As an avid IU fan and recent alumnus, I have asked the same question daily for the past two years. The only brief, and relatively unpersuasive answers I have come up are the following: (1) IU thought they needed a "big" name and Sampson was the biggest name available and willing to come there (remember they were down) not named Alford (who nobody in the state wanted but now everybody wishes they had--including myself) and (2) Sampson's reputation before leaving OU is not as clear-cut as your post suggests, because before getting hit with the OU violations, he was president of some NCAA group on ethics in college basketball, hence his reputation was very good before the violations and maybe IU thought he simply made a mistake and was actually a clean-cut individual (oops!).

Like I said, pretty unpersuasive excuses, huh?

As an IU fan (it's the ancestral homeland and father's alma mater), I will selfishly say that they are more fun to watch now than they have been for years. I'll miss that plenty when he's gone.