At this point, I wouldn’t blame Hoosier Nation if they all became a bunch of fatalists. I mean, their hoops program is screwed.

Monumentally screwed.

I’ll set my Big Blue Blinders aside for a moment and recognize the unassailable truth that men’s basketball at Indiana University is absolutely one of the big boys, right there with UCLA, Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas, and Duke. It is a school of tradition and legends. It has produced success in both the proverbial then and now. It has a massive following and is in the state of all basketball states. But all of that seems trivial considering where men’s basketball at Indiana University finds itself now—down in hole, little light, and a long climb out.

I’m a veritable UK diehard. I’m a UK diehard, and Kelvin Sampson can kiss my ass. Kelvin Sampson was a Category 5 hurricane and he wove a path of destruction that might as well have razed Assembly Hall to the ground. What Kelvin Sampson did wasn’t “unforgivable” or “shameful” or whatever other paltry adjective has been assigned to his actions—it was a mortal sin. He completely desecrated something that isn’t merely a basketball team; as it has been said before, basketball is “a way of life” in Indiana. There’s God, there’s corn, there’s IU basketball. There’s so much more to the state, for it is full of charm and its citizens are as kind and welcoming as any that can be found in this country, but at the end of the day, that’s Indiana. And for Kelvin Sampson to so recklessly cast that aside is so careless, so egregious, so atrocious, it should be punishable by banishment from the game by the basketball gods.

I’m fully aware it’s July, but my ire has again been stirred by the latest news that IU will lose an additional two basketball schollies next year due to the program lagging in the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate (APR, not the financing). The consequences of this measurement have much to do with the program’s recent exodus of players, but as IU assistant A.D. Frank Cuervo said last week, “in terms of reasons, it’s not necessarily due to just players leaving.” Incoming coach Tom Crean put it as mildly and benignly as possible when he hinted at the wake of Hurricane Sampson, saying he “inherited a tremendous amount of dysfunction.”

I reside in this state, and word travels fast. I’ve heard the stories of how Sampson could’ve given two [you know what] if his players showed up to class; compare that with the Bob Knight era, when missing class meant wind sprints at practice until your lunch had been vomited on the ground. It may or may not be true, but if anyone is falling in line to lend Sampson an ounce of credibility, I’ll walk past, and I won’t look back.

Yes, Indiana’s athletic department is partially culpable for this disaster, because if Sampson had never been hired, blah blah blah. But even with Sampson’s past infractions in mind, to think that someone could stoop to this level and be this stupid would be nothing but an insult. Well, let the insults pour down like rain, because stupid is as stupid does.

I’ll never “root” for Indiana, but I’ll certainly support the program’s ascension up the mountain from which it’s fallen so far. Kentucky went down this road two decades ago and it was insufferable for its fans. The journey will likely be as difficult for Indiana. But I look forward to someday seeing Tom Crean and Billy Gillispie match wits in a battle of top ten powerhouses at Rupp and at Assembly while Kelvin Sampson watches on a monitor in the basketball gods’ prison. Whether that be from the bench of the Milwaukee Bucks where he currently assists (ironically, Indiana native) Scott Skiles or somewhere else, I could care less, as long as he’s not within sniffing distance of the college game he so irresponsibly vandalized.

He screwed Indiana. It’s time for him to get his.