighting night. He’ll undoubtably be part of major events for UH’s historic 2027 too.

“We’re are delighted that it’s the centennial year (UH’s 100-year anniversary will be celebrated in 2027) and Coach Sampson will be coaching our team,” Khator tells PaperCity. “I mean seven years in a row we have been in Sweet 16. What a wonderful time it is that we are in Sweet 16 and people will still think we should have gone farther.

“It’s just the ultimate.”

Sampson is rallying UH fans this offseason, on the verge of coaching longer at Houston than he has at any other school. This is not just his last stop. It’s his most important.