When the College of Houston launched Kelvin Sampson as its head coach nearly 11 years in the past, the well-traveled basketball veteran stepped into one of many sport’s longest shadows. Because the 2025 calendar turns to March, Sampson’s Cougars are setting a brand new commonplace for a program lengthy synonymous completely with the late, nice Man Lewis.
Houston closes out its 2024-25 regular-season slate with video games towards Cincinnati on Saturday and two of the final three applications to win the nationwide championship, Kansas and Baylor. Nevertheless, the Cougars have already sealed no worse than a share of the Huge 12 Convention championship.
Houston embarks on this stretch and the Huge 12 Event taking part in for its third straight No. 1 seed and an inside monitor to its second Remaining 4 look in 5 seasons. Not since Corridor of Famer Man Lewis coached the Cougars to a few straight Remaining Fours from 1982 by 1984 has Houston loved such success.
In reality, at no time since Lewis retired in 1986 has Houston reached the heights which might be quick changing into routine for the Cougars below Sampson. From 1961, when the primary Lewis-coached Houston staff reached the NCAA Event, till the Hakeem Olajuwon-led nationwide runner-up Cougars staff of 1984, this system performed in 14 editions of the Huge Dance.
Within the three many years between Lewis’ retirement and Sampson’s 2014 rent, solely 4 Houston groups reached the NCAA Event—one fewer than the full Remaining 4 appearances this system made below Lewis.
Yesteryear’s powerhouses fade from glory recurrently in faculty basketball and spend generations chasing previous success in futility. When Sampson got here to Houston in 2014, this system was one such instance, sharing qualities with groups like DePaul and UNLV: once-dominant juggernauts in cities that produce top-flight recruits, however who decide to go elsewhere.
Preserving in-state prospects round has been one pillar of Sampson’s resurrection of Houston basketball. His first NCAA Event staff at UH in 2017-18 featured key gamers like Armoni Brooks of Spherical Rock and Fabian White of Atascocita, who grew right into a standout on the 2022 Elite Eight staff.
This yr, Houston options ahead J’Wan Roberts, a graduate of Shoemaker Excessive Faculty in Killeen, and L.J. Cryer of Katy. As a two-time All-Huge 12 choice headed for a 3rd, the Baylor switch Cryer is the de facto star of the 2024-25 Cougars.
But when there’s one other high quality of Sampson’s tenure at Houston that greatest explains this system’s return to Lewis-era ranges of prominence, it’s that the Cougars don’t depend on stars.
Make no mistake; Cryer is a terrific participant. He shoots nearly 42 p.c from 3-point vary and can end a 3rd consecutive season averaging within the neighborhood of 15 factors per sport.
Nevertheless, different groups jockeying for No. 1 seeds alongside Houston embody Auburn with Johni Broome, a stat-sheet-stuffing huge man averaging a double-double per sport. Broome’s a throwback to a time when dominant facilities owned faculty basketball—a time just like the mid-Eighties when Olajuwon and Houston confronted Patrick Ewing and Georgetown for the nationwide championship.
Broome’s current 31-point, 14-rebound effort towards Georgia is not like any stat line a Cougar is prone to produce. Cryer went for 28 factors in a pivotal win over Iowa State, however simply 5 the following outing towards Texas Tech.
The outcomes of these two video games have been the identical, although: Houston wins that secured the Cougars’ stake to the Huge 12 championship.
After which there’s fellow No. 1 seed contender Duke, constructed across the explosive sport of possible No. 1 NBA draft choose Cooper Flagg. The freshman phenom compares to Lewis-era Houston greats in that his NBA readiness is obvious in faculty.
Certainly, Lewis’ greatest Houston groups have been constructed round gamers like Elvin Hayes, Clyde Drexler, and Olajuwon—faculty stars who went on to professional greatness.
It’s uncommon for school groups to compete for championships with out NBA expertise, and Sampson has and continues to draw future execs to his program. His groups differ from Lewis’ Remaining 4 squads in that this period of NBA-bound Cougars should not the individually dominant presences of the previous.
And in that distinction lies one other attribute that explains Sampson’s success with a program that appeared destined to lengthy for days passed by. Sampson has unlocked Houston’s potential to return to its prior peak not by emulating what outlined this system earlier than, however by embracing his personal philosophy.
Nobody will confuse the aggressive, defensive-oriented model of the present-day Cougars with Phi Slamma Jamma, but it surely’s Houston’s hard-nosed method that makes it profitable. Tune right into a UH sport, and you might be assured to see most effort from all 5 gamers on the court docket for all 40 minutes.
It’s a trait that made Sampson-coached groups winners elsewhere, from a traditionally downtrodden program like Washington to his tenure at Oklahoma, which produced a Remaining 4 run. That is additionally the identification that might elevate Houston to a milestone that not even the good Man Lewis reached: a nationwide championship.
