I am not a Dakich apologist because he's an “IU guy”. I was one of many that hammered him on this and other blogs because he dismissed two players basically the day before Crean was hired. At the time I felt it should have been Crean's decision, not the decision of a lame-duck coach.

Now I commend him for his actions and I respect him for not airing the dirty laundry in public. Why does he have to tell you what really happened on his radio show? He doesn't have to do that and I respect him for it. He's taking heat from people like you when he probably could avoid it by speaking publicly, but he has class and isn't throwing people under the bus on public radio.

I didn't know you needed time with the players to tell them that excessive drug use would not be tolerated. Sampson knew what was going on and most of the campus did as well…

If Dan wants to remove himself from this position than he should have acted in the best interest of the program for the duration of his tenure…

He doesn't get the luxury of being told that he is not going to return as head coach, and then dismiss two players and call his effort of restoring order to the program a full and valiant effort…it wasn't and he shouldn't be excused from the problems that took place and how they were handled while HE WAS IN CHARGE OF SUPERVISING THEM…

I don't care if you have a substitute teacher in high school, if they catch you cheating on a test, than you should be held accountable…you excusing him because he was the interim coach and the potential backlash that would have taken place had he done what was right is pretty close to condoning the behavior that the team displayed… Something that Dakich's lack of action clearly did…He was an enabler and is only getting a free pass because he is an “IU” guy…

Its garbage and so was his judgement

Dakich took over the team in almost an impossible situation. If had begun kicking players off the team from the get go he would have been destroyed by the fans, he almost was anyways because of some of the losses.

It's really to sit here and criticize him when you have no idea what the real situation was.

Dakich's job as the director of basketball operations was to monitor and prevent situations like this…

He kicked the guys off the team, only after the season, when he knew what was going on during the season…

His original responsibility was to the program, not the players…and he failed to live up to the code of conduct expected of his position.

http://www.straitpinkie.com/sports/hoosiers/gor...

http://www.straitpinkie.com/sports/hoosiers/gor...

What responsibility does Dakich hold? You're talking about an interim coach that the players didn't want anyways. This is a guy who took a ton of heat (from me included) for kicking guys off the team. I'm not sure what else he could have done?

The interesting thing is that Marijuana is not on the substance list for NCAA drug tests, unless there is suspicion of use…Meaning the NCAA has to declare in advance that they will be testing for marijuana.

The other rumor, which can not be confirmed is that Ellis and Bassett failed there NCAA drug test and as a result of that, they were kicked off the team, so that they wouldn't draw any further attention to the program during the NCAA investigation period. ..Now if the NCAA announced a suspicion of marijuana, we could understand that, but if they didn't the drugs that would be tested for and possibly found would have been cocaine, ecstacy and other performance enhancing drugs (not that coc and e are performance enhancing, but the other drugs that would have been tested for would have been perf enhancing)

That was the decision of Dakich, and one that really set the ball in motion for the way the team quit, transferred, etc…and was the reason why Eli Holman went crazy when Crean wouldn't allow them back on the team after passing a drug test…