LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — They say the transfer portal and NIL are driving the old, proven, established coaches out of college basketball. You know, the guys who were around with the peach baskets and canvas sneakers.
Roy Williams took his three NCAA championships and waved goodbye at North Carolina four years ago. Didn’t like the portal.
Mike Krzyzewski took his five championship victory lap in 2022 at Duke. Villanova lost Jay Wright and his two rings shortly thereafter. Didn’t love the portal.
Jim Boeheim (Syracuse), Tony Bennett (Virginia) and Jim Larranaga (Miami) are also going, going, gone.
That’s a dozen national championships and 304 NCAA Tournament victories out of the bracket over the last four seasons.
The old guys don’t want to play by the new rules.
Wrong.
Check the birth certificates of the four coaches who will be playing for a Final Four trip during the Elite Eight games in Indianapolis and Atlanta Sunday.
At 2:20 p.m. at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, in one corner you’ll find Rick Barnes of Tennessee, in the other Kelvin Sampson of Houston.
Barnes will turn 71 in July. He started his head coaching career at George Mason in 1987. Sampson will be 70 in October. He started at Washington State the same year.
Around 5 p.m. at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Tom Izzo will try to stop Bruce Pearl of Auburn from making the trip to San Antonio next weekend.
Pearl just turned 65. Izzo celebrated his 70th on Jan. 30.
Average age of the Fab Four: 68.5.
Let’s hear it for the old guys who have not surrendered to the new rules, even though Izzo has railed against them a time or two and Pearl has gone on national television to complain that we’re teaching young players to flee, not fight.
The young guys are playing on Saturday.
Todd Golden, 39, and Florida vs. Grant McCasland, 48, and Texas Tech in San Francisco, followed by Jon Scheyer, 37, and Duke against Nate Oats, 50, and Alabama in Newark.
Golden had not won an NCAA Tournament game before this season.
McCasland won one tournament game. Scheyer tapped out in the Elite Eight last year.
Oats, Pearl and Barnes have made one Final Four. Sampson got there with Oklahoma and Houston.
Only Izzo has a national title, the last one the entire Big Ten Conference can claim, which happened when Michigan State defeated Billy Donovan and Florida in 2000. (Billy Donovan, there's a name.) Seven other times Izzo left the Final Four without climbing a ladder on his way out of the building.
The other day in Atlanta somebody asked Izzo how much he has adapted over the years.
“I don't know if adapting, adjusting, I think we've all had to adjust,” Izzo said.
“Over the years, you think about the different things -- it's fun to have your players come back from 25 years ago, and they say, ‘Why do you allow this, and what do you let go here, and what do you do there?’
“Those are adjustments that I think hopefully the principle of what you do doesn't change, but you do have to adapt to the --
“Just like -- I always say it's like, if you keep your tie, the fat tie goes out, the skinny tie comes in, and the fat tie comes back in. The bell bottoms, the straight leg, the miniskirts, the short and long skirts, the different hairstyles. I think that's where you adapt.
“I think at some time I've adapted too much to not realizing still what it takes to win championships. You've still got to defend, rebound, and run. Football, you've still got to block and tackle. Both sports you can't turn the ball over.
“We always make it more difficult than it really is because everybody wants to hear some new fancy phrase, but it's still the meat and potatoes, I think, are basically the same.”
And the Golden Oldies are showing they can make it happen with the new rules.
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