By Mark La Monica
Let's start with three statements of fact and follow it up with two questions and two comments.
Fact 1: This past Wednesday, the NCAA levied accusations that Indiana Hoosiers hoops coach Kelvin Sampson committed five major rules violations.
Fact 2: A school investigation last year revealed that Sampson had made more than 100 impermissible phone calls to recruits.
Fact 3: He made those phone calls while he was on probation for doing the exact same thing 577 times while the coach at Oklahoma.
Question 1: How much longer can Indiana president MIchael McRobbie wait before firing Sampson for subjecting the school to future sanctions from the NCAA that will cripple its recruiting for several years after Sampson is gone?
Question 2: How much longer until some other stupid school athletic director and president hires Sampson to coach - and destroy - another program?
Comment 1: You know some other school will sell its soul in a few years and hire Sampson, who will then go through his coach's rehab checklist and say he's learned his lesson, he's happy to have another opportunity and he wants to restore a winning tradition at insert school name here.
Comment 2: Although Indiana will have to man up and deal with the NCAA sanctions and its effect on the program's success, the school is in the rare position of not losing much face or regard in the court of public opinion. Typically when a school gets hit with a recruiting scandal, the school's image suffers. Not so in this case. This will be looked at as Sampson besmirching another school's reputation.