NCAA 2024 MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP MEDIA CONFERENCE

April 5, 2024

Barry Bedlan

Kelvin Sampson

Associated Press Coach of the Year Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We're joined now by Barry Bedlan from the Associated Press and the 2023/2024 AP Coach of the Year, Kelvin Sampson.

BARRY BEDLAN: I'm Barry Bedlan, sports product director for the Associated Press. It's my pleasure today to present the AP Men's College Basketball Coach of Year.

Voting for the award is conducted at the end of the season before the start of the NCAA tournament. Having won this award 20 years ago while at Oklahoma, this year's recipient becomes the 10th to receive it more than once.

He joins the likes of John Wooden, Bob Knight, Bill Self and Houston's own Guy Lewis.

He is also the fourth to win it at two different programs. The others were Eddie Sutton at Arkansas and Kentucky, Roy Williams at Kansas and North Carolina, and Tony Bennett at Washington State and Virginia.

Before taking over the program at Houston 10 years ago, he previously led the programs at Montana Tech, Washington State, Oklahoma and Indiana.

At Houston he quickly turned the Cougars into a perennial winner with at least 21 wins each season, including at least 32 wins the past three years.

Under his leadership, Houston also has reached the NCAA tournament the last six seasons and at least the Sweet 16 the last five, including a Final Four in 2021.

This year was different. Houston moved from the American Athletic Conference to the Big 12. There were some who doubted the Cougars could dominate in the new conference like they had in the American. Under this coach's leadership, he proved 'em wrong.

His team went 15-3 in conference play to win the Big 12 regular-season title, then they would go on to be undefeated at home and earn another No. 1 seed in the tournament for a second straight year.

It is my honor to present this year's AP Men's College Basketball Coach of the Year trophy to Kelvin Sampson of Houston.

(Award presentation.)

KELVIN SAMPSON: Well, first of all, thank you very much. It's an honor. When I was listening to the content of what he was saying, he said I last won this 20 years ago. 20 years ago I didn't think I'd be coaching now, so... That's I guess a surprise in itself (smiling).

First of all, I want to congratulate all the coaches that was up for this award. I can certainly think of two or three that are deserving or probably more deserving than me to win this.

Let's start with the four coaches that are still playing. I would certainly trade places with any of them. I would rather be out there playing tomorrow afternoon with my team than winning the award. I would trade that, for sure.

When you win an award, you stand on the shoulders of a lot of people. In this particular case, all the former players at the University of Houston and my staff who I'm lucky to work with every single day.

This current team was certainly a player-led team. Jamal Shead had been our leader, who I think is going to be up for some unbelievable awards this weekend, as well.

But on behalf of our players and our coaches whose handprints are all over this beautiful trophy, by the way, I accept this award on their behalf. It's certainly a program award. My name's on it, but I certainly represent a lot of great players and coaches in accepting this honor. So thank you.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Sampson.

Q. Obviously this year probably didn't go the way you intended, but what do you plan to bring out of this year and carry into the next year?

KELVIN SAMPSON: You're right about your first part of your question. We anticipated that we would compete as one of the teams to be in the Final Four. Sometimes successes and failures are in God's hands and we have to accept what it is.

I congratulate a really good Duke team on their success against us. Coach Scheyer and his team did a great job. We had some things go against us that maybe were out of our control.

There was not a day went by that when practice was over and I was driving home that I didn't say, How lucky am I to be able to coach this group of kids? I had an awesome, awesome group of kids. May assistant coaching staff was first rate.

We had a great year. I never lose sight of how hard it is to make the tournament. They always talk about what teams got snubbed. There's always teams that could have made it that did not.

We coach in such a fantastic conference in the Big 12. We expect to be right back again next year. We'll be good again and we'll be competing for the Big 12 championship again.

Q. Looking back with the transition to the Big 12 this year, what was it like for you? Better, tougher? Anything different than you expected?

KELVIN SAMPSON: Going into last year, we had lost four starters from the previous team. We lost Jarace Walker, who was the number eight pick in the NBA Draft. We lost Marcus Sasser, who was the 25th pick. Then we lost two other kids that started. Losing four starters going into last off-season, I never really spent a lot of time thinking about the transition to the Big 12 because we were trying to put together a really good team.

We have more of a developmental program than I would say a recruiting program, where we don't depend on having the highest-recruited class. Most of our kids come in at 17- and 18-year-olds and they stay.

This day and age, probably the most impressive thing about our program is we've only had two kids in our top 10 in that particular year transfer in the last 10 years. That's amazing. Our kids just don't transfer. They stay.

Our best players are usually in their fourth and fifth year. This year, you look at our four starters, there's a good chance four of 'em will be back. The ones that leave usually get drafted into the NBA. That says a lot about our staff.

My name is on this award, but my son Kellen, two of my former players, Hollis Price and Quannas White, K.C. Beard who has been with me for 10 years, our staff has stayed together. I think that's had a big impact on our success, whereas a lot of programs lose four, five kids every year. They have to start over.

Our sustainability, our model of consistency, our staff staying together, the way we identify and evaluate the kids we recruit, we've been able to have great success on a year-to-year basis because of the kind of kids we recruit. Great character, tough kids. They want to be coached and they want to be the best they can be. Our staff's been able to do that.

THE MODERATOR: I want to congratulate Coach Sampson, Associated Press Coach of the Year.