HOUSTON – After his program’s third straight 30-win season and fifth consecutive appearance in the Sweet 16, University of Houston Men’s Basketball Head Coach Kelvin Sampson was named the Associated Press National Coach of the Year, the second time he received the honor during his career.
Sampson first collected the annual AP award at Oklahoma following the 1994-95 season. He became only the 10th coach in history to receive the award multiple times and the second Cougar with Guy V. Lewis in 1983 and 1968.
Sampson joined John Wooden (UCLA), Bob Knight (Indiana), Bill Self (Kansas), Ralph Miller (Oregon State), Eddie Sutton (Arkansas, Kentucky), Roy Williams (Kansas, North Carolina), Tony Bennett (Washington State, Virginia) and Ray Meyer (DePaul) as multiple winners and joined Sutton, Williams and Bennett as the only coaches to accomplish the feat at multiple schools.
This marked the fifth National Coach of the Year honor that Sampson earned for his work during the 2023-24 season. In late March, he received the Henry Iba Award, presented annually by the United States Basketball Writers Association, and was named National Coach of the Year by the National Association of Basketball Coaches and Field of 68. He was honored as the John McLendon Award recipient for the second time in his Houston career on Thursday.
Sampson also is one of four finalists for the Werner Ladder Naismith Coach of the Year, which will be presented at the NCAA Final Four in Phoenix this weekend.