Kelvin Sampson has coached quite a lot of athletes in his day, and many with incredible NBA and collegiate careers behind them.
Still, one player sticks out, unlike anyone else Sampson has ever coached. Can you guess who? It’s senior forward JoJo Tugler, who Kelvin Sampson raved about, calling him “one of one.
Here was the full, long quote from Sampson: “He’s one of the greatest, nicest, best teammates. He picks up the dumb fouls (against TCU), and they were dumb fouls, just like I make a lot of dumb coaching decisions, and that’s what they are, just dumb coaching decisions. I try as hard as I can not to repeat ’em. I wish I could have had a tape recorder and allowed people to listen to him and see how apologetic he was. And how encouraging, and how he coached each member of his team on the bench.”
“If he knew I was going down to get somebody, he’d give him last-minute instructions before he went out,” Sampson continued. “And somebody would come out of the game, and JoJo would put his arm around him and tell him he did well. Just so selfless. Such a great teammate. Such a great kid.”
While Kelvin Sampson’s normally stoic but personable approach is usually his demeanor in post-game comments, this one hit the heart. To hear one of the greatest coaches in all of college basketball describe a kid in the way he did, Tugler, speaks volumes.
This year, Tuger is averaging 7.9 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 1.1 assists, but it seems his value and impact on the court and program stretch far beyond just statistics and numbers. That’s a beautiful thing all around, and another incredible Kelvin Sampson story to add to the growing list.
