IU Coaches and Sam Smith is at it again

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I have to give Sam Smith credit. If he wants to be a nuisance, all he has to do is make up something in his column about me, and he knows I will get flooded with emails about it.

So he makes up a complete lie in one of his columns about me supporting Randy Wittman for the head coaching job at Indiana.

I like Randy. I think he has been a good coach in the NBA.

That said, I havent and wont put my support behind any given coaching candidate. Im not prepared to understand what makes a good recruiter or a good coach in the college ranks.

So i dont pretend to.

Im an IU fan. Whoever the school hires, that is my favorite Indiana coach, and thats who i will support until he or she isnt the Indiana coach.

its that simple

33 thoughts on “IU Coaches and Sam Smith is at it again”

  1. Especially after the way the Shaq and Kobe fued was portrayed over the years. I feel the NBA beat writers are the most biased lot out of the major sports, and I believe they fabricate what they want under the veil of anonimity.

    Comment by runescape money -

  2. What the school needs to focus on is hiring someone they want to be family – someone they aren’t going to attack when the first loss goes into the book. I remember when Mack Brown came to UNC and his first two teams went 1-10 each season.

    Comment by wow powerleveling -

  3. I wish more folks would just support IU instead of unleashing all this negativity that I know affects the program.

    Comment by Haifu -

  4. Does anyone know when we will hear the final verdict on the NCAA issues with Sampson?

    Comment by Larry Martin -

  5. Yes, I remember when Mack Brown came to UNC and his first two teams went 1-10 each season. But he wasn’t being escorted off the grounds by the Rams Club because he was just like the folks at the Rams Club. he was a pal.

    Comment by Rubber -

  6. I will give IU credit, they threw a most impressive curveball with Kelvin Sampson. Absolutely no one had that hire pegged.

    Comment by Heath Tingle -

  7. IU deserves to have the best college coach in the country coaching their basketball team; he currently works at Texas Tech, never made over 500 unnecessary phone calls to recruits and would be ashamed of a zero percent graduation rate, and prepared students for the real world, sometimes by grabbing their arms; thanks to Myles Brand and especially thanks to AD Greenspan, IU is stuck with a real stick in the mud for 7 years; IU, what happened to you, I remember you so fondly and now you have gone off course, what happened IU!

    Comment by Greg Dowbak, MD -

  8. Dont you wish Bracey would have stayed another year. IU was better this year than recently anyway, they won a game in the tournament at least, but with Bracey they could have been in Indy this weekend. And he’s doing well in the D-league but that just proves (I think at least) that he should have stayed.

    Comment by David Howell -

  9. Let’s hope Coach Sampson rises to the challenge and responsibilites associated with being the head coach of such a prestigious program as IU. There are some blemishes he needn’t repeat as IU will afford him the ability more easily recruit top notch high school kids rather than Jucos (Knight also brought in the occasional Juco). His grad rate will improve with the kind of talent IU demands and can draw. With a self recruiting namebrand like IU, he won’t have to push the NCAA rules envelope. Good luck coach Sampson. Go IU!!

    Comment by walt -

  10. Let’s hope Coach Sampson rises to the challenge and responsibilites associated with being the head coach of such a prestigious program as IU. There are some blemishes he needn’t repeat as IU will afford him the ability more easily recruit top notch high school kids rather than Jucos (Knight also brought in the occasional Juco). His grad rate will improve with the kind of talent IU demands and can draw. With a self recruiting namebrand like IU, he won’t have to push the NCAA rules envelope. Good luck coach Sampson. Go IU!!

    Comment by walt -

  11. Oh WOW…I do not think this will work at all. What if sanctions are imposed on him? And we have to wait a month before we find that out? What could Greenspan be thinking?

    Comment by MMauiIUfan@cinci.rr.com -

  12. How the economics of college coaching salaries are distorted– http://thesportseconomist.com/archive/2006_01_01__arch_file.htm#113838645880213153

    Comment by JohnD -

  13. Wow!!! Who would have guessed Kelvin Sampson?

    Comment by David Morris -

  14. I do enjoy all the “hire within the family” business with the IU job. What the school needs to focus on is hiring someone they want to be family – someone they aren’t going to attack when the first loss goes into the book. I remember when Mack Brown came to UNC and his first two teams went 1-10 each season. But he wasn’t being escorted off the grounds by the Rams Club because he was just like the folks at the Rams Club. he was a pal.

    But who knows what sort of man could be a pal at Indiana. Mark, you should consider throwing your support around someone who has no hope of even getting a proper interview just so that guy can get attention on ESPN and might get considered for a good Mid-Major gig when you raise his profile.

    Comment by Joe Corey -

  15. Another IU Grad, still a fan, and monthly supporter. What is the Athletic Dept going to do to get a GREAT coach, when it is bankrupt? I wish someone would investigate how that happened. Mark, maybe you can build us a new state of the art Basketball facility like Conseco is…Sponsorships gleaming all over…Altho it does appear with the new scoreboard the old gang has finally given up and sees that is costs money to have a good program.

    Comment by MMauiIUfan@cinci.rr.com -

  16. And re Lebroz comment, no basketball is definitely not the pastime. I love it but baseball just drew 74 million fans last season and will pass that this year, and coming off a phenomenally successful World Baseball Classic. Add the fact that Minor League Baseball also is smashing attendance records. I love all sports including hoops, but the national pastime is still the national pastime, so don’t go there.

    Comment by MarkMLB -

  17. IU alum here, formerly associated with the Mavs, and I know that bringing back former players to coach doesn’t always translate into success. I keep trying to find a reason not to give the job to Steve Alford if he wants it and I’m coming up blank. They won’t be his players, that’s the only thing I can see. It had better take the best hire in the world to NOT give the job to Steve if he wants it. He might do for IU what Roy Williams did for NC. He might not, but now is the opportunity that was missed when he went to Iowa. IU fans are Alford fans.

    Comment by MarkMLB -

  18. Indiana gets what they deserve with Davis – the guy never was major program head coach material and never will be. IU would still have Coach Knight running an excellent program were it not for poser Myles Brand and his personal agenda, which never had anything to do with the betterment of the team or the university…

    I was a fan, a former student and new Texas Tech fan – go Bobby!!!

    Comment by Dan Buell -

  19. and about this sports writer thing,

    Basketball has become America’s new passtime…
    has been for the last 10-15 years, the world follows, I wasn’t around but I could guess how many writers that have no love for sports bashed baseball players in baseballs hayday ala Roger M.

    Anytime you have a dominant entertainment platform that is based on winning and losing witty writers will show up and claim they are the best sources of info and make stuff up outa therr a$$ to make a name 4 themselves n keep it

    Comment by Lebroz -

  20. lol Todd, Garnett is a better all around player

    Dirk has the edge in smarts, he’s a smarter playa

    The same reason why T. Duncan always pwns The Kid

    The best big men are the ones that have smarts…

    to be honest Dirk wouldn’t be as good as he is if not for a certain canadian soccer player

    Comment by Lebroz -

  21. Frankly, I don’t believe much that I hear from too many of the sportswriters that cover the NBA. Especially after the way the Shaq and Kobe fued was portrayed over the years. I feel the NBA beat writers are the most biased lot out of the major sports, and I believe they fabricate what they want under the veil of anonimity. Mark Stein however is one of my favorites, and seems to be a fair and impartial writer. With the exception of some of his Power Ranking picks!

    Comment by Joe -

  22. I disagree with your comment about Dirk N. and Garrett, Mark. Dirk’s not better, he’s much better.

    Go Mavs!!!

    Comment by Todd Terres -

  23. What about Bobby Knight?

    Comment by funny shirts -

  24. dirk is a little better than garnett,

    who’s sam smith, kenny smiths cousin?

    Comment by Lebroz -

  25. Sam Smith is at it again. Where does he get his info from? He makes up more lies than the White House. Can we somehow start a petition to get him fired? Marc…..where did he get this info from that you endorse a certain coach. Sam should have been investigating how Sammy Sosa hit 60+ HR’s 7-8 yrs ago and how he was juicing. I can’t wait for him to start the Dirk/Garnett rumor over the summer.

    Comment by Brian Fais -

  26. My dad drove the bus for Bobby Knight and the team in the early 70’s. When I transferred to IU as a junior, Knight was fired within a few weeks. I remember standing out all day in Dunn Meadow to listen to him say goodbye and his advice was that we shouldn’t be mad or upset and that we needed to support the team, because they wear jerseys that say Indiana, not Knight. I have held that advice as my IU bball mantra through the Davis tenure and I am glad to see that is your perspective as well. I wish more folks would just support IU instead of unleashing all this negativity that I know affects the program.

    Thanks Mr. Cuban. Boom bap!

    Comment by Ron Gubitz -

  27. Actually, it was reported on Around the Horn also by Tim Cowlishaw that you wanted Whitman

    I don’t want him or Alford. They need to go after a somewhat young guy who has big recruiting ties like Tom Crean or Thad Matta. Even though Thad would be crazy to leave right now. Since Thad is unlikely even though he coached here at Butler, Tom Vrean should be far and away their leading canidate.

    I know if Crean was here, we would probably have Oden, Conley, McRoberts, May, and Carney. For some reason lately,Indianapolis is a hot bed for talent and no one wanted to go play for a coach who couldn’t read or even put a sentence together. Not to mention, Tom Crean has great recruiting ties to Chicago.

    In college ball these days, it’s more about recruiting than anything else. Davis recruits were always overated when they got here and even then he didn’t have the smarts to actually put a team together. He just had a bunch of 1-on-1 players.

    I just hope they stay away from Majerus the most. That would be the biggest coaching mistake they could make next to keeping and actually paying Davis.

    Comment by JR Ewing -

  28. From one grad to another, I just want to say thank you for supporting IU. And I’m not just saying financially either. Many ignorant alumni will hopefully follow your lead by reading this.

    Comment by Bemis -

  29. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/sioncampus/03/15/college/

    http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/sports/columnists/charley_walters/14100232.htm?source=rss&channel=twincities_charley_walters

    http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/college/story/290271p-248480c.html (from March 16, 2005)

    Comment by Kevin -

  30. Alford to Indiana, Tom Davis to Iowa & Orv Salmon(DMACC JC) to Drake. Then all the major Iowa basketball schools have made changes. The percentage of this happening would be under 1% though. I’m sure there is a good plan going to unfold within the next week or 2 depending on what happens else where. Maybe Rick Majerus will take it for a day or two.

    Comment by David Morris -

  31. Mark –
    comeon – you have to have an opinion – I get you not wanting to name names, but do you have a strong feeling one way or the other about the next coach having strong ties to IU – be it a former player, asst. coach, etc?

    Comment by Weesh -

  32. Mark,

    Any chance of putting a clicky on your post so we can see what Sam wrote? Even more informative (and often entertaining) is any Email dialogue with that reporter – pretty wild sometimes to see how these are twisted into the final story.

    Comment by alek -

  33. It’s not easy to be green.

    Comment by kissing ass -

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