The incident faded from Tom Jaeger’s vision. However, in 2006, former Colonial Association committee members took the lead side of one of the larger NCAA violation cases of 10 years.
Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson (and his staff) was then accused of making hundreds of calls to prospects against NCAA rules. It was all distilled into a series of major violations. Not only that, but he did the same thing after Sampson moved to Indiana. He and the school were also approved in 2008.
The cause of the five-year show applied by the NCAA essentially unfair Sampson in the university field. He spent six years in the NBA as an assistant before returning to college with Houston in 2014.
You should be familiar with what happened ever since. Once he became pariah, Sampson returned the Cougars to national power. They are currently in Sweet 16, the sixth straight in a row, playing for Purdue in the Midwest semi-finals of Indianapolis.
Time heals all violations. Sampson’s career and life-changing sins are so far away that it almost seems hilarious now. NIL marketing agents ran AMOK and the progress rate for top soccer and basketball prospects was $1 million, not only redefine fraud, but the concept was largely eliminated.
“I had dinner with Dave Berst,” Jager said. “We were kidding. What the heck is it against the rules?”
Not much. However, in 2006, Jaeger determined Sampson and Oklahoma as chairman of the NCAA Committee’s violations committee in that Oklahoma case.
“It was a hearing where actions escalated it more than actual violations…” Jager said. “I have some vague memories. It was a bit controversial. I don’t say a fight. He left mid-case (for Indiana’s work) just before he came to the hearing.
“It wasn’t on the worst list of any stretch in the top 10.”
But they were a time when the NCAA could convict a ham sandwich if they wanted. That’s not the case now. There may not be much left as Power Four is set up to assemble its own research staff in the House settlement. For the NCAA to investigate.
“I’m disappointed to see some cases that sound like escalated parking tickets,” added Yeager. “We know well that escalating parking tickets can be a problem, but sooner or later, some felons want to be convicted. If there are already, it may be difficult to become a felon.”
However, this is not about NCAA rehash, but about (carrier) remakes. This is also about if you are interested. Sampson still has it. Oklahoma Advertisement Joe Castilione sent it as a gift when Sampson got that Houston job in 2014. The same Joe C, who saw the Owhoop program, was slapped after Sampson’s crime.
The same Castiglione is cheering as hard as Houston fans this week.
“I believed in him. We had such a great working relationship,” Castiglione said. “He was doing a great job in Oklahoma.”
After the NBA, Sampson started in Houston. When he arrived, the program had not won the NCAA Tournament Games since his 1984 Phi Slama Jama days. It took him to break the drought of the 33-year tournament until his fourth year in Houston.
The ladder was symbolic and practical. Ladders are used to reduce nets after the championship. “I hope I need to use a lot of this on my journey as a Houston Cougar.”
The ladder broke to cut the net every time Houston won the regular season championship. It’s been eight times since Sampson arrived. (One of the next home games after clinching at home or after clinching on the road.)
Nineteen years after the fact, the lens judged/remembered Sampson again focused. How many of us are at the peak of our careers at age 69? How many of us are among the most loved people in our profession? Sampson is both.
“There’s a lot to explain,” Castiglione said. “There was really no hostility. Obviously, we were very disappointed in going through it and self-imposed our own penalties. There were a few more violation committees (penals) and no one wants to make it happen.
“We weren’t dismissing the disappointment (but Sampson) was completely close, and even the NCAA investigative staff were speaking out about how much cooperation was.
“In any season, he thought he was overtaking his competition.”
What’s more, we live in an age where images of coaches are remade like multi-million dollar playdoes.
Under Rick Pitino, Louisville became the first men’s basketball program to vacate the national championship. Now he’s St. John’s and New York toast.
Disgraced former Baylor coach Dave Bliss has had four combinations of professional, high school and college jobs since his resignation. Player Murder and NCAA Scandal.
Chris Beard led Ole Miss to Sweet 16, He was fired in Texas in 2023.
Sampson’s misdeeds were not similar to those coaches’ issues. The allegations he misunderstood the Indiana NCAA investigator were denied by the coach.
“There was nothing else,” Castiglione said. “I got a call.”
For 12 years, Sampson and Castiglione were strong partnerships. Sampson took OU, a soccer school, to the 11 NCAA tournaments and the 2002 Final Four. Four years later, the partnership ended. Sampson resigned in Oklahoma.
The prohibition of cell phone contact was so sloppy that the NCAA ultimately changed the rules. What Sampson did is now legal. Coaches can make unlimited calls and texts to recruit, following potential high school sophomores.
“Everything he did was (eventually) allowed…” Former Houston ad Mac Rhodes (now in Baylor) told CBS Sports at the time. “Yes, these rules are no longer applicable, but the rules are rules.”
“It’s important to consider the context of Oklahoma and IU phone violation cases,” said Josh Rens, head of Compliance Group, a company that shepherds schools through NCAA compliance reviews and audits. “The rules for recruitment calls at the time were very technical and complicated. In addition, the NCAA and the Committee on Violations were hoping that coaches would document recruitment calls. The rules for recruitment calls have changed quite a bit (after that), and coaches have the freedom to make calls today.”
From the two NCAA cases, Sampson’s excellence allowed us to create a case in which Houston lifted his final step into the Big 12 several years ago. Certainly, Houston was rated as a market, recruitment domain and its football potential. However, the possibility of humming both programs at the Power Five level was important.
“He built that program when it was from ashes,” Castiglione said of Sampson. “That’s more than impressive.”
And it’s not over. Those 6 years of sweet 16 runs lead the country. For the third year in a row, the Cougars have the first species. They talk more about the Cougars, not the coach who landed two programs at the NCAA prison.
Much of the past actually disappears from sight depending on the viewer’s eyes.
