Wednesday (Kelvin Sampson) Edition: Wha’ Happened?
Posted on February 20th, 2008 – 8:00 AMBy Michael Rand
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It’s been a bizarre past couple weeks in sports, what with the steroid hearings, the NFL’s reputation getting knocked around and a huge batch of 19-0 T-shirts going to needy children in Nicaragua instead of smarmy New England fans. Nothing, though, has been as surreal as watching the two faces of Kelvin Sampson: the coach who is leading a talented team with realistic aspirations of a deep tournament run, and the coach who is leading himself straight out of town with an inability to play by the rules. The whole “impermissible calls” thing seems pretty cut and dried. Sampson did it before, and he appears to have done it again. You can argue about the muddling clarity of NCAA rules (delve into these 453 pages at your own risk), but when you break the same rule twice, there is no margin for error. This will be no Clem Haskins-like delayed fall from grace. Writing from Bloomington, where Indiana had notched its second impressive Big Ten victory in the past week (this time snapping Purdue’s 11-game winning streak), ESPN’s Pat Forde reported last night that, indeed, Sampson appears headed for the opposite of a Glengarry Glen Ross situation. In this case, third prize isn’t, “you’re fired.” First prize is.
A source close to the unsettled coaching situation at Indiana University told ESPN.com on Tuesday that the school is looking at three options for handling Kelvin Sampson’s future at the school. The first and “by far the most likely,” according to the source, is that Sampson will be suspended this week for the purpose of future termination. The second is that the school and Sampson will reach an agreement in which the coach would accept a settlement and resign this week. The third is that the school will not take action against Sampson yet and might extend its ongoing investigation past the stated one-week period. That is a long shot, the source said.
It leads us to three questions:
1) Who looks worse here — Sampson for messing up again, or Indiana for bringing in a guy who was running from John Q. NCAA at Oklahoma?
2) What percentage of Division I men’s basketball and football programs do you think knowingly cheat when it comes to recruiting?
3) Is there any way Bob Knight winds up back at Indiana?
Fasola-link! The 10 smartest TV shows of all-time. If the b-ball doesn’t get the discussion going, this should. Um, where’s “The Simpsons?” Oh, right. Couldn’t beat out “Mad About You.”
22 Responses to "Wednesday (Kelvin Sampson) Edition: Wha’ Happened?"
1) Indiana is a bigger fool. With the kind of money that coaches are now getting it is hard to overlook the fact that to cheat and get away with it is very lucrative.
2) About 75%, would be more if the other 25% was assured of getting away with it..why? See above comment.
3) I dont think there is a way that he ends up there. Too much pride for Knight. Would be a cool story though.
The Simpsons or The Riches or should be there before Mad about you….then again, i hated that show.
1) Sampson- I can understand a mistake happening once, but this happened 3 times. Indiana doesn’t look great but Sampson looks worse. I will be shocked if the NCAA doesn’t suspend him for a couple of years like the coach from Cal about a decade ago.
2. At least 40%. As JPF stated it would be higher but the others don’t konw how to get away with it. Now of that 40%-50% I would say that a majority are minor things but there are probably at least 5% of coaches that blatanly break whatever rules they can get away with.
Do you think any Coaches still pay players to play for them?
3. What is the saying about a snowball’s chance in my pants?
No Knight Rider? What’s smarter than Kit?
Their criteria for shows seems all over the map. I can’t argue with some (West Wing, MASH), but then they like CSI because it deals with “science” and House because it deals with “science.”
Why isn’t Nova #1 then? Or Scientific American Frontiers? (we might as well keep with the Alan Alda theme)
CSI deals with pseudo-science at best…it’s not as bad as Numb3rs, but it isn’t exactly a forensics textbook either.
“House – Again, it’s high level type of show…”
“All in the Family – The show dealt with social issues before it’s time…”
Interesting that in his comments about the smartest TV shows ever, Jim Werdell, the chariman of Mensa, made two fairly easy to spot grammatical errors.
Did anyone check his references?
Here’s today’s runner-up fasola-link: which of these shirts should The Proprietor wear to the next Redactular?
1) Sampson is the bigger fool, but it’s close - what the hell was Indiana doing playing with fire by hiring this guy in the first place? Boo to Indiana, boo!
2) Depends what you mean. If you mean recruiting rules, like phone calls, etc., what Sampson was busted for, then that’s probably pretty low. These guys know the rules and also know that 1 disgruntled player or recruit can get them canned. If you mean any rules, then I’m sure it’s pretty high. I mean, I’m sure “tutors” do much of many, many players homework. Usually it doesn’t get out because these people are in the system already.
3) No. Hell no. IU needs somebody clean and non-controversial now, which is what they should have hired instead of Sampson.
Boo Indiana!
Hooray Beer!
1) Sampson has to cheat to get hired, IU has to hire a cheater to win. I blame the Nazis. They made inappropriate recruitment calls to the Jews.
2) They all knowingly cheat and can only sleep at night because they rationalize to themselves that they are creating a master-team of awesome talent for the good of humanity.
3) BK “Have it my way” ends up as Athletic Director at IU and takes on the role of “audaciously outspoken idiot” so that whoever he hires as coach can drop that role and just, y’know, coach. Also, y’know, something about Hitler.
TV) Hogan’s Heroes > you.
I agree with sdrags’ comments. (But wish sdrags would not end sdrags’ name with an ’s’ because it confuses my apostrophes. apostrophe’s. see? i’m broken.)
When I read Werdell’s comments about the shows, I was thinking that either:
1) He hates being made to write drivel like this about drivel like that.
2) Mensa has really been easing up on those recruitment standards.
Do you realize that a corollary to “Mensa accepts the top 2%” and “The population is growing out of control” is that “Mensa accepts more and more idiots”?
Mensa asked me too be in to. I’m offended by you’re comments?
1) I think Indiana is the bigger fool. First they hired a guy with a sketchy past. Now they’re going to pay him with a “settlement” to go away.
2) I’m not sure how many coaches cheat with recruiting. I think that a lot of coaches find ways around the rules and that’s why the NCAA had to start putting limits on texting. The coaches that caught on to texting before this limit was imposed obviously had an advantage in recruiting, but there was never a rule about it so it was the NCAA’s bad.
3) It makes for a good story since Bob Knight just resigned and Sampson is about to get canned, but I don’t see it. I’ve heard Skiles and MP109’s Wittman as rumors.
Mad About You? That’s just depressing.
1.) I think it’s equal parts blame. Half to Indiana, for being so stupid they didn’t even watch Sampson to make sure he wasn’t cheating in the exact same way he had cheated earlier. And half to Sampson, for (as stated earlier) being too stupid to even find a new way to cheat.
In his defense, though, Nick Nolte cheated too: http://youtube.com/watch?v=itIX2ocnu0M
There was nothing “smart” about Mad About You, unless you include NBC’s decision to cancel it.
If the list is all about science how can Quantum Leap be left out?
Glaring ommissions include: Arrested Development, LOST, Fawlty Towers and X-Files.
It’s freakin’ freezing outside. I never thought I’d be so excited to warm up in a hockey rink.
Jon
Do you ever get jealous of Millea because he spells John with an ‘h’? I sure would be. The ‘h’ is the way to go, you should look into legally changing yours.
Pink chest ruffles….always the best choice when talking about disco attire..
I never thought I’d be so excited to warm up in a hockey rink.
Jon Marthaler’s The Subtle Art of Blogwhoring is on newsstands now.
1. Indiana was dumb to hire Sampson.
2. I would say 80% knowingly cheat.
3. Bob Knight would not go back, he would be a laughingstock if he did.
Smartest television show would have to be Seinfeld.
The second smartest television show would have to be Keeping Up Appearances on PBS.
Am I the only one who sees the whole “Bob Knight resigns from TT, Sampson to be fired” as the perfect scenario for Knight to come back to IU, even if it is only for the rest of this season and then retires for good? Why else would the heat on Sampson have ramped up so much after Knight resigned? The Sampson case isn’t fresh news - I’ve heard that team sources knew about the investigation basically this whole season, and Sampson clearly isn’t making himself a case at all. Just a thought…
it’s just now being reported on MSN that great numbers of 19-0 T shirts are being traded for next to nothing by the still needy children of Nicaragua. Other shirts are being used to clean engine blocks so those will not be wasted..
