Fool Me Once...

Indiana University hired Kelvin Sampson despite the fact that he was facing NCAA sanctions for making illegal recruiting phone calls while at Oklahoma.

Hired him even though he was banned from making any phone calls to recruits.

So what happens, now that Sampson's been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, er... on the receiver... for the second time in two years?

An assistant is taking the fall, obviously.

Rob Senderoff, a 34-year-old assistant on Sampson's staff, will resign from his position as a result of the latest -- or is it the ongoing? -- scandal. Sampson is not expected to face any additional punishment from the NCAA -- though the university took away a scheduled $500,000 raise and one scholarship when reports of the illegal calls surfaced last month.

You could register your displeasure at the latest development -- and the fact that Sampson is apparently going to get away with this -- at FireCoachSampson.com, though you'll note a distinct lack of activity on that site.

Did we mention Indiana is expected to have a top-ten team this year?

Think that has anything to do with the apparent lack out outrage?

Wondering what would have happened if a coach that wasn't running one of the NCAA's flagship programs pulled a stunt like this?

Me too.

Recruiting with Rubber Chickens

There are more rules governing recruiting of big-time college ballplayers than there are governing what is and isn't allowed in carry-on baggage. And yet, in both cases, people will continue to find loopholes.

Here's a recent example, as reported on the ever-informative Redmen.com forum. Because this is a third-hand account and cannot be verified, I'll refer to the players and coaches involved in the vaguest of euphemisms.

A big-time college coach is speaking at a rubber chicken dinner/high school sports banquet. The town's star player is in attendance... but because the dinner is scheduled during a recruiting "quiet period," the coach cannot so much as say hello to the player without risking sanctions from the NCAA.

During the Q/A portion of the speech, the coach is asked what he looks for in a recruit. Without missing a beat, the coach goes on to describe, in great and obvious detail, the star player that he's not allowed to approach.

Legal? Probably.

Ethical? Questionable.

Effective? Let's just say the player in question will be suiting up for the coach in question next fall.

Mea Maxima Mel Kiper Culpa

Dave Telep, the brains behind Scout.com, has been way off on a few players over the years. The most recent example: Adam Morrison and Tyrus Thomas (the third and fourth picks in this year's NBA draft) weren't rated as top 100 prospects in their high school classes.

Unlike most professional talent evaluators/talking heads, Telep actually went back to figure out where he'd gone wrong, and told the Philadelphia Inquirer about it. This is worth a read for anyone who follows the college game.

I'd love to see a similar analysis from Mel Kiper or Chad Ford... "Well, you see... I paid entirely too much attention to the guy's 40 time and vertical leap. Completely neglected the fact that he's an utter meathead."

Credit where credit's due department: found this one on the always-informative Redmen.com.

Update on Eric Gordon/Kelvin Sampson

Interesting new twist to the Eric Gordon/Kelvin Sampson recruiting controversy. In today's "Hoops on Hoops" blog, Dick Weiss indicates that Gordon backed out of his verbal to Illinois over the summer. If that's true, I take back all... well, most... of the mean things I said about Kelvin Sampson.

The mean things I said about Jim Calhoun stand.

Verbals... not worth the paper...

Another day, another example of shady dealings by NCAA hoops coaches. This time it's Indiana's new head man, Kelvin Sampson, who managed to recruit Eric Gordon for the Hoosiers even though:

• Gordon had already verbally committed to Illinois
• Sampson is under recruiting restrictions dating back to some shenanigans when he was the head man at Oklahoma

This is a serious gray area for NCAA hoops programs. Generally, there's a working "gentleman's agreement" not to work players that have verbally committed -- but there's no hard and fast rule against it.

Now to be fair, Gordon is a tailor-made Hoosier out of North Central High School in Indianapolis. When he gave Bruce Weber his verbal last season, the coaching situation at Indiana was highly unsettled, and a blue-chipper like Gordon would have been nuts to commit. That said, Gordon (and Sampson) could have eliminated the appearance of any skullduggery by simply coming out and de-committing over the summer. That would have given Weber a chance to fill his scholarship -- now, it's a little late in the game to attract a player of Gordon's caliber.

This is the second time in recent memory that a big major conference recruit has switched teams at the last minute. Doug Wiggins, a mid-level recruit from Hartford, Connecticut gave an early verbal to Norm Roberts at St. John's. Wiggins then spent the summer shooting up the recruiting rankings with a series of stellar performances at camps and AAU events. The the Marcus Williams/AJ Price laptop scandal made the point guard situation at Connecticut a lot less solid, and suddenly, Wiggins signed with the Huskies. Roberts, like Weber, was hung out to dry after a coach in his own conference recruited a player who'd given a verbal.

This issue should become a big topic of conversation in the offseason. Other big-name coaches like Michigan State's Tom Izzo and Michigan's Tommy Amaker have spoken out on the subject, and the ethics committee of the National Association of Basketball Coaches is expected to weigh in, ESPN's Andy Katz blogs (ESPN Insider subscription required).