Posts tagged RickGreenspan at FanHouse

Indiana President Michael McRobbie can't be blamed for the decision to hire coach Kelvin Sampson, who left in disgrace four months ago -- Sampson was already coach before McRobbie got the job of president.

But McRobbie can be blamed for not acting more swiftly to deal with Sampson and athletic director Rick Greenspan, who resigned last week.

Indiana athletic director Rick Greenspan announced today that he is resigning, effective at the end of the year, in the wake of additional NCAA charges against the school's basketball team.

The NCAA said today that former coach Kelvin Sampson, whom Greenspan hired, committed five major recruiting violations, and that the school failed to monitor the basketball program.

The second day of an NCAA hearing into recruiting violations committed by former Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson is underway right now, and in six to eight weeks the NCAA will hand down penalties based on what it learns at this hearing.

But whatever punishment Indiana gets, it has already paid a heavy price. In a Q&A for the Indianapolis Star, Mark Alesia tallies the cost:

How much has this cost IU? Legal fees have topped $200,000, and the school hasn't received the bill for work done during most of this calendar year. The final tab is likely to be much larger.

The school spent $750,000 for a resignation settlement with Sampson, $550,000 of which came from a donor who wanted to remain anonymous. Senderoff received $66,000 for his resignation.

Former assistant Dan Dakich, who was not involved in the charges, received a $185,000 resignation settlement after taking over as interim coach late last season.

There also have been travel expenses for NCAA hearings, including Sampson's in 2006, and the many man-hours of work by the university's general counsel and other employees.

Add it all up, and we're talking well over $1 million that Indiana is spending, all because Athletic Director Rick Greenspan hired a guy with a track record of flouting the rules, and then failed to put any safeguards in place to prevent Sampson from continuing to flout the rules. How can Greenspan keep his job?

Andy Katz of ESPN.com is reporting that Washington State coach Tony Bennett has decided not to take the Indiana head coaching job after having a conversation with Indiana athletic director Rick Greenspan.

"I thought about it, but I'm not going to pursue it," Bennett told Katz, adding that he wouldn't consider the vacant Cal job either.

A Fox Sports report on Saturday said Bennett had been offered the Indiana job. Bennett has said that he didn't receive a formal offer from Indiana, although most indications are that Bennett was, in fact, Indiana's first choice.

For Indiana, the other names that have been mentioned -- Xavier's Sean Miller, Pittsburgh's Jamie Dixon, Vanderbilt's Kevin Stallings,Tennessee's Bruce Pearl -- may all take a back seat to former Golden State Warriors and Stanford coach Mike Montgomery, Katz reported.

And for Washington State, the fact that Bennett has said no to Indiana and Cal doesn't mean he'll be back. His wife is from Louisiana, and he might consider the vacant LSU job.

The most frequent criticism that ESPN basketball commentator Dick Vitale faces is that he's too positive: Every player is sensational, every coach is brilliant. But at least that means you know that when Vitale criticizes someone, that person really deserves it. And since Vitale is calling for Indiana Athletic Director Rick Greenspan to get fired, you know Greenspan really deserves it. Here's what Vitale said this morning:

Vitale said of Greenspan's decision to hire disgraced coach Kelvin Sampson, "The athletic director needs to be held accountable as well. ... When you're an athletic director and you hire a guy from a school that has already had penalties and you know that ... and you're an unbelievably prestigious university like Indiana in the world of basketball, you hire that guy and now he goes out and does it again, you've got to be held accountable."

Vitale also correctly called Greenspan's claim that he's not the only one who was involved in hiring Sampson "a cop out." The buck stops with Greenspan, and if Sampson deserves to get fired then Greenspan deserves to get fired.

After Erin Andrews described Sampson as "very honest" and Doug Gottlieb asked, Who possibly could have thought that Kelvin Sampson would break the rules, it's refreshing to hear some common sense on ESPN about the Indiana basketball mess.

I'm on the record as saying that not only should Indiana basketball coach Kelvin Sampson lose his job over his latest NCAA rules violations, but so should Athletic Director Rick Greenspan. Many in the basketball media have said the same, but ESPN analyst Doug Gottlieb disagrees:

Although Gottlieb, like everyone, thinks Sampson is about to get fired, he defends Greenspan, saying, "People like Dick Vitale and Jay Bilas are saying that Rick Greenspan needs to be broomed as well, I disagree with that ... Who possibly could have thought that Kelvin Sampson, a bright man, a good basketball coach -- it's one thing to have another NCAA violation, but to do the exact same thing is dumbfounding, he's going to be out by the end of the week, but I think Greenspan should keep his job."

I like Gottlieb as an analyst, but he couldn't possibly be more wrong here. The entire reason Greenspan should have seen this coming is that Sampson has done it before. To answer Gottlieb's question, "Who possibly could have thought?" I would merely say: Anyone who has followed Sampson's career.

The NCAA has leveled serious accusations against Indiana basketball coach Kelvin Sampson, and no one other than Sampson is seriously suggesting that the NCAA is wrong. So does that mean that Athletic Director Rick Greenspan is going to fire Sampson? Nope:

Greenspan said this afternoon that Kelvin Sampson would remain the Hoosiers basketball coach "for the foreseeable future."

Greenspan said he would not speculate "today, tomorrow or through the course of the season," on the fate of Sampson, whom the NCAA said lied to investigators about his role in recruiting sanction violations.

Greenspan said the university "will not rush to judgment" or have a "faulty conclusion."

Greenspan said the detail included in the NCAA report went "beyond the scope" of what IU's investigation found but that no new violations were reported.

But really, of course Greenspan isn't going to fire Sampson. Greenspan is the one who hired Sampson, knowing full well that Sampson has complete and utter disrespect for NCAA rules. If he fired Sampson now, he'd be acknowledging that he botched the hiring of the head men's basketball coach, which was the most important decision of Greenspan's tenure, which would mean Greenspan doesn't deserve to keep his job, either.

And that's why Indiana should fire Greenspan. By hiring Sampson he got the school into the big mess it's about to be in. He's the one who should take the fall.

I have to say, that as an Illinois fan I've never exactly been a big booster of Indiana basketball, and when Kelvin Sampson and the Hoosiers took Eric Gordon away from Champaign I was pretty angry. In fact, I was very angry, but in the back of my mind there was a little voice that helped keep me from going insane with rage.

That voice kept saying to me, "Don't worry, Tom. Kelvin is going to get that program in trouble somehow, and karma will set everything straight."

It appears that karma has finally caught up to Sampson once again. According to ESPN's Andy Katz, the NCAA is going to announce some major violations against Sampson and Indiana on Wednesday.

The NCAA sent a notice of allegations to Indiana University last Friday detailing major violations in the men's basketball program, multiple sources told ESPN.com.

Larry MacIntyre, assistant vice president for university communications at Indiana University, confirmed to ESPN.com that the school did receive documentation from the NCAA last week.

The Associated Press reported on Tuesday night that the school will make the allegations public on Wednesday. University trustees president Stephen Ferguson told AP that school officials this week reviewed the report, but that the NCAA is not expected to make its ruling until this summer.

Indiana AD Rick Greenspan took a big chance when he brought Sampson to Bloomington, where he left Oklahoma dealing with the ramifications of his active fingers. Now it seems that the Hoosiers are going to pay a hefty price for taking that chance.

(Thanks to Inside The Hall, which is a pretty good blog considering it's about Indiana basketball)