Sports
Kelvin Sampson Turns Houston Basketball Into a Powerhouse Again
When the University of Houston introduced Kelvin Sampson as its head coach almost 11 years ago, the well-traveled basketball veteran stepped into one of the sport’s longest shadows. As the 2025 calendar turns to March, Sampson’s Cougars are setting a new standard for a program long synonymous exclusively with the late, great Guy Lewis.
Houston closes out its 2024-25 regular-season slate with games against Cincinnati on Saturday and two of the last three programs to win the national championship, Kansas and Baylor. However, the Cougars have already sealed no worse than a share of the Big 12 Conference championship.
Houston embarks on this stretch and the Big 12 Tournament playing for its third straight No. 1 seed and an inside track to its second Final Four appearance in five seasons. Not since Hall of Famer Guy Lewis coached the Cougars to three straight Final Fours from 1982 through 1984 has Houston enjoyed such success.
In fact, at no time since Lewis retired in 1986 has Houston reached the heights that are fast becoming routine for the Cougars under Sampson. From 1961, when the first Lewis-coached Houston team reached the NCAA Tournament, until the Hakeem Olajuwon-led national runner-up Cougars team of 1984, the program played in 14 editions of the Big Dance.
In the three decades between Lewis’ retirement and Sampson’s 2014 hire, only four Houston teams reached the NCAA Tournament—one fewer than the total Final Four appearances the program made under Lewis.
Yesteryear’s powerhouses fade from glory regularly in college basketball and spend generations chasing past success in futility. When Sampson came to Houston in 2014, the program was one such example, sharing qualities with teams like DePaul and UNLV: once-dominant juggernauts in cities that produce top-flight recruits, but who opt to go elsewhere.
Keeping in-state prospects around has been one pillar of Sampson’s resurrection of Houston basketball. His first NCAA Tournament team at UH in 2017-18 featured key players like Armoni Brooks of Round Rock and Fabian White of Atascocita, who grew into a standout on the 2022 Elite Eight team.
This year, Houston features forward J’Wan Roberts, a graduate of Shoemaker High School in Killeen, and L.J. Cryer of Katy. As a two-time All-Big 12 selection headed for a third, the Baylor transfer Cryer is the de facto star of the 2024-25 Cougars.
But if there’s another quality of Sampson’s tenure at Houston that best explains the program’s return to Lewis-era levels of prominence, it’s that the Cougars don’t rely on stars.
Make no mistake; Cryer is a terrific player. He shoots almost 42 percent from 3-point range and will finish a third consecutive season averaging in the neighborhood of 15 points per game.
However, other teams jockeying for No. 1 seeds alongside Houston include Auburn with Johni Broome, a stat-sheet-stuffing big man averaging a double-double per game. Broome’s a throwback to a time when dominant centers owned college basketball—a time like the mid-1980s when Olajuwon and Houston faced Patrick Ewing and Georgetown for the national championship.
Broome’s recent 31-point, 14-rebound effort against Georgia is unlike any stat line a Cougar is likely to produce. Cryer went for 28 points in a pivotal win over Iowa State, but just five the next time out against Texas Tech.
The results of those two games were the same, though: Houston wins that secured the Cougars’ stake to the Big 12 championship.
And then there’s fellow No. 1 seed contender Duke, built around the explosive game of likely No. 1 NBA draft pick Cooper Flagg. The freshman phenom compares to Lewis-era Houston greats in that his NBA readiness is clear in college.
Indeed, Lewis’ best Houston teams were built around players like Elvin Hayes, Clyde Drexler, and Olajuwon—college stars who went on to pro greatness.
It’s rare for college teams to compete for championships without NBA talent, and Sampson has and continues to attract future pros to his program. His teams differ from Lewis’ Final Four squads in that this era of NBA-bound Cougars are not the individually dominant presences of the past.
And in that contrast lies another characteristic that explains Sampson’s success with a program that seemed destined to long for days gone by. Sampson has unlocked Houston’s potential to return to its prior peak not by emulating what defined the program before, but by embracing his own philosophy.
No one will confuse the aggressive, defensive-oriented style of the present-day Cougars with Phi Slamma Jamma, but it’s Houston’s hard-nosed approach that makes it successful. Tune into a UH game, and you are guaranteed to see maximum effort from all five players on the court for all 40 minutes.
It’s a trait that made Sampson-coached teams winners elsewhere, from a historically downtrodden program like Washington to his tenure at Oklahoma, which produced a Final Four run. This is also the identity that could elevate Houston to a milestone that not even the great Guy Lewis reached: a national championship.
Sports
Knicks and Nuggets Blow Big Leads: What Went Wrong in Game 2?
Roughly 5,000 feet of elevation separate Denver and New York City.
Still, gravity works the same regardless of where one stands. Just ask the NBA teams in both towns.
“You get too high, and you get, I don’t want to say cocky, but feeling yourself,” Nuggets guard Tim Hardaway Jr. said.
That sensation went south on either side of the country Monday night.
After squandering sizable leads that would have cemented commanding 2-0 advantages in their respective first-round playoff series, the Nuggets and Knicks now find themselves bracing for a fight.
Should their opponents ultimately have their number, Denver and New York will look back with disdain on 19 and 14. Those were the Game 2 cushions the teams coughed up as the No. 3 seeds in the Eastern and Western Conference.
“It’s a game we should’ve won,” Knicks guard Josh Hart said. “In the playoffs, we can’t give away games.”
Be that as it may, the Knicks did just that against the Atlanta Hawks. They controlled the outcome for much of the night and took a 12-point edge into the fourth quarter after leading by as many as 14.
Then New York shot 5-for-22 from the floor in the final 12 minutes compared to 10-for-15 for Atlanta. Fighting through vulgar chants from the Madison Square Garden faithful, Hawks star CJ McCullom scored six straight points down the stretch during one key sequence on the way to a game-high 32.
“In that fourth quarter, you could tell [the Hawks] were playing with a level of desperation,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “There were four 50-50 balls, and they got three of the four. We always use that stat to gauge the level of aggression in a game. In that fourth quarter, their aggression stepped up.”
New York’s melted at the same time. How many late possessions saw the Knicks pass or hold the ball around the perimeter before settling for subpar looks from 3-point range? The Knicks went 3-for-11 from deep as part of their flop.
Denver led the Minnesota Timberwolves by 19 points early in the second quarter before crumbling. The Nuggets still were ahead by three points to start the fourth quarter but a combined 2-for-12 shooting effort from pillars Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray in the final 12 minutes took a toll.
“I feel like we had the game in hand, and then we just didn’t make our shots,” Murray said.
As with the Knicks and Hawks, the reversal of fortunes stemmed both from the hosts’ miscues and an outstanding effort from a visiting player, as Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards had 30 points.
“Great leadership, positive,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “He recognized he needed to get into attack mode and get downhill a little bit more. He did that.”
The Knicks and Nuggets no doubt sensed the need to amp up their own urgency as things started slipping away Monday.
That neither could act upon it didn’t signal the end for either New York or Denver, of course. But now there’s unnecessary added weight for the climb back to the top.
Sports
Pistons seek return to identity vs. Magic after Game 1 shocker
Apr 19, 2026; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Detroit Pistons forward Tobias Harris (12) is defended by Orlando Magic guard Desmond Bane (3) in the second half during the 2026 NBA Playoffs at Little Caesars Arena. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images After an exceptional regular season, this wasn’t the start to the NBA playoffs that the Detroit Pistons envisioned.
Reeling from a stunning Game 1 loss in which only two players reached double figures, the Eastern Conference’s top seed heads into Game 2 Wednesday against the visiting Orlando Magic facing early pressure to reset the best-of-seven series.
The eighth-seeded Magic controlled the opener from the start, never trailing and leaning on a balanced offensive attack. Paolo Banchero led the way with 23 points while Franz Wagner scored 11 of his 19 in the fourth quarter to help close out the 112-101 win.
For Detroit, the issue wasn’t just the loss — it was how it happened. The Pistons never established their defensive identity and struggled to find consistent offense beyond star guard Cade Cunningham, two areas that will be central entering Game 2.
“It starts, always, with us defensively,” said Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff. “When you go back and watch the film of that (game), we weren’t ourselves defensively. The telling tale is typically when we play them, they go to the free-throw line a ton.
“… We went 38 (times) but they went 19. So that means we weren’t playing our brand of basketball, being physical, being handsy, being aggressive. That kind of sets the tone for us.”
Offensively, the Pistons leaned on Cunningham, who scored 39 points, but got little other support — scoring their fewest points in nearly three months, since a loss to the Phoenix Suns on Jan. 29. Detroit will need more help from All-Star center Jalen Duren, who was held to just eight points and seven rebounds in Game 1.
“They came out ready from the jump,” Duren said. “We didn’t really meet their intensity. They’ve been playing with their backs against the walls the last few weeks, so they were already kind of already rolling. I think we just got to do a better job meeting that intensity.”
Duren said the Pistons remain confident despite the loss, which extended their home playoff losing streak to 11 games, the longest in NBA history.
“We know the type of team we are,” Duren said. “We feel like we’re the better team. We know that we’ve just got to make adjustments and come out smarter, come out playing harder.”
Orlando coach Jamahl Mosley said he has talked to his team about not becoming too overconfident coming off Sunday’s win.
“It’s one game at a time,” Mosley said of his message to the team. “It’s the reality that, yeah, you did get the Game 1 win, but now you have to go and figure out how to get a Game 2 (win). There’s going to be, obviously, the positive talk about what you’ve done, and thinking there’s reasons to celebrate, but at the end of the day, it’s one game, and that’s the most important piece that we’ve talked about: just taking it one game at a time.”
Banchero said the team has received the message, and he believes the key for the Magic is to play defense like they did in the opener.
“I thought we were on a string, just communicating, talking out coverages,” Banchero said. “I think it’s just going to continue to take that, being aggressive, being the aggressors on defense and just not trying to give them much. Obviously they’re going to make shots, but just not trying to give them any free looks.”
–Field Level Media
Sports
Lynx star Napheesa Collier (ankle) targets June for on-court work
Mar 2, 2026; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Unrivaled Co-founder Napheesa Collier at Barclay’s Center. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images The Minnesota Lynx said Tuesday that star forward Napheesa Collier’s rehab from left ankle surgery is “progressing as expected,” and she could resume on-court activities in early June.
The team plans to release updates on Collier’s progress when available.
The timeline means Collier will miss, at minimum, the first month of the WNBA season, which begins May 10 for the Lynx.
Collier underwent surgery on her ankle on March 24 after sustaining a severe injury during the 2025 playoffs. Per reports at the time, she sustained a Grade 2 tear of three ligaments in the ankle and a muscle in her left shin on a collision during Game 3 of the playoff semifinal series vs. Phoenix.
Collier, 29, averaged a career-high 22.9 points and shot 40.3% from 3-point range to go with 7.3 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.6 steals and 1.5 blocks per game last year. The back-to-back WNBA Most Valuable Player runner-up, Collier is a five-time All-Star and earned MVP honors in the 2024 Commissioner’s Cup final and the 2025 All-Star Game.
–Field Level Media
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