Kelvin Sampson Has Created The Golden Era of Houston Basketball — Why This Run Trumps Even Phi Slama Jama

Walking off the Fertitta Center floor, University of Houston coach Kelvin Sampson knows that some will question his No. 1 ranked team’s 67-59 victory over Cincinnati, call it closer than it should have been, missing the truth in this gut check. This is what happens when you create the Golden Era of Houston basketball, the all-time greatest run for a university that counts Elvin Hayes and Hakeem Olajuwon among its hoops heroes. Make no mistake, this is exactly what Sampson has done.

His run in The Third Ward is already greater than anything even Hayes, star of The Game of the Century in the Astrodome, and Phi Slama Jama, which high flied its way to three straight Final Fours, has ever done. And some of the guys who made those magical runs know it too.

“This is the Golden Era of Houston basketball right now,” Reid Gettys, the underrated passing and free throw shooting heartbeat of Phi Slama Jama, says. “What Kelvin Sampson has done — they may not have hit the peak that we did for two or three years — but what he has sustained and what he has built as a program, and the kind of young men that are representing all of us. . .”

To Gettys, the debate is already over. And Kelvin Sampson does not need a national championship to validate anything. This is the best Houston basketball has ever had it.

“The Sweet 16s in a row — and it would have been more if not for the COVID year — and two Elite Eights and a Final Four,” Gettys tells PaperCity. “Coach (Guy V.) Lewis, as great as he was, couldn’t sustain it over one group. So it was Elvin’s group. Then it was Hakeem’s group. And Kelvin just keeps reloading and reloading and reloading.

“Which is amazing,”

Now Sampson has UH poised to win a Big 12 title in its first year in the best basketball conference in the entire country. With this Cincinnati win, he’s already won 25 games for the sixth time in his 10 seasons in Houston (and it would be seven if that late charging 2019-20 season team with Caleb Mills and rising freshman Marcus Sasser had been able to have a real March). Kelvin Sampson won 25 or more games five times in his storied run at Oklahoma and he’s already somehow bettered that at Houston, creating the type of college basketball paradise in the nation’s fourth largest city that is almost as a rare as a total solar eclipse.

Twenty wins has long been the barometer of a good college basketball season. Kelvin Sampson’s raised that bar at UH to 25-plus and 30-plus win seasons (which he’s already done three times at Houston). The 68-year-0ld basketball lifer of a coach mentions this team reaching 25 wins briefly in his postgame press conference, but he doesn’t dwell on it. And he seems to know it won’t even register for many fans.

“I think I did say we won 25, but I hadn’t really thought about it,” Sampson tells me later in the hallway when I ask about the significance of 25 Ws. “Stuff like that, maybe this summer when I’m at the lake or something, I’ll think about it.

“But the one thing I’ve noticed is that the more you win, the more people take it for granted. But I don’t. Because I know how hard it is to win games.”

It’s easy to miss the fact that you’re in the Golden Era of something when it’s happening. But UH fans (and Houston sports watchers in general) would be wise to relish what it is going on in front of them, to treasure these moments rather than always looking ahead to what could go right or wrong in March.

For this Kelvin Sampson run is something for the ages, playing out in real time. Houston’s getting to watch one of the all-time greats operate at the height of his powers.

“The Sweet 16s in a row — and it would have been more if not for the COVID year — and two Elite Eights and a Final Four. Coach (Guy V.) Lewis, as great as he was, couldn’t sustain it over one group. So it was Elvin’s group. Then it was Hakeem’s group. And Kelvin just keeps reloading and reloading and reloading. Which is amazing,” — Phi Slama Jama member Reid Gettys

For Sampson to win the Big 12 in Houston’s first year in the league with a team that’s not close to as talented as the Jarace Walker, Marcus Sasser and Tramon Mark power squad of last season (which also still had Jamal Shead and J’Wan Roberts), a team that is now down to an eight man rotation with super talent Terrance Arceneaux and battle warrior Ramon Walker Jr. both out for the season due to injuries, would be one of the great coaching jobs of all time.

It should also shut up the UH basketball and Sampson disbelievers forever.

“Some people said the reason you win is because of the league you’re in,” Sampson says of the American Athletic Conference knocks he heard over the years. “Well what other league were we going to be in? Everybody in that league had a chance to win too, right? But it’s fun. It’s fun. Really, really, really happy for all the former players who come through here. Because that’s why these guys come.

“Because these guys all want to win and they know that if they come here, they’ll have a chance to win.”

Will they ever. Jamal Shead and J’Wan Roberts have been on teams that have gone a combined 118-17 over their four seasons at Houston. And the winning hasn’t slowed down in the mighty Big 12. This first Big 12 UH team is 25-3 (12-3 in conference) after Cincinnati and have the chance to wrap up the Big 12 regular season title even before the final weekend.

Sampson did something Phi Slama Jama never do too just this week, getting Houston ranked No. 1 in the nation for two consecutive seasons for the first time in school history.

Sometimes appreciating greatness is hardest when it’s right in front of you.

“The one thing I’ve noticed is that the more you win, the more people take it for granted. But I don’t. Because I know how hard it is to win games.” — UH coach Kelvin Sampson

Then again, maybe a Tuesday night game against a 16-12 Cincinnati team that some might expect to be a little more low key is a good time to look. For there is still a long line of Houston students stretching down the block outside Fertitta Center, waiting to get in more than an hour before tipoff. The queue that Kelvin built. And there is new Houston Texans Hall of Famer Andre Johnson sitting court side. Johnson comes to this game with fellow former Miami Hurricanes star Edgerrin James to watch James’ son Jizzle James, a freshman point guard on Cincinnati, play. But he leaves it marveling over Sampson’s team, one this football Hall of Famer and basketball fanatic watches regularly.

“Man, tbey play hard,” Johnson tells PaperCity. “Just the energy they bring night in, night out. Every shot you make you’re going to have to earn it. Just the energy they bring every night, they’re going to make you scrap for everything.”

Johnson and James see Cincinnati struggle to score 17 points in the first half and Houston still lead by 15 points with less than five minutes remaining. Even with the usual reliable floater of Jamal Shead (nine points, 11 assists, four steals) completely off (2 for 11 shooting) and J’Wan Roberts’ bothersome right knee screaming at him like a crazy plane lady just two days removed from that emotional overtime win at Baylor. Even with Kelvin Sampson’s team physically and emotionally exhausted from the UT, Iowa State and Baylor gauntlet they just rolled through 3-0 with just one off day since February 15.

It may be a seemingly mundane Tuesday nighter, but the Fertitta Center is still crowded, still roaring and LJ Cryer (a game-high 22 points) is hitting four threes, one less than Cincinnati’s entire team manages, and adding two assists and three steals. Those who know, those who’ve lived it, understand this is what a Golden Era looks like.

“Every year it gets better and better and the fan base get bigger and bigger,” DeJon Jarreau, the point guard known as LaDeeky who was the sixth man game changer on a 33-4 Sweet 16 Houston team and the quarterback of that 2021 Final Four squad, tells PaperCity. “I’m just happy I was part of something that’s turned into something great.

“And coming back every year and seeing it, it just makes me happy.”

Jarreau is back again in the arena on this Tuesday night, wearing a purple sweatshirt with plenty of fashion swag, getting a big hug from Lauren Sampson, Kelvin’s proud daughter and the atmosphere orchestrator.

Reid Gettys Tells Kelvin Sampson Truths

The night before this game, Reid Gettys is across campus in the library on a panel with Elvin Hayes and Bill Worrell centered around the history of Houston basketball. Specifically, The Game of the Century and Phi Slama Jama. But the man who still holds UH’s all-time assists record wants to make sure people appreciate the history happening right in front of them in real time.

The Golden Era of Houston Basketball, created out of almost nothing by Kelvin Sampson.

“When people see the University of Houston, I want them to see J’Wan Roberts,” Gettys says. “And I want them to see Emanuel Sharp. And I want them to see LJ Cryer. And these kids are so good. There’s never been a time that it’s easier to pull for a basketball team than with these guys.

“And I’m going to tell you — and I’ll tell anyone who asks me — this is The Golden Era.”

Not The Game of the Century times. Not Phi Slama Jama. Right now.

You just need to pay attention to see it — and not rate a Big 12 win as something less than desired.

As Sampson talks in the hallway, and his always caring wife Karen makes sure he knows there’s popcorn waiting for him in the office, the coach spots Houston director of player development and former Sampson Oklahoma star Hollis Price walking by.

“It’s hard to win a game, Hollis!” Sampson calls out.

“Yes sir,” Price shoots back.

“You can complain about wins all you want, but it’s hard to win one,” Sampson says more softly. “I’d rather have a terrible, ugly, exhaustive win than lose a home game.”

That doesn’t happen in The Golden Era of UH Basketball. Just be certain you know what you’re really watching.