I see this as a win-win situation. Indiana is bringing in a great coach who I believe will carry on the Indiana tradition as we know it, while at the same time removing a nemesis of Bob Knight and the Red Raiders in the Big 12. We can't lose. My apologies to Adam Packer, who was pulling for Huggins to get the IU job, but at least we'll get to see some great battles between Huggins and Knight in the Big 12.

We were posting on this at the same time, Josh. I think it's a good choice as well. But can it really be true that Sampson has more Big 12 conference wins than any other coach? He's been at OU for 12 years, while Roy Williams was at Kansas for 15 years and had a winning percentage over 80%. I can't imagine Sampson has more Big 12 conference wins than Roy Williams does.

Here are some more details on the phone calls. It seems that the NCAA may have decided that OK's self-imposed punishment may not have been harsh enough.

Get real! There were plenty of other "quality" coaches that could have replaced Davis. The school handled the whole situation poorly.
I have read on this board and others, many Hoosier fans have been upset that the in-state recruits were not going to IU. Who did Davis loose other than Oden? McRoberts didn't want to go there to create more of a log jam at the 4/5.
Remember not so long ago Bob Knight was not able to lure some big in-state names. Eric Montross, Rick Fox, and Zach Randolf just to name a few. Although, he won a couple championships Knight did very little in the final 10 seasons.
Will hiring Sampson solve the problem and get Indiana University to top again? Doubt it.

"Who did Davis loose other than Oden?"

Sean May. There's a decent list other than him of guys from Indiana, but there's your real key screwup. He actually wanted to come to Indiana, grew up in Bloomington, his father went to Indiana, but Davis hardly bothered recruiting him at all.

Keep in mind that last comment was from a bitter Michigan fan. I think he's worried IU will dominate the Big Ten again. As far as in-state recruits go, Courtney Lee, Justin Cage, Sean May, Anthony Winchester and Rodney Carney to name a few. All of them seem like pretty quality recruits. I don't know about this years recruits, but it's probably a safe bet Davis lost a few more for IU and Sampson.

I am disappointed; Sampson has been successful at OU, but I wanted a return to the Knight era. An individual who had played for Knight at IU would have been a better choice as far as I'm concerned (preferably Alford).

May - He wanted to go to IU, and Mikey recruited him hard. In the end NC's tradition won out. His goal was to win a National Championship, and looking back he made the right choice.
Remember this Bob Knight could not keep Larry Bird happy. That was his big screw up. Knight made plenty of mistakes when he was the coach of the Hoosiers.

I don't know that Alford would have been the man for the job. His record at Iowa isn't that impressive, and people there pretty much hate him. I'd rather bring in someone who has been doing a pretty consistently good job where they're at and who is liked by his fans.

And while there were other quality candidates, John, I don't see how that makes Sampson a bad choice at all. I think he's a good choice, and (as we would with whoever they hired) we'll just have to see how he works out.

A Winchester reference!! That kid can play - too bad most people in Indiana never got to see him. Straight baller.

I don't particularly like this hire, and it's Sampson's tendency to over-recruit and under-coach that has me concerned for IU fans everywhere. Hmm, renowned recruiter, good defensive coach, offense tends to stagnate and shoot a lot of jump shots. Sound familiar, anyone?

My prediction: Sampson will have a nice, 7-8 year career in Bloomington, and IU will get into the top 10 a few times during his tenure, but Final Fours will not come. See Sampson's immensely talented (and senior-laden) OK squad this year, bowing out in Round 1 against a scrappy but unfocused UW-Milwaukee team.

K-State FOREVER (That one's for you, L).

One thing wrong with your prediction Pack. Like you predicted, he will have a nice career. However, the university hired this guy to take them to the next level, and the things he will do at IU during his time would be acceptable at most schools. IU is not most schools when it comes to basketball. Just making the tourney is not good enough.
One last thing on the recruiting. Sampson is know for recruiting JUCO players. Indiana is going to lose most in-state players, and in my opinion many will go to the other school about 2 hours north.

Who did Davis loose other than Oden?

What about Eric Gordon?

Ed- The OU athletics department claims he's won more Big 12 games than anyone, so I'm assuming it's true. But that was the source of that info.

I definitely question the most wins in Big 12 conference history. Maybe msot wins at at Oklahoma in Big 12 history, but definitely not by any coach in Big 12 history.

Also, I take issue with the comment "...will excite the fan base." If you mean excitement in a positive way, that is totally inaccurate. Just go read the IU message boards or the Indystar.com message boards. A majority of fans sampled seem very upset with the hiring, and it can be summarized with the following word, which definitely seems opposite of excite: uninspired.

I'm a paying member of Peegs.com, the largest IU message board, and I have been for some time. The poll right now suggests 41% love the hire, 47% will "wait and see," and only 11% "hate it." That seems far from the majority that you speak of. Besides, the qualities I spoke of can't be seen until the team has played, and I feel confident that when the wins come those naysayers will come around. After all, Bob Knight was booed during his first game at Assembly Hall.

Perhaps "the most wins in Big 12 conference history" is a technicality... After all, both KU and OU were once members of the Big 8 and Roy Williams has missed the last few Big 12 seasons...

In any event, I'd rather have Coach Knight...

The reason he has the most wins in Big 12 history is because Roy Williams left a few years ago and Barnes hasn't been at Texas long enough.

Personally, I think IU fans are going to be very dissatisfied because Sampson will not uphold the academic standings of the program and could definitely get IU into a recruiting scandal. (I think its very possible that the NCAA comes after Sampson as well as OU)

You have to remember the big 12 hasn't been around all that long. So some many of the wins the other coaches have were before the big 12 formed. Sampson has been in the big 12 for all of its seasons I think.

A lot of the media buzz in Oklahoma has been that Samson felt underappreciated. There is probably some truth to that, but not because of Sampson himself but because OU sports fans tend to focus so much more on football. It is unfortunate that many seats at games often went unfilled, but OU and the state overall just don't have the same enthusiasm for basketball as Indiana does.

I was very disappointed regarding news of the recruiting violations. With the pressures placed on coaches, I agree that it may be hard for someone to go 20 years completely unscathed, but the violations do appear somewhat egregious. Still, I'll just let that play out as it will.

In response to John Woods question asking who did Davis lose besides Oden and Sean May, don't forget Josh McRoberts, who is playing well for Caoch K at Duke. McRoberts is from Carmel,IN I believe, and didn't even consider Indiana.

http://www.iuhoosiersbasketball.com