[bigboydan]

just came across the wire a minutes ago.

[bigboydan]

heres the report on this move:

March 28, 2006, 2:01 PM ET
Sources say Sampson replaces Davis at IndianaBy Andy Katz
ESPN.com

Oklahoma's Kelvin Sampson is expected to leave the school to become the next head coach at Indiana, multiple sources told ESPN.com.

Sampson already told OU athletic director Joe Castiglione of his plans and was scheduled to meet with the Sooner team Tuesday afternoon.

A news conference announcing his hiring at Indiana could take place as early as Wednesday afternoon in Bloomington.

Sampson replaces Mike Davis, who took over for Hall of Fame coach Bob Knight in 2000.

Negotiations with Sampson heated up in the past week as the Hoosiers zeroed in on him after making overtures through a search committee to Gonzaga's Mark Few and Memphis' John Calipari.

The hiring of Sampson means the Hoosiers will break away completely from the Bob Knight era, instead of looking at former Hoosiers Steve Alford of Iowa or Orlando Magic assistant Randy Wittman.



Ironically, Oklahoma and Sampson lost to Davis (and Indiana) in his only trip to the Final Four in 2002.



Sampson's family was being flown to Indiana, including his daughter, who works at the College of Charleston.



Sampson was 279-109 during 12 season at Oklahoma. The Sooners advanced to the NCAA Tournament 11 times, including the third-place finish in 2002 and an Elite Eight trip in 2003.


Oklahoma lost to Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the first round of this year's NCAA tournament.



He has also coached at Washington State and Montana Tech.



Sampson's hiring comes while Oklahoma is waiting to hear from the NCAA on a potential April infractions hearing involving excessive phone calls. The university said in January that from April 2000 to Sept. 2004, members of the men's basketball program made impermissible calls to 17 prospects and made three impermissible in-person contacts with recruits, improperly giving a T-shirt to a recruit and a parent.



The NCAA also said Sampson failed to monitor the staff's phone calls to recruits during this time. The university self-imposed a two-year probation from July 1, 2005 to July 1, 2007; reduced scholarships from 13 to 11 for 2005-06 and 13 to 12 from 2006-07; reduced the number of phone calls coaches could make to recruits; limited off-campus recruiting from July 2005 through the 2006-07 academic year; cut paid visits down from 12 to nine for this past season; froze Sampson's salary increases and postseason bonuses for a two-year period.


Oklahoma now must wait for the April hearing to see if any additional sanctions apply to the school. Yet, despite Sampson being barred from July recruiting, he signed one of the top recruiting classes in the country in November.



Sampson has been widely respected as a hard-nosed, defensive, rebounding oriented coach and a tireless recruiter. He's a former president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches. He also led USA Basketball to the gold medal in Halifax, Nova Scotia in the U-21 championships in the summer of 2005.



Sampson replaces Davis, who led the Hoosiers to the national title game in 2002, the NCAA Tournament in 2001 and 2003 and then again this season, losing to Gonzaga in the second round.



Oklahoma's search for a Sampson replacement has no natural favorite.


Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com

[kalmikrazy]

Wow this is unbelievable. OU is gonna have a very very tough task in replacing Sampson. He is a good coach. After you Coack K's, Williams, Calhoun, etc he has to be in the next group of good college coaches. His philosophy is hard nosed D and not much O, but his teams are always good not great. In 12 years at OU he took them to the big dance 11 times, 1 final 4 and 1 elite 8. Won the Big 12 Tourn 2 or 3 times I believe.

Only people outside of Norman believed this years team was gonna be as good as ranked. No Point Guard the whole season and the one player who was an all american candidate was so inconsistant that he went from a mid 1st rnd nba pick to early 2 rnd. He should do good as Indiana has better recruiting talent than Oklahoma. At OU he could not get Texas' top talent cause UT would get all the top dogs.

Most peeps in Oklahoma are happy to hear this news cause they hate the way he coaches to win with D. They ALL seem to put the same amount of pressure that STOOPS gets cause this is Football Country. But they dont realize how valuable a guy like Sampson is 2 a Football rich School.

Just wait and see how bad the team will perform next season.

[bigboydan]

i'm suprised that calvin sampson left.i really thought he would retire there at OU.

[kalmikrazy]

The main readon is when that whole telephone calls violations unfolded, he was not the main guy behind it. It was mostly the assistants. He was mad that the Ath. dept didnt stick up for him and he had to do all the answering.

[bigboydan]

IU football needs more than bob stoops. there football program needs a miracle from god in order to win in the big 10.

[kalmikrazy]

They been talking about recruits all day here in OKC. I believe they said they have to request it to the ncaa and than if they approve it than its ok. the chances they said are not that great but it could happen. not that many people in sooner nation would mind cause im sure that in tomm. front page will be sampson as well as what happened at spring practice in football.

im pretty excited to see who we get cause many people dont know that our AD Castiglione is the best in the business (as many people in espn have expressed and has the alums at UF and KU). But more than that im waiting for the red white game on espn on april 8th to see how Adrain Peterson is looking......lol

[pags11]

not a great hire in my opinion...the guy was good but not great at Wazu and good but not great at OU...

[kalmikrazy]

I dont care what they call Peterson as long as he can stay healthy and help us get some W's.
3 DT's are gonna make a big impact - Birdine, Granger, and the incoming Freshman Gerald McCoy.
Patterson is gonna have to fight for time cause the corner spots have been taken so far.
The WR's had a good yr last year but everyone here is hoping they dont go through a soph slump. With a Heathly Adrian, they should get alot more chances to make plays.

Pags -
Sampson should do great at IU cause even though there is more pressure to win at IU, he has better talent to recruit in Indiana. In 12 years at OU he had 3 phenomenal players from Oklahoma. Ryan HUmphries who left OU and transferred to Notre Dame. Azubukie who played at UK and S.Williams who just finished losing at Duke. I guarantee you that in that same time span at Indiana they prodused alot more great hoopsters and I think if Sampson can keep them at IU he will do great. They better be ready to play lights out D and be hella aggressive on the boards. They will love the bubble drill if they have not tried it already.

[isetcap]

It's a hell of a lot better than bringing in Steve "I Win One Tournament Game A Decade" Alford. At least this way, IU's program will once again be fixtures in the NCAA Tournament.

Waiting to hear from Slacker on his thoughts about Sampson.