Sampson's departure just the start of tough times

by Jeff Goodman

Updated: February 26, 2008, 1:50 PM EST 38 comments

Kelvin Sampson is history.

It may be termed a "resignation," but Sampson was basically fired on Friday night in the wake of an NCAA report that alleged five "major" violations. Sampson was given $750,000 — including $550,000 from a private donor (aka booster), so that he wouldn't sue the university.

D.J. White will graduate after the season and freshman phenom Eric Gordon Jr., is a virtual shoo-in to go the NBA route after the year is over.

Reserves Lance Stemler and Mike White are also seniors. The program's top four returning players — starters Armon Bassett and Jamarcus Ellis, in addition to Jordan Crawford and DeAndre Thomas — all chose to boycott Friday afternoon's practice.

In addition, FOXSports.com was told that there are issues involving the holdovers. Bassett and Crawford both received three-game suspensions earlier this season after failing drug tests.

There will be defections — whether it's the current players or those who have already committed to playing at Indiana.

According to sources close to Indiana's top signee, Devin Ebanks, the talented wing will get a release from his letter-of-intent and will almost certainly go in another direction.

Ebanks, a consensus Top 15 national player, was expected to be the cornerstone of the Hoosiers program — someone who would take the reins from Gordon and make certain there wasn't much, if any, of a drop-off from this season.

"I did have something in place that allows me to be released if Coach Sampson wasn't there," Ebanks said. "I'm going to use that to explore other options and I still want to wait and see who Indiana hires full-time, but I am going to talk things over with my mother and my coaches and go from there."

Harmony Community School (Ohio) pass-first point guard Terrell Holloway also has a provision that allows him to get out of his letter-of-intent and a source close to Holloway indicated that "he is likely to go elsewhere."

Indiana AD Rick Greenspan said in Friday night's news conference that the school will honor its agreement to the two recruits and allow them to be released from their letters-of-intent.

Indiana will go from a legitimate Final Four program to one that will be fortunate just to get into the NCAA tournament over the next couple of years.

The next coach will have plenty of work to do and Indiana will have to rebuild more than just its integrity.

According to multiple sources close to the program, Greenspan wasn't the key figure in the hiring of Sampson in March 2006. He said on Friday night that he "takes responsibility for what happens in the athletic department," but former school president Adam Hebert was the one who basically made that call — along with a pair of trustees.

Greenspan's wish list two years ago included Gonzaga's Mark Few, Vanderbilt's Kevin Stallings and former West Virginia and current Michigan coach John Beilein. Few wasn't interested and Beilein's buyout at West Virginia was too hefty.

Now the question is whether Greenspan will have any power in the hiring of the next coach. If he does, expect Stallings to be near the top of his list. The pair worked together at Illinois State and Stallings has done a terrific job this season at Vanderbilt.

New Jersey Nets coach Lawrence Frank, who could be out at the end of the season, may be the ideal replacement. Frank, 37, was a student manager under Bob Knight for four years and is also a proven college recruiter after spending three years under Kevin O'Neill at Tennessee.

Other names that will likely be tossed around are Washington State's Tony Bennett, Xavier's Sean Miller and those with IU ties such as New Mexico's Steve Alford and Minnesota Timberwolves coach Randy Wittman.

However, for now the job rests on the shoulders of interim coach Dan Dakich to try to take an emotional group to the Final Four. D.J. White is the leader of the team, and he developed a bond with Sampson over the past couple of years.

In fact, most of the players trusted Sampson and assistant coach Ray McCallum. They preferred that McCallum, who recruited the majority of the team, take the reins.

That was part of the reason for White and the other players skipping practice on Friday afternoon.

While Dakich is a former Indiana assistant coach and player under Bob Knight and was the head coach at Bowling Green for a decade, it's going to be difficult for him to quickly gain the respect of the current team. Even if Dakich leads this team deep into the NCAA tournament, it's highly unlikely he'll have a chance to get the gig on a permanent basis.

Sampson, who was 43-15 in his brief tenure in Bloomington, will now watch his former players and wait until June 14, when he'll have a chance to go in front of the NCAA's Committee of Infractions to state his case.

Sampson has certainly thrown away what appeared to be one of the more promising coaching careers. However, it's not out of the question that he'll get another job somewhere down the line. Remember, Todd Bozeman is at Morgan State following an eight-year "show-cause" ban after he admitted to paying a recruit's family $30,000.

The Hoosiers still boast the top inside-out combination in the entire country with White and Gordon and have a chance to do something special this season &$151; with or without Sampson.