Houston coach Kelvin Sampson edges UConn's Dan Hurley for AP coach of the year

There was a moment during the NCAA Tournament, when top-seeded Houston was well on its way to a 40-point rout of No. 16 seed Longwood, that helps to capture why the Cougars have become so dominant under Kelvin Sampson.

It was late in the game, and Mylik Wilson was late closing out on the Lancers' DA Houston, who buried a 3-pointer over him.

“They were up 30,” Longwood coach Griff Aldrich recalled, “and I thought DA barely got the shot off. And Sampson's screaming at Wilson like that's an emergency. ‘Get out there!’ It's like, damn. I thought he was out there."

That's the way Sampson coaches, demanding excellence no matter the score or time left in the game. And the results speak for themselves: Houston won the Big 12 regular-season title i n its first year in the league, earned a No. 1 seed in the tournament for the second straight year and advanced through the opening weekend for the fifth time in a row.

The superlative season, which ended with a Sweet 16 loss to Duke during which All-American guard Jamal Shead hurt his ankle, allowed Sampson to narrowly edge UConn's Dan Hurley for his second Associated Press Coach of the Year award, which was announced Friday.

Sampson received 23 of 62 votes from the national panel that votes for the weekly AP Top 25; balloting closed before the start of the NCAA Tournament. Hurley, whose top-seeded Huskies will play Alabama in the Final Four on Saturday night as they chase a second consecutive national title, finished second with 21 votes.

“He coaches 40 minutes of a 40-minute game. I think that’s what makes us good,” Shead said of Sampson, who also earned AP coach of the year in 1995 with Oklahoma. “He holds us to the same standard, day-in, day-out, practice or game.”

Lamont Paris of South Carolina received eight votes to finish third. T.J. Otzelberger of Iowa State and Danny Sprinkle, who was recently hired away from Utah State by Washington, had four apiece. McNeese State's Will Wade and Kyle Smith, who coached Washington State to the second round of the NCAA tourney before leaving for Stanford, each received a vote.

Sampson is the 10th coach to win AP coach of the year multiple times, among them Guy Lewis, who won it twice with Houston during its previous heyday. Sampson is only the fourth to do it at separate schools and the 29 years between his awards is more than double the next-longest gap.

Themes of accountability, consistency and hard work at Houston can be traced to Sampson's upbringing in North Carolina.

His grandparents were products of the Depression. His father, Ned, was a high school teacher and coach who made ends meet by finding part-time jobs in the summer. His mother, Eva, was a nurse who put in 12-hour shifts. With four kids at home — Sampson had a twin sister, along with sisters older and younger — there was no alternative for them but to work.

“I didn’t realize what latchkey kids were until I started reading about it. ‘Hey, I was one of those!’” said Sampson, who often came home from school to find an empty house. “Back then, that’s how it was. You got up and you went to work.

“So when you ask me where I got that from,” Sampson said of his work ethic, “I got that from my mom and dad.”

He has passed it along to his players.

Starting with the first Monday in June, the Cougars are out on baseball fields, running 18 100-yard sprints for time. On Tuesday, they head into a parking garage, running up ramps with weighted vests — also for time. They have shooting practice Wednesday, hit the gym on Thursday and on Friday, their coach is out with a stopwatch to time them over a mile.

“When you go through stuff like that at 5:45, 6 in the morning,” Sampson said, “you learn to respect the guy beside you.”

Along the way, Houston has earned the respect of everyone in college basketball.

It had made one NCAA Tournament in 22 years before his 2014 arrival, and those heady days of Lewis and Phi Slama Jama had become a distant memory. Sampson's first season was rough, too. The Cougars went 13-19, winning just four American Athletic Conference games, and some wondered whether he could still win in college after six years in the NBA.

Yet the groundwork was laid for all that has followed: four regular-season AAC titles in a five-year span, a trip to the Final Four in the one year they did not win it, and back-to-back 30-plus win seasons that ushered them into the Big 12.

There, they won the regular-season title with two games to spare and finished 32-5 this season.

“I'm so blessed to have coached that first team that went 13-19," Sampson said. "That was the only team that my wife's ever asked, ‘Could you get them to sign a basketball for me?’ We have a lake house in North Carolina, and I see it every summer. She has that ball displayed in a prominent position there, and that's the only one.

“We've been to Final Fours, won a ton of conference championships,” Sampson added, "but she's only got one ball. That's from that 13-19 team. She appreciate that team because they never quit.”

Just like their coach. No matter the score or time left in the game.

AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball

UConn head coach Dan Hurley celebrates with center Donovan Clingan, left, after defeating Illinois following an Elite 8 college basketball game in the men's NCAA Tournament, Saturday, March 30, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

UConn head coach Dan Hurley catches confetti in his cap after defeating Illinois in the Elite 8 college basketball game in the men's NCAA Tournament, Saturday, March 30, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

UConn head coach Dan Hurley celebrates after defeating Illinois in the Elite 8 college basketball game in the men's NCAA Tournament, Saturday, March 30, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson reacts during the second half of a Sweet 16 college basketball game against Duke in the NCAA Tournament in Dallas, Friday, March 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson, left, talks with Damian Dunn (11) during the first half of a Sweet 16 college basketball game against Duke in the NCAA Tournament in Dallas, Friday, March 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson looks on during the first half of a Sweet 16 college basketball game against Duke in the NCAA Tournament in Dallas, Friday, March 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Houston forward J'Wan Roberts (13) and head coach Kelvin Sampson celebrate the team's 100-95 overtime win after a second-round college basketball game against Texas A&M in the NCAA Tournament, Sunday, March 24, 2024, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Brandon Dill)

Champions League qualification is getting tantalizingly close for Nottingham Forest.

For Manchester City, there's still plenty of work to do.

Forest, a team many might have thought would be battling relegation this season in the Premier League, moved just a point behind second-place Arsenal by beating Ipswich 4-2 on Saturday.

More importantly perhaps for Forest, the gap to City grew to six points after the soon-to-be-deposed champions drew 2-2 at home to Brighton.

City is hanging onto fifth place, which is likely to be the final Champions League qualification position from the Premier League for next season.

Certainly any ambitions for a record-extending fifth straight league title are long gone for City, which is 22 points behind first-place Liverpool with nine games left.

City twice took the lead in the first half, through Erling Haaland's penalty and Omar Marmoush's fierce outside-of-the-area shot, but was pegged back each time by an opponent also in contention to get into the Champions League.

An own-goal by Abdukodir Khusanov in the 48th ultimately clinched a point for Brighton, which is only a point behind City and could easily have come away from at Etihad Stadium with all three points. Carlos Baleba blasted over the bar from close range with a great late chance for the visitors

“I came from the locker room and it’s a disappointing feeling," Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler said.

City has won just two of its last six league games and already has conceded 40 league goals, its most in a single campaign in Pep Guardiola's nine seasons at the club.

“That’s because of something missing,” said Guardiola, who acknowledged that he could sense a nervousness in the crowd.

“Yes definitely,” he said. “Everybody feels the pressure."

Anthony Elanga scored twice for Forest, whose other goals came from Nikola Milenkovic and Jota Silva in the latest win on its march back to Europe's top competition.

Forest famously won the European Cup in 1979 and ’80 under Brian Clough and is close to returning to the competition under Nuno Espirito Santo, who had to steer the team away from relegation danger after being hired midway through last season.

Nuno wasn't getting carried away, though.

“You know what I think about the table,” he said. “What we have (to do) is to focus on ourselves, focus on ourselves. Work as much as we can because there is a lot of football to be played yet."

Ipswich, in third-to-last place, dropped nine points adrift of safety after Wolverhampton — the team directly above the relegation zone — won 2-1 at last-place Southampton.

Jørgen Strand Larsen scored both of Wolves' goals.

Leicester, which is tied for points with Ipswich in 19th place, hosts Manchester United on Sunday and Southampton is destined for the drop a further eight points back.

Bournemouth had been another unheralded team in contention for Champions League qualification but is starting to fade, dropping to ninth with a 2-1 home loss to Brentford.

Bournemouth hasn't won any of its last four league games, or five in all competitions, though is still only four points behind Man City — its opponent in the FA Cup quarterfinals at the end of the month.

Everton scored in stoppage time through Jake O'Brien to salvage a 1-1 draw at home to West Ham.

Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford reacts to a defensive clearance during the English Premier League soccer match between Everton and West Ham, at Goodison Park, Liverpool, England, Saturday March 15, 2025. (Peter Byrne/PA via AP)

Wolverhampton Wanderers' Jorgen Strand Larsen, left, celebrates scoring their side's second goal of the game during the English Premier League soccer match between Southampton and Wolverhampton Wanderers at St. Mary's Stadium, Southampton, England, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (Andrew Matthews/PA via AP)

Manchester City's Erling Haaland scores his side's opening goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester City and Brighton and Hove Albion at Etihad stadium in Manchester, England, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ian Hodgson)

Manchester City's Omar Marmoush, left, attempts a shot at goal in front of Brighton's Adam Webster to scores his side's second goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester City and Brighton and Hove Albion at Etihad stadium in Manchester, England, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ian Hodgson)

Manchester City's Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring his side's opening goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester City and Brighton and Hove Albion at Etihad stadium in Manchester, England, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ian Hodgson)

Nottingham Forest's Nikola Milenkovic scores their side's first goal of the game during the English Premier League soccer match between Ipswich Town and Nottingham Forest at Portman Road, Ipswich, England, Saturday March 15, 2025. (John Walton/PA via AP)

Manchester City's Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring his side's opening goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester City and Brighton and Hove Albion at Etihad stadium in Manchester, England, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ian Hodgson)

Manchester City's Erling Haaland, right, celebrates with his teammate Omar Marmoush after scoring his side's opening goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester City and Brighton and Hove Albion at Etihad stadium in Manchester, England, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ian Hodgson)