The Beginning and End of the Kelvin Sampson Era

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve ironically bought a couple of pieces of memorabilia from the Kelvin Sampson era — if you can even call those two seasons an era. The first was a basketball signed by most of a 2007-08 Hoosier team that had the potential to make a significant tourney run and the second, which arrived yesterday in the mail, was a roster card (pictured here) from the year season prior that is fully signed by both the men’s and women’ basketball teams.

Looking at these two items, while we teeter yet again on the bubble for making (or missing) the NCAA tournament, it’s hard for me to not rewind and reflect on this time in IU’s basketball history and the indelible impact it has had on the program. Say what you want about the demise of Knight’s tenure and the Mike Davis years that followed…Sampson’s hiring — and rather quick dismissal — can be seen as the beginning of a cataclysmic downward spiral of a storied program that was primed and ready to regain prominence and relevancy on a national stage. The probation and self-imposed sanctions were crippling to a program well-known for being ran in a squeaky clean fashion with zero eyebrows raised at the mere hint of impropriety. We’re now on our third coach and have only five tournament appearances in 14 years.

Regardless about how you feel about Sampson, he was and remains to be a great basketball mind. Setting all of the baggage aside, perceived or real, and looking purely from a coaching standpoint, he was a good hire at the time and I believe would have brought Indiana back to national prominence. From what I’ve read and heard (not substantiated), there were both cultural and player personnel issues that would have been subject to a fair level of scrutiny in the event he would have continued on with the program…still, there’s no mistake of his proven success at other schools and most recently with a Houston program that does not remotely compare to other perennial powerhouses and doesn’t have the same kind of basketball appeal, fan base, or resources like Indiana University has. It would be interesting to see what Indiana’s path would have been like had Sampson not been forced to resign.

The team Sampson had in his second year had the makings of a deep run tourney team. Weathering through yet another storm of media attention, the decommitment of Eric Gordon from Illinois and his eventual commitment to the Hoosiers gave Indiana one of the top recruiting classes in the country and a formidable 1-2 punch with senior D.J. White. Eric Gordon is arguably the best player to wear an Indiana Uniform in the past 20 years or more, a pure scorer with a stroke that extended to damn near the half court line and the NBA longevity to back that up. Sadly, this team fell apart as the allegations began swirling around the program — and coupled with Sampson’s early resignation, lost four of their last five games, making a quick exit in the NCAA tournament and finished 25-8.

Fast forward…there have been many flashes of excellence with this year’s edition of the Hoosiers, which has been fun to watch at times…and left you feeling we could play with anyone in the country. We’ve been competitive and have had opportunities to win just about every game — a few of those L’s could have been easily flipped to W’s and we’d be having a different conversation. Shoulda coulda woulda, though. In the same vein, there’s been plenty of cold spells resulting from poor shooting, a stagnant offense, or lack of effort and energy where the frustration level plowed through the roof of Assembly Hall, overshadowing the progress we’ve truly made this year. I think this team simply lacks shooters of the caliber of Eric Gordon on the perimeter and a strong floor general, as we have a seemingly strong culture and a supporting cast of contributors that would serve as the underpinning of a good, well-balanced team. A pure shooter that can also create for himself would create the necessary spacing we need and a point guard that can create more fluidity in the offense through quick ball movement or penetration with kickouts would get us those few extra points our stellar defense has needed to close out games. I believe these key ingredients would “get us over the hump”. Hopefully we’ll find a way to get in the dance this year, but if we don’t, let’s give Coach Woodson some time to get the pieces in place.