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Report: Houston to hire Kelvin Sampson with five-year deal

Kelvin Sampson

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According to a report from ESPN.com’s Jeff Goodman, Kelvin Sampson will re-enter the college basketball world with a new five-year deal to become the head coach of the Houston Cougars.

A former head coach at Washington State, Oklahoma and Indiana, Sampson, 58, was serving a five-year show-cause from the NCAA for recruiting violations stemming from impermissible phone calls during his time as Indiana’s head coach. Sampson spent the past five seasons as an assistant coach in the NBA.

Sampson has a 425-227 career record as a Division I head coach in 21 seasons.

Before resigning in February of 2008 as the head coach at Indiana, Sampson had made the NCAA Tournament in 13 of his last 14 seasons as a head coach between Washington State, Oklahoma and Indiana. The year Sampson missed the Tournament at Oklahoma in 2003-04, they made the NIT.

Sampson spent two seasons as a Milwaukee Bucks assistant before spending the last three seasons with the Houston Rockets. Having been in Houston since 2011, it is unclear how familiar Sampson is with the Cougars program or the local current crop of high school players, but Sampson has plenty of clout on the recruiting trail and could get Houston involved with some major local prospects.

Sampson replaces former head coach James Dickey, who went 64-62 in four seasons and resigned last month due to private family matters. The Cougars finished 17-16 this season.

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