Iowa - IBCA News

#1 Rule of Toughness for Houston's Kelvin Sampson

Written by Randy Brown | Mar 27, 2024 7:45:48 PM

As Houston is headed into the Sweet 16 again under head coach Kelvin Sampson, more and more coaches are trying to figure out how he is able to consistently deliver results, year after year.

It is not a secret that he instills in his players extreme competitiveness and mental toughness. 

And even though he likes to recruit players who are naturally tough and competitive, he also spends a huge chunk of time each day in practice on developing that toughness, teaching them how to compete in every single play. 

Today, Coach Sampson will talk about some of the non-negotiables for his culture in practice, as well as break down his favorite offensive rebounding drill.

Standards

Coach Sampson explains that there are 3 people that can never have a bad practice:

1.) Coach

2.) Best Player

3.) Point Guard

Our best player also needs to be the most dependable. This is non-negotiable. Same thing goes for our point guard. When the rest of our team sees our best player and our point guard not giving 100% in each practice, things can go downhill really fast. Watch Coach Sampson talk about what it takes to set the right standards for our team: 

CLICK for Video, 4 min.