Kelvin Sampson’s Players Are Starring in the Tournament

Kelvin Sampson was fired unceremoniously by Indiana two years ago for committing several recruiting violations, the same issue that got him into trouble at Oklahoma. The Hoosiers started out the ’05-’06 season promisingly, going 17-1 and ultimately 22-4 before losing in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Many of the IU players were upset that Sampson was fired and they were further angered when assistant Dan Dakich was appointed the interim coach. Several players stopped attending class during that tumultuous time and a few of them were kicked off the team (reports of drug and grade issues also could have contributed to the departures).

Armon Bassett was one of those players and he eventually transferred to UAB — former IU coach Mike Davis’ new school — before ultimately deciding on Ohio. Bassett led Ohio to the MAC tourney championship and the Bobcats to an upset win over Georgetown in the first-round of this year’s tournament, scoring 32 in the game. Xavier star player Jordan Crawford, best known for not dunking on LeBron James, was another player caught up in the Sampson mess. A freshman at the time, Crawford wasn’t too fond of Tom Crean’s new regime, so he decided to transfer to Xavier. Crawford’s averaged 20 points per game in his first year at Xavier and put up 28 in their first round win over Minnesota. While I recognized Armon Bassett’s name from the ’08 IU team, I have to thank my uncle for pointing out that Crawford was on that team too. Clearly that Indiana team had talent, but that’s not even where Sampson’s ties end!

Dana O’Neil had a write-up on the same observation I made about Sampson’s connections to the 2010 tournament and added another name about which I wasn’t aware. One of West Virginia’s top players, Devin Ebanks, was a Sampson commit at IU but he backed out after Kelvin was canned. If you want to go way back, Villanova star Scottie Reynolds and Texas star Damion James were both Sampson commits to Oklahoma before backing out when he left for Indiana.

Any wonder why Sampson’s teams were so good? The guy could recruit some serious talent. Of course, he made like 500 illegal phone calls to establish a good relationship with these players that no other coach was able to make, but at least he targeted top players. This story has to be bittersweet for Indiana fans; the juxtaposition of what could have been against the optimism of where the program is heading. Hang in there Hoosiers, you guys will be back before long.

Sources:
Sampson’s footprints all over tourney [College Basketball Nation]