Sources: Sampson to receive NCAA's harshest penalty
Kelvin Sampson resigned as Indiana coach last February amid a burgeoning scandal over NCAA recruiting violations involving improper telephone calls. Now, the NCAA is taking the step to ensure he can't coach a college program for at least five years.
Sources told ESPN.com on Tuesday that Sampson, now an assistant with the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks, will receive a five-year show-cause penalty -- one of the harshest the NCAA can levy against an individual -- while the Hoosiers program has been spared a postseason ban.
The sources also said Indiana's self-imposed penalties are expected to be upheld. Meanwhile, the Indianapolis Star is reporting that the Hoosiers will receive three years' probation. The NCAA has scheduled a 4 p.m. ET conference call to discuss its findings in the case.
Indiana has been accused of four major NCAA violations that spawned from more than 100 impermissible phone calls to recruits by Sampson and his assistant coaches during his first season in Bloomington. Sampson resigned under pressure, short of completing his second season, after accepting a $750,000 buyout.
Sampson was still on NCAA-imposed probation as Indiana's coach for his involvement in similar offenses committed while the coach at Oklahoma. Colonial Athletic Association commissioner Tom Yeager, the chair of the NCAA infractions committee during Sampson's Oklahoma case, said a five-year show cause would not be out of line for a coach who had recently appeared in front of the committee.
The most serious charge against Sampson was that he provided false information to NCAA enforcement staff members and Indiana compliance officers, something the coach has denied. The investigation began in July 2007, a little more than a year after he was hired away from Oklahoma. Once the president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches at a time when the NABC held an ethics summit in Chicago following a string of high-profile NCAA cases, Sampson was not allowed to send text messages to or call recruits when he first arrived at Indiana..
Sampson was replaced at Indiana by interim coach Dan Dakich, then caught on with the Bucks. His entire staff eventually was dismantled, with assistant Ray McCallum getting the head coaching job at Detroit, Jeff Meyer hired as an assistant at Michigan, and Rob Senderoff joining Kent State's staff.
The fallout also hit Indiana athletic director Rick Greenspan, who is finishing out the calendar year after resigning under pressure. He will be succeeded by Indianapolis attorney Fred Glass.
Meanwhile, the NCAA is expected to punish Senderoff with a three-year show cause penalty. Kent State would have to appear in front of the infractions committee to hear the sanctions leveled against him and then decide to either fight to keep Senderoff on staff or reassign him within its athletic department.
Crean has had to contend with running a program that has just one returning scholarship player. When Indiana lost to Notre Dame by 38 points in the Maui Invitational on Monday, it was the Hoosiers' largest margin of defeat in nearly 11 years.
There are nine scholarship players on Indiana's roster after the program relinquished one scholarship as part of its self-imposed sanctions. Indiana took away an additional two scholarships in a separate decision based on an expected poor Academic Progress Report.
Underclassmen who transferred out or left for the NBA following Sampson's departure -- Eric Gordon (L.A. Clippers), DeAndre Thomas (NAIA Robert Morris), Eli Holman (sitting out at Detroit), Armon Bassett (sitting out at UAB), Jordan Crawford (sitting out at Xavier) and Brandon McGee (sitting out at Auburn) -- can now be found all over the map.
Crawford is appealing to play at Xavier right away without sitting out the required year-in-residence, and a separate NCAA committee would handle this case. But Indiana would have to support Crawford's case and Crean hasn't been open to the idea because he can't get his own transfer, former Georgetown guard Jeremiah Rivers, eligible immediately.
And, with Indiana not facing a postseason ban, Crawford has less of a case. The NCAA has granted immediate eligibility waivers to transfers fleeing schools under NCAA sanctions in cases where a postseason ban extends beyond the player's remaining eligibility. Yet Crawford is only a sophomore, so his scenario does not apply.
Indiana officials appeared in front of the infractions committee in June and, in addition, fought a separate charge of a failure to monitor the basketball program. During the hearings, two former friends, Sampson and IU successor Tom Crean, formerly of Marquette, did not speak.
Indiana, which opened the season with home wins over Northwestern State and IUPUI, lost its opener in the Maui Invitational to Notre Dame on Monday. The Hoosiers play Saint Joseph's in the consolation round Tuesday.
Because the NCAA's membership is made up of schools, penalties imposed are directed toward the schools, not individuals. A show-cause penalty means a future employer needs to demonstrate to the COI that sufficient disciplinary action against the coach has been taken since he or she has found to violate NCAA rules.
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ESPN - Sources: NCAA punishes Kelvin Sampson, spares Indiana Hoosiers
