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Around the Hall: Not this guy, again

by in Media | February 27th, 2009

Around the Hall is recommended reading from the Inside the Hall crew.

+ Indy Star columnist Bob Kravitz discusses Kelvin Sampson’s unwillingness to take responsibility for what went down in Bloomington. As Kravitz notes, “Haven’t we gone through this already?” {Indianapolis Star}

+ Lance Stemler and Adam Ahlfeld confirmed that Sampson talked the players into finishing out the season after Stemler, Ahlfeld, D.J. White and Eric Gordon told Sampson they wouldn’t finish the season without him. {Indianapolis Star}

+ Former Indiana assistant Rob Senderoff has his penalty reduced by the NCAA — but only by a smidge. {The Sporting News}

+ Gary Parrish chronicles the story of Kellen Sampson and says the aspiring coach should be judged on his own merits and not by his last name. {CBS Sports}

Quotable:

“We were sitting there every day tearing through the rules and regulations of the NCAA, and I’m just like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ I felt like the biggest white elephant in the room, especially when we spent a week on the rules and regulations of phone calls. I told the professor, ‘I can probably teach this section.’” – Kellen Sampson on how he felt during the class he took at IU last year titled “NCAA rules and compliance.”

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Around the Hall: Dakich, Meyer, Greenspan and more

by in Media | May 14th, 2008

dak.jpg– Dan Dakich talked to Terry Hutchens of The Indianapolis Star and the former interim coach addresses Kelvin Sampson, Armon Bassett, Jamarcus Ellis and the overall state of Indiana basketball. Dakich will get $180,000 promised to him by the university and hopes to coach somewhere next season. Dakich was criticized for kicking Bassett and Ellis to the curb, but ultimately, we’re all finding out that he was just looking out for a program in desperate need of discipline.

– Former assistant Jeff Meyer denies intentionally violating rules in his response to the NCAA obtained by The Indianapolis Star.

– Bob Kravitz raises some excellent points about Rick Greenspan and wonders how the AD is still employed by IU. Here’s my favorite part:

Let’s not engage in selective amnesia: former coach Kelvin Sampson was hired by Greenspan. Now, were former school president Adam Herbert and trustee Jeff Cohen the people who most strongly supported Sampson’s hiring? Sure. Greenspan had his own favorite — sources tell me it was former West Virginia and current Michigan coach John Beilein — but Sampson was among the three candidates Greenspan sent to the trustees.

Ultimately, Greenspan signed off on this terrible hire, and on the day Sampson was introduced, Greenspan happily stood out front and sang Sampson’s praises.

You can’t have it both ways.

Or can you?

– Eric Crawford of The Louisville Courier-Journal writes that the self-imposed sanctions are not sufficient and that IU should pay for hiring Kelvin Sampson.

– And finally, Terry Hutchens has an update on IU’s self-imposed sanctions. Tom Crean has seven days of off-campus recruiting to use in July, IU has added two paid official visits and the staff will lower its frequency of correspondence with Derek Elston (who was named in the NCAA’s report) from seven times to six times for the upcoming school year.

Friday Roundup: Wisconsin, Kravitz and Knight

by in Media | February 29th, 2008

bbutch.jpg– Wisconsin, barring a total choke job, wrapped up at least a tie for the Big Ten title with a 57-42 beat down of Michigan State at the Kohl Center. A couple of observations: Brian Butch should be a first team All-Big Ten selection. Second, is there a more disappointing team than Michigan State? A lot of talent on that team, but something just isn’t right. I’m shocked at how bad of a season Drew Neitzel is having. And finally, Wisconsin only had one turnover in the entire game. That’s a pretty amazing statistic.

– Bob Kravitz of the Indianapolis Star wrote a column today which provided his two cents on the impending coaching search for IU. It was a decent piece, but there were a couple of names included that I don’t want anywhere near the program: 1) John Calipari: do we really want Worldwide Wes hanging around IU? 2) Kevin Stallings: He’s a nice guy I’m sure, but his Purdue background and personality (or lack thereof) don’t thrill me. Surely we can do better than Stallings. The sizzle just isn’t there, but maybe I’m missing something.

– Our old friend Coach Knight has joined forces with ESPN for “championship week” and the NCAA Tournament. As you would expect, Knight appeared on “Mike and Mike” this morning and side stepped all questions about Indiana and the Kelvin Sampson situation. It’ll be interesting to see how well Knight does in this new role. He’s always had disdain for the media so it’s somewhat ironic to see him as a member of it.

Media piling on Sampson in wake of sanctions

by in Commentary | October 15th, 2007

sampson-6.jpg(Editor’s Note: The Indianapolis Star has revealed secondary violations that have taken place in the last 15 months. You can read that report by clicking here.)

Updated, 10/16, 7:15 AM: Those of you hoping for a “this too shall pass” resolution to yesterday’s news regarding Kelvin Sampson’s latest sanctions for violating NCAA phone call rules are in for a rude awakening. It’s not happening, folks. Fan message boards are being overloaded, radio talk show lines are lighting up and talking heads from across the country are calling for, gasp, Sampson’s head.

A survey of prominent viewpoints from across the land revealed the following thoughts about Sampson:

Andy Katz, ESPN.com: Sampson has plenty of friends in the business. And when I say plenty, I would argue that the majority of coaches really do enjoy his company. But a number of them are perturbed by these latest violations. Some of his good friends even told me that they do think this will put a distinctive mark on the public perception of Sampson.

Will Leitch, Deadspin: The move is seen as a preemptive strike against any potential NCAA punishments. Indiana should be much better this year, thanks largely to recruit Eric Gordon (which Sampson swiped from Illinois, infuriating many of his fellow Big Ten coaches), but they’ve now officially wiped the regime of Bob Knight off the books. Say what you will about Knight, but this was never a problem with him. He was too busy strangling the players he already had.

Rick Bozich, Louisville Courier-Journal: Don’t fire up your search engine. Sampson committed similar violations at Oklahoma, then promised it would never happen in Bloomington. Sunday’s news suggests the man is either brash or careless. Doesn’t matter which side you pick. He’s still a repeat offender. IU uncovered the violations. IU reported them to the NCAA. IU is punishing the rule-breakers — Sampson and assistant Rob Senderoff. Sampson described the violations as “disappointing.” Losing to Purdue is disappointing. This is disturbing. Reckless also fits. So does ridiculous.

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