The veteran coach has rebuilt the Cougars with grit, substance and character. He just earned his greatest victory in the Final Four against Duke.

Kelvin Sampson’s Houston Cougars trailed Duke by 14 points with 8:03 left in the game and by seven points with 75 seconds left in the NCAA semifinals Saturday night. But you’d have to reverse those latter numbers to make a Sampson team quit. Maybe a 75-point deficit with seven seconds left would do it. Maybe not.

To get to where Houston was on Monday, playing for a national title, it took talent, execution and a little bit of luck. Monday night, however, the Cougars’ luc

San Antonio, TX, USA; Houston Cougars head coach Kelvin Sampson reacts against the Florida Gators in the first half in the national championship game of the Final Four of the 2025 NCAA Tournament at the Alamodome.

If Houston beats Florida tonight, Sampson, 69, will become the oldest NCAA coach to win a national championship.

It took years for Kelvin Sampson to turn Houston into one of the NCAA’s top programs once again, built on defense, toughness and rebounding. It wasn’t quite enough

As the pinnacle of the college basketball season tips off in the NCAA championship game on Monday night, one of the leaders of the final two teams originally resided from southeastern North Carolina.

Kelvin Sampson’s career has taken him elsewhere, all the way to Monday night’s NCAA national title game with Houston, but he’s never far from his Lumbee roots, or upbringing in Robeson County.