Eric Gordon Speaks About Indiana....

...and it probably wasn't what Indiana wanted to hear. Rumors have been swirling for a while that one of the reasons that Sampson was ushered out of Bloomington so quickly was that he had lost control of the program and that drug use was a major problem with his players.

In an interview with the IndyStar, Eric Gordon confirmed those rumors. From the IndyStar:

"It was the guys that were doing drugs that were separate," Gordon told The Indianapolis Star.

Gordon didn't say which players used drugs, but he said D.J. White and two others still on the team were among those who did not. Attempts to reach White and several other former players were not successful.

Gordon said Sampson "tried to stop it," but the coach "was just so focused on basketball and winning and everything."

Gordon said he spent considerable time with a family friend in Bloomington because the atmosphere around some players was so bad he didn't feel comfortable on campus.

"Sometimes it felt like it wasn't even a real basketball team because of all the turmoil that went on," said Gordon, now a starting guard for the Los Angeles Clippers. "I was just thinking about that the other day. It was so crazy that all that stuff threw off a good season and made it a waste, basically.

"It was really tough for us to be around each other all the time off the court because we were so separate."

Now if these guys were smoking a little weed once in a while, its not that big of a deal. If you read this blog, then you know that I am a big proponent of allowing these players to be kids, just like their classmates. And college kids smoke weed.

So forgive me if you disagree, but I really don't have that big of a problem with a star basketball player taking a couple bong hits on a Friday night after a big win.

That said, based on what Gordon was saying, it seems like this was much more than a once-in-a-while thing for these players. Whether it was smoking, or (hopefully not) snorting/shooting, Gordon makes it seem as if these guys were high all the time. RTC makes the point that Gordon played terribly down the stretch - his numbers went for 46.6% shooting and 3.4 t/o's per to 32% shooting and 4.2 t/o's per for the last seven games. Now whether this is because he gave up on his team or because of this wrist injury doesn't matter. It is clear that Gordon had given up on the season.

I'm guessing a lot of people wish they found this out before last year's NCAA tournament.