Hiring Sampson real downer

This was supposed to be the big, sexy hire, the balloons-and-confetti hire that would once again unite the fractured Hoosier Nation. This was supposed to be the hire that confirmed Indiana’s delusional self-image as a top-five, even top-10 program, the hire that sent shock waves through the upcoming Final Four here in Indianapolis.

Maybe Billy Donovan. Or John Calipari. Or Mark Few. Or someone with a Bob Knight pedigree, a Steve Alford or even Randy Wittman.

Kelvin Sampson?

Really?

Unless last-minute contract negotiations between IU and Sampson break down, he’s your man.

The same Kelvin Sampson who got outcoached by Mike Davis in the 2002 Final Four semifinal?

The same Kelvin Sampson who, despite his run of 20-win seasons, is 11-12 in the NCAA tournament, with eight losses to lower-seeded teams?

The same Kelvin Sampson whose telephone misdeeds, however minor, earned his school an April 21 hearing before the NCAA Infractions Committee? Call them insignificant, but Oklahoma saw them as major enough to impose penalties on its own program, including freezing Sampson’s salary.

The same Kelvin Sampson whose program’s graduation rates remain among the lowest in the nation? In the past, Sampson correctly derided the way the NCAA computed graduation rates, but by the calculation of the NCAA’s new math, his kids still aren’t graduating.

This whole thing, the Davis resignation and the Rick Greenspan-led search, was supposed to be done with the idea of uniting Hoosier fans under one banner, energizing them after years of disillusionment and ennui.

Well, I don’t claim to speak for the Hoosier Nation, but the early returns suggest it is united – united in its amazement that Greenspan, the man on the hottest seat of all, could make a less dazzling and more distressing hire.

Not sexy.

Not a member of the family.

Neither.

Did you hear that noise?

Thud.

Now, I’m not trying to wreck the man’s reputation before he’s coached a practice – well, Homer, too late for that now, isn’t it? – and if it were just a question of his basketball record, the response here would be a tepid “dull, but solid. Teams play hard. Teams play killer defense. Teams win 20 games. Good for IU.”

But this NCAA stuff is bothersome. The graduation rates are bothersome. They are issues that need to be examined, if not by Greenspan, then by the local media and fans who demand a successful and pristine program.

With all due respect to Sampson, who is a regular 20-game winner at a school where football is king (and no fear of that in Bloomington), is this truly the best IU could do?

More than anything, this should serve as a sign of just how far IU’s stock has fallen, and how much work Sampson really has to do to resurrect Indiana basketball. Maybe, in fact, this was the best they could do. The program has struggled competitively. The facilities have become decrepit by big-time college basketball standards. Every other day, an IU school president or athletic director is being chased out of office.

Tell me, why do you have to spend $90,000 on a head-hunting firm to find a coach to lead what once was viewed as one of the nation’s legendary programs? The Hoosiers weren’t looking for a good temp who takes shorthand. They were looking for a head coach.

If Tubby Smith left Kentucky tomorrow, there would be a line of prime candidates standing outside Rupp Arena, resumes in hand.

But IU? It was getting turned down (or so it appeared) by Mark Few, the head coach at Gonzaga, for crying out loud.

With this out-of-the-box, out-of-thin-air hire, Greenspan is making a loud statement: “I will not be held hostage by the past.”

It doesn’t bother me that Alford or Wittman didn’t get the job. From the start, I’ve called for Greenspan to get the best person, regardless of pedigree. Rick Pitino wasn’t a Kentucky guy. Smith wasn’t a Kentucky guy. Those hires worked out fine.

You get the sense, though, that Greenspan made a point of severing all ties with IU’s past – taking a machete to the suckers.

Isiah Thomas? He got one call from a member of the Indiana athletic department, asking him about attending a press conference.

Wittman? Nothing. Not even a courtesy call. Not even a call saying, “Look, we don’t see you as a viable candidate, but after so many years in the NBA, we value your input.”

As one former Hoosier told me, “I got the sense they talked to everybody in the world except anybody who was affiliated with IU in the past.”

Here we are, one day away from the 25th anniversary of IU’s national-title victory over North Carolina in Philadelphia, and IU’s glorious past is barely visible in the rear-view mirror.

Now, I’m not going to term this a lousy hiring. Questionable, yes, but patently lousy, no.

It would be inaccurate, though, to suggest Sampson’s arrival has the multitudes in full swoon. He has some bridge-building to do, and it has to start with him showing why he’s viewed as such a ferocious recruiter, with Sampson recruiting Robert Vaden and D.J. White back to Bloomington.

For now, the Hoosier Nation is divided as never before. Here’s hoping Sampson has thick skin, thicker skin than Davis had. He’s going to need it.