UCLA’s Mick Cronin trolls Kelvin Sampson over ‘poor’ comment originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
On February 5, Houston Cougars head coach Kelvin Sampson made an interesting claim following their 79-55 win over UCF. Despite their No. 2 ranking or their National Championship game appearance in 2025, Sampson claims the program is poor.
Advertisement
“We have a very poor athletic department,” Sampson said. “We’re poor. We were poor when I got here, and we’re still poor. We probably have the lowest budget of anybody in Power 4. The way our recruiting is going, we have to stop at some point because we don’t have the money to keep bringing in many good players. And that’s not easy for us to do.”
On Monday, Sampson spoke with The Field of 68 and told a fun story that came from his “poor” comments twelve days ago. During that conversation, Jeff Goodman reintroduced the idea that Sampson is poor. He slides over a one hundred dollar bill. “I heard you were broke. I just wanted to help out here. You know, for your next meal…” Goodman said.
Sampson smartly and immediately slid the currency back towards Goodman while chuckling. However, that did open the door for an interesting story provided by Bruins head coach Mick Cronin, told by Sampson.
“Mick Cronin had the best line,” Sampson told reporter Jeff Goodman. “He Venmo’s me a dollar… (and) he said, ‘Yo, man, I heard your shtick—(at) postgame press conferences, you gotta learn not to say certain things. But I did get that you don’t have very much, so here’s a dollar.'”
Advertisement
More:Master P’s son Mercy had one of the best dunks of the college basketball season
According to a USA Today database, Houston was ranked 56th in Division I athletics with revenue of $78 million — or nearly one-third of rival Texas‘ athletic budget — in 2024. Per ESPN, in a letter to the fan base in July, athletic director Eddie Nunez issued a “call to action” to raise additional revenue for NIL opportunities.
No. 2 Houston has Big 12 lead over No. 4 Arizona after a three point loss to Iowa State. Houston’s next game is against the Arizona. That game will take place on Saturday February 21. That game will be the third game in a row against top 10 ranked teams. No. 4 Arizona at No. 2 Houston will tip off at 3pm EST and broadcast on ABC.
