Sampson Makes Improper Phone Calls Again: Indiana officials have dropped a scholarship for next season and will not give coach Kelvin Sampson a raise because Sampson violated sanctions on making phone calls to recruits. The NCAA limited Sampson’s calls to recruits for a year, ending this past May. The terms of the sanctions included three-way calls, and Indiana discovered that Sampson participated in 10 three-way calls. The coach said he was unaware that the calls were three-way calls, except in one instance. He said poor cell phone reception at his home led him to work with an assistant coach to connect him to recruits.
Sampson has a history of abusing the phone while recruiting high school players. At Oklahoma, he made 577 impermissible calls, which led to the NCAA-mandated sanctions. Indiana took a risk by hiring Sampson despite the known violations. The loss of a scholarship next season is a clear message that the university will not tolerate even the slightest slip up. [10/16/07]
