Eric Gordon doesn’t play for Indiana anymore. In fact, he hardly played there at all (funny thing about the whole one-and-done college basketball trend). Still, now that he’s out of the picture, and now that the coach who brought him there, Kelvin Sampson, has been quite unceremoniously deposed, Gordon is opening up about exactly what ruined Indiana’s hopeful 2007-08 campaign: Drugs.

(No, Eric Gordon wasn’t high, he just looked like it after losing a tooth.)

That’s right, Indiana was rolling toward a Big Ten title, and then, well, it found marijuana. And acid. And, well, probably cocaine, too. Gordon doesn’t spill the specifics about which drugs players were using, or about who was using them. All he says in an interview with the INDIANAPOLIS STAR is that the drug usage was so widespread it left him so uncomfortable that he spent much of his time off the court at a family friend in Bloomington, just to get away from the rest of the team. The interview confirms what L. Jon Wertheim had previously written in SPORTS ILLUSTRATED back in early November, accusations that had since been shirked aside.

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I was listening to XPRS-AM in San Diego today and they were discussing the hiring of the next San Diego State football coach (I know, stay with me on this though…)

(Only thing missing in the pic is the leather helmet)

Afternoon host Darren Smith pointed out, apparently from a piece today in the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, that the school had hired a search firm to help identify candidates for the *plum* position.  He then noted that the company, called Parker Executive Search, had a website that listed some of the coaches and schools the firm as connected.

One of those wonderful marriages arranged (and duly noted) by PES? Kelvin Sampson and Indiana.

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Rick Greenspan probably brought this all on himself — when you hire a coach who’s been busted for recruiting violations before like Kelvin Sampson, you’re going to take the fall if and when he’s accused of violations again.

So now with the NCAA’s recent revealing of a charge against Indiana University for “failing to monitor” the activities of both Sampson and assistant Rob Senderoff regarding phone calls to recruits, Greenspan decided to get out, his resignation effective at the end of the calendar year.

(He’ll be riding out of Bloomington with the wind in his hair.)

The INDIANAPOLIS STAR reports that the NCAA infractions committee handed down the charge because:

…IU failed “to provide the extra close oversight and scrutiny of all aspects of the men’s basketball program that was required by the prior infractions record of the former coach.” That refers to Sampson breaking recruiting rules while in his previous job at Oklahoma. Penalties from those violations followed Sampson to IU.

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We say a solemn sayonara to Annika Sorenstam, who’ll soon be swinging off into the sunset at season’s end.

• During the heat of battle, LeBron politely asks his mom to sit down.

• Jonathan Papelbon plays like crap(s) at Detroit’s Comerica Park.

• This guy must have mistook the sand trap for a water hazard.

• Kelvin Sampson is a blameless, misunderstood creature.

• Plans punched up for a Woody Hayes statue have been knocked down.

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It’s not Kelvin Sampson’s fault that Indiana had committed several NCAA violations during his reign as basketball coach. Just ask him yourself.

Mark Alesia of the INDIANAPOLIS STAR phones in news that Sampson & two former IU assistants will be heading to Seattle on June 13 to face the NCAA Committee on Infractions. The most serious charges Sampson faces include making unauthorized calls to recruits & lying about it to the university.

But Kelvin already has his defense all set: Read more…

Looks like Kelvin Sampson can stop calling up employment agencies. The former Indiana head coach has apparently agreed to become an assistant with the Milwaukee Bucks.

The AP reports that a person “with knowledge of the hiring” says that Sampson will soon be serving on Scott Skiles’ staff. The source spoke on the condition of anonymity because Kelvin hasn’t signed a contract yet.

But once Sampson puts his John Hancock on a new deal, he’s scheduled to be joined by other former court generals who’ll be in backup roles on the Bucks’ staff. Read more…

The Ladies… will be on SbB all weekend to live blog the NFL Draft. They’ll be here for eight hours each day beginning Saturday at 2pm ET. See you then!

• Bolivian basketball babe Claudia Porras still proves she’s a model player.

• Today’s the day Rick Monday cemented himself as a real American hero for rescuing Old Glory.

• Jim Gray is still stalking the press areas - if only he was doing it for an actual sports network.

• Meanwhile, Kelvin Sampson is having no trouble entertaining job offers from the NBA.

• Dallas sportscaster Dale Hansen compares Pacman’s trade to Big D with the Cowboys signing Osama bin Laden.

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Disgraced former Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson has found his services much in demand in the professional circuit since resigning from the Hoosiers in February after being charged for five major recruiting violations.

First, the Spurs brought him on in a consulting role for two months. Now new Milwaukee Bucks coach Scott Skiles is looking at Sampson to join his staff as an assistant, according to ESPN. Read more…

The BLOOMINGTON HERALD-TIMES reports that Indiana is set to name Tom Crean as their new basketball coach.

Crean has spent the last eight seasons at Marquette, where he lead the Warriors Golden Eagles to the 2003 Final Four. He’ll be taking over from Dan Dakich, who’s been leading the Hoosiers on an interim basis since Kelvin Sampson resigned in February.

Or course, there might not be much of a team left for Crean when he arrives in Bloomington. Read more…

The NEW YORK TIMES has a piece today on Tommy Amaker as he plumbs the depths of the bowels of college basketball at Harvard. Amaker is in his first year coaching the astonishingly, historically-inept Crimson (they’ve never won an Ivy League title?) .

Now, we know what a wonderfully mediocre head coach T.A. was in his previous stops at Michigan and Seton Hall. But Pete Thamel of the NEW YORK TIMES reports that he may have somehow eclipsed that futility at Harvard, by committing NCAA recruiting violations at the scholarship-free institution. Read more…