Around the Hall is recommended reading from the Inside the Hall crew.

+ Indy Star columnist Bob Kravitz discusses Kelvin Sampson’s unwillingness to take responsibility for what went down in Bloomington. As Kravitz notes, “Haven’t we gone through this already?” {Indianapolis Star}

+ Lance Stemler and Adam Ahlfeld confirmed that Sampson talked the players into finishing out the season after Stemler, Ahlfeld, D.J. White and Eric Gordon told Sampson they wouldn’t finish the season without him. {Indianapolis Star}

+ Former Indiana assistant Rob Senderoff has his penalty reduced by the NCAA — but only by a smidge. {The Sporting News}

+ Gary Parrish chronicles the story of Kellen Sampson and says the aspiring coach should be judged on his own merits and not by his last name. {CBS Sports}

Quotable:

“We were sitting there every day tearing through the rules and regulations of the NCAA, and I’m just like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ I felt like the biggest white elephant in the room, especially when we spent a week on the rules and regulations of phone calls. I told the professor, ‘I can probably teach this section.’” – Kellen Sampson on how he felt during the class he took at IU last year titled “NCAA rules and compliance.”

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There’s been no shortage of reports today regarding Tony Bennett and the Indiana job. First, it was Jeff Goodman of Fox Sports reporting that IU offered the job to Bennett. Then, you had Andy Katz of ESPN come back with a contradicting story that IU had not contacted him with a quote from Bennett that said as much. If that wasn’t enough Gary Parrish of CBS Sportsline weighed-in with his side of things and told us we’ll know if Bennett is the man within 24 hours.

A lot of you have commented asking for my take on things, so here it goes:

First, it’s important to remember that Goodman, Katz and Parrish are all trying to break this story. After all, it’s a pretty big one. Since they’re not bound to the rules of normal print media, they’re going to write about anything they feel is legitimate information from a good source. As far as Bennett telling Katz that he hasn’t talked to Indiana, what do you expect him to say? That he’s in negotiations and will arrive in Bloomington tomorrow? That’s not how it works, folks. Katz is a very good reporter, but he’s been wrong before (see his report a few years back that Steve Alford was going to Missouri). I do believe that Indiana has made contact with either Bennett or his representatives to gauge his interest. And he’s probably interested.

I can’t think of a good reason for Bennett to stay at Washington State. No offense to what Bennett has done there or the fans of the program, but let’s be honest, it’s not a destination job. Indiana is a destination and given Bennett’s ties to the Big Ten and the prestige of the program, he’d be foolish not to give it serious consideration. On the surface, he seems to be an ideal fit for the situation.

I have been told by multiple people that IU would like to have a coach in place before the Final Four, so whether or not Bennett is the man, we should know a lot more in the coming days. Until then, stay tuned…

The latest:

• Will Tony Bennett stay at Washington State?
• Seattle Post-Intelligencer blogger weighs-in
• Washington St: “We haven’t been contacted by any university”

More from ITH:

• PostmanR profiles Washington State’s Tony Bennett
• Complete coaching search coverage

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