Friday, February 22, 2008

In The Wake Of Kelvin Sampson

According to sources, Indiana Basketball head coach Kelvin Sampson will wake up Saturday morning without a job. Sampson has been under fire because he committed recruiting violations while and then lied about them to investigators from the NCAA and Indiana University. The official announcement will be made sometime Friday and school officials say no decision has been reached, however several sources close to the team are saying that Sampson will be out.

It's not been announced yet whether Sampson will be suspended for the remainder of the season or fired. Athletic Director, Rick Greenspan, broke the news to the team Thursday night that Sampson would be gone for at least the rest of the season. After the team meeting, players were visibly upset by the decision.

All signs point to Indiana assistant Dan Dakich, a former Hoosier player and assistant coach under Bob Knight, taking the reins for the remainder of the season. The move comes just eight days after the NCAA announced its findings that Sampson had committed five major rules violations.

A school investigation last year revealed that Sampson and his assistants had made more than 100 impermissible calls, but the school had previously contended that the violations were secondary in nature. Sampson was already on NCAA probation when he took the Indiana job for making 577 improper phone calls between 2000 and 2004 while the coach at Oklahoma.

Sampson's deal includes termination clauses for violations of university or NCAA rules that eliminate the payments, but two Indianapolis attorneys have told The Associated Press that firing Sampson now may not be enough to prevent the school from paying out at least $2.5 million.

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