IU men’s basketball coach Kelvin Sampson disputed parts of a report that claim he knowingly participated in impermissible three-way recruiting phone calls.\nDuring his weekly press conference with reporters, Sampson said he gave “the right answer” when he told investigators he and former assistant men’s basketball coach Rob Senderoff did not talk at the same time during three-way recruiting phone calls.\n“I know what I know, and that’s all I need to say on that,” Sampson said. “What I said ... was the right answer.”\nAccording to a report submitted to the NCAA Committee on Infractions, one recruit and another recruit’s mother told investigators they remember Sampson and Senderoff talking at the same time, which refutes Sampson’s and Senderoff’s account that Senderoff stayed on the line only as an operator and did not talk.\nSampson maintains he knew that only one of the calls 10 calls was a three-way call. Three-way calls violate NCAA sanctions Sampson received for 577 excessive phone calls he and his staff made while Sampson coached at Oklahoma.\nSampson was not made available to reporters Tuesday when the report to the NCAA was released, and did not answer additional questions about the report. \nWhen asked if he uses caller ID on his phones, Sampson declined comment.\n“I’m not going to get into any of that,” Sampson said. “That’s enough of that. If you guys have questions about the basketball, I’d be glad to answer. I’m not going to sit here and make this about that. We’ve got a game Sunday, and we’re looking forward to playing it. \n“The NCAA still has to come in and make their final decision, and I’m not going to do anything to be a distraction to that. A lot of these I can’t answer. I wish I could, and I understand where you’re coming from – you would like to answer those.”
Dakich named assistant\nThe IU Athletics Department issued a release Thursday saying Dan Dakich, hired in June as the director of basketball operations, has been named an assistant coach for the team. Dakich replaces Senderoff, who resigned Monday.\nSampson said Dakich will focus on IU’s post players, which was Senderoff’s role with the team. \n“I think Dan will bring a lot to us with his experience as a head coach for 10 years, and I think he’s really good,” he said. \nDakich played at IU from 1982 to 1985 and captained the team his junior and senior seasons. He was head coach at Bowling Green State University, where he coached the Falcons to a 156-140 record during his 10-year tenure prior to coming to Bloomington. \nThis is his second stint as an assistant at IU. He worked under former head coach Bob Knight.\nIU senior forward D.J. White said he thought Dakich’s transition to the bench will be easy.\n“He talked to us and worked with us yesterday,” White said. “We know him well; he is always around. Coach Dakich is always joking with us. It is not like there is a stranger coming in. I think he will fall into place like normal.”\nIn addition to inheriting IU’s post players, Dakich also inherits a litany of sanctions that were imposed on Senderoff for his role in IU’s impermissible phone calls. Dakich is prohibited from traveling off campus for recruiting purposes and cannot place recruiting phone calls until October 2008.\nSampson said he was not sure when he will hire a new director of basketball operations, but when he does he joked he’s “going to hire somebody that can keep track of phone calls.”
Senderoff’s resignation\nWhite said Senderoff’s resignation was disappointing. \n“Obviously, he worked with the big men, and we became close,” White said. “He is going to be missed, and I am going to miss him especially, since he did a lot of things for me.”\nSenderoff will receive a severance package worth about $66,000 from the University for his resignation. \nSampson said that, per terms of Senderoff’s severance agreement, he could not comment about Senderoff’s relationship with the team. But Sampson expressed his displeasure with Senderoff’s resignation. \n“There’s no fun in that,” Sampson said. “Rob is an outstanding young coach, and he’ll get a lot of great opportunities as he moves forward, and I wish him nothing but the best.”
