Talk:Kelvin Sampson

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[edit] Regarding the Gordon controversy

The columns cited to support the accusation that nearly the entire coaching staff at IU were hired to "entice" Gordon are nothing more than opinion pieces. Travis Steele worked with the AAU team that Gordon had previously played on, but only during the season that Gordon played with another team, Mean Streets Express. Ray McCallum played high school basketball in Indiana during the same time period that Gordon's father played high school ball in Indiana. More importantly, though, McCallum had already been on Sampson's Oklahoma staff well before the move to Indiana. It strains belief to think that his hiring at IU had much to do with the Gordons. And true, Jeff Meyer was indeed Gordon Sr's college coach. However, as a former head coach from the state of Indiana who Sampson knew through Big Twelve ties (Meyer had recently worked at the University of Missouri), his hiring appears to be a perfectly reasonable move on Sampson's part. Hiring otherwise unqualified people with clear links to a recruit would be "shady", but all of Indiana's current basketball coaching staff appear to be extremely well-qualified (three are former head coaches) and most have connections to the state of Indiana. Then again, maybe Sampson DID hire all or most of his staff with the Gordons foremost in mind. It still wouldn't be a violation of any rules (not even an "unspoken agreement"). The bottom line here is that any statements that the staff were hired to "further entice Gordon" are pure unverifiable speculation.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Garble1962 (talk • contribs) 23:02, 27 January 2007 (UTC).

I'd like to know who thinks Sampson is "best known" for "stealing" Gordon from Illinois. As a coach, he is well-known (and liked) for many things. I don't think that belongs here. It's certainly not NPOV, and it doesn't do Coach Sampson's career thus far justice. Orpheus42 03:30, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Washington State Error

One of the tables at the bottom of this page lists Washington State as a member of the Big Ten conference. This is an obvious error that needs to be corrected. I believe they are a Pac-10 member. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.26.150.250 (talk • contribs) 13:55, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

  • Thanks for the heads up. I've corrected it [1]. But, you could have corrected it yourself...anyone can edit here! --Durin 15:24, 11 July 2007 (UTC)
    • Oops. Kids, this is why you double-check when you copy-and-paste templates like that......--fuzzy510 15:45, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Endless inclusion/removal of "With regards to the Gordon recruiting" bit

A recruiting decision by Eric Gordon which Sampson has no direct role in is not appropriate for this article. Gordon made his decision without speaking to Sampson. If we were to include every nitty gritty detail of every recruiting change of heart that happens in Div I basketball, we'd be a mess, most especially if such trivia had no direct connection to the coaches in question yet was mentioned on various coach pages. This is trivia that has virtually nothing to do with Sampson. If you must include it, include it elsewhere regarding Indiana basketball. It's not appropriate for this article. --Durin 00:52, 17 August 2007 (UTC)


  • I can understand that, as an Administrator, there is no way you would be privy to every underlying bit of detail within every article in your charge. The reason I can say with this with absolute certainty is because you have been lead to believe that Sampson had no role in Gordon's decision, which is CATEGORICALLY UNTRUE. How can any head coach NOT have influence over a potential recruit? There was a fair amount of controversy surrounding Sampson, Weber and Gordon, so it wasn't very trivial either, especially when you notice that Gordon was listed as the #1 or #2 player in the entire country. Also, am I to understand that critical points can't be allowed, whereas additions that sing praises (which I noted before) about his recruiting are quite alright? I would be remiss if I included this bit about Sampson within an article about Indiana Basketball overall, because it really has nothing to do with IU. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.95.169.193 (talk • contribs) 13:01, 17 August 2007 (UTC)
    • If the Gordon recruiting has nothing to do with IU, then it has nothing to do with Sampson. Sampson did not contact Gordon prior to Gordon making his decision to attend IU; Gordon contacted IU. Of course he would; he's not going to make a verbal commitment to another school without talking to them. There's nothing in the cite you provided that indicated Sampson had any role in Gordon's decision other than that Sampson is Sampson. It's simply not relevant, and would have us adding all sorts of nitty gritty stuff about recruiting this, that, and the other player to every coach's bio on Wikipedia. If you want to add something to the Eric Gordon article about this cite, fine, but it's NOT significantly relevant to Sampson. It's not about permitting only nice things in the article or anything like that. In fact, the cite you provided is basically neutral, so I don't see the claim here that removing it is inherently point of view driving. Further, if it is, then insisting on inserting it is just as much POV driving.
    • Unless you can come up with a compelling cite regarding Sampson's direct role in recruiting Gordon when Gordon had already committed elsewhere, then I'm going to remove this and consider this matter closed unless someone else comes up with a cite about it in the future. Simply re-adding it is not an option. --Durin 14:54, 17 August 2007 (UTC)
  • It's now been three days without response. I've removed the paragraph. Please do not re-add it again without providing the above requested cite. Thank you, --Durin 12:48, 20 August 2007 (UTC)