Kelvin Sampson: Case Closed

You remember Kelvin Sampson, right?

The guy that was forced out left Oklahoma after making illegal phone calls to recruits?

The guy that was given a five year show cause order (aka the college coaches death penalty) for committing the same violations at Indiana?

Ring a bell?

For all the college basketball fans out there, don't fret if it doesn't, because he will not be relevant until at least 2013.

Earlier today, Sampson, who is currently an assistant with the Milwaukee Bucks, had his appeal of the five year show cause order rejected by the NCAA infractions committee. According to an NCAA spokeswoman, this means that the case in now closed.

While I doubt that Sampson's career in the collegiate ranks is completely over (remember, Todd Bozeman, who had an eight year show cause order levied against him for vilations at Cal, is now the head coach at Morgan State), I don't see a big-time program hiring Sampson for a very long time.

So why would Sampson want to get this ruling overturned? He has to know that his transgressions have left him the coaching equivalent of Mark Sanford.

As Eamonn Brennan tells us, it is because the life of a head coach in college is much easier than making the rounds as an NBA assistant:

In college basketball, coaches are king. They're like little mini-dictators lording over their own worlds. They have immense power and influence, both within the locker room and out. Contrast that to an NBA coach, whose job is constantly in jeopardy and who is one highly-paid insubordinate player away from the bread line.

Seriously though, college coaches can get away with doing pretty much anything that they want too, so long as they are not caught holding the proverbial "envelope full of hundreds". It is why guys like John Calipari and Jim Calhoun, who both had their programs accused of major violations in the past three months, not only still have jobs, but are two of the best in the profession.

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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. Continue reading...

11/25 - Some Links, Some News

-Xavier freshman PG Terrell Holloway is out for 2-4 weeks with a stress fracture in his left foot. Pretty disappointing news for the frosh as he looked so impressive in Xavier's championship in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off. It could be worse, however. Even if he is out for four weeks, Holloway should still be back in time for X's trip to New Jersey to play Duke.

-UCLA's Alfred Aboya doesn't have a broken wrist. Southern Illinois's Nick Evans does.

-It looks like the Kelvin Sampson soap opera is over at Indiana. From ESPN:

Sources told ESPN.com on Tuesday that Sampson, now an assistant with the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks, will receive a five-year show-cause penalty -- one of the harshest the NCAA can levy against an individual -- while the Hoosiers program has been spared a postseason ban.

The sources also said Indiana's self-imposed penalties are expected to be upheld. Meanwhile, the Indianapolis Star is reporting that the Hoosiers will receive three years' probation. The NCAA has scheduled a 4 p.m. ET conference call to discuss its findings in the case.

Good decision by the NCAA not to punish the kids at Indiana right now because it is an entirely new group of people around the program. Punish the school, don't punish some kids that are going to spend 2-3 years getting pounded by Big Ten opponents.

-Doug Wiggins has been suspended indefinitely from the UMass basketball team after being arrested for breaking and entering. Apparently, Wiggins was found in the bathroom of someone else's home. Wiggins is sitting out this season after transferring from UConn, where he had been in trouble before. Last year, he was suspended for two games after an arrest for possession of alcohol by a minor.

-Seth Davis of SI wrote a very interesting article about St. John's and what has happened to the basketball program there. Definitely a must read.

-Gary Parrish explains why there are so many pre-season tournaments.









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Oh, How The Mighty Have Fallen

In February, mid-way through the Big Ten season, the Indiana Hoosiers were a top-ten team in the nation, led by star freshman guard Eric Gordon, bruising big man D.J. White, and a marquee coach in Kelvin Sampson. They were a trendy Final Four pick, and basketball-mania was alive and well in the Hoosier State.

And then things got ugly. Sampson accepted a buy-out from the school after it was revealed that he engaged in unsavory and illegal recruiting tactics. His indiscretions were particularly bad considering he left Oklahoma University surrounded by similar allegations. Assistant Dan Dakich took over and did the best he could, but the team collapsed. There was even a period of time when it was unclear if the players would show up to play for their new coach.

The Hoosiers lost unexpectedly to Minnesota in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament and slipped to an 8th seed in the Big Dance, where they promptly lost to Arkansas. Not exactly the results you would expect from one of college basketball's powerhouses.

And then things got really ugly. Despite hiring Tom Crean from Marquette, a terrific coach and recruiter, the team began to disintegrate. Gordon declared for the NBA draft (no surprise there), and White and forward Lance Stemler graduated. Sophomore Armon Basset and junior JaMarcus Ellis, two key contributors that were suspended by Dakich, were thrown off the team for good and transferred. Another forward, DeAndre Thomas, decided he wasn't going to come back, and little-used freshman center Eli Holman left the school after getting into an argument with Crean in his office. He apparently threw a potted plant and Crean had to call the police. You know it's bad when bench-warmers are throwing potted plants. Finally, talented guard Jordan Crawford transferred to Xavier, completing the exodus and depleting the Hoosiers.

So what can we expect from Crean's team? Indiana's fans are perhaps the most passionate in the country, and while they have to know that this will be a down year, Crean will still be on a short leash. He only has one returning player, forward Kyle Taber, who averaged a whopping 1.6 points per game last year. The rest are newcomers, and since Crean didn't have much time to hire a staff and recruit, he wasn't able to compile a top-shelf incoming class. Uh oh.

This situation reminds me of North Carolina's predicament in 2001, when they went 8-20 under the overwhelmed Matt Doherty. The talent level was low, the coach was unprepared, and the fans were ravenous. I would expect a similar record in Bloomington this year.

But there is hope, and it lies in Crean. By all accounts, he is a terrific coach, able to motivate his players and get the most out of their talent. The Hoosiers will struggle mightily this year, but if the fan-base is patient enough to let Crean recruit and develop his own talent, Indiana will be back at the top of the Big Ten soon enough. Just look at what happened to UNC. They were awful in 2001, but won the national championship only four years later.

My advice to Hoosiers fans is this: wait it out. It will be tough losing in East Lansing by 25 points. It will be even tougher sweating out close games with Northwestern. But the allure of playing for Indiana will bring talented players and Crean will mold them into a winning program soon. He transformed Marquette from Wisconsin's ugly step-sister into a perennial Final Four contender. He will do the same for the Hoosiers.

And if that doesn't console you, at least the Colts should be good.

Posted by Ross Weingarten Continue reading...