Bruce Pearl of Auburn and Kelvin Sampson of Houston were emerging from exile — two coaches who had been handed the harshest sanction imaginable by the NCAA and were looking to resurrect their once-successful careers.

What should be clear is that what some assumed before — some coaches only won because they broke the rules — wasn’t true.

There are three coaches in the Big 12 making more money than Houston's Kelvin Sampson, but he's the only one representing the conference at the Final Four.