Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson, fresh off leading the Cougars to the 2025 NCAA Tournament championship game, has signed a four-year extension through the 2028–29 season, the university announced Wednesday.
Known for his uncompromising approach, Sampson has built a national contender by steering clear of players who expect special treatment. Rather than chasing star power, Sampson fosters a culture where commitment to daily improvement and collective success outweigh individual accolades.
Houston’s Kelvin Sampson Extends Through 2029, Reinforces Team-First Recruiting Ethos
Sampson, the architect behind Houston’s rise to national prominence, has agreed to a new four-year deal that will keep him with the Cougars through the 2028–29 season. The announcement follows a 35-5 campaign that ended with a narrow 65-63 loss to Florida in the 2025 NCAA Tournament championship game.
Sampson, 69, has emphasized culture over hype in shaping his program.
“I don’t recruit entitlement kids,” he said in an interview with Kickin’ It with Kunkel. “There’s no way that I recruit a kid unless I know that he’ll buy in to the way we do things here. But because of the success of this program, every kid that we’re recruiting knows exactly what it is he’s getting into. They research us as much as we research them.”
“I don’t recruit entitlement kids.”
Kelvin Sampson is exactly who I would want my kids to play for
(Via @WillKunkelFOX 🎥)
— Hoop Herald (@TheHoopHerald) May 25, 2025
His team-first mentality is reflected in the youth movement he’s embraced.
“We had five guys that were 17 years old when they came in,” Sampson said in April. Among them were Jamal Shead, JoJo Tugler, J’Wan Roberts, and Javier Francis. “The strength of our program is maybe not recruiting the five-star guys like a lot of other schools do, but we develop guys into five stars. We take a lot of pride in that.”
Houston’s culture-driven approach has delivered results. The Cougars have gone 299-84 since Sampson took over in 2014. His overall Division I record stands at 724-311, with previous coaching stops at Washington State, Oklahoma, and Indiana.
In the Big 12, Sampson’s new salary ranks fourth, trailing Kansas’ Bill Self, Baylor’s Scott Drew ($5.4 million), and Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd ($5.3 million).
“It is hard to truly put into words what Kelvin Sampson has meant to our men’s basketball program, our athletics department, our university, and our greater Houston community,” Houston athletics director Eddie Nunez said.
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“His success as a coach on the court is even more impressive when considering the tremendous impact he has had on the many young men to come through our program,” Nunez said.
He’s earned national Coach of the Year honors twice, in 1995 and again in 2024.
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