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To say Indiana University is having a bad week is an understatement. Not only did they lose to Wisconsin in Bloomington last night, but their coach, Kelvin Sampson, now has to deal with some recruiting violations from his tenure at Oklahoma.

While the NCAA’s blotter reads “5 Major Recruiting Violations,” essentially, Sampson is under fire for abusing his cellular phone privileges while he was with the Sooners.

Apparently, they don’t like it when you take advantage of the Fave 5/talk-as-much-as-you-want packages… As it stands, Sampson’s future at IU is on shaky ground and many aren’t sure he’s going to survive this little run-in:

If the allegations are true, IU has everything it needs in its contract to fire its coach, and only have to pay him through the end of this season. That would appear to be the easy decision. But what happens if the university sticks by its coach until the end, and then the NCAA comes down hard on not only Sampson but on IU basketball, too? In that scenario, have you compounded the fracture by sticking by a guy who many thought was a questionable hire from the beginning?

Adding insult to injury was the Hoosiers falling to Wisconsin. Adding additional injury to injury was how Wisconsin won: a banked 3-point shot by Brian Butch with 4.5 seconds remaining.

The irony about Sampson’s situation is his team will be a legitimate threat in March and besides the Eric Gordon whining from Illinois fans, he seems to have righted the Hoosiers ship on an above-the-board basis.

Because of that, the Indiana administration would be foolish to cut ties with Sampson. Of course, if he is found to have talked too long on the phone while he was recruiting in Oklahoma, Indiana should punish him — suspend him for a calendar year — but firing him to save some sort of face is pretty stupid.

Yes, he abused his cell phone privileges, but that’s not quite the same as paying a player (Reggie Bush) or making sure they get good grades while they “attend” college (the entire college basketball world in the 1980s).

As for Sampson’s team, all they need to do is to keep winning and challenge for the Big Ten regular season title and they will be just fine. As for Sampson’s bosses, I think this would be a good time to stand by your man.

Tags: Big Ten, Indiana Hoosiers, Kelvin Sampson, Tammy Wynette, Weekly Pwnage

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