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.”
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Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo speaks to an official during the first half in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA college basketball tournament against Mississippi, Friday, March 28, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
WASHINGTON (AP) — New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker held the Senate floor with a marathon speech that lasted all night and into Tuesday afternoon in a feat of endurance to show Democrats’ objections to President Donald Trump’s sweeping actions.
Booker took to the Senate floor on Monday evening saying he would remain there as long as he was “physically able.” More than 19 hours later, the 55-year-old senator, a former football tight end, was plainly exhausted but still going. It was a remarkable show of stamina — among the longest in Senate history — as Democrats try to show their frustrated supporters that they are doing everything possible to contest Trump's agenda.
“These are not normal times in our nation," Booker said as he launched into his speech. “And they should not be treated as such in the United States Senate. The threats to the American people and American democracy are grave and urgent, and we all must do more to stand against them.”
Pacing, then at times leaning on his podium, Booker railed for hours against cuts to Social Security offices led by Trump adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. He listed the impacts of Trump's early orders and spoke to concerns that broader cuts to the social safety net could be coming, though Republican lawmakers say the program won't be touched.
Booker also read what he said were letters from constituents, donning and doffing his reading glasses. One writer was alarmed by the Republican president's talk of annexing Greenland and Canada and a “looming constitutional crisis.”
“I hear you. I see you, and I’m standing here in part because of letters like yours,” Booker said.
As his speech rolled into Tuesday afternoon, Booker got help from Democratic colleagues, who gave him a break from speaking to ask him a question and praise his performance. Booker yielded for questions but made sure to say he would not give up the floor. He stayed standing to comply with Senate rules.
“Your strength, your fortitude, your clarity has just been nothing short of amazing and all of America is paying attention to what you’re saying,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said as he asked Booker a question on the Senate floor. “All of America needs to know there’s so many problems, the disastrous actions of this administration.”
As Booker stood for hour after hour, he appeared to have nothing more than a couple glasses of water to sustain him.
“I shall not complain,” Booker said with a laugh after one colleague asked how he was doing Tuesday afternoon.
Democratic aides watched from the chamber's gallery, and Sen. Chris Murphy accompanied Booker throughout his speech. Murphy was returning the comradeship that Booker had given to him in 2016 when the Connecticut Democrat held the floor for almost 15 hours to argue for gun control legislation.
The record for the longest individual speech belongs to Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, who filibustered for 24 hours and 18 minutes against the Civil Rights Act of 1957, according to the Senate's records. As it rolled past 19 hours, Booker's speech marked the fifth longest in Senate history.
Only one other sitting senator has spoken for longer. In 2013, Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican of Texas, held the floor for 21 hours and 19 minutes to contest the Affordable Care Act.
Booker repeatedly invoked the civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis of Georgia on Tuesday, arguing that overcoming opponents like Thurmond would require more than just talking.
“You think we got civil rights one day because Strom Thurmond — after filibustering for 24 hours — you think we got civil rights because he came to the floor one day and said, ‘I’ve seen the light,’” Booker said. ”No, we got civil rights because people marched for it, sweat for it and John Lewis bled for it."
Booker's speech was not a filibuster, which is a speech meant to halt the advance of a specific piece of legislation. Instead, Booker's performance was a broader critique of Trump's agenda, meant to hold up the Senate's business and draw attention to what Democrats are doing to contest the president. Without a majority in either congressional chamber, Democrats have been almost completely locked out of legislative power but are turning to procedural maneuvers to try to thwart Republicans.
Booker is serving his second term in the Senate. He was an unsuccessful presidential candidate in 2020, when he launched his campaign from the steps of his home in Newark. He dropped out after struggling to gain a foothold in a packed field, falling short of a threshold to meet in a January 2020 debate.
But as Democrats search for a next generation of leadership, frustrated with the old-timers at the top, Booker's speech could cement his status as a leading figure in the party's opposition to Trump.
Even before taking to the national political stage, Booker was considered a rising star in the Democratic Party in New Jersey, serving as mayor of Newark, the state's largest city, from 2006 to 2013.
During college, he played tight end for Stanford University's football team. He became a Rhodes scholar and graduated from Yale Law before starting his career as an attorney for nonprofits.
He was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2013 during a special election held after the death of incumbent Democrat Frank Lautenberg. He won his first full term in 2014 and reelection in 2020.
Catalini reported from Trenton, N.J.
In this image provided by Senate Television, Sen, Cory Booker, D-N.J. speaks on the Senate floor, Tuesday morning, April 1, 2025. (Senate Television via AP)
In this image provided by Senate Television, Sen, Cory Booker, D-N.J. speaks on the Senate floor, Tuesday morning, April 1, 2025. (Senate Television via AP)
In this image provided by Senate Television, Sen, Cory Booker, D-N.J. speaks on the Senate floor, Tuesday morning, April 1, 2025. (Senate Television via AP)
FILE - Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
FILE - Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.,, speaks during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)
