Lofty expectations crushed a solid career of former five-star prospect Bracey Wright earlier in the decade, and also destroyed the psyche of Andrae Patterson in the mid-90’s. His dribbling was sloppy and his passing was even worse, as he committed 5 or more turnovers in 6 of his final 14 games. The off-hand injury made it impossible for Gordon to go to his left, and also took away what was a lethal crossover move that he used to get to the basket or create space. In fact, if you want to know just how bad things were in Bloomington during the Sampson era, entering today only one scholarship player (Jordan Crawford) remains from last season’s team. It looked at times like Gordon was trying to do too much, while it was obvious that the players around him (with the exception of DJ White) gave up and refused to play for interim head coach Dan Dakich. After Sampson 'resigned' on February 22nd, Gordon connected on just 32 of 99 shots (32%) from the field including a horrid 7-50 (14%) shooting slump from 3-pt range. No player was affected more than Gordon after the Sampson fallout at IU.

I think it’s mostly attributed to three reasons: 1) the surrounding allegations against head coach Kelvin Sampson, 2) a midseason wrist injury on his off-hand, and 3) the ridiculously unfair expectations laid on him by the passoniate, yet often delusional IU fanbase. However, I'd be lying if I said Gordon's one-and-done season in Bloomington wasn't viewed as a disappointment. Pairing Gordon with All-Big Ten performer DJ White was supposed to bring IU close to their sixth banner, and lead me to perhaps getting tear-gassed for the 2nd time in my life (the first time being after IU's Cinderella run to the National Championship game in my freshman year of '02). Gordon was IU’s biggest get since Isiah Thomas (even bigger than Jared Jeffries in 2000), who led the Hoosiers to the 1981 National Championship.

The news filled Illini fans with murderous rage, and filled me with celebratory beer. Unless you were living in a cave two years ago, you probably heard about Gordon’s much publicized de-commitment from Illinois and switch to IU in the fall of 2006. The class included Jeff Teague (all-Freshman ACC team at Wake Forest), Robbie Hummel (First team All-Big Ten at Purdue), E'Twaun Moore (2nd team All-Big Ten at Purdue), and Matt Howard (Freshman of the Year, first team All-Horizon League at Butler). Basketball (player of the year that is) honors in one of the deepest classes in Indiana basketball history, with seven recruits ranked in the top 80 nationally. His high school dominance may have been overshadowed by the duo of Mike Conley and Greg Oden at Lawrence North for his freshman-junior years, but make no mistake, Gordon was right up there with them. I don’t feel like I’m a total authority on Eric Gordon, but I have been watching him play since he was 16 (in the 'I have to cover this for work' and not the 'I’m a creep that follows around 16 year olds in a rusty van' way). I currently work in sports radio in Indianapolis and spent a lot of time covering high school basketball when I was fresh out of college. That being said, Seth entrusted me to write a Know the Prospect bit on Gordon, and in the interests of killing more time at work, I gladly ageed: HIGH SCHOOL

Therefore I should be excited about the prospects of the Knicks landing Eric Gordon from my alma-mater and current state of residence, right? Despite a long-standing tradition of IU players translating their superb collegiate careers into the pros with the Knicks, including Eric Anderson ( pictured below left, 1992-93), Jared Jeffries (2006-present), and Roderick Wilmont ( pictured below right, summer league 2007), I’m not as excited this time around. When the two biggest loves of my sports life get together, it’s often a good thing. If any of the rest of you are experts on one prospect or another and are interested in doing your own KTP, let me know. Editor's Note: Big thanks to Mase for writing up this fantastic Eric Gordon profile.

Wizards roster depth chart