It’s 2019 all over again as I watch the very same scenario play out. Well…almost. Kelvin Sampson has the Houston Cougars back in the Sweet 16 and the Indiana Hoosiers are even worse off. At least in 2019 IU was playing in the freakin’ NIT. Now they are coach-less and not even playing in a tournament at all. So I’m literally going to repost the same article I wrote two years ago this week with the exception of IU not being in a tournament and begging for a new coach.
The old timers used to say, “What goes around comes around.” They also used to say, “God don’t like ugly.” Well playas…the Indiana Hoosiers and the powers that be, ran Kelvin Sampson out of town in 2008 because they didn’t want him there are looking stupid right now. Not only are they looking stupid but they had to watch him coach Houston to another Sweet 16 on their floor in Assembly Hall. Oh…did I mention that the Hoosiers didn’t even make the NCAA Tournament that is being played entirely in their home state and some games in the first and second round on their own campus?
Sampson came to Indiana from Oklahoma where he was a bonafide winner. In 12 seasons with the Sooners he took them to 11 NCAA Tournaments. He took them to the Sweet 16 in 1999, the Final Four in 2002 and the Elite Eight in 2003. He was a straight up winner and deserved to coach at an elite level basketball school.
So in March of 2006 the Hoosiers brought him in to resurrect the program that had already won five national championships that was once an elite program. He walked right in and in his first season put up a 21-11 record and took the Hoosiers straight to the NCAA Tournament as a 7th seed beating Gonzaga to advance to the round of 32.
However, in February of 2008 not even full two seasons into his tenure in Bloomington they fired him because he was sending too many text messages to recruits and doing his darn job. The rule that they found to fire him on isn’t even a rule anymore. Text messaging a player was like J-Walking at the time. Everybody did it but IU was on the hunt to find a way to get rid of him and a booster came up with the half million or so to help the cause of walking him out of the door. Did I mention that an intern found the violation? An intern bruh. Sounds fishy to me.
Not only that, ole boy was banned from coaching at the collegiate ranks for 5 years. So he sat on the bench as an assistant in the NBA with the Bucks and Rockets until the five years was up and then went to Houston.
Boyz forgot real quick that Sampson was the reason why Eric Gordon (Houston Rockets) ended up in Bloomington in the first place. Gordon was headed to Illinois before Sampson got in his ear. He did his freaking job by keeping the best player in the state at home.
But Sampson wasn’t what the fan base wanted so they figured out a way to get rid of him and it’s been a dumpster fire ever since. A COMPLETE DUMPSTER fire.
Let’s keep it real or all the way 100, whichever comes 1st! I’m getting a kick out of watching IU flounder around looking silly trying to even find someone crazy enough to take the job down there while Sampson has a program with a third of the infrastructure that Indiana has playing in the Sweet Sixteen AGAIN.
Did you see where former Ohio State coach Thad Matta accepted the IU job but couldn’t pass the physical? When I say dumpster fire in Bloomington it’s a raging dumpster fire. The coach can’t pass the physical? Karma is real playa!!!
If they had just left Sampson alone in Bloomington and let that man coach and recruit like he wanted to they would have been in the NCAA Tournament every year of his tenure and possibly several Final Fours by now. Who knows, maybe even a national title or two with all of the talent coming out of the state of Indiana since 2008. I don’t have time to name all of the cats in the NBA that are from Indiana that came out of high school after 2008 that didn’t choose IU. Just understand that Sampson would have signed at least half of them if not more.
Unfortunately, we’re forced to watch the foolishness down in Bloomington continue to take place and also watch Sampson roll on into the ANOTHER Sweet Sixteen this week. Stop me when I start lyin’!