WICHITA, Kan. — Sitting in his car in York, Pennsylvania, Mark Hendrickson doesn’t hesitate when asked about his former college basketball coach, Kelvin Sampson, now of the University of Houston .

“I think if you ask anybody that's a former player, they appreciate that in him, because he's a straight shooter,” said Hendrickson, a former Washington State standout who played two seasons under Sampson before launching an unprecedented professional sports career.

Sampson produces more than just professional basketball players. He also coached this former big league pitcher.

At 6-foot-9, Hendrickson is one of the few athletes to play in both the NBA and Major League Baseball — and the only one to spend at least four seasons in each. He credits Sampson’s honesty and work ethic as key influences during his formative years.

“Back when I was a freshman, I'm not going to kid you, I was scared,” Hendrickson recalled of Sampson’s .

The turning point came during a moment of struggle when Hendrickson went to Sampson roughly two or three weeks into his first year on campus.

“I was struggling,” Hendrickson admitted. “Mark, you're my guy. I'm going to win with you, and I'm going to lose with you,” he remembers Sampson telling him — a statement that gave him the confidence he needed.

After Sampson left Washington State for Oklahoma, Hendrickson was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers. Eventually, he switched sports and made it to the majors in baseball, playing 10 years in MLB. Yet even with his rare dual-sport success, he says Sampson never discouraged his baseball aspirations.

"Playing baseball wasn't an issue for him?" we asked.

"Never was,” Hendrickson noted, because baseball starts later in the Northwest due to the weather.

Hendrickson is not the only major league baseball player Sampson has coached, either. Ryan Minor, who played for Sampson at Oklahoma, was a third baseman for the Baltimore Orioles, beginning in 1998. Minor died in December 2023 of cancer.

Asked how much pride Sampson might take in Hendrickson’s accomplishments as baseball player, given Sampson is a basketball coach, he paused.

“I think for him, I don't want to say pride,” he said, instead emphasizing the coach's relentless work ethic and no-nonsense approach to development.

“Mark is an awesome guy,” said Sampson on Friday in Wichita, ahead of Houston’s second round match-up against Gonzaga.

“We played in Morgantown earlier this year, and Mark brought his whole family and his little girl's basketball team and got to spend time with Mark after the game," Hendrickson said. "Last year, we played the Veterans Classic in Annapolis at the Naval Academy, and he came over. I actually had Mark speak to the team. He did an awesome job. “

Hendrickson is now in the real estate business and has also started his own performance coaching company .

What Sampson preached back then, Hendrickson says, is no different from what he preaches now.

“He was just younger, little bit more raw, had more fight to him, but it was a blue collar mentality,” Hendrickson said.

And that mentality paid off. Hendrickson twice won Sampson’s coveted blue collar award — a point of personal pride.