SAN ANTONIO – Before Duke coach Jon Scheyer coached in his first official game after taking over for Mike Krzyzewski two seasons ago, he flew his team to Houston to play in a secret preseason scrimmage. Scheyer intentionally sought out Kelvin Sampson and the Cougars for his first career "game."

When Kelvin Sampson took Houston to its last Final Four, it was a much different experience. That was in 2021, the year after COVID wiped out the entire NCAA Tournament, and things still hadn’t quite returned to normal.

There are three coaches in the Big 12 making more money than Houston's Kelvin Sampson, but he's the only one representing the conference at the Final Four.