Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo speaks during a news conference Thursday, March 27, 2025, in Atlanta ahead of the Sweet 16 in the NCAA college basketball tournament. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — It’s hard sometimes for Kelvin Sampson to recognize the sport he’s coached more than 40 years.

He sees name, image and likeness money, the transfer portal, the soon-to-be ending NIL collectives and the soon-to-be start of revenue sharing, and he knows he must adapt to college basketball’s new world if he intends to keep winning recruiting battles and games.

Sampson may not embrace every new development, but he’s not complaining because he believes the ever-changing game is as healthy as it’s ever been — warts and all.

“We have a great game, we still have great kids. Our kids do well in NIL and I’m thankful it hasn’t changed our kids,” the longtime Houston coach and Big 12 coach of the year said Saturday. “I hear the horror stories. I think the horror stories are more the minority, but it’s still a great game. It’s a game where you can teach good values, teach kids it’s OK to make mistakes, it’s OK to get up when you get knocked down. While everything is growing exponentially in areas I had no idea even existed, it’s still a great game.”

At age 69, Sampson is still drawing up terrific plays like the game-deciding inbound pass in Friday’s 62-60 victory over Purdue, which set up Sunday’s Midwest Region championship game between the top-seeded Cougars and second-seeded Tennessee. The Volunteers are led by Sampson’ longtime friend, the 70-year-old Rick Barnes.

Seventy-year-old Michigan State coach Tom Izzo also will be chasing a Final Four spot Sunday when his second-seeded Spartans face top-seeded Auburn in the South Region.

Together, the trio remains part of the shrinking old guard of coaches. The profession becomes increasingly younger with each successive retirement, a list that includes national championship winners Roy Williams, Jay Wright, Mike Krzyzewski, Tony Bennett and Jim Boeheim.

While college basketball’s continuing evolution may have chased some former coaches off the recruiting trail, Sampson, Barnes and Izzo have stuck around and adapted — even if they don’t always agree with what’s happening.

“You have to talk to players differently. You have to make adjustments. You’ve got more people,” Izzo said Saturday, two weeks after joking at the Big Ten Tournament there are no longer any NCAA rules to enforce. “But when it gets down to that locker room before the game, it’s all the same.”

All three would rather develop players through their own programs over multiple years, though each has dabbled in the portal to plug holes. They just choose not to completely overhaul their teams each season.

They’ve also learned how to manage rosters and how to deal more regularly with university administrators. They are about to learn the nuances of how to operate under what amounts to a salary cap of about $20.5 million next season.

And while some critics contend the sport has lost something in this world of de facto player free agency, Barnes disagrees.

“I still think the game is a pure game, a beautiful game, and I love coaching it,” he said. “I think with the NIL, I can see it if you’re at a university where the administration doesn’t get it. We all want to win. The rumors I’m hearing, it’s absolutely mind-boggling, but that’s not going to keep us from doing our job, and I couldn’t care less about it right now.”

The reason is simple: There’s still a championship at stake.

Izzo is on the cusp of a ninth Final Four bid, his first since 2019, and would like to add his second national title a quarter-century after winning his first.

Sampson is one win away from making the third Final Four trip of his career, two wins from reaching his first title game and three victories from celebrating win No. 800 in his career, win No. 300 at top-seeded Houston and his first national title.

Barnes, whose 836 wins are the most among active coaches and include a Final Four trip in 2003 with Texas, is trying to get Tennessee into its first national semifinal.

And whoever wins Sunday in Indy will have more than just a rabid fan base in his corner. Sampson and Barnes hope one of them wins this year to prove one of the game’s elder statesmen can still cut down the nets.

“Rick’s one of a kind. I wish we had more like him,” Sampson said. “He’s just a jewel among jewels. He’s one of the great ones. I’ve spent a lot of time with that guy, different places, on the road, recruiting. If we don’t win it, I hope he does. That’s how much I respect him.”

Barnes added: “I’ve known Kelvin a lifetime. He and I have kind of grown up together, kind of grown old together, too. I love him. I love Kelvin Sampson, and he and I will be friends until the day we die.”