Kelvin Sampson Does Not Need a Second Final Four to Validate His Coaching Career, But Houston’s Players Would Love to Give Him It

INDIANAPOLIS — Kelvin Sampson would be the first to tell you that it’s not about him. That it’s about DeJon Jarreau raising his game even higher in March, going on one of those runs that special guards can have in the NCAA Tournament. That it’s about Quentin Grimes continuing to embrace taking — and hitting — the biggest shots of all. That it’s about Brison Gresham, a senior who’s been challenged by Sampson as much as anyone over the last three seasons, playing 20 minutes against Syracuse in a Sweet 16 game and using his length and shot-altering ways to make an impact.

Heck, Sampson even heaps praise on head athletic trainer John Houston for the way Houston’s helped shepherd the Cougars through this COVID season in his last media availability before the University of Houston plays for a Final Four berth Monday night.

Kelvin Sampson is doing everything he can to not make it about him. The orchestrator of this remarkable Houston rebuild does not need a second Final Four appearance to validate his coaching career. But that does not mean his Houston players are any less driven to get it for him.

UH assistant coach Quannas White first brought up the idea of winning for Kelvin Sampson when he filled in for the coach early this season when Kellen Sampson, Kelvin’s son and a head coach in waiting contacted COVID, which also sidelined the head coach for contact tracing.

“My ultimate goal right now is to try and help Coach win a national championship,” White said then.

That is something the UH players feel too, particularly the older ones like Jarreau who’ve been through so much with their head coach.

“We love Coach Samps very much — and we’ll run through a wall for him,” Jarreau says with Houston 40 minutes away from the Final Four.

Sampson brought Oklahoma to the Final Four in 2002, coincidently beating a 12th seed in the Elite Eight to do it. (This 27-3 Houston team is playing 12th seeded Oregon State on Monday night.) Making it back to college basketball’s promised land 19 years later with the University of Houston would be a remarkable achievement. But it would not redefine Sampson’s coaching career. Not really.

Anyone who does not know how good of a coach Kelvin Sampson is by now, simply hasn’t been paying attention.

There is no doubt Sampson’s Houston players would love to be part of making sure his name is always mentioned when national commentators talk about the best coaches in the game today, though. Like it already should be. Getting Sampson his first national championship would be a monumental achievement. Of course with undefeated Gonzaga looking more and more like one of college basketball’s all-time super teams and Baylor not all that far behind, it also may be a monumental challenge akin to scaling Mount Everest with no tools but a toothpick.

If Houston can beat a beyond dangerous Oregon State team and make the Final Four, both Baylor and Gonzaga could be waiting there. Gonzaga and Baylor now happen to be the only two schools in America ranked ahead of Sampson’s Cougars in the KenPom rankings.

This Houston clearly belongs with college basketball’s elite. Still, one gets the idea that Kelvin Sampson would be overjoyed just to get another week in Indianapolis with these particular players no matter what happens after that. Yes, UH beating Oregon State would make all sorts of history.

But it’d also extend this special group’s time together.

“We’ve got our own floor (of a downtown hotel),” Sampson says of the NCAA’s version of a bubble. “We call it our RV floor. Everybody just kind of parked their RV. And that’s our RV campground. Everybody comes out of their rooms at feeding time. We all congregate by the elevators or the microwave or refrigerator. Late night snacks. Guys are popping popcorn.

“Ordering a pizza. Guys walk out with their little sleeping beanies on. It’s like everybody’s staying the weekend over at Uncle Joe’s house.”

“We love Coach Samps very much. And we’ll run through a wall for him.” — UH guard DeJon Jarreau

Sampson’s team has been in Indianapolis, all bubbled together, since March 14. A win in Monday’s Elite Eight game will extend their stay till at least April 5. That’s quite a run that goes beyond just playing the NCAA Tournament games.

There are countless moments this group — which will likely never be all together again once it’s over with players like Jarreau, Grimes and Gresham expected to move on —will remember from this stretch that don’t involve the games themselves.

“It’s been fun,” Sampson says. “I know I come across some times as not having fun, but please believe me when I say, ‘This is the best job I’ve ever had.’ ”

It’s a job that comes with players who love him, in all his often cranky, demanding ways. Kelvin Sampson does not want this to be about him. But his players are playing for him, to push him higher, and give him something no other team could, too.