2008 | Indiana University Sports

Coach Quits! He Quits!

Coach surprised nearly everyone late February 4 with an announcement that He was quitting His job as Texas Tech’s basketball coach immediately. His oldest son, Patrick, who signed a contract in 2005 guaranteeing that he would replace his dad whenever his dad gave up the job, immediately took the reins. Coach Himself said He was just tired of coaching. Some felt there might be a hidden agenda. The media erupted in several days of what passed for analysis. It was most fevered in the immediate hours following, when the entire world seemed to be stopped in its tracks with “Knight Quits!” bulletins. Digger Phelps, the retired Notre Dame coach and snake oil salesman, was a guest on ESPN’s Sportscenter program shortly after the word broke, and told host Karl Ravech that he, The Digster, felt Knight was making the move for strategic reasons. In Phelps’s tortured analysis, Knight was quitting in mid-season to get Patrick officially in place as head coach, which would make it more difficult for the new Texas Tech president to meddle, even cancel, the deal Coach had extracted from athletic director and Knight toady Gerald Myers which gave the job to Patrick. Referring back to 2000, when Knight was fired at Indiana University, Phelps told Ravech that Myles Brand, then IU’s president, came to Indiana “to get rid of Bob Knight” and that Coach was concerned the same thing could happen to Patrick at Texas Tech if He, Coach, waited till the end of the year to resign. The pell-mell pace prevented poor Ravech from challenging Phelps’ grassy knoll version of things, and Sportscenter roared on obliviously into the night. Subsequent press coverage was a mixed bag. Broadcaster Jay Bilas parsed the official statement and noted that Knight did not retire, He only resigned, and that meant He might well be back coaching somewhere soon. Bilas felt Coach would have plenty of tempting offers if He signaled His interest. Pat Knight said no, He’ll not be back—unless He could have a job where all He did was coach—no recruiting, which Coach doesn’t like. “I don’t see it because of the recruiting. . .,” Pat said, adding, in a stretch for even the most credulous among us, “He forgets more every day than we’ll ever know about the game.” Several columnists took Knight to task for walking out on His team in mid-season. Everyone acknowledged the great paradox of the man: nearly unmatched coaching success and impact on the game of basketball, offset by a decades-long list of disgraceful, jackass behavior toward others. Many expressed the hope that Knight and Indiana University would reconcile. That seems unlikely in the near term, given Knight’s frequently expressed bitterness at His firing. I think it’s time for the university to take the first step toward ending hostilities, and to recognize Knight’s achievements there. (February 8, 2008)
Can there be a more beautiful irony than Texas Tech saddling itself with Coach’s Oldest Anointed Son for—may we hope—eternity? I think not. And if we want to feel better, consider that had it not been for Myles Brand, an otherwise mediocre fraud at Indiana University, IU, not Texas Tech, would have been wearing Patrick Knight forever, or at least what would seem like it. (February 5, 2008)
Newly-anointed Texas Tech head basketball coach Pat Knight lost his debut last night at Baylor, 80-74. Pat was heckled with sneers of “Where’s your daddy?” by impish locals. The Chicago Tribune’s brief but breathless account noted that Pat “. . .took notes in a small pad he held in his right hand. He alternated between sitting in his seat and pacing the sideline.” Coach Himself was reported not to have attended the game. (February 7, 2008)

Wouldn’t You Just Love To Be Coaching In The Shrieking Whorehouse That Is College Basketball Today?

“The main thing I’ll be looking for is a situation where they will let me loose. . .the most important thing is that I get the ball in my hands so I can make plays.”—Nolan Dennis, describing what will be the crucial factors when he finally picks a college to attend, as quoted at the Peegs.com website. Young Dennis is ranked No. 21 in all of America by a Rivals scouting service for the Class of 2009. Now playing at Richland (Texas) High School, the The 6-5 guard/forward has Indiana among his top and final (as of today) five schools, along with North Carolina, Memphis, UCLA, and Texas. He has already visited IU’s campus once, according to the Peegs report. (February 7, 2008)
University of Illinois fans have spent a year or so in flaming rage over losing their prime basketball recruit to Indiana University after the lad—Eric Gordon--had given a verbal commitment to the Illini. But when a Kentucky player, Alex Legion, announced he was transferring to Illinois, and when the Illini’s 2008 football recruiting class included four players who have previously committed to other schools but switched finally to Illinois, not a one of these howlers was heard screaming bloody murder about it. That was entirely different, you see.

Uh-Oh, The NCAA’s Not Buying In. . .

The Indianapolis Star at our doorstep this morning—Valentine’s Day, for cripe’s sake!—revealed more about us than we realized. The editors devoted 60 percent of page one to a life-sized mug shot of Kelvin Sampson, the Indiana University basketball coach, and a story headlined (in letters an inch-and-a-quarter high) “NCAA: Sampson Lied To Us”. It was bad news all right—the NCAA was not buying Sampson’s version of the recruiting rules violations uncovered last summer in a routine compliance check and self-reported to the NCAA soon after. And worse: the wording of the NCAA response—escalating the description of the violations from “secondary” (IU’s words) to “major,” and tacking on some additional charges, including “misleading” the NCAA and his bosses at Indiana--made it obvious that Sampson is in the NCAA’s gunsights and the university faces severe penalties if it dares defend him. I wondered, though, as I scanned page one over my breakfast gruel, about the Star’s judgment in giving this story such massive play, especially in a world where--even in our fair city—each day’s news seems chock full of murders, pornography, child abuse, corruption in high places, and human perversion on a gigantic scale. On a hunch, I went downstairs to my bunker. There on the wall was a framed front-page of the September 11, 2000, edition of the Star--the entire page covered with stories about the firing of Bob Knight. With the possible exception of the 9/11 edition, I can think of no events in the last eight years given greater prominence. The Star’s emphasis on “lies” was revealing, too. The popular culture obsesses on them. Lies, lies, lies. Bush lied. Cheney lied. They all lied (except for Democrats, who misspeak). You hear it over and over. It’s America’s all-purpose epithet. So if Sampson has lied, he’d better understand there can be no greater sin. (February 14, 2008)
The media erupted in blazing frenzy at the Kelvin Sampson news. Three local radio sports talk shows roared nonstop. Newspapers and media outlets all over the country weighed in; most were scathingly critical of Sampson and the university administration complicit in his hiring. The same characters appeared locally—The Grape Kool-Aid Crowd, screaming “I told you so” and demanding that Sampson be fired and replaced by Knight himself, or by one of his acolytes—Danny Dakich and Steve Alford the leading favorites; Bob Kravitz, the Star columnist who now has a daily radio show, the guy who stampeded the university into giving Mike Davis the permanent coaching position after a year as interim coach, and who then again stampeded the university into giving Davis a fat five-year contract extension after his first season as permanent coach led to a Final Four run, and who now is excoriating all concerned and demanding the immediate firing of not only Sampson but athletic director Rick Greenspan; a justifiably angered public which merely wanted its opinion heard; and a few lonely crackpots who called for caution and a search for all the facts, when at present what we have is allegations. Almost no one defended Sampson publicly. All seemed to agree, however, that whatever the facts, Indiana University is once again the center of national attention for all the wrong reasons, and is mired in a sorrowful, ugly mess. (February 15, 2008)

But IU Had ‘Anything’ Decades Before ‘Zero’. . .

More than one Indianapolis Star reader wrote in to point out that it wasn’t so long ago that the university had a “zero tolerance” policy in place for one of its coaches, and wasn’t it therefore already past time that Kelvin Sampson be fired. But each conveniently avoided mentioning that IU had an “anything tolerated” policy in place for Bob Knight for approximately 27 years before deciding to set standards. Shouldn’t Sampson get 27 years of slack before we get tough with him? Let’s at least be consistent if “zero tolerance” is the weapon of choice. (February 16, 2008)

It’s Only About Phone Calls. . .

Millions of Clintonistas spent millions of hours at the ramparts in the 1990s—and they still do today--defending Sick’s lies under oath. Those lies were only about sex, they cried, and so they weren’t really lies, or they weren’t lies which counted. So why can’t we cut Kelvin Sampson similar slack for his lies about phone calls? (February 16, 2008)

Trustees Below Radar

I believe you could make a compelling argument that Indiana University has been most poorly served over the past decade or so by the people with ultimate responsibility for its governance: the board of trustees. Since the mid-1980s at least, the university’s governance has been marked by ineptness, by poor, if not downright stupid and cowardly, decision-making and judgment. The hiring of such as presidents Thomas Ehrlich, Myles Brand, and Adam Herbert and their subsequent performance in office, the trustees’ acquiescence in ridiculous escalations in tuition expense, a vast expansion (much of it under Brand’s reign) of the university administrative bureaucracy, and near constant turmoil in the athletic department for a decade or more.
One of the villains in the Kelvin Sampson Unpleasantness who will very likely fly under radar and escape public scrutiny as this story unravels, is former president Adam Herbert. He served a fairly dreary five-year term (2003-2008) marked by faculty unrest, complaints of low public visibility, weak leadership and other issues. Herbert is rumored to have been the decisive force in the hiring of Sampson in the spring of 2006 when it was already known that the coach faced NCAA sanctions for rules violations while at his previous post at the University of Oklahoma. Herbert’s reply to that criticism was that he believed Sampson had the “highest integrity.” Herbert’s has been described as an “absentee and failed presidency” by Star political columnist Matt Tully. Although he has been replaced by a new president, Michael McRobbie, Herbert still holds a faculty position in IU’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs.
As we contemplate an IU basketball future without Kelvin Sampson, the scariest part is the already loud and forceful pressure for IU to do the obvious and easy thing—name a Knight acolyte, Danny Dakich, the interim coach to finish the season. I’m convinced that IU is stupid enough to then give the permanent job to Dakich, using the old familiar-at-IU rationalization that “We looked all over the nation for the best candidate and finally realized that we already had him right here in front of us, right here on our staff at IU—Danny Dakich (or fill in the name).”
“I don’t like Bob Knight, wouldn’t spit on him if he were on fire. . .”—Gregg Doyel, national columnist for CBS Sports.com, in a February 13 column in which he said IU “must fire (Kelvin) Sampson—now!” and recommended the university then re-hire Bob Knight to straighten up the men’s basketball program.—(February 13, 2008)

A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste, And Joe Has Done So

“I don’t think there’s any doubt the next coach has to be somebody from within the IU family.”—Joe Hillman, former IU basketball player under Bob Knight, quoted in the Indianapolis Star, regarding the expected firing of present coach Kelvin Sampson. (February 21, 2008)

Sampson Out

The nightmare deepens. In a drama which took most of the day February 22,, Indiana University fired its basketball coach, Kelvin Sampson, and replaced him with one of his assistants, Dan Dakich. Sampson will get a $750,000 buyout in exchange for signing away any right of his to sue the university for wrongful termination of his contract. An anonymous individual donor provided $500,000 of that amount. Dakich, a former IU player and assistant under former coach Bob Knight, has the title of interim coach. The outcome of the NCAA’s investigation of IU’s self-reported violations of recruiting rules under Sampson won’t be known till late summer. The university obviously hopes that dumping Sampson will appease the NCAA overlords who will pass judgment in August.The team has five regular season games remaining. Rumors erupted immediately of possible player boycotts, and the potential loss of several prized members of IU’s fall, 2008 recruiting class. Speculation that athletic director Rick Greenspan would also be fired receded when it was announced he would be part of the search for a replacement coach. The future is under a dark cloud and the present mood is utter despair. This is far worse than the departures of Knight and Mike Davis, his unfortunate replacement. In those cases, relief and hope were the dominant themes. For this, many will need sedation, and the soft music, tinkling wind-chimes, low lighting, controlled diet and intense soul-searching amid the soft murmuring of counselors in burlap robes in a sanitarium. This will involve a prolonged recovery period. (February 22, 2008)

Stewardship

The Star put things in perspective after Sampson’s firing with a front-page story on the cost of IU’s athletic department buyouts over the past few years. Here’s how $4,012,000 was passed out: Michael McNeely, former athletic director, 2002 resignation, $839,000; Mike Davis, former men’s basketball coach, 2006 resignation, $800,000; Kelvin Sampson, men’s basketball coach, 2008 resignation, $750,000 ($500,000 of which came from an anonymous individual donor); Gerry DiNardo, football coach, fired in 2004, $616,000; Cam Cameron, football coach, 2001 firing, $498,000; Bob Knight, men’s basketball coach, 2000 firing, $283,000; Jason Lewis, executive associate athletic director, $86,000; Brian McNeely, assistant football coach, $47,000; Lauren Rochet, assistant athletic director, $36,000; Deanne Droegemueller, director of executive services, $34,000; Stephane Rochet, strength coach, $23,000. (February 24, 2006)

The Possibles

Steve Alford (New Mexico), Rick Barnes (Texas), Tony Bennett (Washington State), Mike Brey (Notre Dame), Brad Brownell (Wright State), John Calipari (Memphis), Tom Crean (Marquette), Danny Dakich (present interim coach), Jamie Dixon (Pittsburgh), Scott Drew (Baylor), Lawrence Frank (New Jersey Nets and a former IU student manager under Coach), Tim Floyd (USC), Anthony Grant (Virginia Commonwealth), Brian Gregory (Dayton), Tom Izzo (Michigan State), Lon Kruger (UNLV), Thad Matta (Ohio State), Sean Miller (Xavier), Mike Montgomery ( former Stanford coach), Brucie Pearl (Tennessee), Rick Pitino (Louisville), Scott Skiles (former Chicago Bulls coach), Keith Smart (Golden State Warriors), Trent Johnson (Stanford), Kevin Stallings (Vanderbilt), Brad Stevens (Butler), Jay Wright (Villanova),), Randy Wittman (Minnesota Timberwolves), Mike Woodson (Atlanta Hawks).—Names submitted by media pundits as great candidates for the IU men’s basketball coaching job (March 21, 2008)
A source close to the bowels of the IU athletic program speculates that the new IU basketball coach will come from among these four names: Jamie Dixon of Pittsburgh, Sean Miller of Xavier, Tony Bennett of Washington State, and Brad Brownell of Wright State. I’d be pleased with any one of these, but I’d require Dixon to change his name to James or Jim.
The debate over whether IU’s wonder-child freshman guard, Eric Gordon, is ready to play professionally will be answered within a few months. Meanwhile, it’s instructive to look at Eric’s season statistics. He led the Big Ten in scoring, and averaged 20.9 points for the year. Over the 33-game season he shot .433 from the field and .834 at the free throw line. His three-point shooting percentage was .337. Roughly the last third of the year, though, he was much, much worse. In his final 12 games, Gordon shot 35.5% on field goals (20.7% on three-point shots). In his final six games, Gordon’s field goal percentage was 32.3% and his three-point shooting was 13.3%. Far from superstar stuff, but some professional team will draft him on potential, anyway. (March 28, 2008)

Crean And Crimson

The insane asylum of recent Indiana University basketball lurched into April with two players being kicked off the team by interim coach Dan Dakich, an Indianapolis television reporter going on radio talk shows the day after he broke that story to charge that the version in the local newspaper was seriously in error and that the real truth was being covered up, the media’s and fans’ consensus choice for the coaching job (Tony Bennett of Washington State) publicly announcing that he had indeed discussed it with IU but was not interested in the IU job; and finally the April 2 hiring of the Marquette Coach, Tom Crean in a whirlwind 24-hour courtship and negotiation which caught everyone by surprise. Now the consensus is that the university either got incredibly smart or incredibly lucky—or both--this time, and has hired a thoroughly top-notch guy to take over the basketball program. Crean will almost surely have a miserable first year with a roster depleted by defections, transfers, graduation, lost recruits, and Eric Gordon turning professional, and he and his staff operating under strict sanctions resulting from recruiting violations which cost Kelvin Sampson the job. At least everyone can exhale now, and sigh with gratitude that IU didn’t do what many feared it would—finally decide that the best candidate for the job had been right there among them all the time, and give the job to Dakich. (April 3, 2008)
“I thought they’d hire the assistant coach at (some place like) Boise State.”—Pat Graham, a former IU basketball player, expressing the fear many fans had about the search for a new coach, in an interview after the Tom Crean hiring was announced. Graham said he thought Indiana had made a brilliant choice in Crean. (April 2, 2008)
Critics have long accused Indiana University of small-time thinking and trying to get by on the cheap when hiring coaches for the marquee sports, football and basketball. The deal given new basketball coach Tom Crean should shut up all the bitchers. Crean signed an eight-year contract for $18.4 million, an average annual salary of $2.3 million. This amount puts Crean among the top 10 or so coaches in the nation. “Cheap” has gone out the window in Bloomington. (April 3, 2004)
It took the hometown Bloomington Herald-Times to do the necessary digging, and its April 4 edition published the text of some Indiana University e-mail traffic which revealed what many had suspected—that former president Adam Herbert and “at least one trustee” were instrumental in the hiring of former basketball coach Kelvin Sampson, who within two years was forced out of the job for massive NCAA recruiting rules violations. The impression had long been left by the university and others that athletic director Rick Greenspan was the guy to blame. The Herald-Times pried loose the e-mail documents with legal filings under the state’s “open records” law. Updates are likely to follow, and perhaps even the HT’s journalistic brethren up the road in Indianapolis will now join in the investigation. (April 4, 2008)
ESPN hired Coach to join its broadcast team for the month-long NCAA men’s basketball tourney, and got its money’s worth. Coach appeared in a studio analyst’s role, often sandwiched between two world-class blowhards, Dick Vitale and Digger Phelps, with Jay Bilas at the far right watching in amusement. Coach being Coach, he informed his bosses at the outset that he would not be wearing a suit or jacket and tie like the rest of the drones. ESPN took that in stride and Knight turned in a really solid performance. His insights and comments were incisive—and refreshingly brief. Anyone at home is his Barcalounger could tell, this guy knows what he’s talking about. Nice move by ESPN. (April 8, 2008)
Early May brought the Indiana University men’s basketball office its Second Most Famous Broken Flower Pot Unpleasantness (the most famous being Bob Knight’s throwing of one during a fracas in the same office late in his term as IU coach) when, on the afternoon of May 1, basketball player Eli Holman either “threw” or “knocked off a desk” a flower pot while in a trantrum phase of his conversation with Coach Tom Crean. Holman had shown up to tell Crean that he wanted to leave IU and transfer to another school closer to his California home. The conversation apparently deteriorated. Holman “became agitated” and was soon perceived by others to be “a danger to himself” and so Bloomington police were called. No one was hurt or arrested, and Crean said he “did not anticipate” Holman being back at IU next year.” Thus, by hook or by crook, the residue of the Kelvin Sampson Era is being expunged. The sooner the better, I say. (May 2, 2008)

IU’s Bloomington Bunker Re-Opened

The Holman Flower Pot Brouhaha emphasized once again the prescience shown by IU officials who, back in March shortly after Coach Kelvin Sampson was dismissed, are rumored to have re-opened the university’s legendary bunkers deep beneath the City of Bloomington. The site had been idle since the Bob Knight Era, but sources close to the bowels of the athletic department report that it is once again in frequent use by IU administrators and athletic department officials seeking to avoid public and press attention. New president Michael McRobbie, on first entering the redoubt this spring, is said to have commented favorably on the limestone-filtered fresh water supply, the year-round comfortable temperatures, the vast dining hall, recreation area, meeting rooms and sleeping areas—all blastproof and surrounded by approximately 150 feet of solid limestone. “We can ride out anything down here,” McRobbie is said to have quipped upon being shown his new hideout. (May 2, 2008)
And within hours of the Holman Flower Pot Dustup, the Orkin Man paid another visit to the men’s basketball program. This time three more players were ejected: DeAndre Thomas, who was dismissed Friday, and Armon Bassett and Jamarcus Ellis, whose March dismissals by interim coach Dan Dakich were upheld by new coach Tom Crean. Ten players from the Kelvin Sampson era have now departed the roster, and three remain. The frequent visits to Assembly Hall by a pest control service remind me of seeing that fleet of Orkin and Terminix vans parked in the White House driveway in January of 2001, the day the Clintons left. A beautiful sight then, and just as stirring now, in Bloomington. (May 3, 2008)
For the record, Eli Holman announced on May 7 that he was transferring to the University of Detroit. There, he will be reunited with former Indiana assistant Ray McCallum, who was hired by Detroit a few weeks ago. Some cranks noted that Detroit is farther from Holman’s California home, not closer. (May 8, 2008)
Rob Senderoff, who lost his assistant coaching job last summer at Indiana University for recruiting violations, was rehired in a coaching and recruiting position by Kent State University with no restrictions. Meanwhile, Tom Crean, with a lifetime clean slate and reputation, is living under so many self-imposed restrictions in his new job at Indiana University that he can barely go to the bathroom without a compliance department escort. It’s a strange world out there. (May 1, 2008)
Two more Indiana basketball players left the program in early summer. Jordan Crawford is transferring to Xavier, and Brandon McGee was released. Only a single player—former walk-on Kyle Taber—will return this fall from the thirteen players on the roster last March at season’s end.
Indiana University’s men’s basketball program took another roundhouse punch June 26 when a letter arrived from NCAA pooh-bahs announcing still another alleged violation—this one for failure to (sufficiently) monitor the activities of its disgraced and fired basketball coach, Kelvin Sampson. This followed a two-day hearing June 14-15 on the far Left Coast to answer earlier charges filed months ago. The University revealed the latest charge at a press conference June 26 at which athletic director Rick Greenspan also announced he was resigning by year’s end. Greenspan’s critics have been many and harsh in the search for someone to blame. Technically, Greenspan is where the buck stops and responsibility lies. Many still defend the man, but his position became untenable with the latest accusation. Rumors abounded this spring of widespread academic problems in the basketball player ranks, at least some of which seem almost magically to have escaped detection, though at June’s end the university announced it was self-punishing itself two scholarships in connection with unspecified academic issues in basketball. In addition, stories circulated that at least two players flunked multiple drug tests—in one case, 16 of 16 tests, in another 13 of 16—and little to no discipline occurred. The suspicion lingers that far from all the story has been dragged into the sunlight by the media, which have been curiously indifferent about pursuing certain story angles—even if to completely debunk them. Except for one returning player (Kyle Taber, a former walk-on) the entire basketball roster—12 of 13 players--has been gutted since Sampson’s March firing. IU’s seemingly permanent search committee has been called back to work, this time to find a new athletic boss. It could be months before IU knows the exact nature of the (expected) NCAA punishments or if additional details will ever come to light involving higher-ups or other “indiscretions.” Dark days, indeed. Nothing to do but buckle up and get about restoring the university’s honor. (June 30, 2008)
Glen Grunwald, Clarence Doninger, Bob Knight, Chuck Marlowe, Isiah Thomas, Steve Witte (Ben Davis High School coach and AD), Steve Downing, Ron Felling, Norm “Covenant House” Ellenberger, Bob Donewald, Jerry Yeagley, Lee Corso, Mrs. Terry Hoeppner, Danny Dakich, Harry Gonso, Sam Alford, Bill Benner, Max Skirvin, Jerry Oliver, Anthony Thompson, Dave Harangody, Cam Cameron, Harold Mauro—Names of candidates for the now open IU athletic director position, submitted by a source close to the bowels of the program. (June 30, 2008)

Stewardship, Updated For Greenspan

A February, 2008 item, duly noted earlier, itemized by recipient the $4,012,000 in settlement payments dispensed by Indiana University to assorted former athletic department employees dating back to the September, 2000 firing of Bob Knight. That list must now be updated to add the $441,000 payoff to athletic director Greenspan, who is being allowed to resign in fallout from the Kelvin Sampson Unpleasantness still unfolding. Thus the total is now approximately $4,453,000. This does not include the legal bills IU has paid in the Sampson matter, the first known installment of which the Star has reported at $200,000, the total of which probably already exceeds $1 million. (June 30, 2008)
The Star’s account of IU running back Anthony Thompson’s induction into the College Football Hall of Fame July 19 included an anecdote about one of his teammates which instantly brings to mind the phrase “IU football classic moment.” Thompson’s coach, Bill “Peewilly Lockjaw” Mallory (retired and living with his wife in Bloomington), remembered a November, 1989, Saturday in Madison, Wisconsin, where Indiana was to play Wisconsin. IU quarterback Dave Schnell injured his throwing arm in pre-game warm-ups—and that’s the IU classic moment—only an IU player would ever get hurt warming up. But the footnote for that day was that Schnell played under doctor’s orders not to pass, and handed off the ball 52 times to Thompson, who ran for 377 yards in a 45-17 Indiana victory. Occasionally, an IU football story has a happy ending. This was one. (July 19, 2008)

Knight Is Right

College basketball has seen more and more “one-and-done” players in recent years—usually basketball players, who play one year in college then enter the NBA draft. Eric Gordon is the most recent Indiana example. Coach Bob Knight often mentions this when talk turns to the sanctity of the “student athlete” concept in college athletics. Knight notes that a “student” planning to stay just one year can pass as few as six credit hours his first semester, not attend class at all in his second semester, and still remain eligible under NCAA standards for the entire year.

IU Perps Still Hiding In The Tall Grass

“Adam Herbert, who may go down as the sorriest presidential hire in the history of the Big Ten, is nowhere to be seen, those velvety crimson jumpsuits disappearing about the same time Sampson was shown the door. Certain members among the IU trustees—who so violated the trust part of their duties, first in hiring Herbert and then in bringing in Sampson—are not about to step up and take responsibility.”—Bill Benner, weekly columnist for the Indianapolis Business Journal, writing in the July 7-13, 2008, issue about the mess in the Indiana University athletic department. (July 15, 2008)

Wiggle Room

The full text of Indiana University men’s basketball coach Tom Crean’s new 10-year contract was released in late summer. It’s worth $23.6 million and is being described as much more detailed than that of his predecessor, Kelvin Sampson. Down at the Florida Coastal University School of Law, a sports law expert, Rick Karcher, went over the Crean document and told reporters, “There was some wiggle room for Sampson. In Crean’s contract, there is no wiggle room.” What an odd situation. Karcher is telling us, apparently, that when IU hired a known serious offender of NCAA recruiting rules (Sampson), it gave him a loosely-worded contract with “wiggle room.” Then, after Sampson nearly destroyed IU’s program with serial further violations of NCAA rules, IU goes to the trouble of writing a presumably air-tight contract for the new guy, who comes to Bloomington without a hint of scandal in his life. The obvious question: why didn’t IU administrators make the known offender’s contract airtight—without any wiggle room—in the first place? And who are the fools who wrote up the Sampson document and gave him all that wiggle room? (August 20, 2008).
IU’s new basketball coach, Tom Crean, was the driving force behind a “healing reunion” of former basketball players, coaching staff, student managers, and others held August 24-25 at French Lick, Indiana. The event, featuring dinner, golf, and socializing, was not open to the public or press, but an IU sports website reported about 300 people attended. About 200 of them were former players, representing every decade back to the 1940 national championship team. The purpose was to help repair the lingering damage within the IU family caused by the 2000 firing of Coach Bob Knight. Knight’s dismissal caused deep and bitter division between pro-Knight and anti-Knight segments of the fan and alumni base. Crean, a highly respected outsider, may be just what this sad situation needs. He deserves high praise for making the effort to get this family back together. (August 26, 2008)
Danny Dakich couldn’t find a coaching job, so he’s been given a three-hour weekday sports radio program in Indianapolis (beginning October 6 on WFNI-1070 AM, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. daily). Dakich, a player at Indiana University in the 1980s, was named interim head coach at IU last spring when the Kelvin Sampson Unpleasantness Exploded. He guided a shattered team through its last few games, and conducted himself with high honor in the process. He was not rehired by new coach Tom Crean. Dakich told the Star he had a few assistant coaching offers but none for a head coaching job, and so will give radio a try in the meantime. Don’t be surprised if Dakich, a longtime Bob Knight loyalist, ends up out at Texas Tech as a Pat Knight assistant—though that would be a pretty big hairball to swallow for a guy who has far more coaching credentials than Pat Knight. Coach Himself, though freshly retired, may still be able to find a spot for Danny. (September 18, 2008)
As September petered out, much was made of the end of Yankee Stadium—the old one. The final game was September 27 (a new Yankee Stadium has been built across the street in the Bronx and will open next spring) and it was on national television. Blizzards of statistics scrolled across the screen and old-timers like Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford were brought in to reminisce. Occasionally the cameras slipped into the stands for a celebrity hunt. All of a sudden, there He was! Coach Himself! He had on that hard, mean, glowering, angry look, the one He put to ample use dumping on hapless journalists and others who irritated Him over decades of His career. The announcers paid homage. The camera stayed on Coach for 10 or 15 seconds, during which the glower never flickered—then it moved on in search of someone more provocatively dressed, someone engaged in small arms fire, or pouring beer and vomit out of an upper deck. Such an unfortunate sight. I wish Coach had been smiling, laughing, enjoying Himself on such a warm, sentimental night. (September 27, 2008)
“They’re going to have to matriculate the ball downfield. . . .”—Mercifully unidentified broadcaster on the Big Ten Network, attempting to explain why Minnesota was not passing long downfield against poor Indiana. Minnesota’s receivers were young and relatively inexperienced, said the broadcaster, not ready for the “long passing game,” so its quarterback has to use mostly a short pass attack. Minnesota won, 16-7. (October 4, 2008)

Let’s See . . . If I Shove Him Right And I Turn Left. . .

There were half a dozen or more IU Football Classic Moments in today’s hideous display against Iowa, but for this day, here was my personal favorite. Third quarter. Iowa’s quarterback is scrambling and an Iowa receiver is loping down the west sideline toward the end zone. An IU defender—and this is not something IU fans are used to seeing—was loping stride for stride with him. The quarterback let fly and the ball arced high and deep. The camera switched to the receiver and defender. Doom loomed up. It was now obvious that the defender had no idea where the football was, though in a nanosecond or two it became clear as the Iowa guy turned and began his leap. IU’s defender gave the guy a shove to the right, and then himself turned to the left—away from the ball’s path. Oooops! The Iowa receiver had been pushed into perfect position to catch the ball, and he did. IU’s poor defensive back, well separated from the receiver, thanks to his wrong turn, now learned where the ball was. Touchdown! Gruesome, utterly gruesome. (IU lost, 45-9, and the Star reported attendance at 33,000 and change. It sure didn’t look that way on television—but perhaps thousands of IU fans were in line at the refreshment stands or out grabbing a few beers in the parking lots when the cameras swept across thousands of empty stadium seats.) (October 11, 2008)

Coach, Still Coach, Back In Indiana With Mickey

An hour-long live September interview of retired basketball coach Bob Knight, conducted in Indianapolis by Mickey Maurer, a local attorney, business tycoon and Friend of Coach, drew a sellout crowd and was broadcast on Indianapolis public television half a dozen times this month. The setting was a round table, Maurer on one side sitting straight up in a business suit, attentive, respectful, alert. . .and Coach on the opposite, wearing a short-sleeved polo shirt and slacks, sitting sideways in a deep slouch with His legs sprawled out. (This scene called up so many classic moments of years gone by when Coach used to humiliate Channel 4 TV ‘s Chuck “The Babbler” Marlowe with the same cruel insults and postures.) Maurer was gentle and cautious to the point of timidity. Coach was warmer and more civil than we’re used to seeing Him—but still Coach. The questions were all big puffy softballs—nothing about Knight’s firing at IU, about the IU mess since then—not a hint of anything which might rile up Coach. The topics ran across the decades—Coach’s three national championship teams at Indiana, the greatest leaders (Scott May, Quinn Buckner, Steve Alford) the most under-rated player (Daryl Thomas), and numerous interesting anecdotes about coaches and players. Coach delivered His usual edgy ration of wisecracks and smart-ass comments—some to the audience, some to a lightly quaking Maurer—and often turned on a dime back to His warmer self. He said His all-time college basketball team would include Bill Russell, John Havlicek, Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain, Sam Jones, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jordan. Near the end, Maurer asked if Coach would ever return to college coaching. “Yeah,” Coach replied. “If the circumstances were right. I’ve got nothing else to do.” Coach looked happier and healthier than He did last winter when He retired with 10 games left in the season at Texas Tech and turned the job over to His son, Patrick. Knight closed the show with thanks to Maurer for such a pleasant evening. Only one question remained: What could poor Maurer have thought about the rudeness and prickliness of Knight, supposedly His friend, throughout an evening in which Knight was treated with fawning, excruciating delicacy? I suspect the answer is that this stuff—this jerk/asshole mode—is in Coach’s DNA, and He can no more control it than He can fly to the moon. This is what Coach’s “friends” get; his enemies, too, only far more of it, and much more aggressively hostile. He is what He is. Quite a mix. (October 16, 2008)

Marlowe Sighting

Rumor leaks from southern Indiana that former IU basketball broadcaster and longtime whipping post on The Bob Knight Show, Chuck “The Babbler” Marlowe, has been spotted alive and well. Sources say he attended the Tom Crean Healing Weekend event held in French Lick in late August. Marlowe, believed to be in his 70s, has been off radar in the IU scene for several years. It’s good to know he’s surviving. (October 19, 2008)

The Cubs: Suffering As Only IU Football Fans Can. . .

After the Chicago Cubs won their division title and were swept out of the first-round playoffs in three games, Cub fans poured out their hearts and despair in Chicago papers. They sounded like the only other group of people in the universe who could understand: Indiana University football fans. Brian Patke wrote to the Chicago Tribune that next year’s Cubs marketing slogan should be “Chicago Cubs baseball—Come share in the never-ending nightmare.” He vowed never to set foot in Wrigley Field again, said he had boxed up all his Cubs memorabilia and thrown it in a dumpster. “To pass this collection of misery down to my kids,” Patka said, “would only be committing the same brutal punishment my father passed down to me..” I wish I could say it’s been fun,” he added, “ but that would be like saying that multiple minor heart attacks are no big deal.” William Gottschalk wrote to suggest that next year’s rallying cry could be, “Wait till next century!” But the best came from Mike Byrne of suburban Hanover Park, who mused: “The Cubs are not gravitas. They are gravity, a force as certain as the sun setting in the west and the deficit rising in the east. They are not a team so much as a life lesson: . . .the world is not your oyster and championships do not always come to those who wait. How many have been born, lived, and died watching and loving this team, never to see that wish fulfilled?” A deep breath, and Byrne went on. “But it is not defeatism that I preach; it is stoicism. Will I be there again to follow the Cubs next season? You bet I will. I am not abandoning them to lose what I always expected them to lose, any more than I would abandon a child who had suffered a succession of failures. I will be there, standing tall and rooting for the team. . .And if it’s a cold, drizzly, miserable day, it will be all the more appropriate.” (October 15, 2008)
“A lot of times this is like watching bad high school football.”—Mark Lewis, an Indiana University junior from Baltimore, describing what he sees when he attends an IU football game this year, quoted in an Indianapolis Star article about fan outlook for the rest of the season. (October 22, 2008)
With IU football again backsliding, people are asking: How long does Coach Bill Lynch’s contract run? (This is code for: How much does IU have to pay the guy if they fire him?) The Answer: Lynch’s contract runs till July 1, 2012. That means Lynch can coach the rest of this season, all of 2009, all of 2010, and all of 2011, and the contract would expire mid-summer after the 2011 season concludes. A long haul or a lot of bucks--take your choice. (October 26, 2008)

Light A Candle For G. Fred

Fred Glass, an Indianapolis attorney, has been named the new athletic director at Indiana University. He replaces Rick Greenspan, whose last day will be December 31. Glass has extensive experience in the Indianapolis sports scene, serving as a director of the Indiana Sports Corporation, President of the Super Bowl Committee, and as a leader of the local board which manages the new Lucas Oil Stadium, Conseco Fieldhouse, Victory Field, and the Hoosier Dome. Above all, though, he is an IU alumnus, and uses the distinctive, over-reaching “initial, then first name” format to identify himself. Not good old Fred Glass, but G. Fred Glass. Sounds so much more important. He’ll have his hands full at IU. Light a candle for G. Fred. (October 28, 2008)
I shook hands last night with outgoing IU athletic director Rick Greenspan. I told him three things: 1) that he’d done a lot of things right and I was glad he was getting credit for them, 2) that I wished him well in his new career, and, 3) that he should write the book (the latter a reference to a stipulation in his separation agreement with IU that he retains the right to write a book about the unfortunate events which led to his resignation) because the full story is yet to be told. (October 29, 2008)

Coach, Revisited: Chapter 24,858?

After 18 years of choking on it, fighting back the temptation, editorial director Deborah Paul of Indianapolis Monthly magazine has finally surrendered and fired back at former Indiana Coach Bob Knight. What’s buggin’ her? Another textbook case of Knight boorishness, this one in 1990 when, Paul says, Knight went ballistic during an interview in His Assembly Hall office, cut off the interview and kicked her out. Paul says Coach began firing F-bombs, leapt out of his chair (knocking it over in the process), and “sent my tape recorder clattering to the floor, and finally gave me a light shove out the door.” All this, she claims, over a few innocent questions about why he’d switched from wearing a sport jacket to wearing a sweater at games, and why he had decided to go by Bob instead of Bobby. Paul says Knight never spoke to her again, and turned down all subsequent requests by her magazine for interviews. Paui’s anger is scorching as she recounts numerous episodes to make her case that Knight has “never been ruled by rational behavior” and is a “guy who has acted like a big jerk for most of his career.” Those who’ve watched Coach for decades can only smile knowingly when they read this column in IM’s November, 2008 issue. It’s a classic Bob Knight tale. (October 29, 2008)

Tom Bolyard, Jack Brown (1940s era), Hallie Bryant (1950s), Archie Dees (1950s), Clarence Doninger, Scott Eells, Chuck Franz, Pat Graham, Steve Green, Gary Grieger, Kyle Hornsby, John Kamstra, Ted Kitchel, Mike LaFave, Gary Long (1950s), Bobby Masters, Todd Meier, Jerry Memering, Mike Niles, Pete Obremsky, Wayne Radford, Chris Reynolds, Steve Risley, Bill Russell (1960s), Earl Schneider, Burke Scott (1953-55), Erik Suhr, Ryan Tapak, Don Williamson (1950s), John Wood (1950s).—Former IU basketball players spotted in attendance at a Varsity Club Tip-Off Dinner for the 2008-2009 Hoosier basketball team, held in Assembly Hall October 28, 2008.
Indiana’s football team ranks last in the Big Ten and third from last of 66 teams in BCS conferences in victories in the past decade ending in 2007. In 63rd position with 35 victories (and 68 losses), IU is ahead of only Vanderbilt (30), Baylor (29), and Duke (14). In the Big Ten, IU’s last-place mark is 35 wins and 68 losses. Illinois is 10th with 42 wins, then Northwestern at 51, Michigan State with 54, Minnesota with 55, Purdue with 61, Penn State with 64, Iowa with 66, Wisconsin with 74, Michigan with 76. In first place is Ohio State with 89 wins and 22 losses.

Stewardship, Updated for Legal Fees

The Indianapolis Star, acting like a newspaper should, has pried loose more information about Indiana University’s payments to lawyers involved in the truly awful Kelvin Sampson Unpleasantness. The Star had to file a Freedom of Information request to obtain the information. Through July 31, IU has spent $497,646 on legal fees. About $470,000 of this went to the Indianapolis firm of Ice Miller. The rest went to lawyers for Sampson and IU who represented them in a 2006 hearing before the NCAA for NCAA rules violations while Sampson was coach at Oklahoma. This brings the total so far paid (since Bob Knight was fired in September of 2000) for athletic department staff and coach buyouts, and legal fees in the Sampson matter, to $4,950,646. Additional legal fees are expected, the Star reported. (November 21, 2008)

	Scoundrels, Knaves & Fools American Pile Whoops & Squawks Splinters From the Bench Indiana University Sports Lists & Other Minutiae Contact the author	2009 \| 2008 \| 2007 \| 2006 \| 2005 \| 2004 \| 2003 \| 2002 \| 2001 \| 2000 \| 1999 \| 1998 \| 1997 \| 1996 \| 1995 \| Pre-1995 Indiana University Sports Coach Quits! He Quits! Coach surprised nearly everyone late February 4 with an announcement that He was quitting His job as Texas Tech’s basketball coach immediately. His oldest son, Patrick, who signed a contract in 2005 guaranteeing that he would replace his dad whenever his dad gave up the job, immediately took the reins. Coach Himself said He was just tired of coaching. Some felt there might be a hidden agenda. The media erupted in several days of what passed for analysis. It was most fevered in the immediate hours following, when the entire world seemed to be stopped in its tracks with “Knight Quits!” bulletins. Digger Phelps, the retired Notre Dame coach and snake oil salesman, was a guest on ESPN’s Sportscenter program shortly after the word broke, and told host Karl Ravech that he, The Digster, felt Knight was making the move for strategic reasons. In Phelps’s tortured analysis, Knight was quitting in mid-season to get Patrick officially in place as head coach, which would make it more difficult for the new Texas Tech president to meddle, even cancel, the deal Coach had extracted from athletic director and Knight toady Gerald Myers which gave the job to Patrick. Referring back to 2000, when Knight was fired at Indiana University, Phelps told Ravech that Myles Brand, then IU’s president, came to Indiana “to get rid of Bob Knight” and that Coach was concerned the same thing could happen to Patrick at Texas Tech if He, Coach, waited till the end of the year to resign. The pell-mell pace prevented poor Ravech from challenging Phelps’ grassy knoll version of things, and Sportscenter roared on obliviously into the night. Subsequent press coverage was a mixed bag. Broadcaster Jay Bilas parsed the official statement and noted that Knight did not retire, He only resigned, and that meant He might well be back coaching somewhere soon. Bilas felt Coach would have plenty of tempting offers if He signaled His interest. Pat Knight said no, He’ll not be back—unless He could have a job where all He did was coach—no recruiting, which Coach doesn’t like. “I don’t see it because of the recruiting. . .,” Pat said, adding, in a stretch for even the most credulous among us, “He forgets more every day than we’ll ever know about the game.” Several columnists took Knight to task for walking out on His team in mid-season. Everyone acknowledged the great paradox of the man: nearly unmatched coaching success and impact on the game of basketball, offset by a decades-long list of disgraceful, jackass behavior toward others. Many expressed the hope that Knight and Indiana University would reconcile. That seems unlikely in the near term, given Knight’s frequently expressed bitterness at His firing. I think it’s time for the university to take the first step toward ending hostilities, and to recognize Knight’s achievements there. (February 8, 2008) Can there be a more beautiful irony than Texas Tech saddling itself with Coach’s Oldest Anointed Son for—may we hope—eternity? I think not. And if we want to feel better, consider that had it not been for Myles Brand, an otherwise mediocre fraud at Indiana University, IU, not Texas Tech, would have been wearing Patrick Knight forever, or at least what would seem like it. (February 5, 2008) Newly-anointed Texas Tech head basketball coach Pat Knight lost his debut last night at Baylor, 80-74. Pat was heckled with sneers of “Where’s your daddy?” by impish locals. The Chicago Tribune’s brief but breathless account noted that Pat “. . .took notes in a small pad he held in his right hand. He alternated between sitting in his seat and pacing the sideline.” Coach Himself was reported not to have attended the game. (February 7, 2008) Wouldn’t You Just Love To Be Coaching In The Shrieking Whorehouse That Is College Basketball Today? “The main thing I’ll be looking for is a situation where they will let me loose. . .the most important thing is that I get the ball in my hands so I can make plays.”—Nolan Dennis, describing what will be the crucial factors when he finally picks a college to attend, as quoted at the Peegs.com website. Young Dennis is ranked No. 21 in all of America by a Rivals scouting service for the Class of 2009. Now playing at Richland (Texas) High School, the The 6-5 guard/forward has Indiana among his top and final (as of today) five schools, along with North Carolina, Memphis, UCLA, and Texas. He has already visited IU’s campus once, according to the Peegs report. (February 7, 2008) University of Illinois fans have spent a year or so in flaming rage over losing their prime basketball recruit to Indiana University after the lad—Eric Gordon--had given a verbal commitment to the Illini. But when a Kentucky player, Alex Legion, announced he was transferring to Illinois, and when the Illini’s 2008 football recruiting class included four players who have previously committed to other schools but switched finally to Illinois, not a one of these howlers was heard screaming bloody murder about it. That was entirely different, you see. Uh-Oh, The NCAA’s Not Buying In. . . The Indianapolis Star at our doorstep this morning—Valentine’s Day, for cripe’s sake!—revealed more about us than we realized. The editors devoted 60 percent of page one to a life-sized mug shot of Kelvin Sampson, the Indiana University basketball coach, and a story headlined (in letters an inch-and-a-quarter high) “NCAA: Sampson Lied To Us”. It was bad news all right—the NCAA was not buying Sampson’s version of the recruiting rules violations uncovered last summer in a routine compliance check and self-reported to the NCAA soon after. And worse: the wording of the NCAA response—escalating the description of the violations from “secondary” (IU’s words) to “major,” and tacking on some additional charges, including “misleading” the NCAA and his bosses at Indiana--made it obvious that Sampson is in the NCAA’s gunsights and the university faces severe penalties if it dares defend him. I wondered, though, as I scanned page one over my breakfast gruel, about the Star’s judgment in giving this story such massive play, especially in a world where--even in our fair city—each day’s news seems chock full of murders, pornography, child abuse, corruption in high places, and human perversion on a gigantic scale. On a hunch, I went downstairs to my bunker. There on the wall was a framed front-page of the September 11, 2000, edition of the Star--the entire page covered with stories about the firing of Bob Knight. With the possible exception of the 9/11 edition, I can think of no events in the last eight years given greater prominence. The Star’s emphasis on “lies” was revealing, too. The popular culture obsesses on them. Lies, lies, lies. Bush lied. Cheney lied. They all lied (except for Democrats, who misspeak). You hear it over and over. It’s America’s all-purpose epithet. So if Sampson has lied, he’d better understand there can be no greater sin. (February 14, 2008) The media erupted in blazing frenzy at the Kelvin Sampson news. Three local radio sports talk shows roared nonstop. Newspapers and media outlets all over the country weighed in; most were scathingly critical of Sampson and the university administration complicit in his hiring. The same characters appeared locally—The Grape Kool-Aid Crowd, screaming “I told you so” and demanding that Sampson be fired and replaced by Knight himself, or by one of his acolytes—Danny Dakich and Steve Alford the leading favorites; Bob Kravitz, the Star columnist who now has a daily radio show, the guy who stampeded the university into giving Mike Davis the permanent coaching position after a year as interim coach, and who then again stampeded the university into giving Davis a fat five-year contract extension after his first season as permanent coach led to a Final Four run, and who now is excoriating all concerned and demanding the immediate firing of not only Sampson but athletic director Rick Greenspan; a justifiably angered public which merely wanted its opinion heard; and a few lonely crackpots who called for caution and a search for all the facts, when at present what we have is allegations. Almost no one defended Sampson publicly. All seemed to agree, however, that whatever the facts, Indiana University is once again the center of national attention for all the wrong reasons, and is mired in a sorrowful, ugly mess. (February 15, 2008) But IU Had ‘Anything’ Decades Before ‘Zero’. . . More than one Indianapolis Star reader wrote in to point out that it wasn’t so long ago that the university had a “zero tolerance” policy in place for one of its coaches, and wasn’t it therefore already past time that Kelvin Sampson be fired. But each conveniently avoided mentioning that IU had an “anything tolerated” policy in place for Bob Knight for approximately 27 years before deciding to set standards. Shouldn’t Sampson get 27 years of slack before we get tough with him? Let’s at least be consistent if “zero tolerance” is the weapon of choice. (February 16, 2008) It’s Only About Phone Calls. . . Millions of Clintonistas spent millions of hours at the ramparts in the 1990s—and they still do today--defending Sick’s lies under oath. Those lies were only about sex, they cried, and so they weren’t really lies, or they weren’t lies which counted. So why can’t we cut Kelvin Sampson similar slack for his lies about phone calls? (February 16, 2008) Trustees Below Radar I believe you could make a compelling argument that Indiana University has been most poorly served over the past decade or so by the people with ultimate responsibility for its governance: the board of trustees. Since the mid-1980s at least, the university’s governance has been marked by ineptness, by poor, if not downright stupid and cowardly, decision-making and judgment. The hiring of such as presidents Thomas Ehrlich, Myles Brand, and Adam Herbert and their subsequent performance in office, the trustees’ acquiescence in ridiculous escalations in tuition expense, a vast expansion (much of it under Brand’s reign) of the university administrative bureaucracy, and near constant turmoil in the athletic department for a decade or more. One of the villains in the Kelvin Sampson Unpleasantness who will very likely fly under radar and escape public scrutiny as this story unravels, is former president Adam Herbert. He served a fairly dreary five-year term (2003-2008) marked by faculty unrest, complaints of low public visibility, weak leadership and other issues. Herbert is rumored to have been the decisive force in the hiring of Sampson in the spring of 2006 when it was already known that the coach faced NCAA sanctions for rules violations while at his previous post at the University of Oklahoma. Herbert’s reply to that criticism was that he believed Sampson had the “highest integrity.” Herbert’s has been described as an “absentee and failed presidency” by Star political columnist Matt Tully. Although he has been replaced by a new president, Michael McRobbie, Herbert still holds a faculty position in IU’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs. As we contemplate an IU basketball future without Kelvin Sampson, the scariest part is the already loud and forceful pressure for IU to do the obvious and easy thing—name a Knight acolyte, Danny Dakich, the interim coach to finish the season. I’m convinced that IU is stupid enough to then give the permanent job to Dakich, using the old familiar-at-IU rationalization that “We looked all over the nation for the best candidate and finally realized that we already had him right here in front of us, right here on our staff at IU—Danny Dakich (or fill in the name).” “I don’t like Bob Knight, wouldn’t spit on him if he were on fire. . .”—Gregg Doyel, national columnist for CBS Sports.com, in a February 13 column in which he said IU “must fire (Kelvin) Sampson—now!” and recommended the university then re-hire Bob Knight to straighten up the men’s basketball program.—(February 13, 2008) A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste, And Joe Has Done So “I don’t think there’s any doubt the next coach has to be somebody from within the IU family.”—Joe Hillman, former IU basketball player under Bob Knight, quoted in the Indianapolis Star, regarding the expected firing of present coach Kelvin Sampson. (February 21, 2008) Sampson Out The nightmare deepens. In a drama which took most of the day February 22,, Indiana University fired its basketball coach, Kelvin Sampson, and replaced him with one of his assistants, Dan Dakich. Sampson will get a $750,000 buyout in exchange for signing away any right of his to sue the university for wrongful termination of his contract. An anonymous individual donor provided $500,000 of that amount. Dakich, a former IU player and assistant under former coach Bob Knight, has the title of interim coach. The outcome of the NCAA’s investigation of IU’s self-reported violations of recruiting rules under Sampson won’t be known till late summer. The university obviously hopes that dumping Sampson will appease the NCAA overlords who will pass judgment in August.The team has five regular season games remaining. Rumors erupted immediately of possible player boycotts, and the potential loss of several prized members of IU’s fall, 2008 recruiting class. Speculation that athletic director Rick Greenspan would also be fired receded when it was announced he would be part of the search for a replacement coach. The future is under a dark cloud and the present mood is utter despair. This is far worse than the departures of Knight and Mike Davis, his unfortunate replacement. In those cases, relief and hope were the dominant themes. For this, many will need sedation, and the soft music, tinkling wind-chimes, low lighting, controlled diet and intense soul-searching amid the soft murmuring of counselors in burlap robes in a sanitarium. This will involve a prolonged recovery period. (February 22, 2008) Stewardship The Star put things in perspective after Sampson’s firing with a front-page story on the cost of IU’s athletic department buyouts over the past few years. Here’s how $4,012,000 was passed out: Michael McNeely, former athletic director, 2002 resignation, $839,000; Mike Davis, former men’s basketball coach, 2006 resignation, $800,000; Kelvin Sampson, men’s basketball coach, 2008 resignation, $750,000 ($500,000 of which came from an anonymous individual donor); Gerry DiNardo, football coach, fired in 2004, $616,000; Cam Cameron, football coach, 2001 firing, $498,000; Bob Knight, men’s basketball coach, 2000 firing, $283,000; Jason Lewis, executive associate athletic director, $86,000; Brian McNeely, assistant football coach, $47,000; Lauren Rochet, assistant athletic director, $36,000; Deanne Droegemueller, director of executive services, $34,000; Stephane Rochet, strength coach, $23,000. (February 24, 2006) The Possibles Steve Alford (New Mexico), Rick Barnes (Texas), Tony Bennett (Washington State), Mike Brey (Notre Dame), Brad Brownell (Wright State), John Calipari (Memphis), Tom Crean (Marquette), Danny Dakich (present interim coach), Jamie Dixon (Pittsburgh), Scott Drew (Baylor), Lawrence Frank (New Jersey Nets and a former IU student manager under Coach), Tim Floyd (USC), Anthony Grant (Virginia Commonwealth), Brian Gregory (Dayton), Tom Izzo (Michigan State), Lon Kruger (UNLV), Thad Matta (Ohio State), Sean Miller (Xavier), Mike Montgomery ( former Stanford coach), Brucie Pearl (Tennessee), Rick Pitino (Louisville), Scott Skiles (former Chicago Bulls coach), Keith Smart (Golden State Warriors), Trent Johnson (Stanford), Kevin Stallings (Vanderbilt), Brad Stevens (Butler), Jay Wright (Villanova),), Randy Wittman (Minnesota Timberwolves), Mike Woodson (Atlanta Hawks).—Names submitted by media pundits as great candidates for the IU men’s basketball coaching job (March 21, 2008) A source close to the bowels of the IU athletic program speculates that the new IU basketball coach will come from among these four names: Jamie Dixon of Pittsburgh, Sean Miller of Xavier, Tony Bennett of Washington State, and Brad Brownell of Wright State. I’d be pleased with any one of these, but I’d require Dixon to change his name to James or Jim. The debate over whether IU’s wonder-child freshman guard, Eric Gordon, is ready to play professionally will be answered within a few months. Meanwhile, it’s instructive to look at Eric’s season statistics. He led the Big Ten in scoring, and averaged 20.9 points for the year. Over the 33-game season he shot .433 from the field and .834 at the free throw line. His three-point shooting percentage was .337. Roughly the last third of the year, though, he was much, much worse. In his final 12 games, Gordon shot 35.5% on field goals (20.7% on three-point shots). In his final six games, Gordon’s field goal percentage was 32.3% and his three-point shooting was 13.3%. Far from superstar stuff, but some professional team will draft him on potential, anyway. (March 28, 2008) Crean And Crimson The insane asylum of recent Indiana University basketball lurched into April with two players being kicked off the team by interim coach Dan Dakich, an Indianapolis television reporter going on radio talk shows the day after he broke that story to charge that the version in the local newspaper was seriously in error and that the real truth was being covered up, the media’s and fans’ consensus choice for the coaching job (Tony Bennett of Washington State) publicly announcing that he had indeed discussed it with IU but was not interested in the IU job; and finally the April 2 hiring of the Marquette Coach, Tom Crean in a whirlwind 24-hour courtship and negotiation which caught everyone by surprise. Now the consensus is that the university either got incredibly smart or incredibly lucky—or both--this time, and has hired a thoroughly top-notch guy to take over the basketball program. Crean will almost surely have a miserable first year with a roster depleted by defections, transfers, graduation, lost recruits, and Eric Gordon turning professional, and he and his staff operating under strict sanctions resulting from recruiting violations which cost Kelvin Sampson the job. At least everyone can exhale now, and sigh with gratitude that IU didn’t do what many feared it would—finally decide that the best candidate for the job had been right there among them all the time, and give the job to Dakich. (April 3, 2008) “I thought they’d hire the assistant coach at (some place like) Boise State.”—Pat Graham, a former IU basketball player, expressing the fear many fans had about the search for a new coach, in an interview after the Tom Crean hiring was announced. Graham said he thought Indiana had made a brilliant choice in Crean. (April 2, 2008) Critics have long accused Indiana University of small-time thinking and trying to get by on the cheap when hiring coaches for the marquee sports, football and basketball. The deal given new basketball coach Tom Crean should shut up all the bitchers. Crean signed an eight-year contract for $18.4 million, an average annual salary of $2.3 million. This amount puts Crean among the top 10 or so coaches in the nation. “Cheap” has gone out the window in Bloomington. (April 3, 2004) It took the hometown Bloomington Herald-Times to do the necessary digging, and its April 4 edition published the text of some Indiana University e-mail traffic which revealed what many had suspected—that former president Adam Herbert and “at least one trustee” were instrumental in the hiring of former basketball coach Kelvin Sampson, who within two years was forced out of the job for massive NCAA recruiting rules violations. The impression had long been left by the university and others that athletic director Rick Greenspan was the guy to blame. The Herald-Times pried loose the e-mail documents with legal filings under the state’s “open records” law. Updates are likely to follow, and perhaps even the HT’s journalistic brethren up the road in Indianapolis will now join in the investigation. (April 4, 2008) ESPN hired Coach to join its broadcast team for the month-long NCAA men’s basketball tourney, and got its money’s worth. Coach appeared in a studio analyst’s role, often sandwiched between two world-class blowhards, Dick Vitale and Digger Phelps, with Jay Bilas at the far right watching in amusement. Coach being Coach, he informed his bosses at the outset that he would not be wearing a suit or jacket and tie like the rest of the drones. ESPN took that in stride and Knight turned in a really solid performance. His insights and comments were incisive—and refreshingly brief. Anyone at home is his Barcalounger could tell, this guy knows what he’s talking about. Nice move by ESPN. (April 8, 2008) Early May brought the Indiana University men’s basketball office its Second Most Famous Broken Flower Pot Unpleasantness (the most famous being Bob Knight’s throwing of one during a fracas in the same office late in his term as IU coach) when, on the afternoon of May 1, basketball player Eli Holman either “threw” or “knocked off a desk” a flower pot while in a trantrum phase of his conversation with Coach Tom Crean. Holman had shown up to tell Crean that he wanted to leave IU and transfer to another school closer to his California home. The conversation apparently deteriorated. Holman “became agitated” and was soon perceived by others to be “a danger to himself” and so Bloomington police were called. No one was hurt or arrested, and Crean said he “did not anticipate” Holman being back at IU next year.” Thus, by hook or by crook, the residue of the Kelvin Sampson Era is being expunged. The sooner the better, I say. (May 2, 2008) IU’s Bloomington Bunker Re-Opened The Holman Flower Pot Brouhaha emphasized once again the prescience shown by IU officials who, back in March shortly after Coach Kelvin Sampson was dismissed, are rumored to have re-opened the university’s legendary bunkers deep beneath the City of Bloomington. The site had been idle since the Bob Knight Era, but sources close to the bowels of the athletic department report that it is once again in frequent use by IU administrators and athletic department officials seeking to avoid public and press attention. New president Michael McRobbie, on first entering the redoubt this spring, is said to have commented favorably on the limestone-filtered fresh water supply, the year-round comfortable temperatures, the vast dining hall, recreation area, meeting rooms and sleeping areas—all blastproof and surrounded by approximately 150 feet of solid limestone. “We can ride out anything down here,” McRobbie is said to have quipped upon being shown his new hideout. (May 2, 2008) And within hours of the Holman Flower Pot Dustup, the Orkin Man paid another visit to the men’s basketball program. This time three more players were ejected: DeAndre Thomas, who was dismissed Friday, and Armon Bassett and Jamarcus Ellis, whose March dismissals by interim coach Dan Dakich were upheld by new coach Tom Crean. Ten players from the Kelvin Sampson era have now departed the roster, and three remain. The frequent visits to Assembly Hall by a pest control service remind me of seeing that fleet of Orkin and Terminix vans parked in the White House driveway in January of 2001, the day the Clintons left. A beautiful sight then, and just as stirring now, in Bloomington. (May 3, 2008) For the record, Eli Holman announced on May 7 that he was transferring to the University of Detroit. There, he will be reunited with former Indiana assistant Ray McCallum, who was hired by Detroit a few weeks ago. Some cranks noted that Detroit is farther from Holman’s California home, not closer. (May 8, 2008) Rob Senderoff, who lost his assistant coaching job last summer at Indiana University for recruiting violations, was rehired in a coaching and recruiting position by Kent State University with no restrictions. Meanwhile, Tom Crean, with a lifetime clean slate and reputation, is living under so many self-imposed restrictions in his new job at Indiana University that he can barely go to the bathroom without a compliance department escort. It’s a strange world out there. (May 1, 2008) Two more Indiana basketball players left the program in early summer. Jordan Crawford is transferring to Xavier, and Brandon McGee was released. Only a single player—former walk-on Kyle Taber—will return this fall from the thirteen players on the roster last March at season’s end. Indiana University’s men’s basketball program took another roundhouse punch June 26 when a letter arrived from NCAA pooh-bahs announcing still another alleged violation—this one for failure to (sufficiently) monitor the activities of its disgraced and fired basketball coach, Kelvin Sampson. This followed a two-day hearing June 14-15 on the far Left Coast to answer earlier charges filed months ago. The University revealed the latest charge at a press conference June 26 at which athletic director Rick Greenspan also announced he was resigning by year’s end. Greenspan’s critics have been many and harsh in the search for someone to blame. Technically, Greenspan is where the buck stops and responsibility lies. Many still defend the man, but his position became untenable with the latest accusation. Rumors abounded this spring of widespread academic problems in the basketball player ranks, at least some of which seem almost magically to have escaped detection, though at June’s end the university announced it was self-punishing itself two scholarships in connection with unspecified academic issues in basketball. In addition, stories circulated that at least two players flunked multiple drug tests—in one case, 16 of 16 tests, in another 13 of 16—and little to no discipline occurred. The suspicion lingers that far from all the story has been dragged into the sunlight by the media, which have been curiously indifferent about pursuing certain story angles—even if to completely debunk them. Except for one returning player (Kyle Taber, a former walk-on) the entire basketball roster—12 of 13 players--has been gutted since Sampson’s March firing. IU’s seemingly permanent search committee has been called back to work, this time to find a new athletic boss. It could be months before IU knows the exact nature of the (expected) NCAA punishments or if additional details will ever come to light involving higher-ups or other “indiscretions.” Dark days, indeed. Nothing to do but buckle up and get about restoring the university’s honor. (June 30, 2008) Glen Grunwald, Clarence Doninger, Bob Knight, Chuck Marlowe, Isiah Thomas, Steve Witte (Ben Davis High School coach and AD), Steve Downing, Ron Felling, Norm “Covenant House” Ellenberger, Bob Donewald, Jerry Yeagley, Lee Corso, Mrs. Terry Hoeppner, Danny Dakich, Harry Gonso, Sam Alford, Bill Benner, Max Skirvin, Jerry Oliver, Anthony Thompson, Dave Harangody, Cam Cameron, Harold Mauro—Names of candidates for the now open IU athletic director position, submitted by a source close to the bowels of the program. (June 30, 2008) Stewardship, Updated For Greenspan A February, 2008 item, duly noted earlier, itemized by recipient the $4,012,000 in settlement payments dispensed by Indiana University to assorted former athletic department employees dating back to the September, 2000 firing of Bob Knight. That list must now be updated to add the $441,000 payoff to athletic director Greenspan, who is being allowed to resign in fallout from the Kelvin Sampson Unpleasantness still unfolding. Thus the total is now approximately $4,453,000. This does not include the legal bills IU has paid in the Sampson matter, the first known installment of which the Star has reported at $200,000, the total of which probably already exceeds $1 million. (June 30, 2008) The Star’s account of IU running back Anthony Thompson’s induction into the College Football Hall of Fame July 19 included an anecdote about one of his teammates which instantly brings to mind the phrase “IU football classic moment.” Thompson’s coach, Bill “Peewilly Lockjaw” Mallory (retired and living with his wife in Bloomington), remembered a November, 1989, Saturday in Madison, Wisconsin, where Indiana was to play Wisconsin. IU quarterback Dave Schnell injured his throwing arm in pre-game warm-ups—and that’s the IU classic moment—only an IU player would ever get hurt warming up. But the footnote for that day was that Schnell played under doctor’s orders not to pass, and handed off the ball 52 times to Thompson, who ran for 377 yards in a 45-17 Indiana victory. Occasionally, an IU football story has a happy ending. This was one. (July 19, 2008) Knight Is Right College basketball has seen more and more “one-and-done” players in recent years—usually basketball players, who play one year in college then enter the NBA draft. Eric Gordon is the most recent Indiana example. Coach Bob Knight often mentions this when talk turns to the sanctity of the “student athlete” concept in college athletics. Knight notes that a “student” planning to stay just one year can pass as few as six credit hours his first semester, not attend class at all in his second semester, and still remain eligible under NCAA standards for the entire year. IU Perps Still Hiding In The Tall Grass “Adam Herbert, who may go down as the sorriest presidential hire in the history of the Big Ten, is nowhere to be seen, those velvety crimson jumpsuits disappearing about the same time Sampson was shown the door. Certain members among the IU trustees—who so violated the trust part of their duties, first in hiring Herbert and then in bringing in Sampson—are not about to step up and take responsibility.”—Bill Benner, weekly columnist for the Indianapolis Business Journal, writing in the July 7-13, 2008, issue about the mess in the Indiana University athletic department. (July 15, 2008) Wiggle Room The full text of Indiana University men’s basketball coach Tom Crean’s new 10-year contract was released in late summer. It’s worth $23.6 million and is being described as much more detailed than that of his predecessor, Kelvin Sampson. Down at the Florida Coastal University School of Law, a sports law expert, Rick Karcher, went over the Crean document and told reporters, “There was some wiggle room for Sampson. In Crean’s contract, there is no wiggle room.” What an odd situation. Karcher is telling us, apparently, that when IU hired a known serious offender of NCAA recruiting rules (Sampson), it gave him a loosely-worded contract with “wiggle room.” Then, after Sampson nearly destroyed IU’s program with serial further violations of NCAA rules, IU goes to the trouble of writing a presumably air-tight contract for the new guy, who comes to Bloomington without a hint of scandal in his life. The obvious question: why didn’t IU administrators make the known offender’s contract airtight—without any wiggle room—in the first place? And who are the fools who wrote up the Sampson document and gave him all that wiggle room? (August 20, 2008). IU’s new basketball coach, Tom Crean, was the driving force behind a “healing reunion” of former basketball players, coaching staff, student managers, and others held August 24-25 at French Lick, Indiana. The event, featuring dinner, golf, and socializing, was not open to the public or press, but an IU sports website reported about 300 people attended. About 200 of them were former players, representing every decade back to the 1940 national championship team. The purpose was to help repair the lingering damage within the IU family caused by the 2000 firing of Coach Bob Knight. Knight’s dismissal caused deep and bitter division between pro-Knight and anti-Knight segments of the fan and alumni base. Crean, a highly respected outsider, may be just what this sad situation needs. He deserves high praise for making the effort to get this family back together. (August 26, 2008) Danny Dakich couldn’t find a coaching job, so he’s been given a three-hour weekday sports radio program in Indianapolis (beginning October 6 on WFNI-1070 AM, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. daily). Dakich, a player at Indiana University in the 1980s, was named interim head coach at IU last spring when the Kelvin Sampson Unpleasantness Exploded. He guided a shattered team through its last few games, and conducted himself with high honor in the process. He was not rehired by new coach Tom Crean. Dakich told the Star he had a few assistant coaching offers but none for a head coaching job, and so will give radio a try in the meantime. Don’t be surprised if Dakich, a longtime Bob Knight loyalist, ends up out at Texas Tech as a Pat Knight assistant—though that would be a pretty big hairball to swallow for a guy who has far more coaching credentials than Pat Knight. Coach Himself, though freshly retired, may still be able to find a spot for Danny. (September 18, 2008) As September petered out, much was made of the end of Yankee Stadium—the old one. The final game was September 27 (a new Yankee Stadium has been built across the street in the Bronx and will open next spring) and it was on national television. Blizzards of statistics scrolled across the screen and old-timers like Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford were brought in to reminisce. Occasionally the cameras slipped into the stands for a celebrity hunt. All of a sudden, there He was! Coach Himself! He had on that hard, mean, glowering, angry look, the one He put to ample use dumping on hapless journalists and others who irritated Him over decades of His career. The announcers paid homage. The camera stayed on Coach for 10 or 15 seconds, during which the glower never flickered—then it moved on in search of someone more provocatively dressed, someone engaged in small arms fire, or pouring beer and vomit out of an upper deck. Such an unfortunate sight. I wish Coach had been smiling, laughing, enjoying Himself on such a warm, sentimental night. (September 27, 2008) “They’re going to have to matriculate the ball downfield. . . .”—Mercifully unidentified broadcaster on the Big Ten Network, attempting to explain why Minnesota was not passing long downfield against poor Indiana. Minnesota’s receivers were young and relatively inexperienced, said the broadcaster, not ready for the “long passing game,” so its quarterback has to use mostly a short pass attack. Minnesota won, 16-7. (October 4, 2008) Let’s See . . . If I Shove Him Right And I Turn Left. . . There were half a dozen or more IU Football Classic Moments in today’s hideous display against Iowa, but for this day, here was my personal favorite. Third quarter. Iowa’s quarterback is scrambling and an Iowa receiver is loping down the west sideline toward the end zone. An IU defender—and this is not something IU fans are used to seeing—was loping stride for stride with him. The quarterback let fly and the ball arced high and deep. The camera switched to the receiver and defender. Doom loomed up. It was now obvious that the defender had no idea where the football was, though in a nanosecond or two it became clear as the Iowa guy turned and began his leap. IU’s defender gave the guy a shove to the right, and then himself turned to the left—away from the ball’s path. Oooops! The Iowa receiver had been pushed into perfect position to catch the ball, and he did. IU’s poor defensive back, well separated from the receiver, thanks to his wrong turn, now learned where the ball was. Touchdown! Gruesome, utterly gruesome. (IU lost, 45-9, and the Star reported attendance at 33,000 and change. It sure didn’t look that way on television—but perhaps thousands of IU fans were in line at the refreshment stands or out grabbing a few beers in the parking lots when the cameras swept across thousands of empty stadium seats.) (October 11, 2008) Coach, Still Coach, Back In Indiana With Mickey An hour-long live September interview of retired basketball coach Bob Knight, conducted in Indianapolis by Mickey Maurer, a local attorney, business tycoon and Friend of Coach, drew a sellout crowd and was broadcast on Indianapolis public television half a dozen times this month. The setting was a round table, Maurer on one side sitting straight up in a business suit, attentive, respectful, alert. . .and Coach on the opposite, wearing a short-sleeved polo shirt and slacks, sitting sideways in a deep slouch with His legs sprawled out. (This scene called up so many classic moments of years gone by when Coach used to humiliate Channel 4 TV ‘s Chuck “The Babbler” Marlowe with the same cruel insults and postures.) Maurer was gentle and cautious to the point of timidity. Coach was warmer and more civil than we’re used to seeing Him—but still Coach. The questions were all big puffy softballs—nothing about Knight’s firing at IU, about the IU mess since then—not a hint of anything which might rile up Coach. The topics ran across the decades—Coach’s three national championship teams at Indiana, the greatest leaders (Scott May, Quinn Buckner, Steve Alford) the most under-rated player (Daryl Thomas), and numerous interesting anecdotes about coaches and players. Coach delivered His usual edgy ration of wisecracks and smart-ass comments—some to the audience, some to a lightly quaking Maurer—and often turned on a dime back to His warmer self. He said His all-time college basketball team would include Bill Russell, John Havlicek, Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain, Sam Jones, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jordan. Near the end, Maurer asked if Coach would ever return to college coaching. “Yeah,” Coach replied. “If the circumstances were right. I’ve got nothing else to do.” Coach looked happier and healthier than He did last winter when He retired with 10 games left in the season at Texas Tech and turned the job over to His son, Patrick. Knight closed the show with thanks to Maurer for such a pleasant evening. Only one question remained: What could poor Maurer have thought about the rudeness and prickliness of Knight, supposedly His friend, throughout an evening in which Knight was treated with fawning, excruciating delicacy? I suspect the answer is that this stuff—this jerk/asshole mode—is in Coach’s DNA, and He can no more control it than He can fly to the moon. This is what Coach’s “friends” get; his enemies, too, only far more of it, and much more aggressively hostile. He is what He is. Quite a mix. (October 16, 2008) Marlowe Sighting Rumor leaks from southern Indiana that former IU basketball broadcaster and longtime whipping post on The Bob Knight Show, Chuck “The Babbler” Marlowe, has been spotted alive and well. Sources say he attended the Tom Crean Healing Weekend event held in French Lick in late August. Marlowe, believed to be in his 70s, has been off radar in the IU scene for several years. It’s good to know he’s surviving. (October 19, 2008) The Cubs: Suffering As Only IU Football Fans Can. . . After the Chicago Cubs won their division title and were swept out of the first-round playoffs in three games, Cub fans poured out their hearts and despair in Chicago papers. They sounded like the only other group of people in the universe who could understand: Indiana University football fans. Brian Patke wrote to the Chicago Tribune that next year’s Cubs marketing slogan should be “Chicago Cubs baseball—Come share in the never-ending nightmare.” He vowed never to set foot in Wrigley Field again, said he had boxed up all his Cubs memorabilia and thrown it in a dumpster. “To pass this collection of misery down to my kids,” Patka said, “would only be committing the same brutal punishment my father passed down to me..” I wish I could say it’s been fun,” he added, “ but that would be like saying that multiple minor heart attacks are no big deal.” William Gottschalk wrote to suggest that next year’s rallying cry could be, “Wait till next century!” But the best came from Mike Byrne of suburban Hanover Park, who mused: “The Cubs are not gravitas. They are gravity, a force as certain as the sun setting in the west and the deficit rising in the east. They are not a team so much as a life lesson: . . .the world is not your oyster and championships do not always come to those who wait. How many have been born, lived, and died watching and loving this team, never to see that wish fulfilled?” A deep breath, and Byrne went on. “But it is not defeatism that I preach; it is stoicism. Will I be there again to follow the Cubs next season? You bet I will. I am not abandoning them to lose what I always expected them to lose, any more than I would abandon a child who had suffered a succession of failures. I will be there, standing tall and rooting for the team. . .And if it’s a cold, drizzly, miserable day, it will be all the more appropriate.” (October 15, 2008) “A lot of times this is like watching bad high school football.”—Mark Lewis, an Indiana University junior from Baltimore, describing what he sees when he attends an IU football game this year, quoted in an Indianapolis Star article about fan outlook for the rest of the season. (October 22, 2008) With IU football again backsliding, people are asking: How long does Coach Bill Lynch’s contract run? (This is code for: How much does IU have to pay the guy if they fire him?) The Answer: Lynch’s contract runs till July 1, 2012. That means Lynch can coach the rest of this season, all of 2009, all of 2010, and all of 2011, and the contract would expire mid-summer after the 2011 season concludes. A long haul or a lot of bucks--take your choice. (October 26, 2008) Light A Candle For G. Fred Fred Glass, an Indianapolis attorney, has been named the new athletic director at Indiana University. He replaces Rick Greenspan, whose last day will be December 31. Glass has extensive experience in the Indianapolis sports scene, serving as a director of the Indiana Sports Corporation, President of the Super Bowl Committee, and as a leader of the local board which manages the new Lucas Oil Stadium, Conseco Fieldhouse, Victory Field, and the Hoosier Dome. Above all, though, he is an IU alumnus, and uses the distinctive, over-reaching “initial, then first name” format to identify himself. Not good old Fred Glass, but G. Fred Glass. Sounds so much more important. He’ll have his hands full at IU. Light a candle for G. Fred. (October 28, 2008) I shook hands last night with outgoing IU athletic director Rick Greenspan. I told him three things: 1) that he’d done a lot of things right and I was glad he was getting credit for them, 2) that I wished him well in his new career, and, 3) that he should write the book (the latter a reference to a stipulation in his separation agreement with IU that he retains the right to write a book about the unfortunate events which led to his resignation) because the full story is yet to be told. (October 29, 2008) Coach, Revisited: Chapter 24,858? After 18 years of choking on it, fighting back the temptation, editorial director Deborah Paul of Indianapolis Monthly magazine has finally surrendered and fired back at former Indiana Coach Bob Knight. What’s buggin’ her? Another textbook case of Knight boorishness, this one in 1990 when, Paul says, Knight went ballistic during an interview in His Assembly Hall office, cut off the interview and kicked her out. Paul says Coach began firing F-bombs, leapt out of his chair (knocking it over in the process), and “sent my tape recorder clattering to the floor, and finally gave me a light shove out the door.” All this, she claims, over a few innocent questions about why he’d switched from wearing a sport jacket to wearing a sweater at games, and why he had decided to go by Bob instead of Bobby. Paul says Knight never spoke to her again, and turned down all subsequent requests by her magazine for interviews. Paui’s anger is scorching as she recounts numerous episodes to make her case that Knight has “never been ruled by rational behavior” and is a “guy who has acted like a big jerk for most of his career.” Those who’ve watched Coach for decades can only smile knowingly when they read this column in IM’s November, 2008 issue. It’s a classic Bob Knight tale. (October 29, 2008) Tom Bolyard, Jack Brown (1940s era), Hallie Bryant (1950s), Archie Dees (1950s), Clarence Doninger, Scott Eells, Chuck Franz, Pat Graham, Steve Green, Gary Grieger, Kyle Hornsby, John Kamstra, Ted Kitchel, Mike LaFave, Gary Long (1950s), Bobby Masters, Todd Meier, Jerry Memering, Mike Niles, Pete Obremsky, Wayne Radford, Chris Reynolds, Steve Risley, Bill Russell (1960s), Earl Schneider, Burke Scott (1953-55), Erik Suhr, Ryan Tapak, Don Williamson (1950s), John Wood (1950s).—Former IU basketball players spotted in attendance at a Varsity Club Tip-Off Dinner for the 2008-2009 Hoosier basketball team, held in Assembly Hall October 28, 2008. Indiana’s football team ranks last in the Big Ten and third from last of 66 teams in BCS conferences in victories in the past decade ending in 2007. In 63rd position with 35 victories (and 68 losses), IU is ahead of only Vanderbilt (30), Baylor (29), and Duke (14). In the Big Ten, IU’s last-place mark is 35 wins and 68 losses. Illinois is 10th with 42 wins, then Northwestern at 51, Michigan State with 54, Minnesota with 55, Purdue with 61, Penn State with 64, Iowa with 66, Wisconsin with 74, Michigan with 76. In first place is Ohio State with 89 wins and 22 losses. Stewardship, Updated for Legal Fees The Indianapolis Star, acting like a newspaper should, has pried loose more information about Indiana University’s payments to lawyers involved in the truly awful Kelvin Sampson Unpleasantness. The Star had to file a Freedom of Information request to obtain the information. Through July 31, IU has spent $497,646 on legal fees. About $470,000 of this went to the Indianapolis firm of Ice Miller. The rest went to lawyers for Sampson and IU who represented them in a 2006 hearing before the NCAA for NCAA rules violations while Sampson was coach at Oklahoma. This brings the total so far paid (since Bob Knight was fired in September of 2000) for athletic department staff and coach buyouts, and legal fees in the Sampson matter, to $4,950,646. Additional legal fees are expected, the Star reported. (November 21, 2008) Back to top
©2010 Twitfits.com