Friday, February 22, 2008

It may be over

ESPN now is reporting that IU and Kelvin Sampson have reached a settlement. It stipulates that Sampson cannot sue the university for wrongful termination.

According to the report on SportsCenter, Dan Dakich will be named the interim head coach. A press conference is upcoming sometime tonight. A link to the Indianapolis Star's video feed of the press conference is available here. Right now its kind of boring, because it is video of a bunch of reporters hanging around the room waiting for IU officials to show up.

Several players, according to the Star and other sources, did not show up for practice today. But the Star is reporting Sampson wants all his guys to play against Northwestern tomorrow.

My own thoughts ... this may not be the best way to reach a solution in this matter. But I think IU needed to nip this one in the bud. The last thing the Hoosiers needed was for this issue to nag them through the rest of the season and into the NCAA tournament. And if the school did nothing and faced additional sanctions later, that would have been much worse.

It just may be better to get this over with so the team can move on. And the players better move on. Those players apparently skipping practice need to think about what they're doing. If they want to play at the next level, they have to be on the court NOW. Scouts are watching them in the games they are about to play. I don't think draft statuses will improve because they stood up for their coach.

They report, you decide?

The circus surrounding Indiana basketball and the fate of its coach is reaching nightmare proportions. Reports have ranged from Kelvin Sampson has been fired to no decision has been made. Another suggests players have threatened to quit if Sampson is removed.

Here are the media reports I've come across. Read them and decide for yourself. As of this posting, no IU press conference has been scheduled or an announcement made that I've seen.

  • WTHR's story stating Sampson is out
  • Fox Sports.com story that Sampson is gone for this year
  • ESPN.com story that a decision has been made on Sampson's future
  • CBS Sports.com story about the players standing up for their coach
  • Indianapolis Star story saying a decision is coming. The Star's IU blog posting about all the media reports.
  • IDS story about the issue.
Update (1:39 p.m.): CBS Sports.com now is reporting Sampson is suspended for the season and then will be fired.