by HOUSTON – Following a record-setting year, University of Houston Men’s Basketball Head Coach Kelvin Sampson (Lumbee Tribe) signed a contract extension through the 2024-25 season Thursday and will remain with the Cougars. The extension is pending University of Houston System Board of Regents approval.
“I am excited to be at the University of Houston. We built this program to a point where we can compete for championships now, and I am glad our administration is on board. (Chancellor) Renu (Khator), (UH System Board of Regents Chairman) Tilman (Fertitta) and (Vice President for Athletics) Chris Pezman) have done a great job of supporting all our programs. They have given us a chance to compete for championships. That’s all a coach wants,’ Sampson said. “I am proud of our team this year. The people that matter most are the players. Everything we do is for them. We have great young men who represent this University the right way. I am excited to continue to be the coach and recruit kids that our fan base can be proud of. We are excited about the future.”
“We are delighted to have Kelvin Sampson continue to lead the Houston basketball program and to have the Sampson family in Houston for the future,” Houston Vice President for Athletics Chris Pezman said. “Coach Sampson has not only rehabilitated the Houston Basketball program but has reenergized an entire city and its University. We greatly appreciate his commitment to the University of Houston, and we look forward to many more exciting seasons and NCAA Tournament appearances.”
“Coach Sampson has brought a culture of winning and leadership to our basketball program that is contagious to every part of our University and I could not think of a better way to cap off our most successful season in 34 years than to have this agreement in place,” University of Houston President Renu Khator said. “Today represents a significant investment in the future of our Athletics program by furthering our commitment to being nationally competitive for many years to come.”
“The Houston Cougars are committed to winning at the highest level and under Kelvin’s coaching and leadership I have no doubt we will be competing for championships for years to come,” University of Houston Board of Regents Chairman Tilman Fertitta said. “This is a great day for the University of Houston, and it’s a great day for the city of Houston. Everyone wants a winner and we have one with this coach and this basketball program.”
ABOUT KELVIN SAMPSON
In 2018-19, Sampson led the Cougars to a 33-4 record, the program’s first outright regular-season conference championship since 1984, Top-10 rankings in both national polls and an appearance in the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16.
His Houston team won its first 15 games to open the season for the program’s third-longest winning streak in school history and followed that with a 12-game streak after enduring its first loss at Temple in early January.
After winning 19 straight games in H&PE Arena as their home arena underwent a $60-million renovation, Sampson’s Cougars won their first 14 games in the Fertitta Center and owned the nation’s longest home winning streak at 33 games until late February.
With the Cougars’ win at SMU in mid-January, Sampson became only the 52nd coach in NCAA history to reach 600 victories in his career. That win also gave him 100 in his Houston career and made him the fastest coach in UH history to reach the century mark.
In 2019, he was named the American Athletic Conference Coach of the Year for the second straight season, becoming only the second coach in program history to accomplish that feat and the first since Hall of Fame Coach Guy V. Lewis did so in 1983-84 in the Southwest Conference.
Sampson also was recognized as the National Association of Basketball Coaches District 25 Coach of the Year and was named a finalist for the Werner Ladder Naismith Coach of the Year Award, the Henry Iba Award, the Jim Phelan Award and the Ben Jobe Award.
