You fire him now, of course. You fire Kelvin Sampson now, and you stop paying him at the end of the month as his contract allows you to do, and if you're Indiana you do those two things and then you don't look back.

You fire Sampson for bringing humiliation and the wrath of the NCAA and eventual competitive consequences. You replace him on an interim basis with assistant coach Dan Dakich or with assistant coach Ray McCallum or, hell, with Robert Montgomery Knight.

Who knows? Maybe this is why Knight resigned from Texas Tech in the first place. Since abruptly quitting, Knight has refused at every turn to acknowledge that his resignation is the same thing as a retirement, suggesting he might coach again. Maybe Knight cut loose from Texas Tech after hearing from sources at Indiana that Sampson was about to be labeled a recidivist, deceitful scumbag by the NCAA, and that Indiana was going to need a new coach by mid-February. Maybe the timing for Knight is merely serendipitous. I don't know, and I don't care. I don't like Bob Knight, wouldn't spit on him if he were on fire, but if you're Indiana you fire Sampson today and hire Knight tomorrow, because as unpleasant as Knight can be, he plays by the rules.

You fire Sampson immediately because letting him coach the rest of this season sends a message to the world that not only is it OK to cheat at Indiana, but it's OK to cheat at Indiana and then to lie about it to your bosses at Indiana and to your leadership at the NCAA. It sends the message that a cheater will be tolerated so long as he's a winning cheater -- because there is no doubt Sampson is a winning cheater. He's not a winner, because winners don't cheat. But he does win games. Cheaters often do.

GREGG DOYEL'S COMPLETE ARTICLE

The pace of the draft has picked up in recent days and the seventh round is now complete. While a couple of vetereans were picked in the round, most of the players here are quite young. Of the 12 guys chosen, half are heading into just their second or third full season.  Take a look:

ROUND 1 | ROUND 2 | ROUND 3 | ROUND 4 | ROUND 5 | ROUND 6

73) CLASGENS - Hunter Pence, OF, HOU

74) SIMONS - Chipper Jones, 3B, ATL

75) MURDICO - Chris Young, SP, SD

76) HUMBERT #1 - Chris Young, OF, ARI

77) FISCHER - Adrian Gonzalez, 1B, SD

78) MUEHLENKANP - Fausto Carmona, SP, CLE

79) DINSMORE - Roy Oswalt, SP, HOU

80) BARTEL - Shane Victorino, OF, PHI

81) BOLTON - Brad Hawpe, OF, COL

82) WETZEL - Brian McCann, C, ATL

83) POLKING - Billy Wagner, RP, NYM

84) HUMBERT #2 - Rickie Weeks, MIL

In response to the recent tradgedy that struck the Florida Panthers' Richard Zednik this week, many people are calling for more safety precautions from the NHL.  Zednik's corotid artery was slashed open by a skate, leading to emergency surgery to repair the artery.  Luckily, the surgery was a success and Zednik is recovering nicely.

The point of this article is to tell all the people who are calling for the NHL to implement "neck guards" and improved "safety precautions" to reassess their stance.  You have to understand that this was a freak accident, with some of the players involved saying they had never seen it before.  I would liken it to a pitcher in baseball catching a come-backer in the face.  Does it happen?  Yes it does.  Does it happen often enough to make pitchers start wearing face masks and body armor?  No, it doesn't.

Here's a comparison of reactions between what happened to Richard Zednik on February 10th, 2008 and what happened to Boston Red Sox pitcher Bryce Florie, who was hit just below the right eye by a come-backer on September 8th, 2000:

Lou Merloni, 3B, Red Sox (2000) - "I've never seen that, something like that, up close..."

Olli Jokinen, C, Panthers (2008) - "I think we were all in shock.  I've never seen anything like that."

Scott Hatteberg, C, Red Sox (2001) - "It was really the scariest moment I've had in baseball."

Olli Jokinen, C, Panthers (2008) - "There are bigger things than (finishing the game). It was terrifying."

The reactions by the players on the team were similar, if not identical.  Are pitchers wearing guards to protect their face now?  No.  So why should hockey players be forced to wear neck guards?

Hockey is a dangerous sport.  The players are skating at up to 30 MPH.  Shots can travel at speeds in excess of 100 MPH.  Every player has a "weapon" in their hands.  And to top it all off, they ride around on sharpened metal blades.  However, every single professional hockey player steps on the ice, night after night, and knows the inherent danger that they are about to immerse themselves in.  The people who criticize the lack of safety in the NHL are not hockey fans.  They do not watch hockey on a regular basis and probably have never played the sport themselves.  They only pay attention to the NHL when SportsCenter shows a goalie fight, someone getting hit in the head with a stick, or a player getting his throat slashed by a skate.  Leave it up to the players to decide what is plausible and what is not.  Let them use their common sense.  These are professionals, not children.  So, let's treat them as such.