Indiana yet to announce Sampson's fate

by Jeff Goodman

Updated: February 22, 2008, 6:03 PM EST 395 comments

News of the players skipping practice came hours after Kelvin Sampson met with his athletic director earlier Friday, and the Hoosiers then held a team meeting, heightening the possibility Indiana will soon have a new coach.

The university was expected to announce later in the day whether Sampson would keep his job after an investigation found he committed five major NCAA recruiting violations.

Athletic director Rick Greenspan met briefly with Sampson. A few minutes after Greenspan left the coach's office, Sampson walked down a ramp with his wife, Karen.

Players, managers, assistant coaches and the coach's son, Kellen Sampson, then gathered in the locker room for what appeared to be a team meeting. No one would comment to reporters, including White, a senior captain. The meeting broke up about midday.

Later, Indiana star freshman guard Eric Gordon was on his way to practice and said players had not been told of any decision regarding Sampson. The No. 15 Hoosiers play at Northwestern Saturday.

Trustee Philip Eskew Jr. said he had lunch with university president Michael McRobbie, who indicated he hoped the situation with Sampson could be resolved in a positive way. McRobbie was at IUPUI on Friday for a visit by the Chinese ambassador to the U.S.

"But you have to do what's right for those kids," Eskew said by telephone.

Trustee Patrick Shoulders acknowledged the frustration of those awaiting a decision.

"There's obviously some loose ends," Shoulders said. "It's crazy, but I think it will all get taken care of (Friday)."

Sources have told FOXSports.com that Sampson will not be coaching the Hoosiers for at least the remainder of this season.

The team met with athletic director Rick Greenspan on Thursday night. Almost the entire team left en masse after the meeting about 7:45 p.m. and declined comment as they got into their cars and left the parking lot.

At Assembly Hall, Sampson spent the morning in his office, presumably looking at tape of Northwestern before leaving the building at about 2:15 p.m. About 45 minutes later, players arrived for a team meeting. Athletic department spokesman J.D. Campbell said players were there for a compliance meeting that had been scheduled on the Hoosiers' off-day.

Initially on Thursday, two sources told FOXSports.com that Sampson would be immediately terminated. However, one of the sources later backtracked, saying Sampson would either be fired or suspended. The second source steadfastly maintains that Sampson will be fired.

"He's not lasting past Friday," the source told FOXSports.com.

When asked to confirm whether Sampson is done at Indiana, Campbell told FOXSports.com, "I don't know that to be true."

All signs point to Indiana assistant Dan Dakich, a former Hoosier player and assistant coach under Bob Knight, taking the reins for the remainder of the season.

University officials and athletic department officials met Thursday afternoon. President Michael McRobbie had a lunch meeting with university counsel Dorothy Frapwell and faculty representative Bruce Jaffee in the president's office. Frapwell and Jaffee were two of the three people asked to conduct the school's second investigation into the allegations. The third, athletic director Rick Greenspan, could not be seen through the office's glass doors, and Frapwell and Jaffee left through a back entrance to avoid reporters.

The move comes just eight days after the NCAA announced its findings that Sampson had committed five major rules violations. The NCAA alleged that Sampson placed improper phone calls to recruits, then provided false and misleading information about those calls to both the university and NCAA investigators.

In response, university president Michael McRobbie said the school would conduct a new investigation into the accusations.

A school investigation last year revealed that Sampson and his assistants had made more than 100 impermissible calls, but the school had previously contended that the violations were secondary in nature.

Sampson was already on NCAA probation when he took the Indiana job for making 577 improper phone calls between 2000 and 2004 while the coach at Oklahoma.

The scandal comes in the midst of the Hoosiers' strongest season since losing to Maryland in the 2002 national title game. With Tuesday's 77-68 win over Purdue, Indiana improved to 22-4 overall (11-2 in the Big Ten) and is currently ranked No. 15 in the Associated Press poll.

The win also pulled the Hoosiers to within a half-game of the Boilermakers in the Big Ten race, but is far more likely to be remembered as the final game of Sampson's brief tenure in Bloomington.

According to the coach's contract signed in April 2006, Indiana pays Sampson an annual base salary of $500,000. The contract runs through the next five seasons.

Sampson's deal includes termination clauses for violations of university or NCAA rules that eliminate the payments, but two Indianapolis attorneys have told The Associated Press that firing Sampson now may not be enough to prevent the school from paying out at least $2.5 million.

The university has until May 8 to respond to the NCAA, and a hearing has been set for June 14 in Seattle. A decision is expected sometime in July. Proven major violations come with penalties that include teams being excluded from postseason tournaments.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.