Sampson or Davis: A Values-Based Assessment

Now that the writing is unofficially on the wall for Kelvin Sampson, I have put on my Ultimate Decider of Justice hat and embarked on a remarkably unscientific study¹, the results of which suggest that Indiana University fans are torn right now between a question that’s not being asked: who was a bigger debacle, Kelvin Sampson or Mike Davis?

For those of you fortunate enough to have never lived in Indiana, let’s have a bit of a primer. All people from Indiana are colloquially known as “Hoosiers,” evidenced by the AAA Motor Club’s membership cards having “Hoosier Motor Club” printed on all of them. Though Purdue has made headway in recent years as a legitimate contender to the yokel crown, it’s still largely known as an engineering school, and pity those young men and women who study the math and the science instead of baling (I honestly don’t even know if that’s spelled correctly) hay and making babies. At any rate, the state has no plans to start referring to its denizens as “Boilermakers.” Indiana University is the school in this section of flyover country², basketball is the opiate of the rube masses³, and the Hoosiers are the hypodermic needle administering my toothless neighbors with the overhyped drama they need to get through their otherwise boring and insignificant existences⁴.

Ah yes, the study. I asked the few Indiana University graduates ⁵ I know the relatively simple question above: who was a bigger debacle for IU, Sampson or Davis? As an outsider, the answer is quite simple: Davis was nothing more or less than a mediocre coach at IU who took a team comprised of talents he was not able to bring in himself to the NCAA Championship Game, while Sampson is a known NCAA rule violator, was under sanctions when he came to IU, and did exactly what one could have expected he would, based on his history.

Clearly, Sampson is the bigger problem and disappointment. Plenty of teams have had extended runs of greatness followed by a downturn under a new regime. That sequence of events could be termed “normal.” Indiana University has a long history of winning without cheating, a record that is now sullied and will take time to reestablish. However, it seems that many IU alumni (and the current student body, if their chants of “Kelvin Sampson” after the most recent, and possibly last, game are any indication) have mixed emotions about their current⁶ coach.

Without taking the time to poll other IU grads, because that would take a lot of time and there are plenty of local Indy news reports suggesting the same, let’s assume that this is an across-the-board truth. Why is it that this group (IU students and alumni) has such a difficult time with their feelings on Kelvin Sampson, perennial cheater but above-average coach, but were generally lockstep against Mike Davis, upstanding member of the community but stoic and silent on the sideline, especially considering the fact that the integrity of the university is said to be critical to this group?

To answer this question, I delved into my leadership training and have come up with an answer, in two parts:1) The university’s values have been adapted in a practical and selfish way by its students and alumni; 2) Myles Brand’s no-tolerance policy on Coach Bob Knight. The former is most important, but may well be a natural outcropping of the latter.

The Indianapolis Star file on Knight will give you a proper overview of his tenure if you need a review. For all of his flaws, Bob Knight is arguably⁷ the greatest college coach of all time. His demeanor, combined with his sustained recruiting and on-court success, schooled several generations of IU students in the elective class of Fandom 101. Those very same students came to expect certain things out of their basketball program⁸, and those expectations were implicitly backed by IU’s unwillingness to address Knight’s shortcomings⁹. So, the institution’s internal values were not aligned with its external actions. Ergo, the values of those generations of students are not aligned with the institution’s.

Even with all that baggage, the problem would not manifest as it does today without Myles Brand’s¹⁰ “no tolerance” policy w.r.t. Knight. IU’s incongruent values in terms of its stated goals and its actions transferred to its students and alumni, but the tipping point was the months between the March 2000 board meeting and the September 2000 firing of Bob Knight. In the eternal words of Colin Powell incorrectly quoting a Pottery Barn policy, “You break it, you own it.” IU’s announcement created the perfect environment for the fan base to take sides, which they did overwhelmingly for Coach Knight¹¹.

Today, the students and alumni wrestle internally with their allegiances, to the point that most local conversations about Indiana basketball are heavily influenced by Bob Knight and what was/might have been. If Brand had made the responsible and difficult decision to fire Coach Knight in March of 2000, this situation could have been somewhat alleviated. Fans would have been upset, but there would have been closure. Davis would still have failed, and Sampson would have cheated¹², but Knight would be a memory, perhaps a fond one, perhaps a bitter one. Unfortunately for IU, Brand and the trustees didn’t make the right decision. They stamped the university seal on what has turned out to be a Faustian bargain: immediate gratification for the price of the soul of the institution.

Time will tell if IU can dig itself out of this hole and regain its hallowed name. It’s still one of the top programs in the country from a potential coaching standpoint, and it is possible that a charismatic coach who is animated during games and can bring in top-tier recruits will restore order. But judging from past history and questionable decision making, we have not yet seen the bottom of the hole for Indiana University. At the end of the day, the trustees hold a shovel, and they can decide whether they want to start filling in that hole with a return to core values of integrity and teamwork, or continue to dig for wins.

¹ Translation: The worth of this study is nil.
² Excepting Notre Dame for Catholic guilt and 3-4 football wins per year.
³ In the Midwest; the assonance/dissonance of rural areas with a hoop in every yard and Rucker Park and the societies reflected therein is for another column.
⁴ This is not to say that my life, or really anyone’s, has intrinsic value or meaning. There may well be nothing in the vast cosmos save ourselves and our Coach bags and Maseratis, on Sundays ring road supermarket. But I do have all my teeth^A.
⁵ Aside: the magazine Indianapolis Monthly published a story about two years ago that detailed how a bachelor’s degree from IU was becoming seriously devalued in the marketplace. The original cover, which I had the opportunity to view at a conference I attended on art direction, was a hand reaching for a roll of toilet paper made of IU degrees. It did not make it to print.
⁶ At time of posting.
⁷ The Ultimate Decider of Justice will entertain all arguments.
⁸ Among those: a fiery in-game coach^B; a competitive team every year; successful local recruiting.
⁹ Among those: assaulting a police officer in Puerto Rico; chair throwing^C; receiving enough technical fouls to forfeit a game to the Russians; putting his hand in the vicinity of a player’s neck.
¹⁰ The board of trustees is not without fault here, but it is convenient to pin this situation directly on one person, especially since he’s not at IU anymore, and because Brand is on record saying that he believed that Knight was contrite and would change his ways even with 30 years of evidence to the contrary.
¹¹ This is essentially the exposition of Apocalypse Now: country disavows General Kurtz, Kurtz’s men disown country.
¹² This assumes that Sampson would have been hired, but it is very probable that he would not. If IU would have taken the opportunity to begin to realign its words with its actions in March 2000, it is not likely that the school would have taken the chance to sacrifice integrity to the golden calf of wins, which are now the heart of the belief-values structure of IU fans.

^A I’m just playing, Indiana, you know I love you.
^B The most common complaint I have heard about Mike Davis is some variation on the phrase “he didn’t coach.” The speaker is generally attempting to indicate that coaching success is tied to being animated on the sidelines. Mike Davis’ locally famous pose, which I borrowed for the above “IU Basketball Hell” illustration, is probably more important to his firing than the Hoosiers’ W-L record or his local recruiting ability.
^C The chair-throwing incident is one of sports history’s great overblown moments. Coaches and players do more dramatic and stupider things on at least a bi-weekly basis. I was going to include a link to the video, but instead, watch Bobby Knight’s “Golf Your Way” outtakes.