KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Kelvin Sampson is not one for hyperbole. He is erudite, thoughtful, one hell of a basketball coach. Certainly not a purveyor of hot takes.
Rewind Houston basketball nine years ago to 2014. That was Sampson’s first year with the Cougars when, by the coach’s own assessment, the program was “so Conference USA-ish.”
That year Sampson was on hand for the dedication of a new Houston football press box named after Jim Nantz’s mother. Understand that Nantz is as Houston as it gets. CBS Sports’ legendary voice of the NFL, Masters and NCAA Tournament played golf for the Cougars. Along with Fred Couples and Blaine McCallister, Nantz has endowed a basketball scholarship in perpetuity.
If wishing was power, Nantz, who is calling his last Final Four next weekend, would have had Houston in the Big 12 long ago.
But on that day in 2014 he was pulled aside by Sampson.
“Kelvin looks at me and he says, ‘I want you to know we’re going to be good again. We’re going to be contending for national championships … We can win the national championship,’ ” Nantz recalled Thursday from T-Mobile Center, site of this weekend’s Midwest Regional.
Back then it sounded absurd. Now it sounds prescient. While Nantz will be neutral this weekend here for the Midwest Regional where the Cougars are a No. 1 seed, he can’t help but be steeped in the lore of his alma mater. The nationally televised Houston-UCLA game in 1968 put not only Houston but college basketball on the map.
Guy Lewis took Houston teams to the Final Four in both 1983 and 1984.
The next step toward making Sampson’s 2014 proclamation come true is a regional semifinal matchup Friday against No. 5 seed Miami. But nine years ago, Sampson was on the rebound – six years away from the college game. He ran afoul of the NCAA at Indiana and landed in the NBA as an assistant.
When he arrived Houston had already cratered. His first team was 13-19 playing in the newly formed American Athletic Conference, two seasons removed from Conference USA.
“Not just C-USA — mid to low C-USA …,” Sampson said. “I had to change something, so I just started throwing furniture around.”
Well, figuratively at least. Super booster Tilman Fertitta bought in, paid for $60 million in upgrades to Hofheinz Pavilion. Now the Fertitta Center is home to a national power.
“I told [Fertitta], ‘You can win a national…
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