KELVIN SAMPSON RUMORS

IN EIGHT YEARS with Kelvin Sampson at Oklahoma, Ray Lopes built up a Rolodex to last a basketball lifetime. The newest member of Ken Bone’s staff at WSU spent much of the last decade in Moscow and Fresno, but he told Cougfan.com yesterday that his reach never left the fertile recruiting grounds that helped propel Sampson’s Sooners to eight straight NCAA Tournaments and a Final Four appearance.

Washington State has hired former Fresno State head coach Ray Lopes as an assistant coach. Cougars coach Ken Bone made the announcement Tuesday. Lopes spent the past four seasons as an assistant at Idaho. Before that, Lopes coached in the NBA Developmental League, leading Idaho to the league title in 2008. Lopes was an assistant under Kelvin Sampson at Washington State in 1993...

Kelvin Sampson currently works as Kevin McHale's top assistant with the Rockets.

  All in all, the Indiana Hoosiers still are in a greatly encouraging spot right now compared to where they’ve been at this point each of the last three seasons. The resurgent Hoosiers, who have suffered through three years of aftermath of the Kelvin Sampson debacle, have finally found their way in this fourth year under coach Tom Crean, knocking off Nos. 1 and 2 teams (Kentucky...

Tom Crean knew he faced an uphill battle when he took over the decimated Indiana Hoosiers basketball program.  After more than three years of hard work he got his first taste of satisfaction: On this night, Indiana University basketball dramatically, demonstrably announced its return. After all the crushing blows, after Kelvin Sampson destroyed the program, after Tom Crean struggled...

Podcast On The Brink is back with its second episode and features a visit from an old friend — Chris Korman. The former Herald-Times sports editor and IU beat writer joins Matt Dollinger and Greg Rosenstein and discusses the team he covered for four years in Bloomington. The three also talk about IU’s 3-0 start and last night’s 94-73 victory over Evansville. In...

At long last, the season is finally here, so the only thing left for me to do is roll out my Top 30 (because 25 just wasn’t enough), dust off my Kelvin Sampson voodoo doll, and start enjoying what should be a terrific college basketball season. Image source: Inside The Hall College Basketball Preseason Power Rankings I’ve already profiled all 30 teams during either the...