HOUSTON (SportsRadio 610)- Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff was just 32 years old when joined Kevin McHale’s Rockets’ coaching staff alongside Kelvin Sampson. The two men sat on opposite sides of their boss on the Rockets bench for three seasons, and Bickerstaff, who was hoping to one day become a head coach, got a chance to learn from someone who had already been successful at the job.
“The level of competition that he always tried to hold guys to, that was non-negotiable,” Bickerstaff said Saturday. “When you were with him, there was a standard that he set that you were going to give this level of competition. I think that’s transferred over, and I think it was something that I try to focus with and use up with our guys.”
Bickerstaff took over a floundering Cavs team during the 2019-20 season and led them to a 22-50 record in his first full season. They won 44 games the next season, 51 last season, and he has the Cavs in position to win a postseason series without LeBron James for the first time since 1993, but he’s been just as impressed with what Sampson has accomplished at Houston.
‘He created an identity there of style of play type of players that he recruits, how great they are, elite defensively, how hard they play, the type of guys he recruits. I think he’s just done a great job of putting together and building a program.”
When Bickerstaff was playing at Oregon State and Minnesota from 1997-2001, Sampson was racking up NCAA Tournament appearances with Oklahoma, but the Cavs coach believes building a college basketball powerhouse is much harder today.
“This has to be the most difficult era to build a program in. The transfer portal, and NIL, and that all stuff. Guys are moving so easily and teams change so drastically, to be able to build a consistent program at a time like this, you got to take your hat off to him. I think he’s done a great job.
Sampson and the Cougars will open their NCAA Tournament run in Memphis, where Bickerstaff was the Grizzlies head coach from 2017-2019 on Friday against 16th seeded Longwood.