COACH KELVIN CHARACTER

Kelvin Sampson’s Website, twenty years removed from his first head college coaching position, reads like a resume.  His Website details his achievements at every stop in his coaching career, and as an added bonus, Sampson writes a short column entitled Passion and Intensity.  In the piece, Sampson declares he wants players who personify hard work, intensity “character, passion, commitment and a dedication and willingness to work hard and get better.”  His column comes replete with the egotistical observation, “Many friends will comment to me that they are thoroughly impressed with our style of play.”

Kelvin Sampson is all about Kelvin Sampson all the while pretending he is about something bigger than Kelvin Sampson. 

Kelvin Sampson was hired by Indiana University even after the NCAA concluded he and his assistant coaches made hundreds of illicit phone calls to attract potential recruits to play for him at the University of Oklahoma.

He professes to be a man of high character and solid judgment, molding student-athletes into men all under his watchful eye; as his other, more ambitious and self-serving eye, looks for dishonest ways of luring players to his program as his current and past players fail to graduate.  He had one hand on the pulse of his Oklahoma program; the other on his cell-phone making hundreds of impermissible calls to potential recruits begging them to join him in Norman.

Here are the facts:

·        Sampson and his assistant coaches made 550 illegal phone calls to potential recruits from 2000-2004.

·        The NCAA came calling on Sampson.

·        Sampson called Indiana about their coaching vacancy.

·        Indiana called Sampson and offered him the job.

·        Sampson fled Oklahoma after the NCAA came calling.

·        Sampson called his calls “mistakes” and has since “moved on.

·        Moved on, 750 miles away, to be exact, trying to long-distance himself from the mess he created.   

Sampson is no different than a teenager sneaking around with a cell phone stuck to his ear making hundreds of phone calls, and then negotiating his way out of trouble with mommy and daddy when the bill comes due.

Maybe Sampson is a better fit at Indiana A####mp;T than at Indiana University.

Part of the self-imposed punishment by the University of Oklahoma was to create a tracking system to monitor the calls of Sampson and his coaching staff, because their prior monitoring procedures “lacked adequate structure or substance.”  The university-imposed restriction is akin to the punishment meted out to a 15-year old child and not a 50-year old man.  I’m certain Sampson and his staff kept these calls private and away from the university, just as the teenager who hides the phone bill from his parents.  But, Sampson is far more sophisticated and far more practiced in the art of deception than any teenager.  He is a middle-aged man who is not going to learn from his mistakes as a child might, but instead, will learn how to not get caught again. 

Sampson can stand behind a podium in front of reporters and act John Wooden, when in reality Sampson is more Jim Harrick, a used-car salesman masquerading as basketball coach, who perpetuated ongoing scams at UCLA, Rhode Island and Georgia. 

A popular phrase thrown around when athletes cause headaches is: “We can’t let the inmates run the asylum.”  What’s the phrase when the warden is the felon?   

Sampson’s personal punishment for his indiscretions at Oklahoma was to freeze his salary at $1 million per year.  Man, that’s cold.

Sampson orders his players to touch every line when running sprints in practice and a failure to do so results in extra sprints.   This is an obvious metaphor designed to teach his players not to cut corners in basketball or in life.  His 550 illegal calls was a failure to touch all the lines while scorching the telephone lines.  The simple fact of the matter is Kelvin Sampson cheated to gain a competitive edge, got caught and should be made to pay for his indiscretions.

Sampson apologists point to his difficult upbringing in segregated Pembroke, North Carolina as a member of the Lumbee Indian Tribe, and add that his single-minded ambition to better himself is an American success story that explains his need for staying ahead of his competition.  Ambition is a curious and unpredictable traveler.  It will either meticulously prepare for the journey and be packed for every situation, or it will feel vulnerable and steal traveler’s checks in the dark of night. 

The NCAA will decide Sampson’s fate and the fate of the University of Oklahoma basketball program later this month.   The decision is a simple one.  Myles Brand and the NCAA should determine that the illegal activities of Sampson and his staff should follow them and them alone.  But, the decision could be made difficult by the fact that Myles Brand is the former president of Indiana University and a conflict of interest may play a part in the NCAA’s upcoming decision.  Brand, while at Indiana, was the man who fired Indiana legend Bobby Knight. Brand should recuse himself from this case and let those whose pockets have never been lined with Hoosier money make the decision.  Any decision adverse to the University of Oklahoma, and in Sampson’s favor, should be vigorously questioned.  Allowing Sampson to move on to the University of Indiana without being penalized is a joke, and forcing Jeff Capel and the University of Oklahoma to deal with his wrongdoing is the punch line. 

Decisions made by NCAA committees are not always fair. It is an organization run by old school, coach apologists who are far more concerned about the welfare of its coaches than about protecting the young student-athletes who are the NCAA.  It wouldn’t be shocking at all to see the NCAA allow Sampson to walk and then deliver a punishment aimed at the University of Oklahoma players who did nothing more than accept one of Sampson’s illegal phone calls.  The NCAA has had no problem in the past destroying the lives of 18, 19, 20 and 21 year old kids for youthful indiscretions made one time, and in turn, excusing the numerous indiscretions committed by middle-aged coaches who should know better. 

Universities, like the NCAA, are quick to pull the plug on student-athletes for mistakes made while allowing coaches to keep on living.  Ask yourself this question: Would the NCAA, or a public university, allow an athlete to violate an NCAA directive 550 times and then move on to another university without penalty?  Of course not.  In fact, the NCAA and universities collectively decided to penalize student-athletes wanting to transfer by making them sit out of competition for one full year, even if a student-athlete can provide video evidence, for example, from an Indiana University practice session, that he was choked by the coach.

Indiana University Athletic Director, Rick Greenspan, has earned every critical salvo fired his way.  He hired Sampson with the knowledge that the NCAA is on his tail for his misdeeds in favor of interviewing and hiring a qualified former Hoosier, someone like Orlando Magic assistant, Randy Witman, who expressed a strong desire to coach his alma mater.  If his hiring of Sampson isn’t bad enough on it’s own, Greenspan devised a sneaky scheme that would allow Indiana to send Sampson packing, without pay, should NCAA penalties follow him.  That’s a pretty ruthless proposition on Greenspan’s part. Maybe Sampson and Greenspan deserve one another.

A fitting punishment for Sampson would be for the NCAA to rule he has to sit out of coaching for one full year, as a player would have to do if he wanted to transfer schools. Sampson could work for the NCAA making phone calls to the parents of student-athletes whose children were denied scholarships after failing to meet NCAA Clearinghouse requirements.  Sampson could explain to each why the Clearinghouse denied their kids’ futures and advise them how to correct the situation and get back to chasing their dreams. 

It would be a way for Sampson to make good on his self-proclamation as a man of character and would utilize his best skill, which is talking on a telephone.

Sampson called on Indiana University and a new job when the NCAA came calling on him.  It’s time for the NCAA to call Sampson out for his dishonesty and penalize him and him alone.  Indiana University, because of the thorough incompetence of Rick Greenspan should be stuck with Sampson and the penalties that escort him to Bloomington.  By making Sampson own up to his behavior the NCAA can send a clear message to universities across the country that coaches are as responsible for their actions as are student-athletes.  Maybe, with a strong enough message, athletic directors will delete the phone numbers of suspect coaches from their speed dial and start calling on coaches who display character on and off the court and not those who merely profess character on a Website.