The Houston Cougars have made it to the Final Four and that is, in no small part, thanks to head coach Kelvin Sampson. In turn, this post will be about Kelvin Sampson's net worth in 2021.
Sampson has had a long career as an NCAA head coach and he's continually made a name for himself as a hard-nosed, grind-it-out coach who wants players that play hard and together.
Sampson's Houston Cougars are a team built around long, gritty, and athletic wings who seek to create havoc on defense and by crashing the boards. He was one of the first college coaches to adopt this sort of aggressive, free-flowing style all the way back in the early 1990s while he was coaching a different set of Cougars; the Washington State Cougars.
Kelvin has earned himself multiple different contracts throughout his over three decades as an NCAA head coach. His contracts have varied in pay, but Houston is one of the most profitable mid-major basketball programs in all of the NCAA and his net worth certainly reflects that.
Kelvin Sampson's Net Worth (Estimate): $1-$5 Million
This is a pretty broad number and it reflects the lack of reporting and true knowledge surrounding the assets a coach owns. Celebrities tend to have much more transparent assets, expenditures, and businesses, but coaches don't get the press and deep dive that celebrities do.
Sampson began his coaching career at Washington State in 1987. He was at WSU for seven years before moving on to the Oklahoma Sooners. At Oklahoma, he really broke onto the scene as an elite coach. He made the NCAA tournament 11 times in 12 seasons, including a Final Four appearance. After his time at Oklahoma, he had a brief stint at Indiana University. He was only there for two years and, despite making the tournament both years, it was considered a disappointing tenure.
After spending time at those three schools, he found his way to his current home in Houston. He has helped return the Houston Cougars to the glory they had in the past. The Cougars use to be a basketball powerhouse in the 80s and they have been trying to recreate that success ever since. This year has marked their first return to the Final Four since their historic loss to the Patrick Ewing lead Georgetown team in 1984.
This year marks Kelvin Sampson's second trip to the Final Four, his first since the 2001-02 season with the Oklahoma Sooners. This Cougars team is very well constructed and dominates the game in the way Sampson wants them to. The team is full of long, athletic playmakers who hustle non-stop. They dominate the offensive boards as a group and they make perimeter players very uncomfortable as drivers.
If the Cougars hope to make the championship, they will rely on heavy offensive contributions from Quentin Grimes, Marcus Sasser, and Dejon Jarreau. These players take the majority of the offensive load for this Houston team and they struggle to get contributions outside of these three. Houston is not a great shooting or scoring team and they rely very heavily on their swarming defense, their star guards, and their offensive rebounding to win games.
Kelvin Sampson's contract details are a little vague, but there are some things we know. He received a contract extension in 2019 that lasts through 2025 and has some very odd wording in it. This wording is part of what leads to the confusion as to his net worth.
One little detail in Sampson's contract that affects his current net worth is that the contract was backloaded. Due to complications with the COVID-19 pandemic, he took a hit to his pay this season, but it will be made up throughout the remaining seasons of his contracts. He is also set to receive bonuses every time he makes the NCAA Tournament, every time he wins the AAC, and every round he wins in the NCAA Tournament.
Active coaches who have led multiple programs to the Final Four:
Kelvin Sampson
Bob Huggins
John Calipari
Rick Pitino
Roy Williams— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) March 30, 2021
Sampson's contract, like many coach contracts, also has a buyout if the Houston Cougars wish to move on from him. This is an unlikely scenario, however. Kelvin Sampson is 65 years old and, with the recent retirement of Roy Williams who was 70, is likely to retire a Houston Cougar. Speculation has already begun in some circles about how long Kelvin will continue to coach due to his age, but Sampson has been adamant that he wants to win a championship. Obviously, being in the Final Four, he could have as good a chance as any this year but it will likely not be the last time this Houston team is heard from.
Next year, Houston will have much of the same roster they have this year (perhaps without Quentin Grimes) as well as a very good recruiting class. Returners like Tramon Mark and Jamal Shead could make a huge impact next year alongside incoming four-star recruit Ja'Vier Francis. The Houston Cougars, and Kelvin Sampson, are likely here to stay. Nevertheless, are you at all stunned by Kelvin Sampson's net worth in 2021?
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