Kelvin Sampson, a finalist for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2026, has followed the fortunes of hundreds of schools in his 36 seasons as a head coach at Houston, Indiana, Oklahoma, Washington State and Montana Tech.
In his eyes, one program stands out above all the rest.
“I would say this, and I say this from having been around a lot, I think the best basketball program in America is Kansas. I would take it over anybody else’s program,” Houston coach Sampson said, speaking to reporters at Big 12 hoops media day last October at T-Mobile Center.
“Everybody’s going to be territorial with their program — Kentucky, North Carolina, Duke, this school — but when you walk into Allen Fieldhouse you’re walking into history,” added the 70-year-old Laurinburg, North Carolina native, now in his 12th season as leader of the Cougars’ program.
He’ll be bringing his No. 2-ranked Cougars (23-4, 11-3) to Allen Fieldhouse for an 8 p.m. Big Monday contest against No. 8 KU (20-7, 10-4) to be shown live on ESPN.
“I do know the traditions and the history of that school is a bar that everybody would like to get to,” Sampson said. “Let’s not get this thing twisted. Every conference has a bell cow. The bell cow in this conference is Kansas.”
KU is the second-winningest program in college basketball history behind Kentucky.
“I’ve coached against Kansas for how many years?” Sampson said. “I can’t remember how many years at Oklahoma — 12 maybe, something like that?”
He had a 280-108 record in his 12 years as coach of the Sooners and is 322-87 in his 12 years at Houston. Overall he’s 821-359 as a head college coach. He’s 9-12 in games his teams have played versus KU including a 3-1 mark as coach of the Cougars.
“You don’t lose your status (as the country’s top program) because you had an off year or so,” Sampson added at Big 12 Media Day, referring to the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons in which KU finished in a tie for seventh and sixth respectively in the Big 12.
Under Bill Self’s direction, KU won the league title 14 straight seasons (2004-05 through 2017-18).
“When you talk about Bill Self, people want to say he’s one of the best coaches in the country. No, he’s not. He’s one of the best coaches ever, in any era. He’s still coaching there. I do know that traditions and the history of that school is a bar that everybody would like to get to,” Sampson said.
Sampson has had some of his finest seasons as a coach during his 12 seasons at Houston. He has taken the Cougars to a school record seven straight NCAA Tournament appearances, including five straight Sweet 16s and a pair of Final Fours. The team finished runner-up to Florida last season.
His No. 2-ranked team is in the midst of a brutal stretch of the 2025-26 Big 12 season. Houston fell at home to No. 4 Arizona 73-66 on Saturday after losing to No. 6 Iowa State 70-67 on Monday in Ames.
KU, which has lost two of its last three contests after winning eight in a row, dropped an 84-68 decision at home Saturday to unranked Cincinnati.
“When you sign up for the Big 12 you are going to have adversity,” Sampson said after Saturday’s game vs. Arizona. “That’s part of it. You don’t run from it. We won a bunch of games last year we easily could have lost (UH went 19-1 in the league and 35-5 overall in 2024-25). We had the miracle win at Kansas (92-86 in two OTs). We had another one at UCF (69-68). We’ve had some great wins this year. We’ve already won five road games. That’s hard to do.
“Arizona just came off a loss at home. Kansas has just come off a loss at home. Don’t overreact to your losses. You are going to have losses. This may not be our last loss in conference This conference is good. Going 19-1 or 16-2 or 15-3 ... you don’t do that in this league especially as good as it is this year.
“It’s always been really good, but when teams play Arizona or Houston or Texas Tech or Iowa State or Kansas, when those teams play two things are guaranteed: A really good team is going to win and a really good team is going to lose,” Sampson stated.
The Cougars boast top talent on the perimeter and in the frontcourt. Guards Kingston Flemings, Emanuel Sharp and Milos Uzan average 16.6, 16.4 and 11.1 points per game. Uzan has 110 assists to 38 turnovers. Sharp hit eight 3s versus Utah, while Fleming scored 42 points against Texas Tech.
Forward Chris Cenac averages 9.6 points and 7.8 rebounds and forward Joseph Tugler 7.6 points and 5.3 rebounds.
“We get an opportunity to bounce back in 48 hours against a team that if you approach it like we did today, they’ll just manhandle us, because we got manhandled today,” Self said after the 16-point loss to Cincy (15-12, 7-7).
“They’re tough. They rebound. They can score from three spots as well as anybody in the country. We’ve got to be a heck of a lot better than we were today in all facets,” he added.
KU is 40-0 in Big Monday games played at Allen Fieldhouse in the 23-year Self era. KU last lost two straight games in Allen during the 1988-89 season when Roy Williams’ first Jayhawk squad lost four home games in a row. The last conference team to defeat KU two years in a row in Allen would be Iowa State during the 1999-2000 and 2000-01 seasons.
“That was a terrible showing,” KU guard Jamari McDowell said of the double-digit home loss to Cincy, “but we’ve got to bounce back in 48 hours. We’ve got to move on and keep pushing.
“It’s going to be a tough game, but we’ll be ready. We’ve got a little bit of time in between, but we’ll be ready. No pity party. No excuses. We’ve got to move on, keep pushing. We’ve got to get it done in the fieldhouse. ... It’s going to be a fun one on Monday.”
Gary Bedore covers KU basketball for The Kansas City Star. He has written about the Jayhawks since 1978 — during the Ted Owens, Larry Brown, Roy Williams and Bill Self eras. He has won the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year award and KPA writing awards.
