Walk-On Ryan Elvin’s Incredible UH Moment (For Dad) Against Kansas Shows What Kelvin Sampson’s Big 12 Champions Are Truly All About

Looking around the squeezed-in packed Fertitta Center, a place where you’ll find less elbow room than you get on a Spirit Airlines flight on this day, feeling the excitement of what’s about to happen pulsating through another new record crowd, Ryan Elvin feels the tears start to come. This isn’t about University of Houston coach Kelvin Sampson excitedly throwing his arms in the air for his walk-on. It’s not even about that crowd of 7,933 enthusiastically chanting “We Want Elvin! We Want Elvin!” during his Senior Day ceremony introduction.

It’s about the man who made him who isn’t there. Who can’t be there. So Elvin does not even try to fight the tears. He lets a few flow. For Dad.

“My dad is somebody would have loved to see this,” Elvin tells PaperCity later, while waiting to cut down his own special piece of a Big 12 championship net. “We worked so hard when I was young, putting up so many shots and stuff like that. So it kind of hit me not having him here. For such a special moment like this.

“But I think he had a front row seat for sure.”

Scott Elvin never would have missed this UH championship party of a game, with his son starting his first game since high school. No way. No how. He certainly had a seat in the heavens somehow even better than Jim Nantz’s court side perch for UH 76, Kansas 46. Ryan Elvin starts and Kansas, the ultimate in traditional college basketball royalty, the program whose haughty fans spent the preseason mocking the idea of Houston being ready for the mighty big bad Big 12, never has a chance.

“We knew Ryan would be prepared,” Jamal Shead, the star UH point guard who should win Big 12 Player of the Year honors on Sunday night, says. “We had to make sure we were as prepared as he was at the start.”

Shead beams when Elvin’s name is brought up. He’s beyond pumped to see his guy getting some shine. You cannot tell the story of many Top 10 elite college basketball programs through a walk-on. But you can tell the story of this UH program through Ryan Elvin. And on a Cougar red afternoon when so much happens — Houston clinching the outright Big 12 regular season championship for itself just five minutes into the game when second place Iowa State’s loss to Kansas State goes final; Jim Nantz getting his name put up in a banner in the rafters (or more specifically, right on the Fertitta Center high wall) alongside all-time playing greats like Hakeem Olajuwon and Elvin Hayes; Shead, J’Wan Roberts and LJ Cryer playing their last home game ever for Houston — what Ryan Elvin is doing seems to mean even more to his teammates.

That is how much he matters to them. And how much they matter to him.

“I got my last assist to my boy,” Shead says of a pass that set up an Elvin three with 1:42 remaining. “That felt so good. And I’m super excited for him whatever he does.”

Part of this is because Ryan Elvin is no ordinary walk-on. He’s always been more of a cold blooded warrior disguised in a Charlie Brown package than anything approaching a Rudy. Let the brown hair and unassuming nature fool you at your own risk. As LJ Cryer, the ballyhooed Baylor transfer, quickly found out after arriving on Houston’s campus in the summer.

“When I came in here, Coach made me guard him,” Cryer tells PaperCity of Elvin. “I was like, ‘Oh you got me on a walk-on?’ But Ryan was getting buckets on me. A lot. I was like, ‘Dang, you can’t take this guy lightly.’ Because he doesn’t take any days off. He lives in the gym.”

Cryer quickly went from almost being offended at being assigned to guard the walk-on to leaning on Ryan Elvin to navigate his transition to Houston and the ever-demanding Kelvin Sampson. “He’s helped me get through the year,” Cryer says. “This transition hasn’t been easy for me. But having Ryan on my side made it smoother than what it probably would have been without him.

“I love Ryan. And I appreciate him.”

It’s always been about Championship People first in Kelvin Sampson’s Houston program. Championship People lead to championships. That’s always been part of the secret sauce of this remarkable Houston program resurrection that everyone keeps missing. Or simply don’t want to write about because it sounds too hokey. But Sampson is really talking about it every time he discusses recruiting or how important a player’s parents are.

Yes, it’s Sampson, clearly one of the great college basketball coaches of all-time, a should be Hall of Famer, who cuts down the last strands of the net and twirls the thing high in the air to the delight of all the Houston fans packing the court on this day. Yes, it’s Shead who orchestrates the fun, posting a 13-point, eight-assist, six-rebound line — and a plus 31 plus-minus rating against Kansas — in his grand Fertitta finale. Yes, it’s J’Wan Roberts, who keeps fighting through those knee drains (and a sewn-together right hand) to be there for his guys game after game.

But those Championship People need other Championship People around them. To help more behind the scenes. Guys like Ryan Elvin.

Not many walk-ons get recruited. Ryan Elvin was by UH assistant Kellen Sampson, a former walk-on himself at Oklahoma who knows what being a walk-on for his dad truly takes. Even fewer walk-ons are named team captains for one of the best teams in the country. Ryan Elvin is for these now 28-3, 15-3 Big 12 Coogs, the No. 1 ranked team in America.

“They’ve never treated him differently being the walk-on,” Ryan’s mom Deirdre Elvin tells PaperCity. “Ever. Never in his lifetime.

“He’s been one of them.”

This is Kelvin Sampson’s Houston program in a nutshell. People are treated like people. Walk-ons aren’t any lesser than a scholarship player. Managers and support staff aren’t some lower class. Everyone is valued. People have different roles and responsibilities, but they’re all important. When you’re accepted in this group, when you earn your way in, someone will always have your back.

The Elvin found that out when Ryan’s dad died in October 2021 after an illness that the doctors never seemed to fully understand or know how to treat, one that started with stomach pain and led to liver and kidney failure and a strong man, the rock of a family, wilting away.

“The Sampsons, their family, this organization, this program — it’s been our life,” Deirdre Elvin says. “It’s really the only thing that’s been keeping us going since everything took place.

“It’s wonderful. They’re topnotch.”

Time doesn’t make going from a family of four to a family of three any easier. Scott Elvin’s absence is felt by his Ryan, his mom and his little brother Jake every day.

“He was my first coach, my trainer, my best friend,” Ryan Elvin says of his dad. “All that. We had a really special relationship. Just going out there without him, it hurt.

“But I know he’s proud of me. That means a lot.”

Deirdre Elvin tries to surround her kids with joy. She introduces me to Ryan’s trainer, his friend Andre, his grandfather, all along for this Senior Day ride.

“I was too,” Kelvin Sampson says, reflecting on Elvin in the back hallway of the Fertitta Center, removed from the band playing, the packed crowd, the net snipping and the happy chaos of the celebration. “I was thinking about his dad. And all he sacrificed. His family is unbelievable. His mother and his family is just awesome.

“I’m a blessed man for having had the opportunity to coach Ryan Elvin.”

“When I came in here, Coach made me guard him. I was like, ‘Oh you got me on a walk-on?’ But Ryan was getting buckets on me. A lot. I was like, ‘Dang, you can’t take this guy lightly.’ ” — UH leading scorer LJ Cryer on Ryan Elvin

Kelvin Sampson never doubted that the Elvins were Championship People. There are all kind of things you can focus on in a day like this. This Houston team shows true dominance in finishing its first Big 12 season with a 15-3 record, closing things out with nine straight Ws in the most unforgiving conference in the land to win the league by a full two games. (“We’ve earned it,” Sampson tells PaperCity. “We’ve earned it.) Nantz is moved to tears by the banner, with his two youngest kids (soon-to-be 10-year-old Finley and 8-year-old Jamo), sitting next to him in the court side season tickets he’s finally using himself for the first time, getting a real sense of why the University of Houston is so special to him. There are great stories all over the arena.

But if miss what the championship walk-on is doing, you’re missing a big part of what Kelvin Sampson’s University of Houston program is all about. Ryan Elvin’s teammates certainly don’t miss it.

“Everyone wants to see Ryan do good, man,” injured UH freshman forward JoJo Tugler tells PaperCity. “He’s a good person. I was happy for him. See him out there scoring. Ryan will score a lot in just a minute. He could hit all the shots.”

“They’ve never treated him differently being the walk-on. Ever. Never in his lifetime. He’s been one of them.” — Ryan’s mom Deirdre Elvin

Elvin ends up scoring seven points in his six-plus minutes of court time against Kansas. For Dad. For a team that means everything to him.

“Yes sir, I was a little bit nervous,” Elvin says of getting the start in the game. “I didn’t start since high school.

“I just appreciate Coach Sampson for doing that. Because that’s not something he has to do. It means a lot that he respects me, that he felt confident enough to do it.”

In truth if Kelvin Sampson didn’t start Ryan Elvin in this game, he might have almost faced a near mini revolt. That’s how much Elvin’s teammates are into seeing him start. Including Emanuel Sharp, the talented sophomore whose spot Elvin takes in the opening lineup for this game. Yes, it’s one of the biggest games, the biggest events period, on Houston’s campus in a long time.

But that does not mean Kelvin Sampson is going to alter his longtime policy of starting the seniors — walk-on or not — on Senior Day in blind pursuit of some win. Ryan Elvin will start. And it’s Kansas that better be ready for it. This start wasn’t given. Ryan Elvin earned it by bringing it every day in practice, season after season, making college basketball stars like LJ Cryer quickly appreciate his game. And his championship fight. You’d better believe Ryan Elvin is ready to start against Kansas. Beyond prepared.

“It was amazing,” Sharp says. “Him starting. Him coming in and scoring off the bench at the end of the game. You can’t ask for anything better than that.”

Looking around the Fertitta Center, hearing all those people calling her husband’s last name — “We want Elvin!” — Deirdre Elvin can only think of one thing that would make it better.

“It’s amazing,” she says, “It’s what he worked for his whole life. I just wish his father was here to see it.”

Ryan Elvin’s teammates are there, supporting and pulling for him all the way. Having his back after all the times he had theirs. You cannot even begin to tell the story of most elite college basketball programs through a walk-on. With Kelvin Sampson’s University of Houston program and Ryan Elvin, you can.