Indiana's Kelvin Sampson: "Fool Me Once, Shame on You; Fool Me Twice..."

In an era full of controversy and scandals in professional sports, one would suspect that athletes, coaches, and all those involved in the world of athletics would learn how to follow the rules.

This certainly isn’t the case at Indiana University.

On Feb. 8, amidst arguably the biggest and most important two weeks of the regular season for the Indiana Hoosiers men’s basketball team, the NCAA sent a notice to Indiana University president, Michael McRobbie, detailing illegal recruiting allegations committed by head coach Kelvin Sampson and two of his assistants. The 14-page document outlined five major violations against the coaching staff and included a statement that claimed Sampson had lied about these violations to the NCAA and Indiana University. Most of the alleged violations included excessive impermissible phone calls made by the Indiana coaching staff.

While violating the number of phone calls that coaches are allowed to make to recruits may seem like getting a speeding ticket for going five over, it’s still a rule that should be followed.

This was the second time at the second school that Kelvin Sampson decided that this rule apparently didn’t apply to him.

From 2000 to 2006, while coaching Oklahoma, Sampson made 577 impermissible phone calls to recruits. He received sanctions for his actions from the NCAA that he brought with him when he was hired as the head coach at Indiana in 2006.

Sampson promised to put his troubles behind him, but he then proceeded to violate these sanctions, make more impermissible phone calls to recruits, and then lie about all of it.

Knowing that Sampson had a history of cheating at the University of Oklahoma, Indiana athletic director Rick Greenspan decided to hire him anyway. He chose to believe that Sampson would carry on the tradition of good, clean athletics that Indiana University prides itself on. In fact, it had been more than 45 years since IU had committed any NCAA violations in any sport. Greenspan put Sampson in charge of the most prized possession of many Indiana natives, the Hoosier men’s basketball team; arguably one of the five best coaching jobs in the country.

Sampson failed miserably.

His reputation, along with the reputation of the men’s basketball program at Indiana, and the reputation of the university itself have been damaged.

Sampson is a fine basketball coach, and his players seem to love him, but when a man’s honor and integrity come into question, there’s a serious problem.

Sampson was supposed to be the next coaching giant at Indiana. Many thought he would be there until he was unable to coach anymore.

Well, it seems as though his time is already up.

On February 15, President McRobbie launched a one week internal investigation of Coach Sampson conducted by the athletic department. Come February 22, when the internal probe has concluded, Greenspan will likely recommend to Mcrobbie that Sampson be fired; and rightfully so.

However McRobbie shouldn’t stop there. As the saying goes, “once a cheater, always a cheater”. Rick Greenspan hired this cheater and essentially put his own job in jeopardy in the process. Now, he should go too.

Greenspan’s job can be summed up into one sentence: “Fool me once, Kelvin Sampson, shame on you; fool me twice, Kelvin Sampson, shame on me”.