The gym was packed, the game Kelvin Sampson came to watch was hours away, and outside, Florida’s summer humidity stuck to the Houston Cougars coach’s skin. So, Sampson escaped to his rental car in an Orlando parking lot, where he blasted the air conditioning and killed time with calls.



Sampson phoned the father of Caleb Mills, the prospect he’d traveled to this AAU tournament to see. Sampson had noticed more coaches crowd the sidelines at the scoring guard’s games over the summer, so even though he liked the Cougars’ chances of getting Mills on campus for an official visit, he knew he needed to keep the recruiting press on.



At least that’s what Sampson thought, until Demond Mills, the boy’s father, let him in on a secret: Coach, I know what he’s going to do. He’s going to come play for you.



The 64-year-old Sampson, in his sixth season at Houston, has been in the business long enough to be skeptical. The...