NCAA Basketball rewind: Most impactful coaching hires after 2014 season

1. Kelvin Sampson (Houston)

Long ago, legendary coach Guy Lewis led Houston five Final Fours and a whole host of success, but that had all come at least three decades ago. The Cougars program had not accomplished very much in recent memory, having made only one NCAA Tournament in the last twenty years. A number of coaches had come and gone without turning the tide in Houston; this hire was different.

Kelvin Sampson had already lived a full and eventful coaching career. He had been a head coach at four different colleges, winning a ton of games at Montana Tech, establishing winning culture at Washington State, taking Oklahoma to a Final Four and a bevy of a success, before crashing and burning due to scandal at Indiana. Sampson’s hiring at Houston was his return to the college game, having spent the last six years as an NBA assistant with the Bucks and Rockets.

Sampson has turned Houston into the AAC’s most successful program. After a rebuilding year, the Cougars have won at least 21 games and finished no lower than 3rd in the AAC in each season. They’ve appeared in the last three NCAA Tournaments, making the Sweet Sixteen in 2019 before a marvelous run to the Final Four this past season. It looked like Sampson was done in the college game, but instead he’s revolutionized this Houston program.

We have completed running through the best coaching hires from back in 2014; which coaches do you think were some of the best from that year?