Kelvin Sampson’s wild ejection shows why Houston’s players love him so much – by standing up for Jamal Shead, the UH coach is making a statement

Inn University of Houston football coach Willie Fritz had measured exactly how fast Kelvin Sampson sprinted onto the field toward the referees, and the Cougars could have a new 68-year-old football recruit on this morning of National Signing Day. Because Sampson was To move. And he really gets going, clapping and pumping his fist in the air, screaming, letting a referee hear it, and then turning around on the spot like a Kevin McHale at his best (with the best post moves in the game) to jump in another referee’s face before the guy even knows what’s coming.

“I didn’t even see him coming,” laughs UH point guard Jamal Shead. “I didn’t know he was out there until I heard the first whistle for the first technical.”

That’s what happens when Kelvin Sampson feels one of his players is in danger. There are Mama Bears who are less instinctive and don’t roar as quickly. Sampson also quickly picks up a second technical foul and is ejected for the first time in his 10 seasons and 329 games as head coach of the UH basketball team. The ejection comes because Kelvin Sampson is fed up with the unpunished extracurricular activities of a physically strong Oklahoma State team. Finally, it drives Sampson crazy to see Houston’s lifeline, 6-foot-1 point guard Jamal Shead, get shoved straight in the back by the Cowboys’ 6-foot-1, 250-pound center Brandon Garrison without a whistle.

Sampson is standing at the back of the field, making the much-talked-about coaching box look like it was drawn with crayons. No. 5 Houston will end up beating Oklahoma State 79-63 (the final score was only that close because the Cowboys went on a 13-2 run in the final four minutes). But that’s not the point here. Sampson isn’t fighting for the game when he gets ejected with 15:07 left. He’s fighting for his players.

“I love it when he is hyped like that,” says Shead on a Paper City Question, leaning against a back hallway at the Fertitta Center. “He did it for me. He’s protecting me and he was emotional about it. And he tells us to show emotion. And that was the only night he showed emotion.”

“He got kicked out. But I loved it.”

This ejection is a great example of why Kelvin Sampson’s players absolutely adore the relentlessly demanding, often yelling, old-school coach that some of the bolder among them call Samps. If you only know the caricature of this coach, you’re missing the caring, do-anything-for-his-boys side of Sampson. Kelvin Sampson’s players are getting to see that side. But everyone in America sees it on that Tuesday night in February. If they know what they’re seeing.

Sampson loses control because he has his players’ backs – and they know it.

“When your coach takes one of your guys off the field and protects him, it has an effect on you,” Shead says.

It could make a stronger team even stronger. This Houston team, now 20-3 (7-3 Big 12), is a full game ahead of traditional Big 12 power Kansas (6-4 Big 12) and a half game ahead of Iowa State and Baylor (both 6-3) in the standings, with the Coogs eight conference games remaining. Of course, after this game, no one wants to talk about it. Or about Houston reaching at least 20 wins for the ninth consecutive season under Sampson. Or even Shead’s masterful 23-point, four-assist, three-steal game, in which the point guard finished with a plus29 Plus/minus rating in 29 minutes and you’ll reach the edge as easily as a river flows downstream.

Everyone wants to talk about Sampson’s ejection instead. Well… except Kelvin Sampson.

“I have no thoughts,” Sampson says when asked about the ejection. “If I say something to answer your question, they’ll fine you $25,000. What part of the $25,000 are you willing to pay? So don’t ask me stupid questions. Because if I tell the truth, the fine is $25,000. So I can’t.”

As it turns out, despite his 1,099 college games as a head coach, Kelvin Dale Sampson has never been penalized for talking about the referees. “No,” Sampson says when I ask him if he’s ever been penalized for questioning the referees. “Because I’m smarter than the person asking the question.”

Still, in this case, you almost wish Sampson’s buddy Gregg Popovich was looking over his shoulder, urging Houston’s coach to just accept the penalty. Popovich was once ejected for bluntly telling an official, “You’re a terrible referee,” and the San Antonio Spurs coach never seems to care much about the NBA’s wrath. On this night in college basketball. UH athletic director Chris Pezman attends Sampson’s postgame press conference (an unusual occurrence in Houston’s regular basketball season). But Pezman just stands by and watches the show.

“I love it when he gets hyped like that. He did it for me. He was protective of me and emotional about it. . . He got kicked out. But I loved it.” — UH point guard Jamal Shead on Kelvin Sampson’s ejection

Kelvin Sampson never needs backup. On this night, it helps that in the heat of the moment of the ejection, assistant head coach Quannas White restrains him and leads him away from the various officials. Even though Sampson seems pretty annoyed by it in the moment. Moments later, UH athletic director Alan Bishop, a hulking figure who could play Jack Reacher’s stunt double, escorts Kelvin Sampson on his way to the locker room. Kelvin’s wife, Karen Sampson, will catch up with them in the hallway and join her husband in his referee-ordered purgatory for the rest of the game.

This is not exactly how Kelvin Sampson had planned to spend his Tuesday evening, but it is not necessarily a bad thing when a coach reminds his team how important their team is to him.

“Nobody follows someone who isn’t in the trenches with them,” says Sampson, talking about leadership in general rather than the exclusion scenario. “Then you become the boss. There’s a big difference between a leader and a boss. A leader enables people to be the best version of themselves that they can be. A boss just points at you and tells you what to do. I’ve never had a boss. And when I did, I didn’t listen.

“I listen to the managers. But I don’t listen to the bosses.”

Kelvin Sampson is a leader, not a boss. The same goes for Jamal Shead.

Sampson isn’t fighting for the game when he’s sent off with 15:07 left. He’s fighting for his players.

Kelvin Sampson, dismissal and change of leadership

Sampson is one of the smartest voices in sports, a Hall of Fame-worthy coach who can beat you as his team’s coach and can probably beat you as your team’s coach. It’s just that Sampson only wants to coach his Houston team this season. You get the sense that Sampson still thinks this is a special group, no matter how many others freaked out about the loss to tradition-rich Kansas that knocked these Cougars out of first place for… two whole days.

This sweep of Oklahoma State shows what this top-5 Houston team can do when it picks up the tempo (it’s 15-4 UH in fastbreak points in this game), employs a defense as disruptive as a firecracker in a library (Shead and the Swipers get 11 steals and force 17 Oklahoma State turnovers) to get into the open court where good shots come easily. When Houston runs, invaluable swing guard Emanuel Sharp (16 points on 6 of 11 shooting) will find his shooting style and bench energizer Mylik Wilson will slide to 12 points in 21 minutes, throwing one over his shoulder without even looking at the basket.

But it all starts with Jamal Shead, who shakes off every lull in Kansas with fury. Even John Wick isn’t so determined to kick ass right from the start.

“They’re different in that they just don’t stop,” Oklahoma State head coach Mike Boynton says of what makes this particular Houston defense even more terrifying than a typical, stifling Kelvin Sampson defense. “It’s literally five guys on defense that are constantly moving. And that’s something that’s talked about a lot on offense. But very few people, young players, college players, can really believe that they’re constantly moving and have to be involved on defense on every possession.”

“Jamal Shead’s play in transition, preventing us from making a layup when we were still in the game early on, is a great example of that.”

Boynton says Shead “played like an All-American. A first-team All-American, to be exact. And the player of the year who was unshakeable by either side tonight.” Sampson adds something more profound, placing Shead in a class of his own for the first time at UH.

“Jamal is the best leader we’ve ever had,” Sampson says.

This is almost lost in all the talk about sending offs. But what none of Kelvin Sampson’s players fail to notice is how he stands up for them. Just because you’re wearing referee shirts doesn’t mean Kelvin Sampson will let anything go, especially if he feels his players are being treated unfairly.

“When your coach sends one of your guys off the field and provides protection, it does a lot to you.” — UH point guard Jamal Shead

About 10 minutes after Sampson finishes his press conference, Bobby Champagne, the University of Hawaii’s director of operations and basketball strategy (a former longtime coach), comes into the media room. “Anyone want to ask me something about the refereeing?” Champagne asks loudly. “I’m taking the penalty.”

No need. Kelvin Sampson took care of his players when it mattered most. In the heat of the moment. Sampson will make the long walk to the locker room as the crowd at the Fertitta Center chants “Kel-vin Sampson! Kel-vin Sampson!” But his players want to cheer for him, too. Their coach. Their leader.

“There was just a little physical altercation,” Shead said. “And I feel like that went on the whole game. And he got a little fed up with it. And he went about it his own way. And he got what he got.”

That would be a memorable ejection. And the continued, unwavering support of his players. Coach Samps stands behind these UH players. And more importantly, they know it.