PITTSBURGH — It has been nearly seven years since Greg Kampe almost died. Thursday night, he will coach in the first round of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament against Kentucky, the No. 3 seed in the South Region.
Kampe admits he has changed in recent years, especially after a battle with sepsis, an often fatal illness, in the summer of 2017. Kampe was 61 at the time. Some coaches with his record of his success would have said, “Enough.” Kampe said, “More.”“It helped me understand how lucky I’d been and how much I loved coaching,” he said. “I was amazed at the number of ex-players who reached out to me. It reminded me that I’d meant something to them and how much they’d meant to me. It made me want to coach more than ever and to get more flexible dealing with players.