Kelvin Sampson didn’t say a word. Before Oklahoma played at Texas on Feb. 2, he simply glared at a newspaper clip in which UT’s James Thomas called the Sooners "cocky and self-centered." Then, the coach focused his cobalt eyes on his team. Sampson’s players, well-schooled in the Kelvin scale of intensity, promptly went out and beat -- and beat up -- the Longhorns. "We feed off Coach," says OU power forward Jozsef Szendrei.

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And they’re only getting hungrier. After coldcocking the Big 12 with a brass-knuckles style, Oklahoma may be ready to bully its way to its first Final Four since 1988. The team’s success is spurred by in-your-grill defense and suffocating pressure, spearheaded by junior guard Hollis Price. The Sooners led the Big 12 in turnover margin (plus-4.1) and were second in scoring D (65.2). As with almost all of Sampson’s eight OU squads, these guys don’t make a whole lot of friends on the court. Kansas forward Drew Gooden, for one, calls them flat-out dirty. Like the Sooners could give a flying hoot. Says Szendrei, a 6'9", 240-pound Hungarian goulash of muscles and menacing scowls: "I’d rather be called dirty than soft."

From the second a new recruit steps on campus, Sampson is pushing toughness (in 6 a.m. preseason conditioning drills) and discipline (through his zero tolerance for crap). His favorite testimonial: The coach lost count of how many times he tossed out Cincy transfer forward Aaron McGhee from practice a year ago; now Sampson proudly calls "Ace" his most consistent player. "People don’t understand," he says, "but one thing you can teach is courage.”

Sampson learned that lesson from his own coach at Pembroke (N.C.) High: Ned Sampson. Ned and wife Eva, both Native Americans, raised their four kids on the nearby Lumbee Indian reservation. When Kelvin was 2, his father was part of a group of Native Americans and African-Americans who broke up a KKK rally, an event pictured on the cover of Life. Kelvin may have been too young to remember his dad’s brave stance, but he had a lifetime to study the man’s work ethic: Ned wasn’t just a coach, he also sold encyclopedias and insurance door-to-door, and worked in the tobacco market. Kelvin also inherited Ned’s tireless spirit. "His gym had no heat, no AC," Sampson says. "He was there because he loved teaching."

Now, his son does the teaching. Sometimes, without saying a word.

This article appears in the March 18 issue of ESPN The Magazine.