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Kelvin Sampson: A Recovering Illegal Recruiter

Kelvin Sampson: A Recovering Illegal Recruiter

The current situation at Indiana, where Basketball Head Coach Kelvin Sampson has been placed on a game-by-game tight rope while the university determines how to handle the media blitz surrounding violations by the coach and one of his assistants, is an overreaction to a situation that was sure to surface.

After making 550 illegal phone calls to 17 different recruits at Oklahoma, being on the phone during 10 conference calls to recruits over the past two seasons at Indiana, seems like jay walking. His assistant Rob Senderoff has resigned after making 35 phone calls in violation of the 2006 NCAA ruling against the Oklahoma staff. I would also consider the Senderoff violation to be miniscule in comparison to the 550 calls of the original NCAA violation. They pulled Eric Golden away from Illinois after he had committed, that’s a sure sign that someone is making a lot of phone calls.

These are great coaches that led Oklahoma to an average of 25 wins over eight consecutive seasons and have placed Indiana back on top of the Big 10. Currently Kelvin Sampson is 42-14 at Indiana with one NCAA appearance and they are on their way to another. To think that a recovering illegal recruiter could take a head coaching position and not make phone calls to recruits was a mistake by Indiana that had many scratching their heads at the time. They could have waited to hire him but Sampson would not have been available after his one-year probation was over.

They brought in someone with a tainted past that could win games. Indiana got who they knew they were hiring. For them to back out now under pressure from the media and from boosters is an overreaction that I think will go away given an investigation and probably another one to two year probationary period for one really good coach who is a little to aggressive on the recruiting trail.

What others are saying:

KOKOMO TRIBUNE

http://www.mineralwellsindex.com/statenews/cnhinsall_story_051151752.html

EOG.com, Canada

http://www.eog.com/news/full-article.aspx?id=35190

Sporting News

http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=355167

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