HOUSTON -- It was April 2014 when Kelvin Sampson accepted the job that had devoured numerous coaches before him.
The depths to which the University of Houston Cougars basketball program had fallen from its glory days in the mid-1980s, the Phi Slama Jama era, were well-chronicled. Sampson thought he knew what he was getting into. Then he walked into Hofheinz Pavilion for the first time.
As he looked around the Cougars' 45-year-old basketball facility and saw the tiny locker room, the ancient seats and the low lighting that made the place resemble a dungeon, the difficulty of the task before him became apparent.