As you may recall, the NCAA levied a five-year show-cause order on Kelvin Sampson back in November, along with slapping IU with three years probation for “failure to monitor.”  Essentially, this means Sampson has little to no chance at being a coach at an NCAA member school for the next five years.

But, Sampson did not agree with the NCAA’s ruling. So he appealed. And today, he was officially denied.

Some more details from the Indianapolis Star:

Sampson appealed the penalties in an April hearing, saying his ban was too severe and that the original committee hearing was biased against him because a date was set before the NCAA enforcement staff issued formal allegations and before it completed interviews.

The NCAA contended that the the original findings and penalties were correct.

Nothing surprising here: it was unlikely Sampson’s appeal was going to help lessen the penalties brought down upon him. Now that he’s been denied, IU has no more hearings with the NCAA on the matter and he’s toiling away on Scott Skiles’ bench in Milwaukee, this will likely be the last nail in the coffin on the Kelvin Sampson era at IU. (Unless members of that team/Sampson/an assistant coach/a member of the athletic staff/a member of the administrative staff/a recruit does a tell-all interview or leaks something to the media. I suppose there’s always a chance of that happening.)

Feels good, doesn’t it?

One of the major storylines this summer besides recruiting is the eligibility status of incoming freshmen Maurice Creek and Bawa Muniru. Neither player reported to Bloomington for the second semester of summer school.

Creek is believed to be waiting for SAT scores and Muniru is finishing a summer course in Alabama. During today’s press conference, Tom Crean addressed the status of Creek, albeit briefly:

“I can’t tell you much and I’m not going to. We’re very on top of it. He’s very diligent with what he’s doing. We’re confident that everything is moving in the right direction for him. That’s really all there is to it with both of them.”

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out, but for now, the cause for concern is minor at best. Similar situations transpire each year across the country. The reality is that both players will qualify if the necessary criteria is met and Crean sounds confident that will be the case.

With the uncertainty of the scholarship situation going forward, it was only a matter of time until the questions started on the availability of grants for future recruiting classes.

In Wednesday afternoon’s press conference, Tom Crean was asked about IU’s recruiting efforts by Herald-Times beat writer Chris Korman. Here’s a transcript:

Korman: You obviously don’t have too many scholarships for the next couple classes, but there seems to be a fair amount of offers out there. How do you manage those?

Crean: We just do. We’re constantly recruiting. We’re constantly recruiting.

Korman: If you have a kid, is there pressure on them if they’re a 2011 kid and they know, some of them we’ve talked to they say, ‘IU doesn’t have any scholarships.’

Crean: Are they saying that or are you saying that?

(more…)

Indiana coach Tom Crean met the media earlier this afternoon at Assembly Hall. You can listen to the audio of the press conference here or in the embedded media player below.

We’ll have more reaction to Crean’s comments later tonight or tomorrow.

(Thanks to Chris Korman of The Herald-Times for the audio.)

We will gather with our friends from the Hoosier Scoop/H-T and the IDS for our bi-weekly Monday evening chat. This week, we’ll be joined by Louisville Courier-Journal columnist Rick Bozich. See you at 7:30 EST.

After a 78-65 win Saturday evening in Conseco Fieldhouse, the Indiana All-Stars headed south to Louisville looking to complete a sweep of the Kentucky All-Stars at Knights Hall on the campus of Bellarmine University.

And they did just that.

Led again by Errick Peck, who will attend Cornell University, Indiana defeated Kentucky 64-49 . The Hoosier state continues to dominate the interstate series and now leads 82-42 all-time.

Peck finished with a game-high 14 points and Purdue signee D.J. Byrd added 10.

Indiana out-rebounded Kentucky 51-46 and limited Kentucky Mr. Basketball Jon Hood to just eight points in 26 minutes. Hood scored 20 points in Saturday’s game in Indianapolis.

Mr. Basketball Jordan Hulls was just 1 of 9 from the field and finished with four points. But like he normally does, Hulls played a solid floor game and dished out five assists, grabbed five rebounds and had two steals. His future teammate at Indiana, Derek Elston, had four points and eight rebounds.

Audio: Indiana all-star coach David Wood, Hulls, Peck and Stephan Van Treese addressed the media following the sweep of Kentucky. You can listen to the audio from the press conference in the embedded audio player below.

We’re a little late to the game on this, but both The Indiana Daily Student and The Hoosier Scoop are reporting that Maurice Creek will not report to Bloomington for the second session of summer school.

At April’s Derby Festival Classic, Creek said he planned to report to IU in time for the elite camp, which takes place this weekend.

Based on his comments to IDS reporter Jordan Cohen and to Chris Korman of the H-T/Hoosier Scoop, that won’t be the case:

“My family just doesn’t want me to come yet,” Creek told Korman. “They want to make sure we get things straight.”

When asked what needed to be set straight,  Creek said, “just test-score wise.” Creek took the SAT just last weekend, he said.

“I’m not really sure where I stand with all that,” he said. “My parents handle all of that. But one way or another I’m going to get up there. We just have to make sure it’s all set.”

Four of IU’s signees - Jordan Hulls, Derek Elston, Bobby Capobianco and Christian Watford — will be arriving on campus in the next couple of days. There’s no word yet on when Bawa Muniru is expected to arrive in Bloomington.