More of the same from Sampson

After Kelvin Sampson saw the turmoil, embarrassment and essential destruction he caused the Hoosier basketball program, one might think he would come to his senses and admit his wrongdoings.

Obviously not.

Maybe, and hopefully, he would come clean after he saw the hole he dug for Tom Crean and his staff, as well as portions of the Indiana athletics department.

No such hope.

On Tuesday, the NCAA denied Sampson’s appeal to his five-year banishment from collegiate basketball, saying “it found no basis on which to conclude that the findings of violations were contrary to the evidence.”

Forget the NCAA even denying Sampson’s outrageous attempt at finagling his way into another basketball program and putting it at risk. In many people’s eyes, including my own, the fact that Sampson tried to appeal his bar only reinforces his guilt.

This timeline of events is eerily similar to that of the Roger Clemens saga. Recall how Clemens won 300-plus games, was then accused of cheating and continually denied it in spite of teammate Andy Pettitte and former trainer Bryan McNamee recalling times when they and the Rocket discussed performance enhancing drugs.

Now that of Sampson: He leads his Oklahoma Sooners to the Final Four in 2002, commits violations in both Norman and Bloomington and is accused by former prospects of participating in three-way phone calls with them.

Just like Astros and Yankees fans, Hoosiers fans have moved on and begun to look to the promising future of IU basketball, but they are still being persuaded by their respective villain to be considered a martyr.

Months ago, when Sampson said he was truly sorry for what happened to “their university,” was the time to come clean – the time to come forward with details, regrets and apologies.

Now an assistant with the Milwaukee Bucks, Sampson seems to still not have the ability to face himself and his former employer. The only thing elongating this series of events does is dig him into an even deeper hole with basketball authorities.

Sampson said the NCAA was “wrong in every way,” and if he didn’t believe they were wrong, he wouldn’t present a case.

How does the NCAA not have a case when the phone records show more than 100 impermissible phone calls were made to recruits? The fact that Sampson was reprimanded once at Oklahoma for the same violations makes the NCAA’s case even more plausible.

The most logical reason for Sampson lamenting on his mistreatment is he has no other cards to play. To borrow Crean’s coined phrase, “it’s Indiana.” In other words, Bloomington was one of the last places Sampson could cut corners for his reputation’s sake. At an institution and in a state where basketball is a way of life, forgiveness won’t be shown to whoever tears the tradition apart.

How would the people traveling Tobacco Road treat a coach who committed violations at Duke or North Carolina? We literally saw Kentucky media run their coach, Billy Gillispie, out of his own facility’s parking lot in April just before his firing.

Sampson had, and has, no hope of regaining respectability on the big scale unless he is proven to be innocent.  

As we have seen, his last shot at redemption seems to have fallen short.