The Midwest Region of the NCAA tourney features some of the best coaches to have never won a title

By Canadian Press on March 19, 2025.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Houston coach Kelvin Sampson and Gonzaga’s Mark Few have been to two Finals Fours apiece. Purdue coach Matt Painter, UCLA counterpart Mick Cronin and Tennessee’s Rick Barnes have been there, too.

Yet for their thousands of combined wins, dozens of conference champions and seven trips to the Final Four, none has been the last one standing. Few is winless in the Bulldogs’ two trips to the title game and Painter lost to UConn there a year ago, while the rest have never made it past the national semifinals on college basketball’s biggest stage.

That makes the Midwest Region of the NCAA Tournament home to arguably the best coaches to have never won a title.

“It would definitely mean a lot,” said Cougars star J’Wan Roberts, who was part of their Final Four run in 2021 that ended with a loss to eventual champ Baylor, when asked Wednesday about delivering the 69-year-old Sampson his long-awaited title.

“You know,” Roberts continued, “he’s been everywhere, especially winning-wise. I feel like it’s one more accolade that he needs to solidify everything. We’re going to try our hardest to give him that one last push.”

The push for top-seeded Houston begins Thursday against No. 16 seed SIU-Edwardsville, and could include a second-round game Saturday against Few and eighth-seeded Gonzaga, provided it beats No. 9 seed Georgia in its own opener.

Just like Sampson, the two-time and reigning Associated Press coach of the year, Few took the Bulldogs to the Final Four in the COVID-19 bubble four years ago, losing to the Bears in the finale. That came four years after Gonzaga fell to North Carolina in its first trip to the championship game — the year Few was voted AP coach of the year.

The Bulldogs reached the 2021 championship game in Indianapolis by beating Cronin and UCLA in the Final Four, a nailbiter that was played before 8,131 socially-distanced fans at cavernous Lucas Oil Stadium.

This year, the seventh-seeded Bruins open the NCAA tourney against No. 10 seed Utah State on Thursday in Lexington, Kentucky, where Barnes will be leading second-seeded Tennessee against No. 15 seed Wofford in its first-round game.

It has been 22 years since Barnes took Texas to the Final Four. The Longhorns lost to Carmelo Anthony and Syracuse.

“There’s only one every year that’s going to end up being the last team standing there Monday night. And in my time in it, we’ve had teams that fought hard to get here,” Barnes said. “You don’t ever take it for granted. There’s many, many players that never had the chance to be a part of this, which I think is the greatest sporting event in our country. But as coaches, yeah, we want to win. There’s no doubt we want to win. Do we want to win national championships? No doubt about it.”

Helping Hand

SIU-Edwardsville coach Brian Barone played for his dad, Tony Barone, at Texas A&M when the school was transitioning from the Southwest Conference to the Big 12 in 1996. Their first game in their new league came against Sampson and Oklahoma.

“So we had that dang ‘Boomer Sooner’ in the background,” Barone recalled with a smile.

Barone later grew close with Sampson’s son, Kellen, the head coach-in-waiting at Houston. And he credits much of his success to the things he learned from the Sampson family, nuts-and-bolts stuff like defense and more esoteric things like culture.

“On a personal level,” Barone said, “it’s kind of cool to coach against somebody that my dad coached against.”

On Guard

Fourth-seeded Purdue plays No. 13 seed High Point on Thursday in Providence, Rhode Island, and Painter is well-aware of the extremes of the NCAA Tournament. Two years ago, three of his current seniors — Caleb Furst, Fletcher Loyer and Braden Smith — were freshmen on the second No. 1 seed to lose to a 16-seed when the Boilermakers lost to Fairleigh Dickinson.

“High Point is a very good team,” Painter said. “Any time you can dominate your league and win your tournament and 14 straight games, that’s respect, man. … Our guys understand that, and a handful of them understand that the hard way.”

High Hopes

Fans of High Point will be glued to their TVs on Thursday. Not only are their men making their NCAA tourney debut against the Boilermakers at 12:40 p.m. EDT, the Panthers’ women face William & Mary in a First Four game in the women’s tournament at 9 p.m. EDT in Austin, Texas. It’s the second time their women have made the NCAA Tournament.

12-5 Do-Over

McNeese State was a trendy upset pick as the No. 12 seed a year ago, when it won the Southland and made its first NCAA tourney appearance since 2002. But coach Will Wade’s Cowboys drew a tough matchup with Gonzaga, and the Bulldogs roared to a 23-point halftime lead before winning 86-65 and later reaching the Sweet 16.

Now, the Cowboys get a do-over as the No. 12 seed against No. 5 seed Clemson on Thursday in Providence.

Looking Ahead

In the two Midwest games Friday, third-seeded Kentucky and new coach Mark Pope play No. 14 seed Troy — the Sun Belt champs — while sixth-seeded Illinois faces the Texas-Xavier winner. Those games are in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

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AP Sports Writers Teresa Walker, Kyle Hightower and Jimmy Golen contributed to this report.

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Dave Skretta, The Associated Press