What's everyone saying about Sampson?
Indiana players may not say it, but it wasn’t surprising the Hoosiers lost to Wisconsin on Wednesday. Their coach provided a supreme off-court distraction.
Kelvin Sampson’s alleged lying to the NCAA was the talk of college hoops on Wednesday – and would’ve dominated the news if not for Roger Clemens’ trip to Capitol Hill. Instead, after a well-played game with its share of on-court drama, it figures that a banked three-pointer would win it for the Badgers. Such was the Hoosiers’ luck on Wednesday.
“Nothing outside of us hurt our team,” Hoosiers forward D.J. White said. “We were a family tonight. Tonight didn’t have anything to do with anything, we just didn’t win.”
So, instead of talking about how a 20-4 Indiana team can reach the Final Four, it all centered around Sampson.
I’ve already blogged that the school is unlikely to keep Sampson, even if the NCAA report isn’t true and he didn’t lie. Hard to retain a coach that does this to a school’s reputation.
Other Web thoughts?
There’s a wait-and-see attitude at IU right now. But I wonder how long that’ll last.
Bob Kravitz says Sampson should’ve resigned on Wednesday and says the school has to fire its coach.
Seth Davis maintains the coach deserves to have everything analyzed, but admits it doesn’t look good for Sampson.
Just more shame for the Hoosiers.
Indiana should suspend him for postseason play, says Mike DeCourcy.
Fire him and do it now, writes Gregg Doyel.
That last one seems to be where everything will be headed. I especially like this point: “You fire Sampson, or you alienate a sizable portion of your fan base. On some topics Indiana fans can be as irritating as any fan base in the country, but give them credit for this: They don't stomach a cheater.”
We’ll see how long Sampson can weather this storm.
