A Coach’s Learning Culture

Another college basketball season has started.

Our oldest son played the sport for the University of Houston from 2014 to 2018. Kelvin Sampson was his coach.

I was thinking about Coach Sampson the other evening as I was watching his Cougars defeat one more challenger in the young season. I was thinking about Coach Sampson’s emphasis on building a basketball culture with his players, coaches, and staff.

Coach Sampson’s first year at Houston happened to be my son’s first year. My son wasn’t recruited in high school, but played AAU basketball for a coach who knew Coach Sampson. During my son’s “walk-on” interview, Sampson said nothing about winning games. His entire speech that day revolved around “culture.”

Sampson is a seasoned coach, and arguably will be inducted into a hall of fame sometime in the future. He’s coached high-performing college and NBA players. He’s taken a couple teams to the NCAA Final Four.

If you ask Coach Sampson what is behind his success as a coach, and his teams’ successes over the years, he would tell you that it is the establishment of a “success culture” that has made all the difference.

Other coaches invest in players for one year and then let them go to the NBA. Not Sampson. He evaluates players that will stay with him and the Cougar team for all four years of their eligibility.

And culture has paid off for Sampson and his teams. As a 34-year head coaching veteran at Houston, Indiana, Oklahoma, Washington State, and Montana Tech, Sampson has compiled a 732-344 record during his career with 18 NCAA Tournament appearances. He is one of only 15 coaches in NCAA history to lead 4+ schools to the NCAA Tournament and one of only 16 coaches to lead multiple schools to the NCAA Final Four. Sampson has been named National Coach of the Year six times.

Sampson knows culture. Sampson teaches culture. Sampson and his teams embrace culture.

When my son met Sampson in his office that day, Coach taught my son what it meant to be a “good walk-on.” First, Sampson emphasized the importance of getting good grades. According to the Coach, my son had to see himself as a “model student.” And more importantly, the other team members had to see my son as a “model student” others wanted to emulate. Second, Coach Sampson expected a tremendous amount of “positivity” from my son as he interacted with the other players. The college basketball season is a long one, and it’s easy to get down on yourself – especially if your performance has hit a rough patch. Third, my son had to be a self-starter. Unlike recruited athletes, no one was going to pay much attention to a walk-on. So, not only did my son have to motivate others, most importantly he had to motivate himself. Finally, Sampson told my son, “Be a good person, be a good student, and try as hard as you can.”

My son earned a scholarship as a junior, was a team captain as a senior, helped lead Houston to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2010. My son now plays professional basketball in Germany.

I started thinking about the importance of culture in any endeavor worth pursuing – sports, business, family-life, and learning.

If you were a young learner, how would you build a strong culture around your learning?

Here’s what I came up with:

Be able to define what you want to learn

Understand what you want to learn, how you will know you learned it, and what you will do if you haven’t learned it

Be able to plan what you want to learn

Be able to execute on what you want to learn

Be able to evaluate your learning

Find someone to serve as your learning coach

Find others you would like to learn with

And finally, to borrow a few from the Coach:

Be positive

Be a self-starter

Be a good person, and

Try as hard as you can.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Before I close, there is a news update from Texas. Last Friday in the News Roundup, it was reported that the Texas Legislature was going to vote on Governor Greg Abbott’s voucher bill. Indeed that vote was taken and Governor Abbott’s education savings account initiative, along with an increase in teacher pay along with other public school financial supports, failed to pass. It will be interesting to see what happens to those Texas rural Republican legislators that didn’t vote the way Abbott expected them to. It’s safe to say the upcoming primary season in the Lone Star State will be interesting.

I’ll be off until November 27^th. Enjoy your turkey! SVB