Lyin', Cheatin', Stealin'

“Are you gonna believe me or your lyin’ eyes?” JR Ewing

I’m distressed. As a life-long Indiana basketball fan I’m clinically depressed about what’s going on with the program and their coach Kelvin Sampson. In a nutshell Sampson came to IU under a cloud because at his previous school (Oklahoma) he had violated a NCAA recruiting rule on how many phone calls are permissible when recruiting high school kids. It wasn’t severe and it’s certainly not the dirtiest thing a coach can do but he did it and was on probation with the NCAA because of it.

He assured everyone that it was an honest mistake and that we would be clean beyond reproach. Well, now it’s come to light that he violated the rules of the probation he’s been under and “may” have lied about it during the school's internal investigation.

Now, I like Kelvin Sampson as a coach. His kids play hard, he attracts good talent and wins games. However, like most IU fans, I was spoiled by all the years that Bob Knight ran a successful and extremely clean program. I remember Knight making Steve Alford sit out a game for appearing in a calendar a campus sorority had made to raise money. A grey area in the rules but one he didn't even flinch at doing something about.

So now there are two potential issues. One, that Sampson re-committed the same crime and two that he publicly lied to his boss about it.

So, what do you do when you have a talented employee who is generally well-liked and successfully runs his department in major KSF’s (key success factors) of business generation (wins/losses), revenue (sold out games and national tv exposure) and great staffing (recruiting). But, the guys a little slimy and lies to you about things.

In my blog of October 8th last year I talked about the 10 simple rules of being a successful employee. http://executiveondemand.blogspot.com/2007/10/ten-simple-rules.html. One was “Never (ever, ever)….(ever, ever, ever) lie, cheat or steal. It will create a stigma that can never be overcome.”

So Mr. or Ms. Big Boss (or in this case IU Athletic Director Rick Greenspan) what are you going to do with your talented but issue-riden employee?