What if Sampson had stayed at OU?

[DeadHorse]

Think about it. Had Sampson stayed in Okieland, how would things have shaken out?

For one thing, he'd still have a job. OU doesn't have the righteous indignation in regards to cheating that Indiana does. They wouldn't have shitcanned him.

Secondly, though, they might have a monster team. Damion James and Scotty Reynolds would have stayed and the Griffin kid would there. That's a solid team that Sampson would coach into an early NCAA exit.

In the end, though, it's him that lost. He was making $1.5 million at OU and about the same amount at IU but got **** canned and bought out for 50 cents on the dollar only to be making a fraction of what he was for the Spurs. He'll also never coach again at the college level.

Sucks to be him but he made his own bed.

 

[Ruby Soho]

Their basketball team would end up getting the death penalty.

 

[l00p]

I think he will end up coaching again in college one day and maybe not too far away either. Look at the recycling of football coaches known for prolific cheating. Jackie Sherril coached again at Miss. St., Dennis Ericson coached again at Oregon St. (they got in trouble too) and now at Arizona St. That list goes on.

Same for college basketball. Huggins is working, Tarkanian worked again. That list goes on too. He will work again. The next logical step in bizarro world is for him to be an analyst on tv somewhere in the interim.

 

[tallgrant]

I think OU would've gotten even bigger sanctions on their basketball program- everything says that when the heats on for cheating, Kelvin kept looking to do so.

 

[toucan82]

OU sucks would still suck

 

[Texas Wahoo]

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[l00p]

So that would mean he becomes a legend and beloved if that happened, right?

 

[The Drake]

Actually, Blake Griffin was not a Sampson fan and would have signed with OU and Sampson. Capel was the reason he signed with OU. He really didn't care for Sampson or Sean Sutton.

Now if Scottie Reynolds and Damion James had honored their LOI w OU & Capel - now we would be on to something. Put Griffin w/ those two and you might have a pretty decent team. LOL

 

[DeadHorse]

Sampson won't be working again soon if the NCAA slaps him with a show cause.

 

[SL Xpress]

If Texas ends up with Devin Ebanks, he'll need to get a college job quickly so he can start working on UT's next recruiting class.

 

[grammer_police]

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[Hornin Hong Kong]

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[4realhorn]

Didn't Sampson sign Blake's brother Taylor? Or was that a Capel recruit?

 

[OUEngineer]

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[I_Live_In_OK]

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[cloydtex]

Was the Drew Lavender transfer caused by Sampson's departure? OU missed him as well.

 

[accuratehorn]

He would have won a lot of games, become an OU legend, and gotten them a couple of major NCAA infractions. This would raise his profile and status in Norman to heroic levels.
After the school president could no longer tolerate the stench, Sampson would resign, then become wealthy cashing in on his patented OU boomer-sooner cellphone ringtone, and use his largesse to purchase Big Red Sports and Imports and the Barry Switzer Motel Six. He would go on to become mayor of Norman and an honorary Professor Emeritus of OU. Shoulda stayed.

 

[SL Xpress]

Drew Lavender was shoved out the door by Sampson. He was smaller than Sampson wanted on the floor for his style of play. Frankly, Sampson shouldn't have recruited him in the first place.

Sampson thought he could get Terrance Crump, the JUCO guard that ended up at Purdue.

As far as Sampson getting shoved out the door, that may or may not be true.

However, as an outsider, believing Sampson was shoved out the door and that Indiana was his fallback position is about as believable as Mark Mangino being shown the door as the playcaller after 2001, and the head coaching position at Kansas was merely the best he could do.

I just don't buy it. Doesn't mean it isn't true, but it's pretty much impossible to swallow on the face of it.

 

[OUEngineer]

SLX, I can see how you might not take what I said at face value. Fair enough. I'm just relaying what my sources within the program told me. Even before all the NCAA stuff came to light, Boren and Sampson had a 'come to Jesus' meeting. There was a TON of unrest among the roster at the time. He was running players off (Lavender and Foust). Other players were threatening to do so (Griffin). When the NCAA violations came to light, that was the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak. At that juncture, Boren had a powwow with Castiglione and the Regents met. They were prepared to buy him out if he didn't leave.

Your remark about having that IU job lined up struck me as odd as well, given their image and penchant for the straight and narrow. The only thing I can surmise is that he had been upfront with them about the pending sanctions and they bought his ********. Their AD is regretting it at this point, I'm sure.

 

[p_town_horn]

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[Uncle Rico]

Bob Stoops would have taken no responsibility and thrown his kids under the bus.

 

[SL Xpress]

Understand OUEngineer, it's not an attack on you or anyone who told you that.

There's plenty of people better connected than me who try to pass off what I consider ******** regarding what happens at UT as well, and they're just as convinced something transpired exactly how they're relaying it to me.

It also doesn't mean it didn't happen that way. I could see where OU would be ready to move in a different direction regardless of Indiana hiring him. Consider me some inconsequential anonymous poster whose opinion doesn't matter, that questions how much of a done deal it was before Sampson took the Indiana job.

Whether fair or not, it would have more credibility if he'd ended up at San Diego State like Steve Fisher, Fresno State like Jerry Tarkanian, or the Austin Toros like Quin Snyder. That's not about the conversation being about OU. That's just trying to look at it impartially from the outside, and looking at it in a way that says, "What makes the most sense?"

Obviously I'm not trying to convince you of anything different. There's no doubt in my mind you and the people you talk to know more about the situation than I do. I just can't help but be a Doubting Thomas given where Sampson landed.