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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

Sampson not so welcome in other Assembly Hall

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Not to get all predictably cliche on you here, but Assembly Hall -- the one in Champaign, Ill. -- is quite literally a gladiator's ring.\nThere's one entrance onto the court. The stands wrap around in an oval. There are no balconies. \nAs the Illini and Bruce Weber entered the court shortly before tipoff, there were cheers from the orange-clad faithful. Call it a hero's welcome, if you will.\nShortly afterward, the IU Hoosiers strutted out to jeers. And jeers. And more jeers. IU coach Kelvin Sampson, who seemed to take his sweet time before making his way onto the court, got the loudest boos of all. The Enemy had finally arrived.\nBut here were the Hoosiers, undaunted as they've been on the road all season, hitting shots early in the contest and taking the Orange Krush out of the game from the start. But then, something happened. Whether it was Illini coach Bruce Weber's decision to start double-teaming D.J. White, or IU's normally hot 3-point shooters going cold, or just a bad game (which happens to even the best of teams now and then), the Hoosiers started a slow crawl backward.\nHard to say exactly where it all unraveled. But, I do know this: The Illini crowd got to this team. They got to Sampson. For the first time all year, the crowd seriously rattled IU. They were timid. No one stepped up in crunch time. The Hoosiers scored 43 points the entire game. Let me remind you, IU had 41 points at halftime against Western Illinois earlier in the season.\nOnce things started to really go south in the second half, there was a rampant pulsation of noise from the stands. It was an all-out onslaught on a man who the fans know isn't really to blame for the whole Eric Gordon debacle -- but hey, they have to let loose anger on someone, and who better than him?\nHe's the face of a program that snatched a game-breaker, Mr. Eric Gordon, from their grips. He's the guy they'll surely hate for years to come.\nThis Illini team is not very good. They still have a case to make if they want to get into the NCAA tournament. Their win Tuesday night against a ranked opponent should help their cause. Illinois may not even finish over .500 in the conference this season.\nTheir win Tuesday night might be one of the few bright spots of the season. In their minds, there's at least something to savor from this season -- a win over the Enemy. They'll say, "At least we beat that cheater Sampson this year."\nExpect the Hoosiers to rebound. I said before the game this would be their toughest road tilt of the year and a difficult place for them to eke out a victory.\nBut this loss was frighteningly reminiscent of the ghost of Hoosiers past: the teams under former coach Mike Davis that self-destructed on the road.\nSampson gets animated on the sidelines. But Tuesday night, under the glare of about 16,000 souls all in unison against him, he seemed to ramp it up a notch. He constantly interlocked his fingers behind his head after he watched frustrating play after frustrating play from his squad. He stomped on the floor repeatedly. I can only imagine what he told his team in the locker room after the game.\nSampson will get another shot at this Illini team Feb. 10 inside his own Assembly Hall. A win is altogether possible.\nBut for one Tuesday night in late January, he and his team entered the gladiator's ring and were slain.

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