Odds and Sods

Indiana basketball head coach Kelvin Sampson is likely to be fired after being charged with even more recruiting violations.

An NCAA report has charged Sampson with “major” recruiting violations, including the following.

• Sampson and his assistant coaches failed to comply with sanctions, making approximately 100 impermissible phone calls to recruits
• Sampson and his assistant coaches made 25 additional phone calls to nine recruits that would have been illegal had no sanctions existed
• Sampson and an assistant coach made inappropriate conduct with a recruit during a two-day camp held at Assembly Hall over the summer, providing him with illegal benefits including a t-shirt and a drawstring backpack

Sampson was originally sanctioned for infractions committed during his tenure as Head Coach at Oklahoma from 2000-2006, when he made 577 impermissible calls to recruits.  He was further penalized by Indiana itself in October after word surfaced that he had made 100 impermissible calls while under sanction.  He forfeited a $500,000 raise and had one scholarship taken away.  These calls sparked the NCAA Investigation which released its findings in the aforementioned report.

The stupidity starts at the top.  Why would Indiana hire someone who committed such flagrant NCAA violations in the first place?   Indiana isn’t what it was, but it is still easily a Top 25 job.  Someone with at least a moderately clean record should have been willing to step in there.

Next, the lens must focus on Sampson who, after receiving sanctions for one specific violation, went on to commit that one violation again 100 times.  This transcends traditional stupidity.  He’s on par with the guy who got caught on “To Catch a Predator” twice.

Also, if you are going to cheat, at least be somewhat stealthy about it.  Call from someone else’s house.  Walk down the street and use a pay phone.  Don’t call from your University phone!

You can say what you want about Bobby Knight, but he played by the rules.  He had his personal problems, as ESPN loves to point out with their classic highlight reel, but he would never have brought such a sordid scandal upon the program.  For a university community that harrumphed on its moral high horse by running Knight off campus and refusing to elect him to the Hall of Fame, the taste of humble pie will be more than a bit bitter.