Kelvin Sampson was surrounded by 13,000 of his biggest supporters, but he stood alone at the center of the court at Assembly Hall. For the second year in a row, he had a hard time speaking at Hoosier Hysteria. The crowd wouldn’t give him a chance to talk. \n“Kel-vin Samp-son,” they roared, followed by a “clap, clap, clap-clap-clap.” It was one of several impromptu chants directed at the man many dubbed the savior of IU basketball. \nOn one side of the court, five red national championship banners hung from the ceiling, the most recent – from 1987 – older than almost half of the IU student body. On the other side stood an IU basketball team many believe could bring a sixth banner to Bloomington. \nBut less than 48 hours later, all was wrong in Hoosierville. During a teleconference, Sampson admitted to participating in 10 impermissible, three-way phone calls with recruits and disclosed that his staff had made at least 35 phone calls more than the NCAA’s allowable limit. He had been busted for the same offense while coaching at Oklahoma the year before he arrived at IU.\nIt’s no secret the Hoosiers will win some games this year. Perhaps they will make a run in the NCAA Tournament. But there are many fans who believe any potential win is now cheapened. \nAnd there are many who want Sampson fired.
A New Low\nThe sun had gone into hiding at Notre Dame Stadium, tucked beneath a massive press box at the west end of the building. The glow was gone from the golden helmets of the Notre Dame football team. The score was 31-14, and the Fighting Irish were just a few minutes away from unwanted history. The Michigan State Spartans were about to send the Golden Domers to their first 0-4 start in school history. \nMost of the 83,000 fans in attendance had trickled out of the stadium by the time the Irish made their way up the tunnel and into the locker room at the end of the game. Those who left were greeted by a painful reminder of what was. Navy-blue banners hung from the corridors of Notre Dame Stadium – 11 of them to be exact, each representing a different national championship. That’s more than any college football program in the country. \nBut it’s been a long time since they raised the 1988 championship banner in South Bend. The 19-year championship drought is the longest in school history.\nAnd 0-4 starts don’t help end that trend.
Similar History\nOne hundred ninety miles separate the two schools, but the landscapes at IU and Notre Dame are in sharp contrast. In Bloomington, paths and buildings are scattered across the rolling hills and forests of southern Indiana. In South Bend, all is flat, and classrooms are connected by a grid of straight sidewalks with interspersed greenery.\nThe outlook for the Hoosier basketball team and the Irish football team is similar. Both Indiana programs pride themselves on decades of success. The two are among the winningest collegiate sports programs of all time. But it’s been nearly 20 years since either has won a national title.\nWith the worst start in school history plaguing one program and a whirlwind of NCAA violations haunting the other, rarely have there been darker clouds hanging over the Hoosier state.
Stumbling blocks\nBefore the start of the 2007 college football season, many Irish fans would have likely scoffed at the idea of a 17-point loss being a moral victory. Just one year prior, the Irish were ranked the No. 3 team in the nation, and many had dreams Irish coach Charlie Weis and quarterback Brady Quinn could help restore Notre Dame’s golden image.\n“Nobody saw it coming,” said Eric Hansen, Notre Dame beat writer for the South Bend Tribune and author of “Notre Dame Fighting Irish: Where Have you Gone?” “Everybody thought this could be a rebuilding year, but nobody thought this would be a cataclysmic year. This is a season that shakes Charlie to the core because of what he believes and because of what people believe in him.”\nIt took four games for the Irish offense to score a touchdown this season, and to many Notre Dame fans, that was a victory, even though their team lost to Michigan State 31-14.\nAfter the game, Weis said he was pleased with his team’s progression. But he didn’t believe in moral wins. \n“I’m not one of those guys ... that losing’s OK,” Weis said at Notre Dame Stadium shortly after the loss. “I’m not one of those guys. I’ve never been a finger pointer either. It’s never going to be OK to lose, whether you lose by one or lose by 17.”\nFor Weis, it’s important that he destroys the idea in his locker room that losing is OK. After all, this is Notre Dame. \n“We know we’re a part of tradition,” said sophomore Irish receiver George West, “but tradition doesn’t put wins on the board.”\nThe same is true at IU, where for years in the late 1990s, a bitter Bob Knight stormed the sidelines at Assembly Hall, only to have his team drop out of the NCAA Tournament in the first round.\nBeing bad was old hat for Knight. Losing wasn’t for IU fans. \n“(Fans) justified Bob Knight’s behavioral excesses for so many years because he won,” said Bob Kravitz, sports columnist for the Indianapolis Star and 1982 IU graduate.\nOnce the big wins stopped coming, Knight’s behavior became an issue. First in 2000, former IU player Neil Reed alleged that Knight choked him during a 1997 practice. Video evidence supported the claim. A few months later, IU student Kent Harvey alleged Knight grabbed him by the arm after Harvey greeted the coach with “Hey, what’s up, Knight?”\nKnight was fired, and the campus erupted in chaos. \nThat was the lowest point for IU basketball, Kravitz said. Kelvin Sampson’s sanctions, he added, are not far behind. \nHansen agreed. Having covered the Hoosiers for 10 years before being hired by the South Bend Tribune, Hansen said Sampson’s phone-call problem is worse than Knight’s infamous temper tantrums of the mid-1980s, including the time Knight threw a folding chair across the hardwood at Assembly Hall. \n“The thing with Indiana basketball fans is that, even if they didn’t like Bob Knight, they liked what he stood for and that (he) was doing things the right way,” Hansen said. “To kids that grow up wanting to play Indiana basketball, they like what Indiana basketball stands for, and it doesn’t stand for being on probation.”
Return to Glory\nIt may not be too long before Notre Dame and IU are triumphant in their respective sports. Kelvin Sampson and Charlie Weis have a knack for recruiting top-tier athletes to their historically top-tier programs.\nFor Weis, it’s a question of what he can do with those athletes. For Sampson, it’s a question of how he got them in the first place. \nWeis has the athletes to take Notre Dame back to the top. He has brought in a string of three top-10 recruiting classes to South Bend, including what is shaping to be the top class in the nation.\nHansen said that, with an adjustment in coaching philosophy, Weis could lead Notre Dame to a national title within the next couple of years. \n“This is a huge offseason for Charlie Weis and Notre Dame,” Hansen said. If Notre Dame doesn’t bounce back with a respectable season next year, Hansen said, Weis’ job might not be safe.\nAt IU, the year to return the Hoosiers to dominance could be this year.\n“They have a team that can win,” Kravitz said. “They’ve got a team that’s going to play hard as hell, and they’ve got a team with Eric Gordon.”\nIf Sampson and the Hoosiers win, he could get the Knight treatment, where fans are willing to excuse off-court problems for on-court successes. \nBut there are some who still believe any win with Sampson at the helm would be tainted. \n“Kelvin’s a hell of a basketball coach,” Kravitz said, “but he’s got a phone problem.”\nNearly 20 years after their most recent national championships, the IU basketball and Notre Dame football programs are near their lowest points in school history. Both may be just a few years away from adding more banners to their collections. \nAt Notre Dame, winning will cure all troubles. \nAt IU, it may take something more.
