UCLA's Mick Cronin Sent Kelvin Sampson $1 on Venmo After Houston MCBB HC's 'Poor' Comments

Earlier in February, Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson told reporters that the Cougars have a "very poor athletic department. We're poor. We were poor when I got here, and we're still poor."

So UCLA head coach Mike Cronin sent him... a dollar.

"Mick Cronin had the best line," Sampson told college basketball reporter Jeff Goodman over the weekend. "He Venmos 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.'"

As Devon Henderson of The Athletic noted, Houston "has the lowest budget among all power conference programs. The university spent $99 million on sports in fiscal year 2025, while schools such as Texas, Ohio State, Georgia and Michigan each have annual athletics budgets of greater than $200 million."

Despite that reality, Sampson has the Cougars ranked No. 2 in the nation with a 23-2 record, a year removed from reaching the national championship game. And now he has another dollar in his pocket, too.