And welcome back to the continuing saga of Indiana, Kelvin Sampson and justice as dispersed by the NCAA.It all seemed as if things were going to be resolved over the summer, after the hearing before the infraction committee. Indiana voluntarily gave up several scholarships. Then an additional accusation was leveled.A dreaded "failure to monitor" charge was made against Indiana with regards to the men's basketball program. A charge that could mean additional sanctions and simply a huge black mark at a school that until Sampson had prided itself on following NCAA rules and graduating its players. Indiana made it's response which comes down to two basic points:
1. It is all Kelvin Sampson's fault; and
2. The NCAA is persecuting Indiana because they hired Sampson.
Indiana has put most of the blame for the violations and their failure to notice the violations for a year on Sampson hiding the information from them. This is the biggest shift for Indiana in that they are now outright accusing Sampson of not simply knowingly committing the violations, and misleading investigators. They are saying he purposefully hid and tried to cover his actions and outright lied about it.
Sampson is now an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks. His only public statement was a short press release through his publicist.
"In no way did I ever hide or withhold information from Indiana University's compliance department. I vehemently deny the inference that I made and concealed impermissible calls," Sampson's statement said. "The NCAA has never alleged that I initiated any illegal phone calls to recruits while serving as the head coach at Indiana. I always provided Indiana with everything they requested, including all documents and phone records."
In other words, Sampson is prepared to lawyer-up and fight this.
That shouldn't be a surprise. Sampson has maintained throughout that he did nothing beyond make a mistake in understanding the rules. Sampson wants to coach again in college, and so he has to fight this. He is very likely looking at a "show cause" penalty after breaking the same rules in two stops and now facing accusations from both the NCAA and Indiana that he misled or lied to investigators.
The NCAA decision is expected some time this month. Expect the appeals and finger-pointing to continue for quite awhile after that.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-09-2008 @ 9:14AM
jeff a said...
Lets not forget Myles Brand, the ex-IU president who fired Bob Knight and single handedly started IU's spiral downward. Brand, now the head of ncaa, has his finger on the button in this case. Brand should let others in the ncaa handle IU but I'm sure he see 's this as another chance to screw us... which I'm sure he will, wait and see. If IU gets any further sanctions, SOMEONE should look into it and see how much influence Brand had and if it were fair.
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10-14-2008 @ 9:16AM
Kurt said...
I used to be a huge IU fan during the Bob Knight era, but no longer. Apparently winning is more important than following the rules and graduating students. Both of which Mr. Sampson clearly did not do at any of his previous coaching positions. Indiana knew exactly what they were getting when they hired Sampson and they clearly didn't do enough to stop his actions. And while I'm ranting, I might as well throw in another jab... Sampson is coaching in the pros now? Way to set an example, NBA!
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