PEMBROKE — So close, but the holy grail of college basketball remains the elusive dream for Kelvin Sampson.
A heartbreaking end for Sampson’s Houston Cougars, who fell 65-63 to the Florida Gators in the finals of the NCAA Division I National Championship on Monday night in the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
And a disappointing end for folks in the little Robeson County town, where Sampson grew up as a high school basketball and baseball standout, and later starred in both sports for what today is the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.
“This is history for our people,” Pembroke Mayor Charles Greg Cummings, 76, said before Monday’s finals. “To have one of our own to be coaching, it’s a historical event for the Lumbee people.”
Born in Laurinburg, Sampson grew up in the little Deep Branch community of Robeson County, and later in the two-story family homeplace across from UNC-Pembroke, where his father, the late John W. “Ned” Sampson, was a pioneer in the old Indian Basketball League. Ned Sampson was a three-sport standout at old Pembroke High School before taking his athletic skills to what then was Pembroke State University, graduating in 1953. Ned Sampson spent most of his career as a teacher and coach at old Magnolia High School.
Kelvin Sampson’s mother, the late Eva Sampson, worked as a nurse at the college.
Cummings has known Kelvin Sampson for what seems forever.
“I knew him when he was a young boy,” the mayor said. “When it came to sports in high school and college, he was a natural.”
Kelvin Sampson attended Pembroke High School, Cummings says, and later excelled in basketball and baseball at UNC-Pembroke, and following in his father’s athletic footsteps, where John Sampson is a charter member of the UNC-Pembroke Athletic Hall of Fame.
“He played with pride and respect,” Cummings said about Kelvin Sampson, who was a guard on the late Coach Joe Gallagher’s UNC-Pembroke team from 1973 to 1978. “He’s been like a hero to our people. He’s a legend from where he comes from and where he is today.”
Kelvin Sampson earned his master’s in administration from Michigan State University, where he would work under Jud Heathcote from 1979-1980 as a graduate assistant coach. From there, Sampson would find head coaching jobs at Montana Tech (1981-1985), Washington State (1987-1994), Oklahoma (1994-2006), Indiana (2006-2008) and assistant jobs with the NBA Milwaukee Bucks (2008-2011) and Houston Rockets (2011-2014) before becoming head coach at the University of Houston. His son, Kellen, is an assistant coach, and daughter, Lauren, is director of external operations for the men’s team.
‘We’re disappointed’
Sampson has had his ups and downs in his long head coaching career to include running afoul of the NCAA, according to published reports, for recruiting violations at Oklahoma and Indiana, but the 69-year-old coach has found his coaching place with the Cougars, where in 11 seasons, his teams are 299-84 for a .781 winning percentage.
But the NCAA championship has been elusive, and Monday night the title eluded Sampson once again.
Hands on his hips, Sampson appeared to be a coach in something of disbelief as time ran out on what would become a 35-5 season for his team. Florida ended 36-4. Sampson and his Cougars were as taken aback as 48 hours before, when Sampson’s team eliminated Duke coach Jon Scheyer and the freshman-led Cooper Flagg Blue Devils, 70-67, in the semifinals.
“We’re disappointed we lost,” Sampson later said at the post-game press conference about Monday’s defeat. “We thought this was a game that, if we played well, we could win, and we did play well. We just didn’t play very good the last three minutes, and that’s been a strength of ours all year long was winning close games. Tonight, we didn’t. Give credit to Coach [Todd] Golden and Florida. They’re a very worthy champion.”
He was gracious in a heartbreaking defeat for himself and his team, and, be assured, it will haunt Sampson and his seniors. It was the championship within their grasp, and the one that got away.
There was disappointment in Pembroke, too.
“It was a nailbiter,” Greg Cummings said Tuesday morning as the Pembroke mayor reflected on how Sampson’s team squandered a 12-point second-half lead and failed to get off a final shot in the waning seconds. “But that’s a part of the game.”
He says UNC-Pembroke Chancellor Robin Gary Cummings and his wife were in San Antonio pulling for Sampson and the Cougars.
“Quite a few from here were at the game,” the mayor said.
Epilogue
Greg Cummings says Kelvin Sampson and his wife, Karen, may call Houston home, but Kelvin Sampson always will be a part of Pembroke and Robeson County.
“I texted Dr. Robin Cummings, our chancellor, and he said, yes, we definitely want to do something for him.”
The mayor says the town, the university and the Lumbee community likely will celebrate Sampson at the annual Lumbee Homecoming, (circa 1968), scheduled June 24 through July 6.
Kelvin Sampson is a part of this town and its heritage, and the mayor and the town — championship or not — could not be prouder of “Mr. Ned’s and Miss Eva’s” son for being the man Kelvin Sampson has become.
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
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