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Knight, Sampson in 2011 College Hall of Fame Class

Bob Knight, who coached Indiana to three national titles and had 902 wins in 41 seasons, and Virginia great Ralph Sampson are among the eight members of the Class of 2011 of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.

Ralph Sampson is among the eight members of the Class of 2011 of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.(AP Photo/Darron Cummings, File)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Bob Knight, who coached Indiana to three national titles and had 902 wins in 41 seasons, and Virginia great Ralph Sampson are among the eight members of the Class of 2011 of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.

Also in the class announced Monday are coach Eddie Sutton, players James Worthy, Cazzie Russell and Chris Mullin and contributors Joe Vancisin and Eddie Einhorn.

Induction will take place at the Hall of Fame on Nov. 20 as part of a three-day celebration that includes the CBE Classic at Sprint Center featuring Missouri, California, Georgia and Notre Dame.

Knight also coached at Army and Texas Tech and finished with a record of 902-371, the most wins of any men's coach in Division I. In addition to NCAA titles in 1976, 1981 and 1987, Knight guided Indiana to 11 Big Ten championships.

He is one of three coaches to lead a team to NCAA and NIT titles and an Olympic gold medal. His teams had a graduation rate of 98 percent. Knight was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in 1991.

Sampson, a four-time All-America at Virginia, is one of three men to be national player of the year three times (1981-83). He joined Cincinnati's Oscar Robertson and UCLA's Bill Walton as three-time winners. The 7-foot-4 Sampson led Virginia to a 112-23 record, including an appearance in the 1981 Final Four. He was the sixth player in NCAA history to score more than 2,000 points (2,228) and have more than 1,500 rebounds (1,511).

Sutton was the first coach to take four schools to the NCAA tournament — Creighton, Arkansas, Kentucky and Oklahoma State. His teams at Arkansas (1978) and Oklahoma State (1995, 2004) advanced to the Final Four. He had an 804-328 record in 36 seasons.

Worthy is one of seven North Carolina players to have his jersey number retired. He led the Tar Heels to the national championship game in 1981 as a sophomore and to the title the next season when he was a unanimous All-America selection. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in 2003.

Russell, who played at Michigan from 1964-66, led the Wolverines to three Big Ten titles and a 65-17 record in his three seasons while scoring 2,164 points. A three-time All-America, Russell led Michigan to the Final Four as a sophomore and a junior, losing in the championship game to UCLA in 1965.

Mullin led St. John's to the Final Four as a senior in 1985 when he was a unanimous All-America selection and won the Wooden Award as the nation's top player. He was the first player at St. John's to break the 2,000-point mark and was credited with Georgetown's Patrick Ewing with establishing the Big East as one of the nation's top conferences. A two-time Olympian, he won gold medals in 1984 under Knight and in 1992 as part of the original "Dream Team."

Vancisin spent 54 years in college basketball as a player, coach and administrator. He was a starting guard for Dartmouth when it lost to Utah in the 1944 NCAA championship game. He was the head coach at Yale for 19 seasons, winning two Ivy League titles. A respected clinician, Vancisin was member of the U.S. Olympic staffs in 1976 and 1980 team and he served as president of the NABC in 1974 and was its executive director for 17 years before retiring in 1992.

Einhorn, the founder and chairman of the TVS television network, was a leader of sports programming. His network's telecast of the Houston-UCLA game from the Astrodome in 1968 is credited for the growth in popularity of college basketball on television. He is the author of "How March Became Madness," which covered the evolution of the NCAA men's basketball championship.

 

 

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