Quotes from Kelvin Sampson

My dad has always been my role model.

Kevin McHale was a master communicator and knows how to coach stars, and that's a unique gift because you take an old-school guy that's used to coaching his way, he'd have a hard time coaching them cats now, but Kevin knows how, and he has the patience of Job.

Our offensive philosophy is to simply find a way to get the ball into the hands of our team's best player.

Washington State was a tough recruiting spot.

There are incredible decisions made in a 48-minute game with a 24-second shot clock and the last two minutes of a game.

I always coached mostly the have-not schools.

The thing that surprised me is you hear a lot about NBA guys, do they really want to be coached? My experience is they really do want to be coached. They want a plan: 'How are we going to win the game?' And they'll follow that plan.

When you decide to go into coaching, obviously you don't forget why. That's to help develop young people, help them chase their dreams, help them reach their goals.

The coaching community is really tight-knit.

I didn't want to end my coaching career as an assistant in the NBA.

I just coach my team. I just focus on coaching my team.

I didn't realize the difference between coaching college and coaching the NBA. It's a totally different animal.

Coaching is competitively addictive. It just gets in your blood, especially if you win.

You coach at a have-not school, and you have to have a competitiveness and a resolve and resiliency about you that's different, or you'll never make it. You've got to find a way to do more with less.

Little old University of Houston jumping up, swinging with the big boys, and that's something to take pride in. I'm happy for our fans, I'm happy for our alumni, but more importantly, I'm happy for our players.

Sometimes Kellen calls me 'Coach.' Sometimes he calls me 'Pops.'

Karen is as good a coach's wife as I've ever been around, and she's better than most. She loves basketball and has a great understanding of my responsibilities, my possession.

Guys like Andre Miller and Kevin Garnett - they're posting up hoping a second guy will run at them so they can pass. You're better just playing one-on-one in the post if you can.

Coaching is what I love to do, and I think I'm pretty good at it.

You just have to be secure and understand what your beliefs are and how determined you are.

When I left college ball, I think I was prepared to coach a team, but I don't think I was prepared to help the team win.

I don't think I was a good enough coach to help an NBA team win a game when I first got to that league.

Tough teams win when the shots are not going.

The bad teams in our league are the ones who don't pass the ball well.