UH guard DeJon Jarreau and head coach Kelvin Sampson during the University’s alma mater following a game at Fertitta Center in 2019-20 season. | Kathryn Lenihan/The Cougar
Houston men’s basketball head coach Kelvin Sampson has met with his primary athletic trainer more in the last five months than he did the past five years.
The reason for Sampson’s constant conversations with John Houston is because of COVID-19, which cut the Cougars’ 2019-20 season short just days before the American Athletic Conference Tournament.
Since then, knowledge about the virus has increased drastically, and while cases appear to still be a problem across the country, the NCAA and its conferences are determined to get a season off the ground. However, this year is sure to have plenty of bumpy patches along the way.
“It’s almost inevitable,” Sampson told reporters via a Zoom conference call on Tuesday. “It’s not a matter of if, just a matter of when.”
With cancellations across the college basketball world already happening, the UH head coach knows that his team is also susceptible to facing not only cancellations but positive tests.
Status heading into game vs. Lamar
As for the Cougars on the eve of their season opener with the Cardinals, they have been cleared to host the contest.
UH tested all of the men’s basketball student-athletes, coaches, staff and student-managers around 7:45 a.m on Monday, Sampson said. The team finished getting all the test results on Tuesday — all negative.
Despite the good news within UH’s program for Wednesday, Sampson knows that things can change quickly, and he said that his team is constantly talking about what it would do if it got delayed due to the coronavirus.
Another layer added on top of that is guidelines from both the AAC and NCAA are constantly being updated.
While currently, a team can still play its upcoming game even if one student-athlete tests positive for the virus. It can only happen as long as the rest of the teammates, and those who were in close contact to that individual, continue to test negative every day leading up to the contest, Sampson said.
The player that tests positive would also be isolated in their own room, Sampson said, which UH has already set aside 14 different dorm rooms if they are needed.
These guidelines, however, are not set in stone.
“Everything I am telling you is fluid,” Sampson said. “There is a comma on everything that I am saying. There’s not a period because this time next week, it could change again.”
As the Cougars embark on a season that will be unlike any other and still has plenty of question marks surrounding how it will go, the head coach said that he and his staff will always air on the side of caution.
“It’s not just coaching basketball anymore,” Sampson said. “You’re dealing with the health of young men that you’re in charge of keeping safe. If it came down to playing a game versus the safety of one of our kids, we’re always going to be on the side safety.”
For more of The Cougar’s coronavirus coverage, click here.
