Things COULD have been as they SHOULD be…but they’re not

Posted on February 16, 2008 by Matt Todd

This was the weekend I was looking forward to. In fact, at one point I was hoping to take the family down to Bloomington today. It’s been circled on my calendar for weeks.

ESPN’s GameDay is at the IU campus.

This was supposed to be a celebration of the return of IU basketball to the national conversation. This was supposed to be a celebration of the resurgence of basketball relevance in the entire state of Indiana. The state has four teams (Butler, IU, Purdue, Notre Dame) in the Top 25. I don’t think any other state can make that claim (Tennessee=3, California=3). The IU/Purdue rivalry is back in full swing. And IU and Purdue are battling each other for the Big(11)Ten crown. That’s how things should be.

Of course, it’s not about those things. It has become about Mr. Sampson and his ‘alleged’ violations. At least the national media understands what most Hoosier fans have been trying to argue – his actions do not represent the majority of IU basketball fans…or even the few. We want IU to win, but not at all costs. Not at the cost of tarnishing the schools reputation and becoming known as anything less than a clean program.

Or does it? When Mike Davis was still coaching, what was the chief complaint? He wasn’t seasoned enough and didn’t win enough. I think in some ways we set ourselves up for this. The IU faithful has been desperate to see the program return to the ‘glory days’ of the 70s, 80s, and early 90s. Although Knight had some pretty lean years in the mid- to late-90s, many people started saying they’ve had enough and were expecting more. They wanted to win. We wanted to win. So maybe we’re all to blame for this just a little bit. It’s not like the program was hit with major violations committed by overzealous, crooked boosters. The majority of people understand that IU fans want…no, demand a clean program. But maybe the call to become a dominant, winning program falsely gave the impression that we expect to win at all costs. Maybe we inadvertently encouraged this situation. Be careful what you ask for, I guess.

I seem to remember back in 2000 when the Republicans were choosing their Presidential nominee. Not too many people were sold on him at the beginning, but the pundits started coming out saying, “But this guy can win.” And look how that’s turned out. Both the left and the right seem pretty disgusted with him.

See? Be careful what you ask for.

With that being said, Sampson should be fired yesterday. I’m sure there’s a bunch of legal mumbo-jumbo that needs to be worked out, but I certainly hope he has been put on notice. Repeated behavior like that can not be tolerated. Lying about said repeated behavior is even worse. See ya later, Kelvin. It was nice while it lasted.

Since I’m a nice guy, I’ll even offer to help you pack. I have some extra boxes from our move up here that I’ll gladly donate.

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Matt Todd

Howdy. I'm Matt. My wife, Christy, and I have four kids and two dogs, I'm passionate about orphan care. I'm a die-hard fan of the Evansville Aces, the Indiana Hoosiers, and Star Wars. I'm trying to live life by the Todd family motto: "It behooves us to live!"