Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
scott@scottlongonline.com
You might have heard about how over the past week, Indiana University has been pleading its case to the NCAA, trying to stay away from some kind of death sentence. The trangressions by Kelvin "Are You In My 5?" Sampson were pretty sickening, especially considering that he had similar problems at Oklahoma, but I would offer up that the school's basketball program has already went through as big of a fall as has ever happened to a major power in the sport and shouldn't face more. Between players leaving early, leaving for another school, or just being dismissed, the Hoosiers have been left with one 1 scholarship player on its roster. This is one of the Top 5 hoops schools in NCAA history and they will be lucky to win 5 games in 2008-09.
When I moved to Indianapolis in 1990, I was pretty neutral to the Hoosiers. I'm an Iowa Hawkeye alum, but I always had a respect for the way IU played. In the early 90's, every IU game was shown on local TV and these games drew crowds in sports bars like it was Monday Night Football. After just one-year of living around the mania that most of the state felt for their Hoosiers and Bob Knight, I developed a strong hatred for the team. The stories that I heard about Knight's behavior behind the scenes were my greatest reason to despise the Hoosiers, as his mental abuse of everyone around him reminded me strongly of my own father.
While the Hoosiers continued to be a Top 20 team during the decade, they generally underachieved in the NCAA tourney, which gave me great delight. My hatred for the school was so great that I became a Purdue fan, just because it was their biggest rival. Knight's fall from grace has been well-documented and his the struggles by his replacement, Mike Davis were very real, as Davis was above his head.
For the past decade, most of the top prep players from the state have been signing elsewhere. Greg Oden, Mike Conley, Zach Randolph, Justin Cage, etc. have went elsewhere, causing the school's hardcore fan base to dwindle. Combine this with the explosion of interest in the Indianapolis Colts and Hoosier Nation hoops barely resembles its former self. They had become so mediocre it became difficult to really want to muster the energy to hate them.
For a brief moment, it appeared like things were going to change. The school brought in Kelvin Sampson and he was very aggressive in his recruiting. His biggest coup, also was a moral dilemma to some fans. The best guard to come out of the state since possibly Oscar Robertson, Eric Gordon, had already given a verbal committment to Illinois. In the Big 10, there seems to be a gentlemen's agreement that you don't try to get players to break their committments from another conference school. Well, Never Let Them See You Sweat* Sampson is obviously no gentleman and he went hard after Gordon when he got the gig in Bloomington.
*Check out fellow cheater, Jim Harrick in the commercial.
The fall-out initially was Gordon ended up at IU and the team thrived, while Illinois ended up having a very disappointing season. It all began to fall-apart for the Hoosiers towards the last month of the year, when the illegal recruiting issues became more known. Sampson ended up getting bought out of his contract and the team fell-apart under the interim leadership of Dan Dakich. Now a basketball school has a team that will be made up mainly of walk-ons and second-rate recruits. New coach Tom Crean is top-notch, but he has an extremely high mountain to climb.
Indiana University has been punished enough for the transgressions of Sampson. I don't think the NCAA should add anything to their sentence. I'm rooting for Crean to turn the program around by 2010, as I will miss having someone to legitimately hate in college basketball.
The NCAA is the one that needs the ban. It's outlived its usefulness.
Myles Brand made it his personal mission to destroy Indiana basketball, and he succeeded. The NCAA liked his handiwork so much, they made him their czar.
I happen to like Indiana basketball, but there have to be official sanctions. Hell, they should be sanctioned on general principle for hiring Sampson in the first place. He was who we thought he was.
IU has more history, but I think looking back at the post-Harrick Georgia teams might be a good comp. It took Dennis Felton about five years to get them back to a competitive state. He was successful at a lower level, though I think Crean is a much better coach and recruiter. My guess is that it will take a full cycle of recruits, though the one-and-done possibilities and Crean's use of JuCo players might alter that a bit, though I couldn't say how.
In other words, I think IU will be a competitive program in three years, assuming Crean does the job most expect. I think it's much more important for him to be squeaky clean, great in the press, and focused on recruiting than it is for him to win in 08-09.
Sampson was known to be bad news when he came in. And he quickly proved he couldn't change his spots. And the way all the kids ran meant they knew what had been done and what was coming.
If you lie down with the devil you have to take what's coming.
I agree with the separate issue that Will raises on the NCAA. But they are part of the NCAA and they knew what was coming by hiring him. They thought they could control him and were proven wrong. A big slap sends the message that maybe these colleges don't want to take a chance with a bad dude.
And sanctions have already followed Sampson. I'm guessing he'll never work NCAA again.
Then play by the rules and don't hire scumbags.
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