Dakich, Hoosiers to host Buckeyes

Dan Dakich’s wife, Jackie, was in the dentist’s chair Thursday afternoon when she first heard her husband was going to coach at his alma mater.\nThe problem? It wasn’t true ... yet. \n“My wife calls me and says ‘Hey, are you the head coach at Indiana?’” Dakich recalled his wife and fellow Hoosier alum asking him as he spoke on his inaugural radio show. \nHis response was simple. \n“‘I met with Travis Steele, the video coordinator, and I don’t think he has any say over who’s the head basketball coach at Indiana,’” Dakich said. \nBut less than 24 hours after that conversation, Dakich was appointed the interim head of his former school. And now he has less than two weeks and four games to try to win a Big Ten title. \nDakich, IU’s interim coach because of Kelvin Sampson’s resignation Friday, will coach his second game at the Hoosier helm when No. 12 IU hosts Ohio State at 7 p.m. today in Assembly Hall. Dakich won his first game against Northwestern 85-82.\nIU is tied for the fewest conference losses in the Big Ten.\n“When you come to Indiana, you come to play for Big Ten championships and you come to play for national championships,” Dakich said after the radio show. “That’s what you do, and that’s the only thing I care about.”\nDakich looked like an ambassador for the program before and after his inaugural radio show; he shook hands and signed autographs for fans in the studio audience. \nAfter the show, Dakich rejected the notion that he is the “caretaker” of the program.\n“This team is about this moment in this team,” he said after the show. “It’s not about what’s going to happen or what happened in the past. It’s about getting these kids to the goals that they set when they came here.”\nThe team will meet a talented Buckeye squad that Dakich said is loaded with talent.\n“They have two players that are as good as anybody, maybe in the country,” Dakich said about Ohio State big man Kosta Koufos and guard Jamar Butler. \nIU beat Ohio State in Columbus 59-53 on Feb. 10. Senior forward D.J. White dominated the game, recording a double-double by the end of the first half. \n“I love what D.J. White is bringing to his basketball team,” Buckeye coach Thad Matta said during a teleconference Monday. “He’s extremely productive both in scoring and rebounding, and he’s playing great defense.”\nDakich doesn’t mind White, either. \n“I’ve been coaching for however long I’ve been coaching, and I’ve never been around a more enjoyable kid,” he said during the show. \nWhite, a favorite to win Big Ten Player of the Year, scored 21 points in his first game against Koufos, who’s seven feet tall.\nThe Buckeyes are 1-3 since their loss to IU.