Coach Kelvin Sampson Marcus to Dejon to Q and See If We Can Get the Shot

NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Regional Final: Oregon St. vs Houston Monday, March 29, 2021 Indianapolis, Indiana, USA Lucas Oil Stadium - Equality Court (North) Houston Cougars So we put Quentin in that other corner and put him on the same side as DeJon, and we tried to get the ball from Coach Kelvin Sampson Marcus to DeJon to Q and see if we can get the shot. Elite 8 Postgame Media Conference They're good at running one-three-one. We've seen one-three-ones this year, but not ones that look like that. But it is not supposed to be easy. Proud of the kids, proud Houston - 67, Oregon State - 61 of the heart, proud of battling through so many things this year, whether it was injuries or transfers or a tough loss THE MODERATOR: Thank you all for participating tonight. here or there. For this team to be 28-3 and going to the We'll begin with an opening statement from Coach Final Four, this is one of the greatest accomplishments I've Sampson and go to questions. been around. And I have this group of players and this staff, everyone on this staff, all the players to thank for it. KELVIN SAMPSON: First of all, I'd like to congratulate I'm glad they let me go along on the ride with them. It's Wayne Tinkle and the Oregon State Beavers for a been a fun ride with this group. tremendous year. What they did the last few weeks, beating Colorado, Oregon, UCLA, Tennessee, Oklahoma Q. Congratulations. You know, Kelvin, you're out State, Loyola Chicago -- those are good teams. Those there at the end, you're waving to the crowd, you're teams beat good teams. That proves how good they are. seeing your guys dancing, all the emotion. In So hat's off to Wayne, great guy. hindsight, seven years later, are these the moments that you envision for your program, for you, your Kellen and Lauren, my two kids, were born in Montana. I family, just to get to this point? coached in Montana, and Wayne was a great player at the University of Montana. When I talked to Wayne before the KELVIN SAMPSON: I thought we would win, Joseph. I game, I says, You know who would love to watch this thought we could win, I did. We had to get through the first game tonight was Jud Heathcote. Jud gave me my start at year. That was important. Because then we could start Michigan State, and Wayne and I are both part of Jud's building. The wins were all pluses that first year. The coaching tree, so I was thinking about Jud tonight. losses meant nothing. It probably cost us a couple games trying to discipline kids. I remember one kid in particular, I I'm proud of my team. We were really locked in held him out of a few games down the stretch because the defensively on what we wanted to do. Oregon State we thing I told that bunch that year is our program is going to knew was going to come back and make a run. We got a be more important than any of you. Don't ever think that little bit non-aggressive against the one-three-one, but they you're more important than this program. made it like that. Not many teams can put a 7-footer at the top of the key and take away your interior pass. They I've always believed that about every program that I've forced us to go slot to slot, corner to corner, and our guys been in charge of. And once we got through the first year, got a little bit stale, I guess, that thing. we just started adding pieces, and we did it brick by brick. We weren't in a hurry. We didn't try to cut any corners. But I wasn't as disappointed in that as I was concerned We did it brick by brick. The staff -- Kellen was an absolute about our defense at the other end. We kept -- they kept hoss. Alvin, Alvin took care of Houston, and he was gashing us. We've been so good for so long. When I significant in building this program. Once Quannas got in, called the time-out, one thing you have to remind people, we started picking off this kid and this kid. We said no to a young men in these situations, don't be afraid to fail. Don't lot of kids because I didn't think they would fit our culture. be afraid to miss the shot. You certainly can't be afraid to We said no to a lot of kids that people would say that's a take it. 106189-1-1222 2021-03-30 02:29:00 GMT Page 1 of 3 great get. That's a great recruit. I don't care about great recruits. That's not my deal. I want kids that I could coach, But we just kept working and kept getting better. You kids that would be coached, that would be able to survive know, when the brackets came out, I told her kids, we've some tough days, some hard days, and I could get them to got a chance to do something special here. Let's go 1-0. play for each other. 1-0 against Cleveland State. 1-0 against Rutgers. 1-0 against Syracuse, and now 1-0 against Oregon State. So I knew we were going to be on that route, but to get to Next Saturday we'll try to go 1-0 again. That's how we the Final Four, each year that went by got closer. I always approach things. thought we could, but I had to climb the ladder. Joe Castiglione, one of my best friends, the AD at Oklahoma, Q. In that first year as an assistant with Jud sent me a ladder in a big UPS or FedEx box when I first Heathcote, what are some of the lessons that still got to Houston. I didn't know what it was. But he had a apply? letter in there, and he talked about the three consecutive Big 12 tournament championships we won when I was at KELVIN SAMPSON: A grad assistant, Myron. I was 22 Oklahoma. He said, Coach, Coacher -- he always called years old, and I didn't know if I was on foot or horseback, me Coacher -- I hope you get to use this ladder a lot, and Jud made sure I didn't know if I was on foot or University of Houston, and always appreciate the horseback. Being a grad assistant for Jud is kind of like symbolism behind it and how symbolic it is. being a glorified manager. I was scared to death of him. He intimidated me. He believed in me too. I don't know What that means is every ladder represents a step along what it was. I never would have gotten to Montana Tech. the way: our academic people who do such a great of Jud's freshman year in college was at Montana Tech. He putting our kids in position to graduate, our compliance helped me get there. And then Jud graduated from people, our athletic director and his administration, our Washington State University. If it weren't for Jud, I wouldn't president, Tilman Feritta, who have supported us have gotten to Washington State. I owe Jud a lot. financially and helped us gain footing with the rest of the conference, our trainers, our strength coaches, our I think what Jud taught me, it's okay to be unique, be assistant coaches, managers, players -- everybody's part yourself. A lot of assistant coaches failed trying to be like of the ladder. We're all kind of the same. We're just part of the guy they work for. I was a grad assistant, nothing this program trying to build it. more, but I learned from everybody there. Magic Johnson was always the first guy in the gym. I got a tweet from Two years ago we lost to Cincinnati in the conference Magic tonight. We go all the way back to 1978, '79, '80, in championship game, a game I felt like we could have won, those years. and then we lost to Michigan, a game I felt like we should have won. Those games told me we're getting close. But Jud was unique. He was a hard worker. He came We've just got to keep swinging. We've got to keep getting from humble beginnings. His greatest strength was his here. We've got to keep winning. We've got to keep ability to get the most out of people. But the guy that getting kids to believe. That's what we did. We lost to influenced me the most that I would give the most credit to Michigan, and that was a gut punch. That hurt a lot. was my father, John W. Sampson. I wish he and my mother were here tonight to see this. Then we came back the following year, and COVID hit us, but that team was playing its best basketball at the end of The last time we went to the Final Four, he had a brain the year. Quentin was finally comfortable. Caleb Mills was aneurysm the night before we played Arizona in the Sweet feeling good. Fabian had just had 18 points, 14 rebounds 16.

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