Jud Heathcote urged Sampson to apply for IU job
Former MSU basketball coach Jud Heathcote was apparently the person who urged former MSU assistant Kelvin Sampson to apply for the Indiana coaching position a few weeks ago. Sampson is expected to be named the new head coach for IU as early as Wednesday and has said that he has been offerred and has accepted the position. The Chicago Tribune talked with Jud Heathcote about the coaching move and he mentioned that Sampson might have felt overshadowed by Oklahoma’s football program.
“I don’t know if my suggestion had much to do with it, but I did tell Kelvin a while back that he should throw his hat into the ring at IU,” Heathcote said on the phone from his home in Spokane, Wash.
He has been a confidant since giving Sampson his break into the college coaching profession as a graduate assistant at Michigan State in 1978.
“I knew Kelvin sometimes felt unappreciated at Oklahoma because of the football program, so he was looking around,” Heathcote said. “So I wasn’t really surprised, but I was surprised because of how secretive the process was.”