Former Hoosier moves up in ranks

Morgantown, W.Va. -- Spurned by Bob Huggins and others, West Virginia hired Bowling Green's Dan Dakich as its head coach Thursday.\nDakich played at IU and was an assistant to Bob Knight for 11 years there. At West Virginia, he'll try to rebuild a team that set records for losses in two of the past four seasons and was racked with discipline problems.\nThe Mountaineers were 8-20 this season, 1-15 in the Big East.\n"What's happened in the past has happened in the past. It's where you want to go, how hard you want to work that is going to determine how far we get to," Dakich said. "You can rest assured, we are used to absolutely nothing but players' best effort, not only on the court (but) in the classroom."\nDakich agreed to a five-year, $2.5 million contract. He replaces Gale Catlett, who retired in February after 24 seasons with the Mountaineers and a school-record 565 wins.\nDakich was 89-57 in five seasons at Bowling Green, without a trip to the NCAA tournament. The Falcons went 24-9 this season -- the school's most victories in more than half a century -- and played in the NIT for the second time in three years.\n"There are some guys here who can play a little bit," Dakich said. "I want to see what their interest is in turning this into something special. We're going to work like crazy. We're going to treat kids right."\nWest Virginia originally pursued Huggins, an alumnus, but the coach said March 25 he would stay at Cincinnati. Kent State's Stan Heath then visited Morgantown, but he took the job at Arkansas the next day. Tennessee Tech's Jeff Lebo removed his name from contention Saturday, and Southern Illinois coach Bruce Weber withdrew Monday.\nWest Virginia athletic director Ed Pastilong also met with several assistant coaches.\nDakich is probably best remembered for shutting down Michael Jordan in the 1984 NCAA regional semifinals. Dakich held Jordan to 13 points and one rebound in his final game at North Carolina as the Hoosiers upset the top-ranked Tar Heels 72-68.\nMuch like Knight, Dakich's practices are intense. He storms the sidelines during games, and he preaches defense.\n"He's a no-nonsense guy, one who doesn't pull any punches, and he gets the job done," Pastilong said this week. "But what we really like about him is the attention he pays to the total student-athlete. He gets his guys to class, he gets them to work and he gets them to play basketball the way they should"