Sampson’s Swan Song and this weekend’s big match-ups

Basketball, College Basketball, Major Sports

Posted by Obiora, February 15, 2008 - 3:40 pm

Kelvin Sampson may have gone and done it again. The scandalmonger’s heir to Jim Harrick and Eddie Sutton is back in hot water, this time at Indiana, which took a chance on the former Sooners coach, knowing full well his history of transgressions at Oklahoma. According to ESPN.com, “the allegations stem from a phone-call scandal that occurred while Sampson was still under recruiting restrictions following a similar episode at Oklahoma.”

Sampson’s contract contains a clause that allows the university to fire him if he is found to have committed major NCAA violations. It’s hard to imagine how Sampson can come through this with his job intact.

All this has led to a circus atmosphere in Bloomington, where Sampson received a rough response from fans during Wednesday night’s game against Wisconsin. The Hoosiers lost a heart-breaker, 68-66, which certainly did not endear the coach to the fans any more.

Next up #30 Indiana faces a Saturday match-up at 9pm against #14 Michigan State, which is coming off a loss to Purdue. Tom Izzo’s squad currently ranks 216th in scoring in the NCAA but still plays his trademark tough defense. The Hoosiers will be hard pressed to play through the distractions but I expect big performances from Eric Gordon and DJ White.

On to this weekend’s other big matchups. Please note, I use RPI rankings when writing about college basketball.

#16 Pitt (19-5) at #19 Marquette (17-6). Friday, 9pm

The big story in this meeting of Big East contenders is the return of Pitt point guard Levance Fields from a broken foot. Fields will come off the bench for Pitt, which went 8-4 in his absence. Though still a guard-oriented team led by Dominic James, expect Marquette’s offense to go through forward Lazar Haywood who is averaging 14.0 ppg. The Panthers will counter with forward Sam Young, who has scored 20+ points in nine games this season.

#20 Stanford (20-4) at #13 Arizona (15-8). Saturday 3.30pm

The Cardinal are currently tied for 1st place in the Pac-10 with UCLA. The Wildcats have lost 2 of 3 to be knocked from the human polls but expect freshman PG Jerryd Bayless to give a better accounting than he did the last time these teams faced off.

#7 Georgetown (20-3) at Syracuse (16-9). Saturday, Noon

It’s never easy to get a win at the Carrier Dome and the last game between these two traditional foes went into overtime in DC so some might smell trap. I wouldn’t count on it.

#12 Vanderbilt (21-4) vs Florida (19-6). Saturday, 3.30pm

The Commodores battled past a mid-season swoon and now have five straight SEC victories including an absolute pasting of Kentucky, 93-52, in their last game. Though tied with Vanderbilt in the SEC standings, the defending national champions appear to be falling on hard times, losing 3 of their last 4 and most recently giving LSU only its second conference win of the season.

Photo Credit: AP

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