As I sat on press row above the baseline Saturday night at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Ind., I was curious to see how Hoosier fans would react to the allegations that Indiana basketball head coach Kelvin Sampson violated five NCAA recruiting regulations.

Minutes before the game, as one section began chanting “Kel-vin Samp-son,” the opposite side of the arena began to boo until the noise echoed off the building’s walls.

They were torn, I guess.

They had no idea how to react to it all.

After all, Sampson has a career record of 497-272, but would put a heralded Indiana basketball program in a bad light if these allegations prove to be true.

What he is alleged to have done would be a tarnish to the game of basketball — a game that has been fair and pure for so long.

These problems began years ago when Sampson was at Oklahoma and apparently he hasn’t been able to put the past behind him.

As Saturday’s game pressed on, Indiana started to pound the Spartans into the ground.

Hoosier Eric Gordon took over and Sampson’s colorful antics on the sideline showed how badly he wanted to defeat MSU.

The “Kel-vin Samp-son” chants grew even louder — except this time, the boo-ing did not follow.

So just because he can coach his squad to knock off a top-10 team, everything else goes right out the window?

Interesting.