Hours after Ronald Hughey resigned as Houston women’s basketball coach, men’s basketball coach Kelvin Sampson gave his reaction during his media availability on Thursday.
Sampson said, “There’s not a better human being on this campus than coach Ron Hughey. Just a upbeat, bubbly, positive, always saw the glass half full kind of guy. And you know, you hate it, but you know, we sign up for this.
“Ron’s a big boy. He, you know, went into this year knowing that something good had to happen, but he’ll bounce back somewhere. He’s a good man; he’s a good basketball man. It just didn’t happen for him here, but I pray that things will work out for him going forward.”
During Hughey’s time as head coach, the Cougars posted a 140-195 overall record, including a 65-119 mark in conference games. Houston finished its 2024-25 season at 5-25 overall and 1-17 in Big 12 Conference play. During his tenure, he guided the Cougars to one 20-plus win season in 2018.
He compiled an overall record of 140-195 and a 65-119 record in conference play through nine seasons in the American and the first two seasons of the Big 12 Conference for Houston, eight of which were losing seasons. His teams made three WNIT appearances, all of which were first-round exits, and zero NCAA tournament appearances.
“We thank Coach Hughey for his dedication to the Houston Women’s Basketball program and this great University,” Nuñez said. “We appreciate Coach Hughey’s efforts during his time at Houston and his loyalty to our student-athletes. We will conduct a national search to identify the next leader to move our program forward.”
Houston’s women’s basketball season ended on Wednesday in the first round of the 2025 Big 12 women’s basketball tournament with a 66-58 loss to Houston.
Meantime, the men have already clinched the Big 12 basketball regular season championship and will wrap up their 2024-25 campaign on Saturday at Baylor. Tip off is at 9:00 p.m. on ESPN.
