While there has been a ton of wild speculation and poor reporting by most news agencies not directly familiar with the Indiana program (Pat Forde, Andy Katz), CBS’s Gary Parrish has decided to throw his hat in the speculative ring. He is quoting sources familiar with last night’s meeting that Indiana AD Rick Greenspan had with Indiana players. Players supposedly told Greenspan that if Sampson was fired, they’d walk too. Those players, reportedly, included Eric Gordon, D.J. White, Super Walk-On Kyle Taber and Lance Stemler.

“According to the sources, after Greenspan informed five selected players — namely D.J. White, Eric Gordon, Kyle Taber, Lance Stemler and Adam Ahlfeld — of his decision to replace Sampson he called a meeting with the entire team in an attempt to “prepare” them for Friday’s official announcement that Sampson would either be suspended or terminated in time for the Hoosiers’ weekend game at Northwestern. But before Greenspan finished his speech, the sources said an unidentified player stood up and insisted “if Sampson ain’t coaching, we ain’t playing.”

According to Parrish’s story, Greenspan rhetorically asked if he should just cancel the whole season and the player reportedly told the AD “We don’t care what you do. But if Sampson ain’t coaching, we ain’t playing.’ And then they just walked out.”

If this is true, I commend the players for doing what they believe to be right while all of the adults around them try to figure out how not to get hit by the shrapnel. I don’t think any of them would actually go through with it, save maybe Eric Gordon who is going to the NBA next year anyway. Could this be a Jimmy Chitwood/Norman Dale type of situation? “I play, coach stays. If he goes, I go.”

We’ll see what Greenspan has to say at a 2 p.m. ET press conference that has been scheduled at Assembly Hall.

It is safe to assume that whatever recommendation Indiana athletic director Rick Greenspan has for IU president Michael McRobbie, he will issue early tomorrow morning. The Indianapolis Star’s Terry Hutchens reports tonight:

“Indiana University athletic director Rick Greenspan is expected to announce his decision Friday regarding the fate of embattled basketball coach Kelvin Sampson.

It was unclear whether Greenspan told the basketball players who gathered at his Assembly Hall office late Thursday whether they will have a new coach for Saturday’s game at Northwestern. The players walked past reporters without commenting.”

Hutchens reported that the players emerged from Greenspan’s office at 7:43 p.m.

You have to assume at this point that Greenspan’s recommendation will be to either terminate or indefinitely suspend Sampson, otherwise a conversation with the players wouldn’t necessarily be prudent.

Even my girlfriend will know not to call me tonight from 6:00 to about 8:30 unless it’s to talk about how much Matt Painter looks like a ferret or how stupid of a nickname Boilermakers is. For those two and a half hours, I will have worked myself into a nearly rabid frenzy because, simply, it doesn’t get much bigger than tonight’s Purdue/Indiana game.

Forget that with a win my Indiana Hoosiers could claim a piece of the Big Ten title coming down the homestretch of the regular season, forget that this is the best Purdue has been in the past ten years, forget that it’s likely Kelvin Sampson’s last game as Indiana basketball head coach. This is about a rivalry. A basketball game that will be filled from the opening tip with, if I might borrow an SEC phrase, “Clean, old fashioned hate.”

For Purdue and their fans, (I’m really exercising every ounce of restraint that I have not to make any number of amusing cracks about West Lafayette and/or Purdue Students), this is a game about respect. For certain, Matt Painter’s Boilermakers are the surprise of the year in the Big Ten and maybe in all of college basketball but no one’s paying attention. Instead, all anyone can talk about is Indiana. Indiana’s season, Indiana’s super freshman Eric Gordon and most recently, Indiana’s coach and Indiana’s recruiting violation. Tonight, Purdue plays not to be the New York Islanders of Indiana state sports.

For IU, tonight’s win is a chance to knock Purdue back down to their rightful place as a second-tier Big Ten program and most importantly, the end to a perfect sports year. As an IU fan, I can think of nothing better than a year in which we upset Purdue on a last-second field goal in the Bucket game and then beat their brains out at home, snatching a piece of the Big Ten regular season title.

How big is this game? My girlfriend told me she might “catch a couple plays.” That’s big.

(Indianapolis Star/Matt Kryger)

After persuading my girlfriend to watch Saturday night’s Michigan State/IU game (something that was entirely too easy, which leads me to believe that I’ve made a trade of dubious quality for myself down the road), we settled in to watch the game. Of course, most of the discussion from ESPN’s talking heads centered around the NCAA allegations against Indiana head basketball coach Kelvin Sampson and what his future may or may not be come later this week. During the course of the game, I explained to my girlfriend what he had done and then explained my hardline stance on what had happened and what I thought should happen to our coach. Her reply was something that floored me, an emotion that I had never considered or entered into the equation.

“That’s sad,” she said.

I was stunned. I didn’t really know what to say. In my anger as an IU basketball fan and as someone who had embraced Sampson as the leader of my favorite team and my alma mater, I had never stopped to consider the human price in all of this. Here’s a guy who has one of the top 5 jobs in his entire profession and it appears that he’s thrown all of it away, leaving a once-brilliant career in total jeopardy. Make no mistake about it, sanctions or not, Kelvin Sampson is a heck of a basketball coach and as I watched him embrace his players and pump his fists, it did occur to me that the entire story was a little sad, as my girlfriend had originally emoted.

This was a guy who had put our much-beloved program back in the national spotlight and has now found himself in the cross hairs with seemingly no way out. All of the people that had originally loved him and praised the work he had done to land big-time recruits and put Indiana basketball back in the top 10, stood on Kirkwood Avenue in Bloomington with a microphone in their face and called for his job.

Come to think of it, that is pretty sad.

Indiana mens basketball players should be focused on their huge conference matchup against Wisconsin tonight (one game in a treacherous three-game homestand that sees Michigan State and archrival Purdue come to Bloomington in the next week) but instead they may be having to worry if they will have a coach by year’s end.

The NCAA released allegations yesterday saying that head basketball coach Kelvin Sampson misled (see: lied) to Indiana University and NCAA investigators regarding improper contact with recruits. In a letter sent by the NCAA to Indiana University, it is alleged that Sampson knowingly and willingly violated telephone recruiting restrictions (set in place because of violations made during his tenure at Oklahoma) and then lied about it. Not good.

That allegation is among five “major violations” that Sampson has been accused of by the NCAA. When I see the words major violation, I’m thinking vacating wins and I’m thinking postseason ban, both of which mean that Kelvin Sampson’s tenure as Indiana University head basketball coach is over.

Sampson, Indiana Athletic Director Rick Greenspan, and other university officials will appear before the Division I Committee on Infractions in June and have until May to issue a written response to the allegations.

So where does Indiana go from here? Self-imposed sanctions, unless it’s a postseason ban in 2009, aren’t likely to be enough and as an Indiana alum and an IU fan I am embarrassed. Sampson needs to go and he needs to go right this second. If Rick Greenspan isn’t sitting down at his desk right now to negotiate the terms of Sampson’s firing or resignation then he deserves to be fired too. Enough is Enough.

I think Bob Knight is an egomaniac and I am certainly the furthest thing from a Bob Knight fan that any Indiana University alumnus could be but at the very least, he ran a clean program that managed to win three national championships. Make no mistake, Indiana basketball fans (and boosters) want to win but they want to win the right way, the fair way, the clean way.

Before anyone says anything, the return of Bob Knight as Indiana head basketball coach would be a horrible, horrible idea and a gigantic leap backwards for the program. Knight couldn’t win at Texas Tech because he couldn’t recruit and I’d venture to say that Eric Gordon, Derrick Rose, Kevin Love or Michael Beasley aren’t going to come to IU and get screamed at for a year or two before heading to the NBA and it’s that quality of player that Indiana needs to compete against Michigan State, Illinois, Wisconsin and a Purdue team that, under Matt Painter, appear to be headed back to Big Ten contention. They are the league’s top team at present.

Rick Greenspan hired Coach Hep, a move that saved the IU football program from permanent obscurity and has led a capital funds campaign for brand spanking new athletic facilities at IU and if he’s interested in keeping his job, he needs to make sure that Kelvin Sampson doesn’t keep his for very much longer.

By my own admission, I wasn’t all that excited about the end of football in America and when the final seconds ticked off the clock at the Super Bowl, I began to feel the way you do the day after Christmas.

Truthfully, I was dreading this weekend. My first weekend without football (and the Pro Bowl doesn’t count as football, it barely qualifies as a competitive sporting event) was going to be, to say the least, slow and mildly depressing. That was until Wednesday and Thursday night.

The Duke/UNC game, a great game that saw Duke hitting every three-pointer and garbage shot imaginable, sparked my interest once again in college hoops and last night’s Indiana/Illinois game in Champaign has me ignited.

(Indianapolis Star/Heather Charles)

A couple of thoughts on last night’s game.

It’s time for Bruce Weber, his basketball team and the Illinois fan base to grow up. As an IU alum and IU fan, nothing is more satisfying to me than beating a fan base who would sell their vital organs to beat IU so for the Hoosiers to come out of Champaign with a win is unspeakably gratifying this morning.

The win is particularly fulfilling considering it came against a fan base that is as borderline obnoxious as Illinois. Look at it this way, these are fans that viciously clung to and defended a white student running onto the field dressed as a Native American and dancing around. Doesn’t sound like the most enlightened bunch of cats, right? Think Ohio State fans without all the, you know, championships and tradition of winning. I can’t say that I blame them for being cranky. The handful of occasions I have traveled to Champaign-Urbana has left me with no further desire to ever go back. It’s like Seattle without all the natural beauty, great seafood and interesting people.

The shove, let’s not mince words, that Chester Frazier gave Eric Gordon at the beginning of last night’s game was absolutely classless and that starts at the top. I know that Bruce Weber’s feelings are hurt that an 18-year-old kid changed his mind and decided not to play at Illinois (I can’t imagine why, I mean Champaign-Urbana is so lovely) but at a certain point you need to move on for the sake of your program. But oh no, not old Bruce. He’s going to continue to let this thing drag out and consume him as he drives this program right into the ground.

And while we’re on the topic of that 18-year-old kid, any NBA GM who takes this kid with his lottery pick had better had his resume uploaded to CareerBuilder.com. I was excited as an IU fan to be getting a player of Gordon’s caliber and while he has shown flashes of…being a pretty good college basketball player, he’s far from the game changer that many IU fans were promised when Gordon committed to IU. What I see when I watch Gordon is an 18-year-old kid who is used to dominating high school competition and can’t create his own looks. Anyone can hit an open shot, only the great players can create and Eric Gordon is far from great, as of now. I think this year in college has really exposed some glaring weaknesses in his game. He’s not a great ballhandler, his shot selection (particularly when he’s pulling up from the parking lot) is questionable and he’s turnover prone. If you’re a GM are you giving $3 million a year to a kid who’s too small to play the 2 at the NBA level and is too turnover prone to efficiently run the point. Put it like this, do you like Eric Gordon matching up against Steve Nash, Tony Parker or Chris Paul? That being said, I think he’s gone after the year and he’s going to get someone to pay him a lot of money to play basketball but his first year or two in the NBA could determine whether he’s Jason Kidd or Mateen Cleaves.

Dead horse files assault charge against Rev. Al

As some of you may have heard, Golf Channel analyst Kelly Tilghman has been suspended two weeks for a remark she made while calling the Mercedes-Benz championship last weekend.

On air, Tilghman joked that to stymie Tiger Woods’ dominance on tour young golfers needed to “lynch him in a back alley.” Tilghman has since apologized for the remark and has received the suspension I’ve mentioned above. Tiger’s camp has accepted her apology and the whole thing appeared to be over. A very poor choice of words into a live microphone had earned Tilghman two weeks off from work and a fair share of embarrassment.

If only that were the end of this story. Rev. Al Sharpton, as he seemingly always does, has interjected on behalf of… well at least himself, saying that Tilghman’s comments were no less inflammatory than Don Imus’ famous comments about the Rutgers womens basketball team and that Tilghman ought to be fired.

I should preface this post by saying that I think this country needs people like Rev. Al Sharpton serving as a watchdog for civil rights.

Al Sharpton is just flat out wrong about Kelly Tilghman. What he does when he injects himself into situations like this is compromise his own legitimacy as a leader and as a public figure when called upon to lend his voice to causes that are actually socially significant (the Jena Six most readily comes to mind).

You absolutely cannot make the comments that Tilghman and I do not condone making those types of comments because of the emotions and years of vicious violence they invoke. But Imus and Tilghman are not the same because there is nothing in her past that suggests that she is bigoted in any way (her friend, Washington Post columnist and PTI host Michael Wilbon said as much on last night’s program), the same cannot be said for Imus who, on a number of occasions, referred to Illinois Senator Barack Obama as “that young colored fella.”

Leave Kelly Tilghman alone, Al.

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Playoff Picks

GREEN BAY over Seattle

NEW ENGLAND over Jacksonville

INDIANAPOLIS over San Diego

DALLAS over New York

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When did Sports Writers become gossip columnists?

Does anyone really, truly, honestly care where and with whom Tony Romo spent his off weekend?

It is an absolute embarrassment to our profession that sports writers are asking Dallas Cowboys players and coaches what they think about Tony Romo heading to Cancun for a couple days during the Cowboys off week. A trip, it should be noted, he did not take alone, pro bowl tight end Jason Witten went along.

Romo broke no team rules by going, didn’t miss any practices or team functions. In fact, Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips instructed his players to get away from the game for a couple days. So what’s the problem? Do we care at all if Marco Rivera mowed his lawn over the weekend? Or if Marion Barber took a nap, played a little Call of Duty 4 and went to see No Country for Old Men? No and we shouldn’t care about this.

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Am I really excited about a flick called Cloverfield?

Answer: Very much

Ever since this film began it’s somewhat cryptic viral marketing campaign, I was interested to see what producer J.J. Abrams had in store. The trailer is out (and below) and what I like most is that they let you know just enough about the plot but leave it at that. Too many times trailers are giving away the movies they are advertising for to lure moviegoers into theaters. This film doesn’t need to do that and I’m itching to see what this movie has to offer.

That being said, I’m not expecting a whole lot. My guess is that this is a monster movie in the same vein that we have seen monster movies before and I hope that, after seeing the film, my favorite part about it isn’t the build-up before I saw going to see it.

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Senior Bowl adds some more big names

Add to the list of players committed to playing in this year’s Senior Bowl, five LSU Tigers. Those players are Jacob Hester, Craig Steltz, Early Doucet, Ali Highsmith and Chevis Jackson.

They join a nice contingent of players from the SEC who’ve committed already.

Also announced this week were Missouri tight end and First team All-American Martin Rucker, Texas wideout Limas Sweed, and Biletinikoff finalist Jordy Nelson from Kansas State.

The final rosters are to be announced on Sunday, Jan. 20 and will be posted here on The Bottom Line. This year’s Senior Bowl will be played on Saturday, Jan. 26 at 3 p.m. and will be televised on the *sigh* NFL Network.

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Sampson vs. Weber, Round 1

It’s a big afternoon for Indiana sports Sunday as the Colts kick off against the Chargers at 1 and IU and Illinois square off at 4:30 in Bloomington. If you thought the relationship between Bill Belichick and Eric Mangino was contentious, watch the IU game on Sunday on CBS. These are two men who genuinely hate each other’s guts, due in large part to Weber’s belief that Sampson contacted Gordon after the guard had verbally committed to play at Illinois in 2008. Sampson claims a member of Gordon’s family initiated the contact with his staff and that led to Gordon de-committing to Illinois and signing with the Hoosiers. What we have here is a good, old fashion Big Ten Bloodfeud and while the game Sunday won’t come close in the palpable hatred department at Feb. 7’s game in Champaign, it should be entertaining none the less. The end of game handshake will be like Patriots/Jets minus Belichick assaulting a photographer.

Joe Gibbs retires — again

After an emotional year, Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs retired as head coach of the Washington Redskins this morning. Gibbs had limited success in the four years since his return from retirement but this does little to tarnish his reputation as one of the greatest NFL coaches ever. I never really sensed that Gibbs was all that enthused about his return and I understood why he came back in the first place.

It now becomes very interesting to see what happens in Washington. Surely, defensive coordinator Gregg Williams will be an option but perhaps not a big enough name for owner Daniel Snyder.

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Time for hoops 

With the college football season now officially behind us, I can now shift my attention to college basketball. My beloved Hoosiers tip-off tonight against Michigan on ESPN and while John Belein’s Michigan team  is struggling, any road win in the Big Ten is huge. I like IU’s backcourt as much as any in America with Eric Gordon, Jamarcus Ellis, Jordan Crawford and now AJ Ratliff coming back from missing the first part of the year with academic ineligibility issues. The frontcourt features some real bruisers with DJ White, Mike White and 295-pound, former Chipola Junior College star DeAndre Thomas. Go Hoosiers!

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Senior Bowl staffs announced 

The coaching staffs from the 49ers and the Raiders will be coaching the North and South teams in this year’s Senior Bowl.

This year’s game could be a good one with the list of players committing to play including Kentucky quarterback Andre Woodson, Georgia Tech running back Tashard Choice, Alabama wide out DJ Hall and corner Simeon Castille and Oklahoma State wide receiver Adarius Bowman.

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Raging Rocket

I honestly don’t know what to say about Roger Clemens’ press conference yesterday in which he played a taped conversation between himself and former trainer Brian McNamee, a tape that did more to muddy the waters than it did to clarify anything. What struck me about the press conference was Clemens’ crankiness about having to answer semi-pointed questions from reporters. It leaves you to wonder how he’ll respond to flat-out accusatory questions he is sure to receive when he appears before Congress as he said he intends to do. The McNamee/Clemens issue is likely never to resolve itself in any definitive way but the fireworks have been, at the very least, entertaining.

Monday, Dec. 31 - Insight Bowl

Indiana vs. Oklahoma State 

For the first time in my life, I have a horse in the proverbial bowl season race. For the first time since 1993, my Indiana Hoosiers are going bowling. I think, nationally, college football fans know very little about this Indiana team (and probably won’t this season given that the game is only being televised on the dreaded NFL Network) but Indiana has one of the most exciting offenses in America. Sophomore quarterback Kellen Lewis is one of the nation’s most complete offensive players, ahead of Dennis Dixon, Matt Grothe and Kansas’ Todd Reesing, Pat White and Andre Woodson in total offense and ranks ahead of John David Booty, Matt Ryan and Matthew Stafford in passing efficiency. On the outside, the Hoosiers have 6′7″ James Hardy, one of the nation’s most exciting receivers playing in what is sure to be his last game in an Indiana uniform and Marcus Thigpen, an electrifying returner/receiver/running back. The Hoosiers will look to Lewis, Hardy and Thigpen to exploit an atrociously bad Oklahoma State pass defense that finished 116th of 119 teams in all of college football against the pass. Unfortunately for the Hoosiers, Oklahoma State (and their screaming moron of a coach, Mike Gundy) has a sensational receiver in Adarius Bowman, who is averaging just under 100 yards a game in receiving. Indiana must use defensive end, Greg Middleton, who leads the nation with 14 solo sacks to pressure quarterback Zac Robinson into incompletions and turnovers and corner Tracey Porter must defend his reputation as one of the Big Ten’s best cover corners (Porter finished second in the Big Ten with 6 interceptions) and stick to Bowman like glue all day long. I’m going with my heart and the Hoosiers‘ pass attack in a shootout.

Tuesday, Jan. 1 - Chick Fil-A Bowl 

Clemson vs. Auburn 

It’s a matchup between two coaches that nearly went to Arkansas when Clemson and Auburn square off in Atlanta. Both Tommy Tuberville and Tommy Bowden were reportedly interviewed for the Arkansas head coaching job before pulling their names for consideration and staying where they were. Auburn comes into this one with another great defense and a slumping, boring offense led by senior quarterback Brandon Cox. Clemson is a little more well-rounded with a great offense, passing and rushing and one of the ACC’s top defenses.  Clemson’s three losses came on the road to Georgia Tech, at home to a Virginia Tech team that would go on to win the conference and a nail-biter to BC thanks to Matt Ryan’s heroics. To win this game, which is being played less than 2 hours from the Auburn campus, the Tigers must find a way to generate some type of offense. Auburn didn’t have a rusher in the SEC’s top 10 rushers and Cox finished the year averaging 155 yards a game passing and that isn’t going to cut it against a Clemson defense that finished in the top 15 in the country against the pass and 20th in the country against the run, not to mention the weapons they have on the other side of the ball in quarterback Cullen Harper and running backs James Davis and C.J. Spiller. Losing offensive coordinator Al Borges this week isn’t going to help Auburn put points on the board despite their defense. Clemson’s defense will force the Auburn offense to go three and out for much of the game and Clemson’s rushing attack will wear down the Auburn defensive front. I’m going with Tommy Bowden and Clemson.

Jan. 1 - Outback Bowl

Wisconsin vs. Tennessee 

One of three bowls that pits the SEC and the Big Ten, the Outback Bowl returns Tennessee to the scene of a pounding last year at the hands of the Nittany Lions. The key for Tennessee will be moving the ball up and down the field and being able to execute David Cutcliffe’s offense against a Wisconsin defense that finished 4th in the conference in total defense. Defensively, the Vols have struggled in spectacular fashion against the run, giving up more than 162 yards a game. That statistic is particularly troubling given who’s lining up in the backfield for the Badgers: The Wisconsin Winnebago, P.J. Hill.  I’d look for Wisconsin to pound the ball and leave few chances for the ball-hawking Tennessee secondary chances to make plays off banged-up quarterback Tyler Donovan. This is a difficult game to pick because both teams have struggled at various points during the year but I will take Wisconsin and P.J. Hill in a close contest.

Tuesday, Jan. 1 - AT&T Cotton Bowl 

Missouri vs. Arkansas 

Playing in this game must be a tough pill to swallow for Gary Pinkel, Chase Daniel and Missouri. The loss to Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship Game propelled the Tigers out of the BCS picture, to the benefit of the Kansas Jayhawks, a one-loss team that the Tigers had handled the week before. Still, the Tigers need to remain focus and not focus on their BCS snub as they prepare to square off against a dangerous Arkansas team. The trouble with Arkansas is that beyond Darren McFadden and Felix Jones, they don’t have much of an offense. Stuffing the run will be huge for Missouri, something they’ve done well this year limiting opponents to 118 yards per game on the ground. On offense, Missouri will look to do what they’ve done all year: Let Chase Daniel run around make plays and find Jeremy Maclin, Chase Coffman and Martin Rucker for big plays. It helps that Missouri has running back Tony Temple in the lineup but Temple played in the Big 12 Championship and was a nonfactor. Look for Missouri to exploit mismatches in the secondary, particularly on Coffman and Rucker. Given how bad Arkansas’ secondary has been all year, I’d look for Chase Daniel to have a big day and Missouri to win big.

My Hoosiers will travel to Tempe, Ariz. to play in the Insight Bowl against a team coached by this baboon…