IU guy? Try OU instead

Yesterday was a tough one for me. I never thought it would happen, but I banked my reputation on something and I was sorely disappointed. It makes me sick to my stomach just thinking about it, but I guess I need to be a man and face the facts. So here it goes -- I was wr- ... Wow, this is a lot harder than you'd think. I was not ri- ... OK, OK -- just give me a second here.\nI was wrong. \nWhen I said Tom Crean was the best possible hire IU Director of Athletics Rick Greenspan could make, I was wrong, and I'd like to apologize.\nI've always said that I'll happily admit when I'm wrong about something, it's just never happened before.\nWhen the news broke Tuesday that Oklahoma's Kelvin Sampson would be named IU's 25th head basketball coach, I was stunned. Like most of the Hoosier nation, I simply didn't see this one coming. Maybe I fell asleep at the wheel, maybe I was too busy answering hate mail or maybe I spent too much time plotting my revenge against whoever planned those Applebee's commercials with the "Gilligan's Island" theme. Whatever the case, the news blew me away. \nRumors had persisted for weeks that Greenspan would try to "hit a home run" with this hire, and names like Mark Few, John Calipari and Rick Pitino came up. But nailing down Sampson is a coup and everyone in the IU family should rally around this guy for one simple reason -- he's a proven winner.\nSo what are we getting? How about a guy whose teams have won 20 games for nine years running. A coach with a .721 winning percentage (279-109 record) in 12 seasons in Norman, Okla. Sampson is the winningest coach in Big 12 history and the Sooners have gone to the NCAA Tournament 11 times under his guidance, including a Final Four run in 2002 and a trip to the Elite Eight in 2003. He has been selected National Coach of the Year twice (1995 and 2002) and got his first coaching job as a graduate assistant for former Michigan State head coach and Big Ten legend Jud Heathcoat. He's also a force on the recruiting trail. According to www.rivals.com, Sampson has five of the top 73 recruits in the nation headed to Oklahoma despite some minor recruiting violations. His teams also play tough defense and rebound better than Nick Lachey after Jessica Simpson. Seriously, Nick, Kristen from "Laguna Beach?" Nice work my friend. \nThough there is a slim possibility that some recruiting violations could follow the 50-year-old Sampson here from Oklahoma (we'll know in April), basically everything about this hire is perfect. \nI know I'm going to get loads of e-mails lamenting how Sampson is not "an IU guy" and that Steve Alford or Randy Wittman would have been better hires. So here's a thought for you moronic "only an IU guy could unite the program" Hoosier fans out there: You know what will unite the Hoosier fan base? Wins. And Kelvin Sampson can and will bring them. If you still think that only a guy from within the program could turn things around for IU hoops, I point to Tennessee, where Bruce Pearl, a Jewish guy from Boston, has revitalized a dying basketball program in the South. \nYou think Sampson can't be successful because he wasn't born here or didn't go to school here? Correct me if I'm wrong, but Bobby Knight grew up in Ohio and went to Ohio State. He had absolutely no ties to IU when he arrived in Bloomington, yet most of you still love him. \nSampson will bring a breath of fresh air to the IU campus, as we have finally severed all ties with the Knight era and can now look forward to a bright future. \nBut that's just my opinion ... I could be wrong.