Road to the Final Four

Sampson violates recruiting rules

2008-02-27T08:01:00.004-05:00

The Indiana Hoosiers have been one of the most prestigious basketball programs in the history of college hoops. They have been built on a tradition of success, dedication and class.

Recently, Indiana head coach Kelvin Sampson fell into a world of trouble with the NCAA, prompting the university to buy out his contract. Sampson is being accused of committing five “major” violations according to the NCAA, making over 100 impermissible calls to recruits as well as providing false and misleading information to the NCAA. (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=3243793")

Before taking over the Indiana program two years ago, Sampson built his coaching legacy at the University of Oklahoma. He owns the highest winning percentage in the history of Sooner's basketball at .721. Named National Coach of the Year in 1995, Sampson built Oklahoma into a stable basketball program, distinguishing them from the successful football program. He took his teams to the NCAA Tournament ten of the eleven years that he coached there, and reached the Final Four in 2002 (one which I attended) losing to, coincidently, the Indiana Hoosiers.

Although Sampson has accolades and achievements in his basketball career, that all but seems to be over. He will be forever be remembered for his failures. Before taking the helm at Indiana, the NCAA launched an investigation against Sampson and his staff. The results are startling, 577 impermissible phone calls.

Indiana released their former head coach, Mike Davis, around the same time and decided to hire Sampson amid all the allegations and future restrictions against him. They gave him a second chance to redeem himself. Sampson received a one-year ban from contacting recruits, relying on his assistants and scouting directors to do most of the work, but he received a five-year $2.5 million contract from Indiana.

In 2007, all of the NCAA sanctions were lifted from him, allowing him to continue doing his job. Sampson continued doing what he felt his job was, recruiting players no matter what it took.

With everything in life that goes wrong, there will always be a purpose and lesson to be learned. Sampson was obviously not phased by the allegations, investigations, sanctions and ban. He did not learn from what he did wrong the first time. He did not fulfill his promise that he was a changed man, one he made at his opening press conference at Indiana. Sampson destroyed the second chance that he was blessed to receive, a second chance that many people in the world today go without. While Indiana tries to dig themselves out of turmoil that will certainly last for a few years, Sampson walks free with $750,000.

While the sports world is filled with stories of goodness, love and passion there will always be deterrences. Sadly for every Skip Prosser that college basketball has the pleasure of having, there will be multiple Kelvin Sampsons.

Super Bowl: The Patriots' Quest for Perfection

2008-02-20T14:01:00.003-05:00

Before I begin about college basketball, I want to go into the NFL season that just came into conclusion.

The 2007-2008 NFL season was one where we experienced the ultimate best and worst teams that the NFL has seen in quite sometime, the New England Patriots and the Miami Dolphins. The Patriots will now live in infamy as they lost their final game of the season to the New York Giants in the Super Bowl, the final stop in a possible 19-0 season. From now and forever, Patriot's head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady will be linked to their failure to complete “the perfect season.”

More than anything, NFL analysts, fans, and commentators would circle the New England game every week. It became almost a habit to figure out some way, somehow that the Patriots had a disadvantage. The combination of coach Belichick's personality, Tom Brady's and the teams perfection, Spygate, and their crazed beatings at the start of the season, including a 52-7 massacre of Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs and the Washington Redskins, lead to the hate towards the Patriots. They became the target for all non-Patriots fans the rest of the season.

I am an Indianapolis Colts fan, and although a repeat championship would have been great, I became focused more on the Patriots’ quest for perfection. It almost became a religion for fans to watch Patriots games throughout the season looking for them to lose. Every game seemed to show more and more of the weaknesses of the Patriots. The Colts game in Week 9, the Eagles game in Week 12, followed by the Ravens game in Week 13, and finally the Giants game in Week 16 all came down to the wire, but somehow the Patriots won. They won by skill, coaching, and even a little bit of luck.

As I watched the Super Bowl progress, I continued to lack confidence in the Giants, even though they were playing incredible defense. I was waiting for the one moment, one drive or one play to change the landscape of the game. I was waiting for the one that came so often during the regular season. When they marched down the field in their second-to-last possession with ease, I felt it happening again. They capped it off with a touchdown to put them up 14-10, seeming to inevitably end the game like they always had. But for some forsaken reason, Eli Manning became a Super Bowl Legend. His play in their final drive, along with some giant luck, put the Patriots entire season in shambles.

The New England Patriots now would have been better off losing one of those games in the regular season and winning the Super Bowl, then continuing their pursuit of perfection and losing the Super Bowl. Easier said than done I guess.

This year’s Super Bowl will always rank as one of my favorite Super Bowls because of its implications on history, the excitement during the 4th quarter, and finally seeing the New England Patriots fall flat on their face as perfection slipped through their grasp.

Media Day 2008

2008-02-14T13:48:00.003-05:00

The reason for a blog is simple. I was selected by The Washington Post to attend Media Day at the Verizon Center on March 19th. The Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. will be one of the host locations for the first and second rounds of the 2008 NCAA Tournament. Every location is host to eight schools. The schools playing at the Verizon Center will be announced on Selection Sunday (March 16th).

Media Day for the NCAA tournament is a watered down version of Media Day the NFL holds before its Super Bowl. Each of the eight teams will have an hour slot for practicing, and then will have an hour to and hour and a half press conference. More than 100 sports writers from across the country will watch the practices and interview the coaches and players at the press conferences.

I was fortunate to be selected, along with six other high school students, to attend Media Day. I will not be allowed to ask questions at the press conferences, and, sadly, I won't be able to ask for autographs, but I will be allowed to watch the practices and attend the press conferences. It will be an incredible experience because I will be able to work with some Washington Post employees, sit in on press conferences, and meet some of the best collegiate basketball players in the country.

From now until the trip to the Verizon Center, I will update this blog with information about college basketball and my opinions about the tournament this year.