Kelvin Sampson

Sports are part of our daily lives and will always reflect our culture. They provide a way for people to get away from the pressures of life and enjoy an event. Sports give the average person a way to dream that one day they can be in that same position. It is a unique activity that will surely grow in the future. Sports teach us more than just athletics, but they can give insight on how to be better people. The most important things that I think sports teach us are the aspects of sportsmanship, team play, and integrity. Sportsmanship is the idea that teams will play with honor and are fair, team play recognizes the importance of a team and that it is more important than a single person, and integrity is the aspect of honesty. These aspects have been passed down from generation to generation and form the essence of sports. Recently, these aspects have been called in question in the world of college basketball. The issue that has been addressed deals with the Indiana Hoosiers coach Kelvin Sampson. Kelvin Sampson broke numerous NCAA rules by making extra calls to potential recruits and made visits with them off-campus. As a result Indiana was forced to bring down punishments on the program. According to Andy Katz of ESPN Sampson will lose his 500,000 bonus for the 2007-08 season, the team will lose a 2008-09 scholarship reducing the number of scholarships to 12, and his assistant who helped him will be banned for a year from off-campus recruiting and making phone calls. This is a horrible situation for the sport and the university of Indiana. One of the most glaring issues though is that Kelvin did the exact same thing a couple of years ago for Oklahoma. Andy Katz also mentions that in the 2005-06 season Kelvin and his staff made more than 550 illegal calls to 17 different recruits. The question I have to ask is Why would someone continue to do something that they knew they had already got caught for? In my opinion, Kelvin has lost sight of what it means to be a coach. Coaches are suppose to serve as models to their players and to help them in their time of need. As a player I would look at this guy and think he was a cheat and someone I couldn't trust. Kelvin has compromised the sport and has been an embarrassment to his university. He has now given himself a reputation that he will do anything to bend the NCAA rules. This sends a negative message not only to the recruits, but more importantly the parents. What will parents think when they see these transgressions? My guess is that they will be hesitant to send their son to that program. I feel that the punishment was sufficient and hopefully this will deter him from making another mistake in the future.