Commentary: Two veteran coaches moved with the times — and kept winning big

INDIANAPOLIS – As his players did most of the talking, crowing about the merits of “Tennessee basketball,” Rick Barnes mainly just sat there. In quiet reflection, Barnes, the Volunteers’ coach for the past decade, rested his face on the palm of his hand during a postgame news conference. He thought only about gratitude.

Sometime later, Kelvin Sampson carried his 4-year-old grandson through the belly of the same football stadium. Before reaching the changing area for the Houston Cougars in this Midwest Region, he swung young Kylen down for a quick spell – after all, Sampson is 69 years old and moves with a slight but noticeable hobble. But it was past midnight and the sleepy child reached his arms up again, so grandpa obliged.

Their teams had secured entry into the Elite Eight – No. 2 seed Tennessee and top-seeded Houston will meet Sunday afternoon inside Lucas Oil Stadium, the winner advancing to the Final Four – and the coaches very much acted their age. Barnes is a septuagenarian, Sampson will get there in October. They both rank within the top 10 of most wins by active coaches, which means they’ve been coaching for a long time. Back when college kids couldn’t make money off their name, image or likeness, nor walk around in those newfangled slip-on sandals.

At this point in his career, it’ll be hard to catch Barnes whooping it up in the locker room after a win in March (he has 12 tournament victories at Tennessee alone). Instead, he just sat still and said his prayers.

“If you want me to be totally transparent, I have been praying and thanking God for the opportunity to be here,” Barnes said, explaining his hushed demeanor while his star guard Zakai Zeigler and other players handled questions on the dais.

And Sampson has coached long enough to go from the most hated man in a state to being honored nationwide. Two decades ago, while coaching at Indiana, Sampson violated NCAA rules by making hundreds of impermissible phone calls to recruits. Sampson handicapped the program into three years of probation; he resigned, but still received a five-year ban from coaching in the college ranks. His comeback happened in Houston; he lifted the program back to relevancy, earning three consecutive No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament and the Associated Press Coach of the Year award in 2024. No longer a heel, Sampson’s the lovable grandpa now.

“(Sampson) has so much passion for the game,” Cougars junior guard Milos Uzan. “It’s literally his family, his faith and then his team.”

The new realities of college basketball haven’t been so kind for men like Barnes and Sampson. Indiana coach Mike Woodson, 67: forced out. Miami’s Jim Larrañaga, 75: quit midseason. Florida State’s Leonard Hamilton, 76, stepped aside after being sued by former players who claim he didn’t make good on NIL promises. Yet, here they are, Barnes and Sampson, not just hanging on, but thriving. The old men in this odd, new world, still winning.

“Coach has definitely grown from a lot of things,” 21-year-old Houston guard Terrance Arceneaux said about Sampson. “He knows it’s a new era. He told me a while back about that: ‘I know it’s a new era, so I don’t trip about most things like that no more.’ ”

Before the game, Sampson did his best to draw up plays on the dry erase board without caring about all the new and unopened containers of Dove Men soap, lotion and deodorant in every player’s stall. The shameless product placement might have riled up the old Sampson. But not this version, who’s adept at coaching a modern team. He’s worked the transfer portal; Uzan, who scored the winning layup in the Sweet 16 matchup against Purdue Friday night, moved to Houston from the Oklahoma Sooners. And he doesn’t trip – Arceneaux’s words – over cellphones anymore. With NIL deals in their pockets, these kids – sorry, pros – need to handle their business. So, phones are allowed. Same goes for earrings. And slides.

“He used to be like ‘no slides,’ because not a lot of slides had backs on them and stuff like that, (but) he’s grown on to that,” Arceneaux said. “Earrings. Especially the phone and social media. That was the biggest thing, I think. He always brings that up, but he knows how important it is nowadays, especially for NIL. He’s just hip to a lot of things.”

Still, in many ways, both Sampson and Barnes have stayed true to good ol’ fashioned coaching. Sampson still operates one way: hard. He will strike his favorite pose whenever the team shifts to the defensive end – arms folded across his chest – but otherwise, Sampson’s active on the sideline. Can’t spot the limp when Sampson is throwing a fit after a bad shot and letting a player know about it. L.J. Cryer, a graduate student who started his career at Baylor, committed to Sampson’s program in 2023, embracing the fact that he’d hear a mouthful every now and then.

“I feel like he carries a chip on his shoulder when he coaches,” Cryer said. “I needed some tough coaching, and I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but at the end of the day, I was going to be better for it on the other side. I chose hard. Playing for Houston is hard, and I feel like I’m reaping the benefits.”

At Tennessee, Barnes freely gives his players autonomy, and confidence. Zeigler, who has averaged 15 points and nine assists in three tournament wins, has spent his entire four-year career with Barnes. Because his coach has been so forthright, Zeigler has yet to find a reason to look elsewhere.

“It’s amazing having a coach like this. Hall of Fame coach giving me the keys and having that much trust in me means the world to me,” Zeigler said. “Back to when I was being recruited by him, and him telling me he’s going to give me a fair shot of being on the court, ever since that conversation, Coach Barnes has never lied to me about anything. Up to this point, coming in, I was never really a point guard, and for me to be one of the top point guards in the country now and him bringing me into that is amazing.”

On Sunday, the praying man and the doting grandfather will meet at half court in the Elite Eight. They’ll shake hands and maybe exchange pleasantries. They both want, but have never achieved, a national championship. They’ve spent a lifetime chasing the ultimate prize. They’re three wins away.