The Star on Dakich, McCallum, and Greenspan.

The Indianapolis Star devoted some major space to the IU basketball program today. First, an interview by Terry Hutchens of Dan Dakich. Here's the most interesting part:

Q: When you were chosen interim coach, did you sense players wanted Ray McCallum instead of you?
A: I never felt it, but then I really didn't pay attention to it, either. All of our coaches worked hard, and as for the players, I never got that sense that, 'Hey, we're not going to do this because you're the head coach.' . . . The only thing I wonder about, looking back, is just exactly what was being said to (the players) and who was saying it to them.

That seems to be a thinly veiled shot at McCallum, maybe, and is mighty interesting when placed beside Tom Crean's recent columns about the alleged "orchestration" of Eli Holman's transfer to Detroit, where McCallum now is head coach. Ray seems to have done quite a bit of damage to his reputation during his last few weeks in his home state. Perhaps some media outlet, say, the state's largest newspaper or its intrepid IU beat writer, could do some investigative journalism on this issue. Nah.

That brings me to the next article, a Bob Kravitz column entitled "Somehow Greenspan still has job at IU." It's a typical Kravitz column: a few decent points buried in smarminess and cheap shots. Still, he says this, just in passing:

Now, were former school president Adam Herbert and trustee Jeff Cohen the people who most strongly supported Sampson's hiring? Sure.

Jeff Cohen? Don't know him. Frankly, I've been waiting for weeks for the Star or some other media outlet to really dig in and shed some light on the disastrous decision to hire Kelvin Sampson. I've done an archive search of the Indianapolis Star and can't seem to find any reporting on Cohen's advocacy for Sampson. Certainly, the Star has mentioned in passing the 2006 press conference statement that Cohen and Steve Ferguson (who disputes intimate involvement in the decision) spent hours on the process. But it's interesting that Kravitz mentions in passing what has not been reported by Terry "guided tour" Hutchens.

IU's response to the NCAA.

Inside the Hall has posted the full text of IU's very long response in two separate .pdf files. The beginning of the first documents contains an overview of the allegations and IU's response. In the mid-30s of the first document, we begin to see how IU's investigation expanded beyond the three way calls in to the speakerphone and cell phone handoff shenanigans. I probably won't have time to give much of an account of this report, but the juicy stuff, the discussion of the post-October allegations against Sampson, begins on about page 82 of the first document. The report itself runs to page 144 of the first .pdf documents. On pages 145-146, there is a list of the attachments, which comprise the remainder of the 700+ pages.

...And Kelvin Sampson's response, or at least a preview.

Gary Parrish of CBS Sportsline has the entire text of Sampson's cover letter to the NCAA.

May 8, 2008
VIA OVERNIGHT DELIVERY

NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions
1802 Alonzo Watford Sr. Drive
Indianapolis, IN 46202

Dear Committee Members:

Enclosed is my written Response to the allegations set forth in the NCAA enforcement staff’s Notice of Allegations to Indiana University, Bloomington, dated February 8, 2008. I have been assisted in the preparation of this Response by legal counsel to ensure that I proceed as expected by your policies, procedures and practices.

When I appeared before you in April 2006 to address recruiting telephone contact violations at the University of Oklahoma, I accepted responsibility for my mistakes, I answered your questions truthfully and with great candor, and I pledged to do everything within my power to avoid violations in the future. That experience had a profound effect on me. I was embarrassed and I was wholly determined to not put myself and my family through another experience like that.

When I arrived at Indiana University, I hired an experienced staff and made my expectation of strict compliance with NCAA rules and with the restrictions imposed upon our staff very clear. As set forth in detail in the body of my Response, each member of my staff confirms that my expectations were made clear. I endorsed and cooperated fully with the monitoring systems set in place by Indiana’s athletics compliance staff. I relied upon the monitoring program that was set in place. Again, the statements of my staff as set forth in my Response confirm this. I told my staff repeatedly that I never again wanted to go through an experience like I had in the Oklahoma case and that we as a staff needed to completely buy into the monitoring systems implemented by Indiana’s compliance program.

On the day the recruiting restrictions ended in May 2007, I felt a sense of great relief and peace. I believed that the darkest days of my coaching career were behind me and that we could now move forward with our goal of returning Indiana’s basketball program to a position of prominence. I went to Athletic Director Rick Greenspan’s office and together, we celebrated the occasion with “high fives.” With the recruiting call monitoring system we believed was being operated by the compliance staff, neither of us had any reason to think there might be issues.

Accordingly, I cannot adequately describe in words how stunned I was to learn from Mr. Greenspan later that summer that the compliance office’s review of my staff’s phone records had revealed possible violations. First, I could not believe that if in fact the records showed violations, some since my staff’s earliest days at the University, the matters had not been detected and brought to the attention of Mr. Greenspan and myself much earlier so they could have been addressed in a timely fashion. And second, given how strongly and frequently I had communicated to my staff that I expected 100 percent compliance – I could not believe that NCAA rules and Committee on Infractions’ imposed restrictions had apparently been disregarded.

My life since that day has been a nightmare and my family has suffered profoundly along with me. I have been judged by many in the media and public to be a cheat and a liar and I have lost my job – all long before I will have had an opportunity to present my case to you and without Indiana University conducting a meaningful investigation into the allegations made by the enforcement staff. Even this NCAA process has not followed the prescribed course. A date for the hearing of this case was set before interviews, including one of me, were completed by the enforcement staff and before the enforcement staff issued its Notice of Allegations. These pre-determined results are of grave concern to me. It is my hope that the scheduled June hearing will allay my fears that final judgments have already been made.

As difficult as this process and experience has been for me, I do, given the circumstances, look forward to the opportunity to appear before you and, with the assistance of my counsel, to attempt to ensure that you have all of the information available on the relevant matters so that you can make a fair, unbiased and accurate determination on whether I knowingly participated in telephone conversations with recruits that were contrary to the restrictions imposed upon me and Indiana University by your committee following the Oklahoma infractions case.

Sincerely,

Kelvin Sampson

I don't know if the NCAA will release Sampson's full response. At the very least, we will get some highlights when the NCAA issues its report a few months from now. The letter certainly highlights how Sampson will attempt to defend himself. First, he is going to go after IU's compliance staff, suggesting that the safeguards, if properly implemented, would have discovered the problems. Second, it also seems that Sampson will go after his own staff. Overall, his defense, at least as hinted in this letter, is that he relied upon the assistant coaches and the compliance staff and both failed him. Again, it's hard to know the full defense without the full response, but those appear to be his defenses.

Certainly, it is disappointing that IU's athletic department employees failed to discover these problems, but the primary obligation was that of Sampson and his staff. But a compliance staff is no substitute for compliance. The larger problem with this defense is that the NCAA's allegations suggest that some of the violations, Sampson's improper participation in calls made on Rob Senderoff's phone, would not have been detected by even the most detailed review of telephone records.

Most conspicuous in its absence from this cover letter is any sort of defense to the allegations of numerous recruits that Sampson personally participated in improper calls. If Sampson is telling the truth, then many former IU recruiting targets, including Demetri McCamey, Dejuan Blair, Devin Ebanks, Marcus Morris, Kenny Frease, and/or their parents, are liars or are grossly mistaken. The NCAA's Notice of Allegations was detailed and the NCAA supported its allegations with accounts of many witnesses. If Sampson is innocent, this is a hell of a conspiracy.

I'll keep a lookout for IU's response and Sampson's response. I'm sure I will have more later, unfortunately.

IU's response to NCAA will be released soon.

Andy Katz of ESPN reports that IU "essentially" has agreed with all of the allegations within the notice of violations that the NCAA issued to IU in February. The big one, but not surprising in light of the decision to quickly move to terminate Sampson:

The university also agreed with the third allegation, that during a period of May 25, 2006 to May 24, 2007, Sampson acted "contrary to the NCAA principles of ethical conduct when he knowingly violated recruiting restrictions imposed by the NCAA's committee on infractions as penalty for Sampson's prior involvement in [the Oklahoma case]." This allegation essentially stated that Sampson knowingly provided false information to Indiana and the NCAA's enforcement staff.

Katz reports that IU will release the report to the public as soon as tomorrow. It will be interesting to see what Katz or his source considers "essentially" agreeing with the NCAA's allegations. Stay tuned.

EDIT: According to the Hoosier Scoop, IU has released its 756 page report, although no word on whether or when it will be posted on the web. In the past, the Indianapolis Star and other outlets have posted such documents in .pdf form, so I expect it will be available in the near future.

Keeping up.

Things have been busy around here, bit Tom Crean has continued his efforts to rebuild the basketball team's decimated roster. The latest news, from this morning's Washington Times and elsewhere, is that Jeremiah Rivers, son of Celtics coach Doc Rivers, will transfer to IU. Rivers announced a couple of days ago that he would leave Georgetown, where he apparently was considered a defensive stopper but not much of an offensive threat. [UPDATE: Per the Hoosier Scoop, Rivers has not committed. That's what I get for trusting a paper owned by Reverend Moon]. There has been a flurry of news since my last post a week ago:

• It's not accurate to say that Crean didn't pull any punches, because he didn't provide much detail, but Crean left no doubt that he believes something untoward led to Eli Holman's transfer from IU to Detroit, where he will play for former IU assistant Ray McCallum. The Sampson era is a gift that keeps on giving. Based on what I and others of you have heard behind the scenes, we may not have heard the last of this situation.
• Champaign guard Verdell Jones seemed certain to enroll at Minnesota, but he surprised everyone by announcing that he would attend Indiana. Jones is a senior, so he will be on the roster in 2008-09.
• Per Inside the Hall and others, Maurice Creek, a 6-4 guard from Connecticut, has verbally committed to IU. Creek is a junior, so he joins Derek Elston of Tipton and Bobby Capobianco of Ohio in the 2009-10 freshman class.

In summary, here's what we have now:

Returning scholarship players: Jordan Crawford (Soph.), Brandon McGee (Soph.), and former invited walkon Kyle Taber (Sr.).

Incoming scholarship players who will be eligible in 2008-09: Tom Pritchard (F/C from Ohio, freshman); Matt Roth (G from Illinois, freshman); Devan Dumes (guard from Decatur Central/Eastern Michigan/Vincennes, junior); Nick Williams (guard from Alabama, former Marquette recruit); Verdell Jones (Illinois).

Returning walk-ons: Brett Finkelmeier (sophomore guard).

Incoming walk-ons: Daniel Moore (guard from Carmel); Kory Barnett (guard from Rochester).

Incoming scholarship players who will be eligible in 2009-10: Jeremiah Rivers (two years of eligibility).

Incoming freshmen, 2009-10: Derek Elston (Tipton); Bobby Capobianco (Ohio); Maurice Creek (Connecticut).

Am I missing anyone? Crean has been on the job since April 2, and has added six five scholarship players already, including three who are eligible to play next season. Not bad.

Ladies and Gentlemen...

your Indiana Hooooooooooooooooooosiers!

Jordan Crawford

Brandon McGee

Kyle Taber

Per an IU news release today, neither Armon Bassett nor Jamarcus Ellis will be invited to return to the team and Deandre Thomas has been dismissed. The three players listed above are the only returning scholarship players. Brandon McGee did not play more than two minutes in any Big Ten game and Kyle Taber began his career as an invisted walk-on and played no meaningful minutes until the last dozen or so games of his fourth year in the program.

IU adds freshmen Matt Roth (guard from Illinois), Tom Pritchard (forward from Cleveland), and Nick Williams (guard from Alabama, former Marquette recruit), and junior college transfer Devan Dumes (Decatur Central/Eastern Michigan/Vincennes). It will be interesting to see what, if anything, Crean does with this sudden glut of scholarships, but rebuilding might be an understatement for what 2008-09 will bring.

As the world turns.

Through Bob Knight, Mike Davis, and Kelvin Sampson, IU's on-court fortunes have varied from season to season. The constant, of course, is that Indiana basketball is a soap opera. It seems unlikely that Tom Crean will ever match Knight's legendary temper, Davis's arrogant incompetence, or Sampson's disregard of NCAA and academic obligations. Still, Crean was considered by other Big East fans to have a bit of a temper and is known for in-game, well, enthusiasm, so who knows where that will lead us.

Still, at least in the first soap opera moment of his career, Crean seems to have been the victim. As the IDS basketblog reported yesterday, Eli Holman lost his temper during a meeting with Tom Crean to such a degree that someone called the IUPD. Holman, who played a few games before missing the rest of the season with a wrist injury, was widely expected to return, and given IU's frontcourt problems, was considered a player who would have to play a role if IU were to have a decent season in 2008-09. As has happened before in the basketball office (allegedly), "The IU Police Department was dispatched to Assembly Hall at 3:40 p.m. after a man threw a potted plant in the men’s basketball office, IUPD Spokesman Jerry Minger said, reading from a police report."

While I'm making light of the situation, it's pretty sad. I've been following the Eli Holman saga since he committed to IU. Holman came from a rough background and has shown a hot temper before--he was suspended for most of his senior season for bumping a high school referee as a junior--but came across as an intelligent and thoughtful person. I was particularly impressed with an audio interview of Eli conducted by Mark Montieth of the Indianapolis Star, which may remain somewhere on the Star's website. Obviously, he has some demons, but I really do hope he works it out and is able to continue his basketball and academic careers somewhere.

Crean grabs a couple of recruits.

I'm a few days late on the first one, but the second story broke late last night. First, Crean added to the class of current high school juniors, the group that will enroll in fall 2009, with a verbal commitment from Bobby Capobianco of Loveland, Ohio. Inside the Hall has a nice Q and A with Capobianco.

Late last night, the coach at Vincennes University told the Herald Times that guard Devon Dumes has committed to IU. As a juco trtansfer, Dumes, who has two yearts of eligibility remaining, will be eligible to play in 2008-09. Dumes is a graduate of Decatur Central in Indianapolis and played his freshman year at Eastern Michigan. It's not clear why he left EMU, but here's his game log. He received a decent amount of playing time that year, 18.8 minutes per game, and scored 8.1 points per game. On the downside, he shot 33.8 from the field and from three point range. His shooting percentages improved across the board at VU.

To his credit, Crean has hit the ground running. IU now has filled one of the two spots abandoned by Devin Ebanks and Terrell Holloway, although the uncertain status of Jamarcus Ellis and Armon Bassett makes IU's scholarship status unclear.

Still around, lots of little news.

I'm not on any sort of formal or extended hiatus, but between vacation, catching up after vacation, and the end of the basketball season, I've been taking a bit of a break after eight or nine months of steady posting.

• Spring practice. It continues. I hate spring practice. The Cream and Crimson Scrimmage is Saturday, and the weather looks to be decent, so check it out if you are so inclined.
• James Bailey. Bailey, who caught 27 passes for 335 yards as a junior, is transferring. The receiving corps was a strength of last year's team, but if Andrew Means decides to stick to baseball, that will leave Ray Fisher as the only returning receiver who has played significantly. It also highlights how important Kellen Lewis is to this team. If IU is going to have to break in Ben Chappell, who lacks Lewis's running ability, a thin receiving corps will not help.
• Spring recruiting. I don't really follow recruiting much, but since we don't have all that many basketball players on the roster, I suppose I will this year. Nick Williams, a 6-4 guard in the 140 range (see Inside the Hall for more). Williams signed with Marquette when Tom Crean was the coach, but he had a pre-existing agreement with Marquette that he would be released from his LOI if Crean left. I'm sure this runs afoul of some unwritten rule with no basis in any moral or ethical principle, or so it will be claimed if this kid signs with IU.
• Terry Hutchens has some new friends. Over at Boiled Sports, they hate them some Terry Hutchens. I can sympathize. If this blog had existed in 2004-2006, back when Hutch was acting as Mike Davis's Baghdad Bob, Hutch probably would have a restraining order against me. Back in that period, someone jokingly (I think) suggested to me that I find out whether http://www.fireterryhutchens.com/ was available. My gripe with Hutch is that he's a company man: he will support the IU establishment no matter what. The current coach is always beyond reproach, until he's gone, and which point the new current coach clearly is better than the last guy. I had to laugh at this: "Also, if you’re an IU fan, supporter or schill(sic) yourself, please save the vitriol. " Yeah, okay, just this once I'll hold my fire. The most impressive thing, and this is worth the click (well, as is the usual Boiler-noia), is the sheer length of the post. Somewhere in a federal prison, Ted Kaczynski is hunched over a computer saying, "DAMN, that's a long post." Yes, Hutch is a company man and his blog entries are painful to read (based on his unvarnished blog posts, I'm guessing that whoever edits Terry's copy for the paper is the hardest-working person at the Indianapolis Star.) He's probably not worth the figurative ink, but I enjoyed both the content and the fact that his breezy incompetence so agitates Purdue fans.
• Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Also per ITH and various other outlets, the Big Ten-ACC matchups have been released. IU, despite an uncertain future, was handed a tough road game at Wake Forest. I'll save my rant for the basketball season. Other interesting matchups are MSU-UNC at Ford Field in Detroit and Duke-Purdue at Mackey.

Eric Gordon.

To the surprise of no one, Eric Gordon announced that he is entering the NBA Draft. Check out Inside the Hall for press conference video. Here's Gordon's Yahoo game log. Unfortunately, Gordon's stat line tracked the Hoosiers' fortunes. Gordon's career high, 33 points, came in his first game, against Chattanooga. Gordon's lowest scoring output, 8 points (not counting his injury-shortened performance against Tennessee State), came in his last game, the NCAA loss to Arkansas.

Much has been said about IU's late season decline: the coaching change, insubordination by certain players, Dakich's stubborn refusal to stick with the zone defense that saved IU's season, and so forth. All of those issues played a role in IU's tailspin, but absent Eric Gordon's complete inability to hit three pointers for the last quarter of the season, it's likely that the end would have been different. It's hard to say what the cause was. Was it just a slump? Did he hit the freshman wall? Did he somehow aggravate his wrist injury? My guess is an undisclosed injury, but it's hard to say. Gordon had played 18 games before he injured his wrist, immediately before the trip to Wisconsin. At that point in the season, Gordon was 46-114 from behind the arc (.403). In the first six games that Gordon wore the wrist brace, a stretch that included two games against Wisconsin, the trip to Illinois, and a home game against MSU, Gordon was 16-41 from three point range (.391). Beginning with Sampson's last game, the home win against Purdue, Gordon was 8-53 (.151). Certainly, given the huge volume of shots taken, it's possible to question shot selection. But just a minor slump, say, a fall to 30 percent, and IU may well have been a bit more respectable down the stretch. Still, Gordon was an important recruit and provided some exciting moments and I wish him lots of success in the NBA.

Very pleased.

Before this afternoon, I had not been online since just minutes after my "Tom Crean" post Tuesday evening. Of course, I'm trying to get up to speed, but I can see from the comments that my post may have made me seem ambivalent about Crean's hire. Since I said that Crean wasn't a "home run," I should make clear that I would reserve that term for a coach who has a history of building and maintaining a championship-caliber program--guys like Tom Izzo, Rick Pitino, Billy Donovan, and the like (those are just examples--I'm not suggesting that any of those guys was or would have been expected to be a candidate for the job). So, it's no knock on Crean to say that he doesn't have that sort of resume. IU fans won't consider a coach to be a true success unless he wins a NCAA title, and absent a title on the new coach's resume, there always will be some uncertainty.

Still, Crean would have been a good hire under any circumstances and is a very good hire given the current condition of IU's program. Maybe I should have said that Crean was a home run but wasn't a grand slam. After watching his press conference and reading the initial coverage I certainly believe that IU's program is in good hands. Crean has been a head coach long enough to have built a good resume, including a Final Four appearance, but is young enough to remain at IU for decades. He's from Michigan and grew up as a fan of the Big Ten and claims to have had a particular affection for Knight's IU program. Crean's mentor, Tom Izzo, is the most successful Big Ten coach in the years since Knight's program began to decline in the mid 1990s.

Tom Crean.

It's going to be said often, but this is a solid hire. Not an obvious home run, but not a stretch by any means. Crean is 42 years old and has a Final Four on his resume and eight years as a head coach (about a .650 winning percentage at Marquette). The biggest knocks: a hot temper (come on, we've seen worse) and a less-than-stellar NCAA Tournament record absent Dwayne Wade. Still, IU hired a successful coach from another power conference program despite NCAA issues hanging over the program. It could have been worse.

Here's a link to Crean's Marquette bio.

He's been subject to quite a bit of well-deserved criticism, but once again, Rick Greenspan managed to hire a coach without much media coverage of the process (although certainly the Bennett pursuit was an exception).

Quick thoughts on the chaos.

I don't think it's chaos, really. None of us really know what is happening on the inside. Still, I'm glad that I've not had much computer time since Thursday and that I am following the IU coaching search from afar, and typing this post with Gulf breezes blowing through the room. It makes it a little easier to stomach, and it also means that I have had time to read only the sources I trust and not the media chatter, which inevitably portrays anything more than a 24 hour coaching search as a fiasco. Briefly:

• Bennett? Damn. I guess it's something of a moral victory that IU quickly targeted the guy who I really thought was the obvious choice, and it's a disappointment that he said no. I think IU remains a top tier job, but it also presents some unusual challenges on a good day: intense fan interest, high expectations, instant celebrity status within the state, and among some of the fan base, certain narrow expectations about style of play. And the warmup pants. And of course, this isn't a good day. It's better for Bennett to have said no than to have taken the job with mixed emotions. But I'm still disappointed.
• There's lots of chatter, and the chatter that I trust makes me think that IU's worst case scenario is an extremely well-regarded young coach (I'm speaking generally). IU may have to pay a bit more in years and money given the situation, and that's fine. There's no cause for panic.
• There may be cause for panic in the short term. As most have read already, Armon Bassett and Jamarcus Ellis have been thrown off the team. All evidence is that these guys are malcontents, but what frustrates me is that they don't play like malcontents. Both are steady, reliable players who don't stand out as bad guys on the court. Ellis, in particular, does nearly everything well. According to the Hoosier Scoop, these guys hope that they will be reinstated by the new coach and will remain enrolled. We shall see.