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I have to admit that I was critical of Dakich at some points, and I was completely wrong. Especially with the Bassett/Ellis situation.
I criticized him at the time because I didn't think he should have the authority to kick them off the team, although I always prefaced it with "With the information we have at this point". From this interview it is now clear that Dakich had the backing and permission of the AD and it's more clear what he was asking the players to do, and they totally disrespected him.
So I admit I was wrong and should have just trusted that Dakich was doing what was best for the program. Good luck Dan and hopefully we'll see you back involved with the program at some point.
i hope he lands a gig somewhere else.
There is more to this story than we the fans will ever know. I think given the circumstance McCallum probably could have connected better with the kids at that moment of crisis than Dakich and maybe squeezed out a couple more wins but, that team needed discipline and Dak stepped in and laid down the law. I applaud him for that, that team had become a run away freight train. All that being said, the bright side is that we now have a coach, in Tom Crean, that we can get behind. Instead of being stuck with McCallum if he had gotten us to say, the sweet 16 or something. I feel all things aside we came out of this as best we could, we have a clean slate, a fresh start, etc... Now it is time to get back to what we do best, fielding a team that buys into the idea of a team, and I am not talking about an And1 team either...
P.S. Big A, I love the site but honestly, I can't stand Bob Kravitz. I listen to him on 1070 and read his columns and he is way to sensationalist for me. Not to mention when he called out Tony Dungy, that is the day that I lost all respect for him.
This article, like a good portion of his work during the Sampson Era, is simply playing to the Looper crowd. What exactly what IU supposed to do? Kravitz seems to believe that IU should have fired Sampson in October or at least in February. Apparently, Kravitz has never heard of the name "Jim O'Brien". The fact of the matter is, even if a coach breaks every rule in the book, it isn't worth it to risk millions of dollars, plus legal fees, to fire the coach. Yeah, Greenspan was helped out by the anonymous donor, but he still got rid of Sampson at the end of the week-long investigation, and in a way that will not allow Sampson to harass the university for years and years.
Again, there's no way that Greenspan is blameless, but he's also not the King of England. He answers to the president of the university, and there has been increasing mention in recent weeks of the idea that Herbert was pushing Sampson hard. I suppose he could have said, in March 2006, "if you hire Sampson instead of John Beilein, I will resign." But ultimately, if the president and the AD disagree after discussion, the president wins. Again, I'm not trying to be an apologist for Greenspan, who has made mistakes. But if Kravitz is going to crucify the guy, should he explain exactly what Greenspan should have done under the circumstances. I think RG deserves more criticism for the recurrence of the violations than for the hiring itself.
Even if they can't land an interview with Herbet, there's got to be sources they have that were close to the situation. There's always someone willing to talk.