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I disagree completely. I think the university slapped the players in the face with the way they handled the situation the last 24 hours. It put the players into a horrible position with the way it was dragged out and the meeting last night (which was both unnecessary and put the players into further media bombardment). I think both sides should just say mistakes were made and move on with the full squad tomorrow night. At most, make them come off of the bench.

No, sorry. All I have is what I've heard from coaches in the area. I know that holds very little water -- great, some random internet dude says he heard Drew was dirty. But high school coaches, en masse, think he's shady. I don't think that would bode well for in-state recruiting, much less IU's reputation post-Sampson. From what I've heard, I really, really don't want Drew. Oh, I believe you. I was able to point the person to the story about how Drew uses negative recruiting, which isn't technically illegal but drives other coaches crazy.

Can anybody point me to any links regarding Scott Drew's recruiting questions? It would help in another discussion I am in.

It's nothing necessarily bad about him. It's just that the players don't know him very well. He only joined the basketball department over the summer, and he only became an assistant in October or November when IU's assistant Senderhoff resigned. On the other hand, McCallum was a key in recruiting several of the players, so they feel a much closer bond with him than Dakich.

Knight is never coming anywhere close to Indiana. That sounds good nationally, but most people are in the area know it's not going to happen. He has had lawsuits against the university for years. The school can't even get over their hatred of him to honor him in any way, let alone hire him. Plus Bloomington would go into civil war if he was rehired. People would actually take up arms and take to the streets and fight it out (a bit of an exaggeration, but it's basically true). Skiles isn't a serious candidate either. He's a darkhorse, but no favorite. The rumored candidates continue to be Bennett, Miller, or Brownell. Anybody else has to be considered a darkhorse at this point, although Greenspan has always had a very close to the vest coaching search.

Latest update out of Bloomington:

McCallum met with Greenspan right before practice today: http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080222/SPORTS0601/80222053

I feel bad for IU fans. They don't deserve this mess. At some point Kelvin Sampson needs to think about the kids and tell them to play out the year. Especially since he made a point at the MSU game talking about how this is all about the kids anyways. If Sampson doesn't convince the players to continue playing I will lose all respect for him. No way the players should give up this season for any coach. IU still has a good chance to win the Big Ten and some games in the tournament. This isn't the summer; it's near the end of the season. If you haven't lost all respect for Kelvin yet, I doubt anything he can do will cause you to. You know what I meant. I think I've been by far his biggest critic on here among IU fans. Didn't mean anything personal, just meant he is about as low as can get ethically. There isn't much he can do short of admiting his transgressions and apologize. Sorry if I came across as trying to rip you. For college coaches, I think that honor can be reserved for Dave Bliss. I actually think the Knight and Sampson situations are very comparable. Both did things that are magnified because of IU's fanbase. Both had very legitimate reasons to be fired but weren't and were given other punishments instead. Both of them then got fired with not much additional added. The biggest two differences are that Knight's possible problems were physical (going after players and assistants and possible assult) while Sampson's problems are with cheating, and that Sampson's firing occured during the season while Knight's didn't. For both, I feel like they deserved to be fired but the way it was went about was very, very badly done.

I feel bad for IU fans. They don't deserve this mess. At some point Kelvin Sampson needs to think about the kids and tell them to play out the year. Especially since he made a point at the MSU game talking about how this is all about the kids anyways. I would agree with this, although it hasn't been the IU way recently. When Knight left and the players threatened to leave, Knight encouraged every player to transfer. When Davis left, he encouraged players to transfer. Hopefully Sampson doesn't make it 3 for 3.

I've heard every time in the book today plus sources are saying there is no press conference. I'm not sure anybody knows what is going on. There is one thing I do believe though. One report has that if Sampson is fired, the players want McCallum to finish the season as the coach, not a coach in Dakich who they had never seen before the start of the season.

If those were my 2 options for batting 2nd (which I believe they are since Lou doesn't want to put them both at the bottom consistently) then I would bat Pie 2nd against right-handers and Theriot 2nd against left-handers.

Guzman lost his rookie status after 2006.

I like the move solely because it rids us of an absolutely horrible basketball player in Wallace, and frees up his salary to be able to look to the future. I'm not really sure about the rest, and I don't think anyone else can be either. To me this is all about cutting loose the ball and chain known as "Big Ben." And for that, I am happy. Enjoy watching him suck for you, Cleveland. I'm sure Cleveland is thinking the same thing to Chicago fans about Hughes :D Really, though. It's two terrible contracts being swapped. It doesn't save the Bulls any money. This is a pure change of scenery move to get Wallace out of the clubhouse. On that level, it works. Hopefully Hughes doesn't become that same type of cancer in the next year.

True for last year, but Lilly had a better year the year before and he was in a tougher AL division going up against the Yanks and Red Sox. They're a really close comparison in my mind and it's hard to predict who will be better from one year to the next. Lilly should have a slight edge with the NL Central, but it doesn't make him any less of a pitcher then Vasquez. Would you take 200 innings of a Jason Marquis or 198 innings of Pedro Martinez? Innings pitched does not quantify how good a pitcher is. In part, it does. Every inning that your starter doesn't pitch is filled by your 6th best pitcher. Would you rather have 200 innings of a guy with 3.7 ERA or 160 innings of a guy with 3.5 ERA? I'd take the 200 inning guy because the likelihood is that the other 40 innings are filled with either a bad starter who had to fill in or has burnt out the bullpen. If that 40 innings is filled with a starter who has an ERA of 5, then the 200 innings of 3.7 is better. So you'd take Marquis over Pedro? No. That's a ridiculous example. They are so far apart in production to make the innings difference worthless. Here's Vasquez and Lilly's 2002: Vasquez: 230 1/3 IP, 3.91 ERA, 1.268 WHIP Lilly: 100 IP, 3.69 ERA, 1.11 WHIP Which season would you take on your team?

True for last year, but Lilly had a better year the year before and he was in a tougher AL division going up against the Yanks and Red Sox. They're a really close comparison in my mind and it's hard to predict who will be better from one year to the next. Lilly should have a slight edge with the NL Central, but it doesn't make him any less of a pitcher then Vasquez. Would you take 200 innings of a Jason Marquis or 198 innings of Pedro Martinez? Innings pitched does not quantify how good a pitcher is. In part, it does. Every inning that your starter doesn't pitch is filled by your 6th best pitcher. Would you rather have 200 innings of a guy with 3.7 ERA or 160 innings of a guy with 3.5 ERA? I'd take the 200 inning guy because the likelihood is that the other 40 innings are filled with either a bad starter who had to fill in or has burnt out the bullpen. If that 40 innings is filled with a starter who has an ERA of 5, then the 200 innings of 3.7 is better.

usually cub-killers suck. trot doesn't suck. He's declined each of the last 3 years and was awful last year. He better not hurt us this year, although I'm not sure it can get any worse than Augie having a 1.101 OPS in the playoffs against us last year.

When's the last time they had 35,000 fans at a game? Honestly. Last year on July 28th.

Lilja's is a 5 year deal (20 million). Clark has reportedly received a 6 year, 36 million dollar deal. There is no word yet on if those deals are backloaded, but my guess is they are. Lilja's will probably be essentially a 3 year deal and Clark a 4 year deal when the details come out. Yeah, five-years my bad. You heard anything about the Colts being interested in Crumpler? I don't know if that was just pre-Clark signing scuttlebutt, but another TE could be useful. I've heard of the interest. I definitely think another TE could be useful, especially if Harrison misses any other time. I just don't know if Crumpler will demand too much money, and I'm worried about his drops in the Colts offense stalling drives more than his playmaking ability helping them.

Lilja's is a 5 year deal (20 million). Clark has reportedly received a 6 year, 36 million dollar deal. There is no word yet on if those deals are backloaded, but my guess is they are. Lilja's will probably be essentially a 3 year deal and Clark a 4 year deal when the details come out. And now I'm seeing some people report on other boards that Lilja's deal is essentially that. His signing bonus is mostly at the start of his deal, and if he gets cut after year 3 it won't cost that much.

After hearing a little more about how little Greenspan had to do with the Sampson hiring, I no longer support his firing. I don't believe his level of responsibility comes anywhere close to being fired. I do wonder if they are pushing Meyer out of the door. It would be very hypocritical if they didn't. If an athletic director is either too incompetent to stat his case or too weak to put his foot down, he shouldn't be an AD at Indiana. Greenspan wanted Davis fired in 2005 but Herbert vetoed it; it sounds more and more like Greenspan didn't want Sampson but Herbert did. Great. So he's not incompetent, just impotent. Meyer should be gone too. What can you do if your boss overrules you like that? He could quit, but it would be bad for him personally (quitting like that would make it hard for him to get another job at a big university) and it also wouldn't help Indiana out, because Herbert would just overrule the next guy. I don't think Greenspan had many options, and the choosing to wait it out until Herbert left was probably the best one.

Psh, why do we need Merrill when we have Neal Cotts? I'd say George Sherrill is better than Cotts but it's speculation that the Cubs are after him. I doubt they are if the quotes out of Baltimore are any indication. Baltimore is installing Sherrill as their closer. I think they want him to build his value through closing for a while and then flip him when somebody gets desperate for way more than he's worth.

It depends on the value. For example, if Murton's value is less than Marlon Byrd's to every team, then I'd rather keep him. If Baltimore or San Diego are willing to put a higher price tag on him (the two teams most rumored to be interested) then I'd deal him. I think the Cubs want to see who their other OF is going to be before dealing Murton. They just can't deal him for a prospect right now without another trade because that would leave the bench too thin.

After hearing a little more about how little Greenspan had to do with the Sampson hiring, I no longer support his firing. I don't believe his level of responsibility comes anywhere close to being fired. I do wonder if they are pushing Meyer out of the door. It would be very hypocritical if they didn't.

I'd be surprised if he was on the opening day roster, but we have nothing resembling depth in the OF. Yeah, the indications are that only one of Pie or Fuld will be on the roster, so my guess is that Fuld will be the starting CF for Iowa. As far as OF depth, if the Cubs cannot make a trade, I think they'll go with Murton as the 4th OF and then a combination of DeRosa/Cedeno/Theriot as the 5th OF.

This was the exact same thing that Piniella said about Rich Hill at this time last year even using the same types of phrases to describe the battle. He had barely pitched 3 innings when Piniella said he was confirmed as the starter. As someone earlier said, it seems to be just something Piniella does to keep the young players working during the offseason and at the start of camp. I would be shocked if Fuld was named the Opening Day starter.