Kelvin Sampson's Program Development Guide: Better Practices, Better Defense & Becoming a Great Coach

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

Developing as a coach should be the No. 1 priority regardless of a coach’s years of experience or the level of basketball they are coaching. A good coach never stops learning or growing! 

In this fantastic instructional coaching video, you’ll get the opportunity to learn from one of the best in the game Kelvin Sampson, as he discusses the things that have transformed the University of Houston men’s basketball program into one of the best in the country.

Coach Sampson pulls back the curtain and shines the spotlight on the most-critical components of coaching that will keep you and your program improving and developing over time – uncovering insightful and helpful information, such as:

• Program building. 
• Pre-season practice organization.
• Offensive and defensive priorities. 
• Ideas to structure a better practice.
• Advice to help you improve as a coach.

Your Basketball Culture, Practice Organization

Kelvin Sampson begins this coaching lesson by providing an outline that highlights the differentiating factors that make a program special and how those things can provide the extra lift to overcome the competition. Coach Sampson also highlights the key items that have helped him grow and find success throughout his coaching career. 

From program musts and earnest, applicable suggestions for building a strong culture, Sampson delivers valuable coaching advice that applies to all levels of basketball.

Coach Sampson covers the importance of player development in the off-season and emphasized why it is such a priority for his teams. Providing an example of how you can build individual and team development into your practices, Sampson provides helpful examples of how practice days can be broken down and segmented within the different stages of basketball skill-development.

Defending the Pick-And-Roll, Coaching Q-&-A 

One of Coach Sampson’s priorities is to teach his players how to become experts at defending pick-and-roll defense. In the next segment, he stresses the importance of guarding different actions that your teams can and will face during every season – as opposed to having them guarding their own sets every practice.

When working on pick-and-roll defense, Coach Sampson explains why he always works on it within a 5-on-5 situation and demonstrates how he teaches players to guard the ball and where they show pick up, as well as how they’re instructed to guard a screen-and-roll in both the middle and wing positions on the floor.

Coach Sampson next covers transition defense and explains why it is a critical defensive component to good team defense. He explains the details on how they teach transition defense by dividing the shot clock into thirds and practicing conversion from offense to defense, before moving on to half-court defense.

Next, Sampson outlines a terrific warm-up drill that reinforces communication in transition and points out how the players must get in the habit of pointing and talking out matchups with their teammates during games.

To conclude his presentation, Coach Sampson opens it up to the coaches in attendance and conducts an insightful question-and-answer period that covers a slew of wide-ranging topics of topics – from getting players to play hard, to tips for players on handling today’s social media, to strategic insight on playing inside-out offense, keys to improving rebounding and more.

If you are looking for ways to improve your own coaching while expanding your basketball philosophy and priorities, as well as glean important information on in-game strategy and player development, then this is the video for you!

85 minutes. 2023.