June 26: our basketball apocalypse

Nostradamus isn’t really as wise as people think.\nMany view the 16th-century seer as a prophetic figure, citing his writings as predictions for infamous world events such as The French Revolution and World War II. Another oft-noted Nostradamus prediction: the end of the world on December 12, 2012.\nFor Hoosier basketball, the date for the end of our basketball world could be little different. \nAfter bearing witness to the end of the Kelvin Sampson era, which included a gutting of the roster – eight players are gone, five leaving with eligibility left – and an impending slew of infractions, I thought it would all be over. I believed after all the drama, Sampson would be somewhere hiding in a rabbit-hole and the players would be out of our lives forever. I was sure we could just move on with the Tom Crean era.\nAnd then the ultimate sign the apocalypse of the storied IU men’s basketball program was arriving became unsealed from a novelty envelope during Tuesday’s NBA Draft Lottery.\nI predict on June 26, Kelvin Sampson’s new team, the Milwaukee Bucks, will draft his prized recruit Eric Gordon, thus letting us relive the torture that was IU basketball’s 2007-2008 season 82 nights a year, in the big leagues.\nI had feared the June 26 draft as soon as Sampson signed on with Milwaukee, one of the most pitiful franchises in the NBA. Year in, year out the Bucks pick in the top 10. With less-than-great picks such as T.J. Ford (traded after an unfortunate and unforeseen injury), Andrew Bogut (rather than Chris Paul or Deron Williams) and Yi Jianlian, Milwaukee is notoriously mediocre. This year, they slipped to the No. 8 pick in the draft.\nGet this: Since the end of the college season, Eric Gordon’s stock has slipped. Though he had a wrist injury, the former Hoosier hasn’t done anything to improve his draft standing. Through the great media hype machine, some argue at least a half-dozen players are better than Gordon. This places him at around the No. 8 pick – right into the open arms of Sampson and the Milwaukee Bucks.\nAnd if my prediction does come true, all hell will break loose.\nImagine turning on your television to watch the night’s highlights. You see Sampson, the assistant to former Chicago Bulls head coach Scott Skiles, and Gordon again on the same bench. It would be living my worst nightmare.\nI would be living hard enough to forget the sorry ending to what was easily the school’s worst basketball season. Next season when I flip on SportsCenter and stumble upon a Milwaukee Bucks recap, I will see the two together and be forced to remember the pain and suffering I had during my last year in Bloomington. It seems all too inevitable. Chad Ford from ESPN.com agrees my prediction will come true in his first mock draft.\nGordon and Sampson will go down in Hoosier history together. Fittingly, their college basketball careers ended abruptly and unceremoniously. And when they both begin their NBA careers, there is a good chance it could be together. If this happens, June 26 could be a day remembered in Hoosier infamy.\nIf Gordon and Sampson join forces on the Bucks, it will be the end of the world as we know it.