Kelvin Sampson has rarely paid any mind to his team’s ranking, but things were different on Monday when his daughter, basketball operations director Lauren Sampson, delivered him news that he had never heard in his 34 years as a college head coach.
“Lauren said, ‘We’re No. 1,’ and she came and gave me a high-five,” Sampson said. “She said, ‘That’s pretty cool, isn’t it?’ I said, ‘Yeah, that is pretty cool.’”
Knowing the potential to occupy the top ranking after Saturday’s win over Kent State, Sampson’s first inclination was not to think about his current team, but rather the past.