UPDATE: IU to hire Oklahoma's Sampson as new head coach, media reports say

INDIANAPOLIS - Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson is headed to Indiana, ready to take over the reins of one of the nation's most prestigious college basketball programs.\nSampson told his players of the decision at a team meeting Tuesday, the same day IU players were informed of his hiring to replace Mike Davis.\n"I was caught by surprise a little bit," said Taylor Griffin, a freshman forward for the Sooners. "He made the decision. I guess it's better for the program. I guess it's better for him."\nThe hiring would give the Hoosiers a coach with nine consecutive 20-win seasons, but also facing scrutiny for possible recruiting violations.\nA person close to the negotiations told The Associated Press that the two sides were still working out final details of the contract on Tuesday. No news conference to announce the hiring was immediately scheduled.\nBut the deal, first reported by ESPN earlier in the day, was expected to be announced shortly, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because talks were not complete.\nStephanie Gilbert, the aunt of Hoosiers guard A.J. Ratliff who helped raise him in Indianapolis, said her nephew called Tuesday and the two discussed the imminent change.\n"They were told today," Gilbert said. "He's looking forward to meeting him and getting to know him. He seems pretty happy."\nRatliff declined to comment.\nOklahoma officials also declined to comment, and telephone messages left for Director of Athletics Rick Greenspan and spokesman Pete Rhoda were not immediately returned.\nThe news was bittersweet in Norman, Okla., where Sampson went 279-109 record over his 12 seasons, re-establishing the Sooners as a national contender and leading them to the 2002 NCAA Final Four.\n"It was definitely tough for him to do," Griffin said. "It would be tough for anybody."\nOklahoma went 20-9 this season and lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament to Wisconsin-Milwaukee.\nThe 50-year-old Sampson will replace Davis, who announced Feb. 16 he was resigning after leading the Hoosiers the past six seasons. Davis went 115-79 and led the Hoosiers to the 2002 national championship game after replacing Bob Knight in 2000.\nBut when Davis resigned last month, he said he believed the University needed someone with IU ties to unify the pro-Knight and anti-Knight factions. His decision also some players uncertain whether they would return to Indiana next season.\nGreenspan apparently took a different approach. He turned down the opportunity to lure Iowa's Steve Alford, a former All-American who led the Hoosiers to the 1987 national title.\n"Certainly there were those persons who wanted a coach to come from the 'IU family,' but I did not detect that being the majority of the people," IU Alumni Association president Ken Beckley said. "Most wanted us to get the best coach available that we could afford."\nTwo players, D.J. White and Robert Vaden, had both said after Davis' announcement that they were apt to transfer.\nGilbert said their decisions could change in the next few days.\n"Once they meet with him, they'll probably need to see," Gilbert said. "I think, from the looks of it, they have a pretty good coach on their hands."\nGilbert said she thought Ratliff would continue playing for the Hoosiers, who were 19-12 this year and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament before losing to Gonzaga.\nSampson's name surfaced late last week for the IU job after the Sooners were upset in the tournament.\nSampson led the Sooners to 12 straight postseason appearances, including their first Final Four trip in more than a decade. His career record is 455-257. They were Davis' Hoosiers that upset Sampson's Sooners to reach the 2002 national championship game. IU then lost to Maryland.\nSampson took his team back to the regional finals in 2003. In 2004-05, the Sooners shared the Big 12 title and were ranked among the top 10.\nSampson is one of six coaches with 20 or more wins each of the past nine seasons. The others are Arizona's Lute Olson (15), Kentucky's Tubby Smith (13), Duke's Mike Krzyzewski (10), Syracuse's Jim Boeheim (9) and Connecticut's Jim Calhoun (9).\nBut the move comes as the NCAA is looking into more than 550 impermissible phone calls to recruits by Sampson and his assistant coaches. Oklahoma officials are scheduled to appear before an NCAA panel in Utah on April 21.\nAs part of their self-imposed sanctions, the Sooners froze Sampson's salary for a two-year period beginning in 2005 and restricted him from receiving any postseason bonuses. His recruiting was also heavily curtailed.\nSampson got his first head coaching job at Montana Tech in 1981 after spending only one season as an assistant there. After back-to-back conference titles, he moved on to Washington State where he was an assistant for two years before taking over as head coach. He led the Cougars to the 1994 NCAA Tournament in his final season before coming to Oklahoma.