Open Practice with Kelvin Sampson

with Kelvin Sampson,
University of Houston Head Men's Coach;
2025 NCAA National Runner-Up;
2025 CBS Sports National Coach of the Year
2025 Sporting News National Coach of the Year
2025 NABC Division I Gulf Region Coach of the Year
2025 Big XII Coach of the Year
2025 Big XII Regular Season Champions
2025 Big XII Tournament Champions
2024 NABC Division I Coach of the Year;
2024 Henry Iba Award;
2024 Big XII Regular Season Champions;
2024 Big XII Coach of the Year;
4x American Athletic Conference (AAC) Coach of the Year (2018, 2019, 2022, 2023);
2022 Ben Jobe Award;
2022 CBS Sports National Coach of the Year;
2021 Coach John McLendon Award;
2021 NCAA Final Four;
2021 & 2022 AAC Tournament Champions;
4x AAC Conference Regular Season Champions;
Houston Rockets (NBA) Assistant Coach from 2011 to 2014;
Milwaukee Bucks (NBA) Assistant Coach from 2008 to 2011;
Indiana Head Coach from 2006 to 2008;
Oklahoma Head Coach from 1994 to 2006;
2x Big XII Regular Season Champions;
3x Big XII Tournament Champions;
2002 NABC Division I Coach of the Year;
2002 NCAA Final Four;
1995 AP Coach of the Year;
1995 Henry Iba Award;
1995 Big Eight Coach of the Year;
Washington State Head Coach from 1987 to 1994;
1991 Pac-10 Coach of the Year;
Montana Tech Head Coach from 1981 to 1985;
2x Frontier Regular Season Champions;
3x Frontier Tournament Champions;
2x Frontier Coach of the Year;
Michigan State Graduate Assistant Coach from 1979 to 1980 (under Jud Heathcote);
played college basketball for UNC Pembroke

A ten-time conference coach of the year in four conferences, Coach Sampson has had great coaching success. He posted over 280 wins at OU in 12 seasons as the head coach, leading the Sooners to the post season each year. His teams won three consecutive Big 12 Tournament Championships, and shared the regular season title in 2005. His best season at Oklahoma came in 2001-02 when he led OU to the Final Four, and followed that up with a trip to the Elite Eight the next year. He was named the NABC National Coach of the Year in 2002 and again in 2024. Sampson returned to the Final Four in 2021 with Houston and has posted over 760 wins in a career that began in 1981.

Get a front row seat and watch as Kelvin Sampson runs his Houston team through three preseason practices in preparation for international competition in China. Whether it's defense or offense, Coach Sampson uses the whiteboard regularly to go into detail on his team's actions. It's one thing to watch a team practice, but it's another to have a coach break down the drills and exercises for you.

Video 1

Coach Sampson puts a special emphasis on Houston's defensive system. He provides you the philosophy, demonstration and drills to help you implement a great half court defense and turn your team into great transition defenders.

Team culture is reinforced through four warm up drills that expect players to operate with intensity while developing their ball handling, passing, and shooting. Sampson uses the 2-on-1 (plus 1), 3-on-2 (plus 1), and 4-on-3 (plus 1) drills to work on transition defense. Each of the drills in this series has a trailing defender to simulate a real game scenario. The main points of emphasis with transition defense are to talk, stop the ball, and match-up. You can also use these drills to help your players brush up on their decision making while playing with an offensive advantage.

The Cougars' staff implements the shell drill to teach the program's defensive principles and work on guarding specific actions (pin downs and staggers). Coach Sampson uses the whiteboard to go into detail about help defense and helping the helper. The team works on rotations on a baseline drive, defending basket cuts, and stopping the slot drive.

Coach Sampson places high emphasis on rebounding in this session. He uses multiple rebounding drills to help build a high level of toughness with his team.

On offense, Houston's full court attack is introduced with their Weak and Strong actions. Whiteboard segments are included outside of practice to describe Houston's offensive and defensive philosophy, explain practice drills and concepts, and teach a play for late game situations.

Video 2

In practice two, Coach Sampson focuses on installing several major components in his offensive system. Players rehearse three baseline inbound plays and four sideline inbound plays in addition to two new half court set plays. Coach Sampson has his team run the sets 5-on-0, then later against defense. These sets come from the same alignment, making it more challenging for your opponents to scout them.

Coach Sampson also runs half court actions, which were introduced in the first practice, versus defense. Running these sets against a defense allows you to see reads being made and demonstrates how you can take what the defense gives you.

In practice three, Coach Sampson continues to build his defensive system with an added emphasis of denying the passing lanes through 5-on-5 half-court scrimmages. He also introduces two full court pressure strategies off of a made free throw. Fist is the Cougars' full court man-to-man defense and Double Fist is full court man pressure where the first pass in is automatically trapped. These two defenses are intended to create turnovers and/or increase the pace of the game.

This video will give you a great look into the philosophies, drills and sets that Coach Sampson uses in practice!

"I really enjoyed (disc 1), from individual build up, to a transition build up, to a defensive principles to be learned into the offensive actions that he is trying to incorporate and lastly a late full court action to get a 3-point shot. The viewer will gain drills that they will be able to use with their team after viewing. Easy to implement and your team will gain a better understanding of the game of basketball." - Customer Review

176 minutes (2 videos). 2016.