Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Sampson agrees to deal with the University of Houston

The Houston Cougars have found their next head coach and they didn’t have to look far.

Houston Rockets assistant Kelvin Sampson has agreed to return to college hoops as the Cougars’ coach, according to CBSSports.com.

Sampson had worked in the NBA with the Rockets and Milwaukee Bucks over the past six years.

Sampson, 58, was fired from Indiana in 2008 after an NCAA investigation into improper and excessive contact with recruits regarding phone calls and text messages.

The violations were repeat offenses from when he was head coach at Oklahoma. This led to a five-year show-cause on Sampson, one of the harshest in NCAA history against a D-I college basketball coach.
The NCAA no longer puts such restrictions on text messages with recruits.

Sampson compiled a 496-271 career record at Indiana, Oklahoma, Washington State and Montana Tech. However, he received a five-year show-cause order in 2008, which meant that if a team wanted to hire him, it would need to impose sanctions on Sampson or “show cause” that Sampson properly served his punishment. The show-cause recently expired, so Sampson will be able to coach without any sanctions levied upon him.

Say what you want about Sampson but he will have the Cougars playing at a different level than in years past. Call him a cheater or a dirtbag but Sampson has the potential to make Houston a nationally relevant program once again.

"It Girl" of the week: Wakina Kia

The Just Sports & Just Us "It Girl" of the week is Wakina Kia.








Cold Stone offering to cater Matthew Stafford's wedding for free

Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford recently announced his engagement to girlfriend Kelly Hall.

Whether it's deserved or not, Stafford can afford a boffo wedding at a secluded, exotic location most of us will only see on television. Like they say the rich get richer. Speaking of the rich getting richer, Cold Stone creamery has offered to cater Stafford's wedding for free.

Why? Because of the free publicity the ice cream store received when Stafford and Hall announced their engagement and Instagrammed a picture of them eating at Cold Stone. If I knew that would work, I would've proposed to my wife at McDonald's and took a picture of it.

TMZ Sports spoke with Cold Stone head honcho Michael Serruya who tells us ... "We'd love to provide dessert for everyone at the wedding. And to the extent that they would allow us, we would love to make the cake as well!"

Congratulations to Stafford and the Lions should hope that he can get his game back on track.