Turn On, Tune In, Box Out

Yesterday Eric Gordon went out of his way to take a shit on Indiana Basketball and further bury Kelvin Sampson.   Gordon explained that rampant team-wide drug use was to blame  for the Hoosiers implosion last Spring.  From the interview with The Indianapolis Star:

Gordon didn’t say which players used drugs, but he said D.J. White and two others still on the team were among those who did not. Attempts to reach White and several other former players were not successful.
Gordon said Sampson “tried to stop it,” but the coach “was just so focused on basketball and winning and everything.”
Gordon said he spent considerable time with a family friend in Bloomington because the atmosphere around some players was so bad he didn’t feel comfortable on campus.
“Sometimes it felt like it wasn’t even a real basketball team because of all the turmoil that went on,” said Gordon, now a starting guard for the Los Angeles Clippers. “I was just thinking about that the other day. It was so crazy that all that stuff threw off a good season and made it a waste, basically.
“It was really tough for us to be around each other all the time off the court because we were so separate.”

If only the team had seen this:

IU fans:  Your former coach feels your pain.   UAB has only six scholarship players eligible to compete.  Steve Irvins, Brimingham News, blogs:

Terrence Roderick and Armon Bassett have chosen to leave the team while Jeremy Mayfield and Ed Berrios are no longer with the team because they “do not meet NCAA requirements for participation at this time,” according to a university release. Mayfield and Berrios’ issue deals with academics.

Bassett, on that IU team Gordon slammed, was sitting out this season after transfering to UAB.   UAB started the season with only 13 scholarships because the NCAA penalized the Blazers for poor graduation rates (presumably from the Mike Anderson era).   UAB is getting some help….Mike Davis, Jr. is eligible again after straightening his own academic situation—not a good sign when the coach can’t even keep his own son eligible.  Mike Jones, the UAB wide receiver, will also lend his body to the team.